Monday, March 01, 2004
Normally, I would leave a movie review with one showing but movie critics and newspeople keep bringing up "The Passion." The latest story has the number 666 appearing on tickets to the movie. Christians believe 666 to be the mark of the beast. Apparently some have complained. I wish they wouldn't do this. It gives the media grist for their unfair characterization of Christians. Why this is news I do not know but apparently the media is still seeking a way to discredit the movie. I worked in department 669 of a wood factory over the summer, which was adjacent to the paint toom, department 666. I didn't think anything of it. I doubt anyone really thinks anything of this. But when news is a profession, anything is news. The other secondary headline concerned the starlet of "Dirty Dancing." These people are really grasping at straws. When nothing of note happens, they make it up. Good grief.
The one newsworthy story going continues the unfortunate saga of a missing family's abduction and apparently murder by their own cousin. It's unbelievable the depths to which people will sink when living in an age devoid of the knowledge of God. It was for this reason that the events portrayed in "The Passion" took place. Jesus suffered and died for this reason--to bring forgiveness of sins and rightness with God. As political as I am, I am first and foremost a Christian. The government cannot change this basic fault of man, although it can and should punish it (and I have reason to hope it will in this instance) so do not depend upon the government. Education cannot do it, at least not education divorced from a knowledge of the holy God who judges every man according to his actions, so don't depend on education systems. Our only hope for peace in this trouble world is a battered and bloody man staggering up Golgotha hill carrying a large wooden beam over 2000 years ago. Mel Gibson's film implicates all of us in the death of Christ and indeed we are all to blame. It was our sin that crushed Him, our sin that made His death necessary. But the story doesn't end there. The closing shot of Christ striding out of the empty tomb means that a right relationship with God and with other people is possible. Yes, "The Passion" is a bloody movie, but think about what the blood means, not simply that it is there. The Son of God was willing to endure that for the murderers and the thieves and all the lost people of this world. That is what this film means but the media of course will not acknowledge it.
The one newsworthy story going continues the unfortunate saga of a missing family's abduction and apparently murder by their own cousin. It's unbelievable the depths to which people will sink when living in an age devoid of the knowledge of God. It was for this reason that the events portrayed in "The Passion" took place. Jesus suffered and died for this reason--to bring forgiveness of sins and rightness with God. As political as I am, I am first and foremost a Christian. The government cannot change this basic fault of man, although it can and should punish it (and I have reason to hope it will in this instance) so do not depend upon the government. Education cannot do it, at least not education divorced from a knowledge of the holy God who judges every man according to his actions, so don't depend on education systems. Our only hope for peace in this trouble world is a battered and bloody man staggering up Golgotha hill carrying a large wooden beam over 2000 years ago. Mel Gibson's film implicates all of us in the death of Christ and indeed we are all to blame. It was our sin that crushed Him, our sin that made His death necessary. But the story doesn't end there. The closing shot of Christ striding out of the empty tomb means that a right relationship with God and with other people is possible. Yes, "The Passion" is a bloody movie, but think about what the blood means, not simply that it is there. The Son of God was willing to endure that for the murderers and the thieves and all the lost people of this world. That is what this film means but the media of course will not acknowledge it.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 4:40 PM 
