another sneak preview

nobody asked me, but I would have flown halfway or all-the-way cross country to get in on it 🙂 ..fellow blogger Scott Hodge saw it too, and then I found another person who was in on the sneak preview of The Passion movie.. Dave writes: “I happened to see the screening at Willow and was very moved by it. The word movie does not really capture it – “experience” would be a better word. I wept while I watched – I can’t imagine not weeping while watching such graphic images of our Savior bearing what should have been done to us.”.. [update: and 5,000 pastors saw it in Orlando yesterday, and the Washington Times picked up on it a day later]

“Perhaps as striking as the depiction of suffering were the flashback scenes
of His earthly ministry. The portrayal of Jesus in those scenes is so
compassionate and mild – so attractive and winsome. It is hard not to be
attracted to know more about this Jesus. If anyone goes into this movie with
preconceived notions of who Jesus was and what He was like, I believe they
will be challenged to change.

I appreciated the interview Mel Gibson gave after the screening. I got the
impression that his faith is genuine and his motivation in making the film
was very sincere. It was an expression of his own faith – a compelling need
to see on film and in reality what lived only in his imagination.

Although many are excited about the film’s potential as an evangelistic tool, I
got the feeling that it was more a part of Gibson’s genuine spiritual journey – a
movie made for God and for his own spiritual growth. Yes, he wants people to
be challenged and properly disturbed, but I didn?t get the sense he wants this to
become the new Jesus film for the next generation.

One thing Gibson said in the interview particularly struck me. He said that
most Christian films are hard to watch because they’re made so poorly. They
suffer from such a self-conscious hyper-reverence and such a sense of agenda
that the audience is made to feel like they are being preached at rather
than witnessing something that is real. I think his reasoning speaks to a
postmodern generation who is looking for authenticity in art, not art used
simply as a means to other ends.

There is not doubt that this film will cause people to have an emotional
reaction and ask serious spiritual questions. It will make the Christian
remember things long forgotten about the price of our salvation and the
centrality of Jesus in the Christian life. It will make the unbeliever
wonder if he should read the Bible for himself and investigate this Jesus
more thoroughly.

As a pastor I want to be ready to minister to those who come seeking answers
to the film. I am also prepared to recommend the film to people because it
is an experience not to be missed. But I would hesitate to call the film an
evangelistic tool because it feels somehow that such a label would cheapen
the experience. I think God will use the film mightily to move the gospel
forward. I hope that the agendas of eager Christians will not somehow get in
the way of that.

Just my two cents. A wonderful movie overall. Two thumbs and one heart way
up.

In Christ,
Dave Lee
Harvest Community Church“