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The Youth Group and some of their parents went to see The Passion of the Christ yesterday. Since yesterday I’ve had some mixed emotions about my response to the movie. When I initially left the theater I was completely dumbfounded and I couldn’t really talk. Last night I went through a short period of skepticism about the film and it’s producer’s motives. Now, today, I’m increadibly excited about it and I believe that it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.
I’m going to completely ignore the violence for now because I believe that it was 100% necessary. If were any less violent, I wouldn’t have said that it were very accurate. It says in Isaiah that Jesus was beaten beyond human resemblance. I could still easily recognize the man playing Jesus in this film. So, in this case (and for once in Hollywood) the reality was even worse than the movie.
I found myself moved to tears many times and nearly broke out in audible cries a couple of times. The film was so true to the Gospel accounts that I couldn’t help but feel a very comforting stillness throughout the movie despite the torture on-screen. I found myself wanting the torture to end and Christ to be delivered over to God.
The resurrection was beautiful in it’s simplicity. I was expecting a scene of Christ walking out of the tomb and riding the clouds into Heaven. Instead what I saw was a large boulder rolling slowly away from the cover of the tomb and filling the dark area with light. Slowly the white linens Jesus had been buried in started to sink in showing there was no one enclosed in them. Sweeping along the camera finally shows Jesus’ unscarred face sitting next to his resting place. He stands up and walks out of the tomb.
Overall it was the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen.