Passion
"This is the Sunday-school flannel-board lesson for a generation that grew up on violent video games, skipped church, and stood in line to watch Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Volume 1 — a gratuitously bloody movie with no redemptive purpose. The Passion has an unmistakable gothic and art house feel, with touches of the ghoulish and grotesque. There is one unforgettable scene of Mary, the mother of Jesus, kissing her son's bloody feet as he dangles from the cross. She then turns around and looks into the camera with his blood on her lips. It is the most sadistic and simultaneously holy thing I have seen." - Steve Beard (More... )
I finally saw The Passion of the Christ this past Saturday night. I know it's only been out a few weeks, but I still felt like I was one of the last people in America (or at least evangelical America) left to see it. Since viewing it I have been unable to formulate my thoughts and feelings into words (spoken, written, blogged...whatever). I still don't know that I can, but I thought I'd spit out a few things and see how it ends up. I told a friend (fellow blogger Cherie) this morning that over the past few days I have viewed myself as "me before seeing the movie" and "me after the movie." Late Sunday afternoon I was driving around feeling more pensive than usual as a result of the movie the night before. The music coming out of my cd player was merely a background to my thoughts. But the words of a Switchfoot song, Twenty-four, rushed to the forefront when I realized the words were melding perfectly with my thoughts... "Life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago... And I'm not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago. Still I'm singing, Spirit take me up in arms with you. You're raising the dead in me."
As pensive, melancholy and quiet as I’ve been, I have felt more alive spiritually than I have in… a long time. You know the butterflies you get in your stomach when you think of a new love? The guy you’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but you spend every second possible together and he’s beginning to steal your heart away? He comes to mind and butterflies go into full effect, as you think “Is this really happening to me?” Well, I now have them about Jesus. And, for a lifelong church-going girl whose relationship with Jesus grew steadily but slowly over the years, this might be the very first time. I believe I finally understand what new Christians have felt and tried to explain to numb, jaded congregations my whole life. Gibson’s film has allowed me to see, experience and know Jesus in a new way that I never have before. Jesus, our relationship and life are not as I knew them before.
It is for this reason that I will urge almost any adult to see this film. I know that God will work differently in each and every person who sees this film. But based on my own experience, I don’t want anyone else to potentially miss out on what God wants to give them.
"This is the Sunday-school flannel-board lesson for a generation that grew up on violent video games, skipped church, and stood in line to watch Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Volume 1 — a gratuitously bloody movie with no redemptive purpose. The Passion has an unmistakable gothic and art house feel, with touches of the ghoulish and grotesque. There is one unforgettable scene of Mary, the mother of Jesus, kissing her son's bloody feet as he dangles from the cross. She then turns around and looks into the camera with his blood on her lips. It is the most sadistic and simultaneously holy thing I have seen." - Steve Beard (More... )
I finally saw The Passion of the Christ this past Saturday night. I know it's only been out a few weeks, but I still felt like I was one of the last people in America (or at least evangelical America) left to see it. Since viewing it I have been unable to formulate my thoughts and feelings into words (spoken, written, blogged...whatever). I still don't know that I can, but I thought I'd spit out a few things and see how it ends up. I told a friend (fellow blogger Cherie) this morning that over the past few days I have viewed myself as "me before seeing the movie" and "me after the movie." Late Sunday afternoon I was driving around feeling more pensive than usual as a result of the movie the night before. The music coming out of my cd player was merely a background to my thoughts. But the words of a Switchfoot song, Twenty-four, rushed to the forefront when I realized the words were melding perfectly with my thoughts... "Life is not what I thought it was twenty-four hours ago... And I'm not who I thought I was twenty-four hours ago. Still I'm singing, Spirit take me up in arms with you. You're raising the dead in me."
As pensive, melancholy and quiet as I’ve been, I have felt more alive spiritually than I have in… a long time. You know the butterflies you get in your stomach when you think of a new love? The guy you’ve only been dating for a few weeks, but you spend every second possible together and he’s beginning to steal your heart away? He comes to mind and butterflies go into full effect, as you think “Is this really happening to me?” Well, I now have them about Jesus. And, for a lifelong church-going girl whose relationship with Jesus grew steadily but slowly over the years, this might be the very first time. I believe I finally understand what new Christians have felt and tried to explain to numb, jaded congregations my whole life. Gibson’s film has allowed me to see, experience and know Jesus in a new way that I never have before. Jesus, our relationship and life are not as I knew them before.
It is for this reason that I will urge almost any adult to see this film. I know that God will work differently in each and every person who sees this film. But based on my own experience, I don’t want anyone else to potentially miss out on what God wants to give them.
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