A Few Personal Thoughts on Mel Gibson’s
“The Passion of the Christ” Movie

Ligon Duncan

Setting the Stage
    Gobs of folks have asked me my opinion of Mel Gibson’s blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” – which has now grossed over $200,000,000 at the box office. The movie has provoked strong responses. The secular elites and liberal intelligentsia panned it before it opened as being anti-Semitic, or at least expressing concern that it would promote anti-Semitism. Many evangelical Christians have touted it as the most significant outreach opportunity of our time. Local churches have bought up theaters for evangelistic outreach and promoted the movie heavily. Others have been concerned about traces of “Roman Catholic” theology in the movie, or about violation of the second commandment’s prohibition of making images of God. 

The Session of First Presbyterian Church has taken no position on the movie. I think this is wise. When the Vatican was approached for its opinion/endorsement of the movie, the Pope’s spokesman indicated that the Pontiff does not offer opinions on works of art. Not a bad policy! Still many may wonder why more has not been said about the movie here at First Presbyterian, either positively or negatively, and others may be looking for a little guidance. 

Our church staff has done our best to make sure that this matter does not become a divisive one in our congregation. We have encouraged people to think through the issues involved, discussed the pros and cons of the movie, and have exhorted people to act in accord with consciences that are informed by the Word of God. 

What I think
    My private position is that (1) I am not planning to see it myself, for both principled and pragmatic reasons; (2) I fully recognize that many godly and consecrated Christians have chosen/will choose in good conscience to go see it, and I do not want to do anything to be an offense to them; (3) Because of this last point, I have not spoken publicly about the movie one way or another; (4) I do want people to think through their decision wisely and based on the various factors involved – no one should go against conscience (Romans 14:22-23); (5) There are practical concerns too – parents taking very young children, etc. 

What are some of my reasons and concerns for taking this position? (1) I’m not as concerned about 2nd commandment issues entailed in the mere viewing of the movie, as I am with lingering images and ideas that many will take away from the movie and which will in turn impact their reading and hearing of the Word of God later; (2) I’m also concerned about the hype surrounding the movie among Christians. One PCA minister told his congregation that they were “sinning if they didn’t see the movie–twice!” One RTS student told Derek Thomas that he “owed it to Jesus to go see the movie.” This kind of stuff is unhelpful, I think; (3) I would hate for people to buy into the erroneous idea that a movie is more effective than preaching as an evangelistic tool. This would seem to be a direct contradiction of Scripture (Romans 10:13-17; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25) – for faith comes by hearing the message preached; (4) I’m especially concerned about imagination and emotion overwhelming the truth in people’s minds, or in confusing a highly emotional response to this movie with a state of personal grace. (5) There are also concerns of accuracy in the movie. There is less than thirty seconds of material in the Gospels describing his physical sufferings. That is, if you collect every word in the Gospels descriptive of his physical suffering, you could read it all aloud in 30 seconds. What’s more, it’s vague. It doesn’t provide minute detail. The main reason for this is that Christ’s physical sufferings are not the greatest sufferings he endured for us. The greatest bruising that Christ received that day was not from the Jews or Romans, but from his own Father. “It pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief,” says Isaiah 53:10. Our catechism puts it this way, Jesus “felt and bore the weight of the wrath of God.” No camera could show that, even had there been live coverage on the day of the crucifixion. This fact alone indicates that the focal point of the meaning of Jesus’ death cannot be experienced merely by the visual spectacle of his brutal physical sufferings – no matter how accurately they could be portrayed. Real and important as they were, they pointed to something deeper, more profound, and more horrendous. 

A thoughtful quote
    Mark Dever, my good friend and the Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC said this in a sermon recently. I found it very helpful in making up my own mind. “Some of you may be wondering about seeing the depiction of [Christ’s suffering and death] that will be coming out in the movie “The Passion” in a couple of weeks. I've been asked regularly if I will go see it. The depiction of this unique death is of great concern to us as Christians. Our response should be thoughtful. From what I can tell, Christians are falling all across the board. Most seem enthusiastic. Everyone from Campus Crusade to Southern Baptists to John MacArthur is using the film as an evangelistic outreach tool. Some of my conservative friends have ruled it right out as a violation of the second commandment, as they would any film about Jesus. As your pastor, where do I stand on this? I'm uncertain. It could be a violation of the second commandment (forbidding making images of God) but many conservative Protestants have long made an exception for temporary pedagogical representations-like Sunday school skits or the Jesus film. We don't intend to use these images for worship. Another line of concern would be simply the fact that God had me born at a time NOT during the life of Christ on earth, but now. I come to Him by His Spirit through His Word. There His passion is in the context of His teaching, and of the rest of Scriptures. And I note that even when I come to the gospels, one of the things that's most striking is–in contrast to this picture–the sparseness of the description. In fact, other than his beard, you look in vain for physical descriptions of Christ throughout the gospels. Is this unusual fact important? I think it may be. The emotional impact of this movie, I'm told from people who've seen it, is huge. Emotional responses from many people–converted or not–will be natural and numerous. So, if this movie is so emotionally engaging, I'm going to be very careful before I give it an entrée into my mind about the most important thing in my life. And because I have a question of whether it's sin, I probably shouldn't go see it. But I can talk with others who have seen it about Christ, even if I haven't seen the movie. In fact, that may be an advantage-I could get them to tell me about it!

