Not seeing the Passion of the Christ

April 15th, 2004 · 2 Comments

I am occassionally asked if I have seen the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” and when I answer that I haven’t many wonder why. My answer is two-fold. The first is that I have a very hard emotional time with fictional movies of true events. “Titanic” did me in for an entire week emotionally. It has been said to me that I have a low suspension of disbelief, which is, I think, quite true. The second reason, though, is quite Biblical. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas said that he would not believe unless he saw. While Jesus granted his request, he said that those who did not see but still believed were blessed. I believe that it was in God’s providence that very few witnessed the events surrounding the crucifiction and that we possibly step outside of that when we relive those events through drama. Of course I wouldn’t force this opinion on others, but it is what I have found to be true for myself. There is a good article on this subject of believing without seeing here

Tags: Culture · Film · Religion

2 responses so far ↓

1 Amanda // Apr 19, 2004 at 11:37 am

I thought I was the only left in this entire world who hasn’t seen it. But apparently not.

I don’t actually have a real reason for not seeing though, sans laziness. I initially thought it was going to be awesome, but then as I saw it get bigger and bigger and bigger, it just sort of lost all appeal to me.

Now, I don’t think I am. Or perhaps, I’ll still go see it, but without the intention of being moved by it. Part of me wants to think that God approves of this movie, but I don’t understand why we have to use a movie to manifest a real idea of the crucifixion of Christ. I never understood that from the start, and with the mass craze that it’s started, I just don’t view it the same way anymore.
2 Geary // May 22, 2004 at 9:27 pm

I love the story of Thomas and his story is a hard one for modern Christians to swallow. The fact that you are trying to ingest “the Thomas lesson” says a lot. However, I reacted to your essay by saying that your overall thesis is pretentios. I’m sorry but when I scrolled down your site to see a picture of Mars with the comment concerning the power of “Wow” I’m forced to conclude that you’ve missed a huge point of the Passion of the Christ. Its about the wow. Please don’t misunderstand. I saw the movie and immediately thought it would be horrible for evangelism. I’m not just a Mel “fan”atic. Its about the wow. The soundtrack, and the imagery…two huge “wow” items the text just can’t deliver.

Jeffrey C. Long