NY Times Reviews "The Passion"

After reading this review I just wanted to comment on a couple of points he made.

"The Passion of the Christ" is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it. Mr. Gibson has constructed an unnerving and painful spectacle that is also, in the end, a depressing one. It is disheartening to see a film made with evident and abundant religious conviction that is at the same time so utterly lacking in grace.

Mel Gibson chose to focus on the final hours of the life of Jesus Christ and His death was incredibly gruesome and brutal. So if you want to be honest telling the story, why whitewash it? It also speaks of the brutality of the Romans and the desperation of the religious leaders of the day to be rid of a thorn in their side - which was actually a reflection of the brutality and desperation of Satan, who tried to cause Jesus Christ to fail in His mission. Satan never relented and took full advantage of his chance to cause Jesus to sin right up to the end, by any means he could.

"Mr. Gibson has departed radically from the tone and spirit of earlier American movies about Jesus, which have tended to be palatable (if often extremely long) Sunday school homilies designed to soothe the audience rather than to terrify or inflame it."

Jesus Christ did not come to "soothe" the world. "Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Matthew 10:34 He drove the religious leaders to a frenzy many times (the same would happen today, whether Christian or Jew) and they often tried to kill Him - He could get lost in a crowd because He looked like any ordinary Jew of His day. His message cuts to the core of your being and causes EXTREME discomfort. Human beings don't like to admit they are wrong. Jesus Christ was NEVER politally correct. For the most part, the gospel you hear preached is a gospel about Jesus Christ, but you seldom hear the message, the Good News, Jesus brought.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Further reading:

The Real Jesus

The Real Reasons Why Christ Came To This Earth

God's Message for US, Today


Kids and Toy Guns

Ravenwood is right about that.