Passion

Ok really, no really I was going to write about this last week, but I didn't so I'm doing it now.

I don't have an overwhelming interest in seeing Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ. I've seen Jesus of Nazareth several times (it was shown to us every year around Easter in grade school), I've read the gospels and I played Jesus in a high school musical, so I'm familiar with the story.

But I suppose, Gibson is trying to bring a level of verisimilitude to the story that had not been previously achieved. That alone may make the film worth seeing.

Now, what about this controversy? Well, why would Jews care if people think they killed Jesus? After all, they killed Jesus. (They also killed Kenny.) Somebody has to kill Jesus. Was Pontius Pilate going to do it? No, he was trying to wimp out. If it hadn't been for the steadfast hypocrisy of a handful of zealous Judeans, there would be no Christianity. So everybody chill out. Everything worked out the way it was supposed to, right?

Zealous Judean: "Oh, was that you're savior? Sorry about that, we thought he was just a hippie troublemaker."
Modern Christian: "No prob. Turns out, you did us a huge favor."

There are two Jesus related movies that I would recommend because they each made me consider the life of Jesus from a new perspective:

The Last Temptation of Christ, Martin Scorcese's uber-controversial film. That movie made me realize how much greater it is for a Man, not simply to accept death, but to sacrifice the life he could have in order to fulfill a divine mission.

And

Jesus of Montreal. This movie discusses Jesus from a strictly historical perspective. Roger Ebert is right when he says in his review that in a sense, it's a movie about the theater, not religion. Nevertheless, it reminds me how the qualities that made Jesus the man special, are qualities we can still emulate in the modern world: leadership, integrity and above all love.

I also recommend Life of Brian. But for different reasons.
"Always look on the bright side of life..."