Personal Comments on the Movie....THE PASSION OF CHRIST ....

A very compelling movie....to say the least...and production, script, actors etc. was certainly a stroke of genius....or as an insurance clause states...."An Act of God!"
Certainly the movie inspiration and art assimilation was blessed and is now....A Blessing.
One of the major points for myself, as a Christian, is that the movie was not about 'The Old Rugged Cross...Calvary...or even 'The Crucifixion'....the center focal point of the entire movie.....WAS THE PERSON!
Every person left the theatre with this 'profound knowledge' whether they were a' believer' or not!
In that there is Victory, Success, and a Triumph for the purpose behind it all.....
This is the stroke of genius....the Act of God.... that a drama of this magnitude can produce with modern, technical state-of-the art tools (which is common and ordinary in this year 2004 A.D. ) in the human heart this greatest of All TRUTHS......
Therein lies.....success and victory for this film!
Which brings me to my next point......
I did leave the theatre with a 'unfinished feeling'.....
Too many of the key essentials connected to 'The Passion' was left unsaid at the end....
We were left 'hanging' so to speak..
A sequel must be made in order to 'wrap-up' and complete the 'package deal' of The Passion of Jesus Christ...
For instance......Peter adamantly denied Jesus three times.....and that was it in 'The Passion' yet he was redeemed after 'The Resurrection' in the "Do you love Me, Peter?(three times) conversation. This alone is cause for ' Victory'...over the crucifixion .
Also, FINDING THE TOMB EMPTY.....after all the mayhem documented in The Passion....makes one want to Celebrate Life....jump up and down shouting....Victory, Success, Triumph of good over evil....
The Victory would make a wonderful....HAPPY movie....and bring completion to....The Passion.
......On a personal note....Being a military wife, we were stationed in Germany in 1980 and I went to the Oberammergau Passion Play. All the drama was in German and I had to follow along with a small text book in English...
The last act...The Resurrection...satisfied and completed the drama in my heart which the hours of agony had just produced during the events leading up to the crucifixion. The play was an all day affair.....yet when it was over with the final scenes of Victory bursting inside.....I felt so FREE....so Full of Life....so WONDERFUL that I wanted to Celebrate....have a Party....laugh..love others deeply and allow the Passion of 'the Good Life' to flow freely through me FOVERVER MORE!
That is the memory produced by The Oberammergau Passion Play.
Now this is not to say that Mr. Gibson's, The Passion, failed in my opinion....
By no means.....it accomplished exactly what he set out to accomplish......to turn the eyes of the heart...TO THE PERSON....not the event!
He succeeded MAJESTICALLY!!!
So well in fact.....that NOW 'The Rest of The Story'....MUST BE TOLD.
Since Mr. Gibson is the Bill Gates of the movie industry (in my eyes).....he is fully competent and qualified to complete, produce and develop the script that was written in fact.....by the Life of Jesus Christ!
The Passion is proof, evidence of Mr. Gibson's inner knowledge and spiritual maturity which empowers him to handle such sacred and holy.....Truths....with astounding accuracy.
He is a Blessed Man.....and passes on his gifts to us all....
Now.....I do know that all is not 'la la land' thinking about this movie in the 'real world'!
The 'circus mentality' that surrounds this movie is staggering.
One main point that is said again and again......'the Jews' hate it....it is anti-Semitic etc....
Baloney!!!!
To me.....it was about the 'politics' of the times.....the power struggles between the factions that existed and ruled during Jesus' time.
It was filled with Jews....good and bad.....Jesus was a Jew, his parents were Jewish, his disciples were Jews, the people of the street were Jews....
It was filled with Romans.....good and bad Romans....
It was filled with leaders, rulers with authority....good and bad leaders.....
The camera of life only revealed what traits existed then and is still true for us today....the good, bad, and ugly of life which lies in the heart of all culture, race, nations, governments....and families as well.
The sentence pronounced and carried out in The Passion can not be placed as guilt or 'blame' of any single race...nation....or person. The fact is....(ask God)....IT IS ALL OUR FAULT....every human being that has ever lived and will ever live on planet earth.
We all have the kind of darkness of the soul....that we saw so clearly in the sadistic and cruel Roman soldiers, the ruler Herod, the Jewish rulers, and even in Jesus' intimate associates and friends like Judas and Peter who made 'wrong' choices and decisions....The two thieves on the cross....one responding positive...the other negative....
Was the movie anti-Italian because of the Roman soldiers?
Absolutely not!
We also saw as well....the goodness of the human heart....compassion in the face of danger, family love in a parent and a child as with Jesus and his Mother, devotion and loyalty from John and other followers. This reflected the 'goodness' of the human heart as well....
Very graphically we saw the 'ugly' of mass mobs....
Good, bad and ugly was evident.
As it is with us today....it comes down to making right choices and decisions in who and what we want to be as a person.
We can choose good....we can choose bad or evil and ugly.....
God gave us 'free will' and the intelligence to use our head, brains and heart....rightly.
We do have a choice.....we see good and bad choices every day on our evening news....
Jesus in His Person.......said "I will do what no man alone can do but only a God Man can do....
I will be the guilty party for everybody....I will show the human race.....by my life, death and resurrection that good is more powerful than evil! That love can win over hate....."
Jesus, the Jew......proved this point!
Anyone who believes that truth as stated in the original script, The Bible, has a personal belief or conviction that is commonly called ......faith.
A group of such people.....are called Christians....
Faith in the truth of Jesus Christ.....produces Christians.....Yes, there are those who make right choices and succeed in their life as Christians and then those who fail....we see it every day.
The human heart can not fail to be touched anew.......by viewing and participating in a personal way thru this awesome movie.....The Passion.
We salute you....Mel Gibson....for a job well done.