Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ in 'The Passion'

I wasn’t sure I even wanted to attend a pre-screening for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. As a colleague said to me last week, “I know what the last 12 hours of the life of Christ were like, BRUTAL, this is going to be a downer, I’m not going to see it.”

But I’d seen an article about a pastor in Boulder, Colorado, whose church had bought out a movie theater with 700 seats for Monday night, and was inviting several dozen Jewish leaders to watch the pre-screening of the movie with hundreds of Christian Evangelicals.

This sounded like an interesting group, so we arrived early to make sure we had decent seats. The last thing we wanted was to be banished to the front row to take in what movie critic Roger Ebert has called, “the most violent movie I’ve ever seen.”

We met some very friendly people all around us, from members of the church that sponsored the event, to several Jewish leaders who were bracing for the film, not sure what to expect. They weren’t alone, all of us wondered.

Then the lights went down and “The Passion of the Christ” began, and from the first few minutes it became clear that this movie was not at all what many of us may have anticipated. The opening scene is in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is praying to be delivered of “this cup,” and checking on his disciples who keep falling asleep while they’re supposed to be waiting for him. And then you notice, there’s not a word of English! Did someone neglect to mention that the film is in Aramaic, the language of the New Testament, and Latin, the language of the Romans? Yes, there are English subtitles, but with this Aramaic and Latin being spoken, you’re hearing and watching the film with a different perspective. This does not appear to be an attempt to “Americanize” Jesus of Nazareth.

There’s some creative license early on, with Satan in the form of a woman, who shows up when Jesus is seen at his worst moments, tempting him to do something about his situation, or give in to death.

Within minutes, Jesus is betrayed by his disciple Judas, and the beatings begin. I have never enjoyed watching violence of any kind, especially brutality inflicted on individuals. Yet I found I couldn’t stop watching. The horrific, searing, blood-spattered blows are interspersed with flashbacks of the Final Supper, or Jesus with his mother, or the washing of the disciples’ feet, or Jesus as a young carpenter. Then the beating continues, sometimes in slow motion, as we are swept in and out of brutality with visions of more peaceful times, yet the reminder that this is now what must happen.

In all the conversations about the fear of anti-Semitism as an outcome of this film, there is little mention of how the words of Jesus in this movie make it clear that what is happening to him is the “will of the Father.” Out of context, Gibson uses a passage from much earlier in Jesus’ ministry, in John 10:18, and has Jesus uttering these words from the cross, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again.” This follows a series of taunts from Jewish leaders present at the crucifixion, chastising Jesus to come down off the cross to prove his divinity. It appears that Gibson was doing everything he could to remove the “blame” from any one group or people or person, and demonstrate that the crucifixion was a fulfillment of prophesy, a choice Jesus agreed with, a death Jesus had to endure to atone for the sins of humanity.

All four gospels receive attention in this movie…since elements present in one gospel are not anywhere mentioned in others, and they’re found in “The Passion of the Christ.” And the key phrase that so many have been concerned about, uttered in Matthew 27:25, “Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’” was cut from the movie.

Gibson also intentionally uses a text only found in Luke’s gospel and omitted from other ancient authorities, Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” These words are spoken by Jesus from the cross, as the Romans cast lots to divide his clothing and he is jeered by the Jewish crowd.

Once Jesus is dead, an earthquake rocks Golgotha and Jerusalem, and the temple is destroyed, there is a scene in hell…and the scene fades to black. This is a movie about the crucifixion, but Gibson chose to end “The Passion of the Christ” with a brief image of a stone rolled away, the burial clothes of Jesus on a stone, and Jesus walking out into the light, with the nail holes evident in his hands.

Silence. As the credits scrolled, silence. And as the hundreds of people who came to watch this movie walked out of the theater, a hushed quality rarely seen after a movie.

“It was the most moving thing I’ve ever seen,” one woman whispered. Her friend agreed, “Wow, that was difficult to watch, I’m so glad I did.”

One young Jewish man quietly exited the theater, “I want to know more about why my people felt they had to do this. This was a time in history, you know, a time where people made decisions they felt they had to make.” “Is there room for discussion with Christians on this subject?” I asked him. “Yes,” he said, “in fact it’s already begun. There is room, and we need it and we need to understand each other. After all, in the film, Jesus is asking people to love each other.”

I stood looking at the faces of people coming out of the movie…and in the corner, a rabbi leaned on the wall. “I survived the Holocaust,” he began, “and with every blow taken by Jesus, I was taken back to that horrible time in my past. There are factual errors I believe in the movie, but as a whole, if people come away with the perspective Jesus offered in the film, that we should forgive each other, there should be no attacking anyone else. I know this, I won’t be sleeping tonight.”

The pastor who hosted the event, dressed in black, grew up Jewish, and is now a Christian believer. “I know the pain the Jewish community feels,” he told me, “when Christians blame the crucifixion of Jesus on them. And watching this tonight, there were those moments. But I think this movie made it clear that Jesus went to the cross because it was the fulfillment of prophesy and to save us from death. No single group is to blame, we are all to blame.”

As I mentioned, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” I’m glad I did.

About The Author

Lois Melkonian

Lois Melkonian is an award-winning, veteran broadcast journalist with twenty years experience reporting and anchoring for radio and television stations in California.

Many in the San Francisco Bay Area might recognize her familiar, early-morning voice on KCBS Radio, where she was co-anchor with Al Hart. Lois then went on to become a KGO-TV reporter and anchor for The ABC Morning News.

Today, she is a freelance television and radio reporter, news anchor and public speaker who lives in Boulder, Colorado with her three sons.

2004 © Lois Melkonian

-------------------------------------