More reflection on the Gibson film
I have since my review had my own questions answered several
times over. I too think that Mel was faithful to the gospel writings.
I do disagree that Magdalene was a harlot and that the teaching
that she was is not necessary to establish what you wrote so well: even the worst sinners, through repentance, are saved
and the most welcome and loved by Christ.
I don't believe that my wife's view is that no bad thing
will happen now that Christ has become a martyr. Rather, one of the most powerful feelings to come from the film is that of
Christ martyred by people who did so out of deliberate intent.
My recommendation was that with his giftedness, an excellent
follow up would be films about other martyrdoms that, at their core, are directly related to the whole theme of the Passion
- God made mortal and murdered as an innocent man quilty of no crime worthy of death.
Cathars, the specific martyrs I mentioned, are but only one
group of many who have been innocent yet killed by those who thought they were acting for their god. That is what ought never
have happened again.
As for my children, I learned more about what it is to be
god-like when they were youngest and most helplessly dependent upon me for their well-being. I later began to forget that
as they grew older and the more I acted like Jehovah the more I became less and less god-like. However, my own feelings and
understanding of fatherhood have also led me to seriously question the idea of a father god somehow requiring the mortal death
of his son in order to set things aright and standing by silently watching it happen.
A God almighty and all-knowing is not consistent with a God
who somehow has the need for an enactment of such an incredible cruelty as some sort of "this is how it must be." For me it
really strains incredulity.
The absolute universal inflexible doctrinaire truth about
Jesus, the Christ, the Gospel, a Judgemental and Punitive God remains to be fully discovered more than proven.
There are some who behave in a manner that says "if you do
not accept Jesus in the context in which I believe then you are not a true Christian." An absolutely true doctrine and theology
of Jesus the Christ - one that includes some sort of historical context of Jesus that emphasizes his mortality in a way that
allows us to relate to Jesus as both God and Man has not been adequately offered from any source.
The ultimate quandry-resolving question has never been "What
would Jesus do?"
What needs to be asked instead is "Why did Jesus do what
He did and how can I relate that to choices I must make now?"
