Stream of consciousness thoughts after seeing The Passion of the Christ last night….

*****WARNING: DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE AND WANT TO SAVE SOME SUSPENSE FOR THE MOVIEGOING EXPERIENCE*****

My first thought: I wish I hadn’t read and seen so much about the movie before going to see it. Knowing how the movie was constructed, which characters typically come off as sympathetic or not, how certain scenes are visually depicted, etc. really robbed some of the power of the film for me. So I again I’ll highly recommend - don’t read any further if you haven’t seen the film yet!

I didn’t cry in the movie. The first reason, as I’ve already said, is that I already knew too much about the movie so I was mostly fully prepared for what was coming. The second reason is that I felt a heavy weight of expectation that I should cry, like my devotion to Jesus is in question if I didn’t bawl my eyes out during the movie. Again a factor of having too much media saturation before going to the movie.

My prevailing thought: you bastards! I first had that thought about the High Priest Caiaphas and the remaining priests, then about the Roman Guards, then about the Jewish mob. Then the realization sank in that Jesus’ death is my fault, not theirs. So I said to myself, you bastard! This was around the time Jesus was on the cross and asked the Father to forgive us because we don’t know what we’re doing. And I understood grace in a whole new way.

Re: the charge that the movie is too violent. My first reaction when the theater lights came up was that yes, the movie was somewhat too violent, particularly the scourging at the hands of the Roman guards. But reflecting on it now (12 hours later) I don’t necessarily think so. It was shocking and certainly isn’t the last word on the exact events as they happened, but I think the movie’s depiction is consistent within the framework of the Gospel accounts. A less violent depiction may be just as plausible, but not necessarily more accurate.

Re: the charge that the movie is anti-Semitic. The movie is not anti-Semitic. I can, however, see that the movie might enflame people who are anti-Semitic. Does that make sense? I’m not anti-Semitic, and the movie didn’t make me hate or distrust modern Jews. The movie made the temple priests in 33AD or so look pretty crummy, but so do the Gospels. So my disgust (you bastards!) was very much directed toward specific people in a specific time who were Jewish, but there’s no transference or projection onto modern Jews. However, if someone who is already anti-Semitic saw the movie I could see them using it (against its core purpose and nature) as a launching-off point for the violence or anger that’s already in them. But I don’t think that should be held as a mark against the movie. The Jewish mob wasn’t depicted terribly negatively (their negative behavior was attributed much more to their mob mentality than to their Jewishness), and the Roman guards were for me the real villains. Pontius Pilate did get a free pass and was shown in a rather sympathetic light, which seems to be against his general character (from what I’ve read of historical accounts Pilate was a brute). Jesus, his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, John, Peter – all Jews, all portrayed positively and seemingly accurately.

Another note: you’ve really got to know Jesus’ story going into the movie to “get” the movie. And I think enough people know Jesus’ story that this isn’t a criticism. But without knowing the back-story then there’s no context for why the Jewish leaders were so bent on Jesus’ crucifixion, no context for Mary Magdalene’s devotion, no context for the destruction of the temple and rending of the curtain separating the Holy of Holies.

Satan was depicted hauntingly by a fairly androgynous woman with shaved eyebrows. I “got” the Satan depiction except for one scene – when Jesus was being scourged by the Roman guards Satan was shown carrying a baby with the face of an ugly old man (or at least that’s what it looked like to me). I don’t get that symbolism at all. Any help with that one would be greatly appreciated.

I’ll probably post more thoughts over the coming days, but that’s all for now. I’m still pretty emotionally numb from it, so I need to step away from thinking about it for a while and process it some more.