An Opportunity
    Whatever you think, this movie does present us with a great Gospel opportunity to talk about the meaning of the death of Christ. I’d encourage you to get a copy of John Piper’s The Passion of Jesus Christ and read it. Better yet, get a case of it and hand it out to everyone who wants to talk about the movie with you. Piper’s book explores 50 biblical reasons why Jesus had to suffer and die. Below I have attached some thoughts from Don Whitney that may be helpful in Gospel conversations too. Hope this helps.

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Ten Questions to Ask About
The Passion of the Christ

The 2004 movie produced by Mel Gibson, The Passion of the Christ, is one of the most popular and controversial films of our time. These questions will help in thinking through the movie, or in discussing it with others. 

1. Do you know why Jesus had to die?
When learning from The Passion of the Christ the facts about Jesus' suffering and crucifixion, it's essential to understand the reason for it. One of the most important of the many reasons given in the Bible why Jesus had to die was to receive the wrath of God in the place of others. "For all have sinned," God says in Romans 3:23. And because God is just and holy, He must punish those who have sinned. But because He is also loving, He was willing to send His Son—Jesus—to take the hammer blow of His wrath so that others might receive His mercy. When Jesus allowed Himself to be spiked onto that wooden cross, He was accepting God's curse so that sinners could receive God's blessings forever. As Galatians 3:13 puts it, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'"

2. Do you know who really killed Jesus?
There is no single, earthly source to blame for killing Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders hated Jesus, so they arrested Him and delivered Him to the Roman official, Pontius Pilate, for execution. He could have released Jesus, but Pilate, too, shares responsibility because he succumbed to the influence of yet a third party who contributed to the death of Jesus, the crowd in Jerusalem who kept shouting, "Crucify Him!" (Matthew 27:23). In the end, however, it was sinners like you and me who killed Jesus. "While we were yet sinners," the apostle Paul tells us, "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). No one can point a finger at any other person or group for the death of Jesus. Our sins were the reason Jesus had to be crucified.

3. Do you understand the role that God the Father played in the death of Jesus?
Ultimately, it was God the Father who killed His Son, Jesus. The Bible clearly says that Jesus was "delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Jesus did not die by mistake. Although our sins made Jesus' death necessary, God brought it to pass. So in God's sending Jesus to receive His wrath so others could receive eternal life, sinners are saved from God, by God.

4. Do you realize why Jesus' death was different from the death of everyone else in history?
The death of Jesus was unique because His life was unique. Since Jesus never sinned, He never had to die; rather He chose to die. And because Jesus never broke the law of God, He could die as a substitute in the place of lawbreakers. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains, God the Father "made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

5. Do you know why Jesus cried from the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46)?
When God in His justice laid the crushing guilt of sinners upon Jesus, God in His holiness then had to reject His own Son as though He were a sinner. As Jesus was suspended between earth and Heaven, the prophecy of Isaiah 53:10 was fulfilled: "But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief if He would render Himself as a guilt offering."

6. Do you know why Jesus' last words were, "It is finished" (John 19:30)?
Because of His love, God sent Jesus to be the propitiation—the wrath-taker—for the sins of people who did not yet love Him. "In this is love," says 1 John 4:10, "not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Once He had taken our guilt and God's punishment, Jesus triumphantly declared to His Father, "It is finished," and died.

7. Do you see the relationship between Jesus' death and His resurrection?
The resurrection of Jesus vindicates all His claims. Anyone could claim, as Jesus did, to be the only way to God (John 14:6). But Jesus substantiated this and all His other claims by doing something no one else has ever done—rising from the dead, never to die again. Moreover, by not leaving Jesus in the grave, God showed that He accepted His Son's death as a substitute for the death of others. The Bible is plain that the cross of Jesus, without the resurrection, would have meant, "your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17). "But now Christ has been raised from the dead" (1 Corinthians 15:20), as proof that Jesus' death in the place of sinners satisfied the requirements of God's justice.

8. Do you realize what the death of Jesus can do for you that you cannot do for yourself?
First among many things His cross alone can do for you is this: the death of Jesus can make you righteous in the sight of God. No amount of good that we do can atone for our sins or earn us a place in Heaven. And if we die without receiving the benefits of Jesus' death, the wrath of God will fall on us forever. Conversely, the Bible speaks of those who have experienced the benefits of the cross as those who have "been justified by His blood," and declares that they "shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him" (Romans 5:9). To be "justified" means more than having all sins forgiven. It also means to be given credit for living the perfect life Jesus lived. Only a perfect life earns entrance into a perfect world with a perfect God. And only through the death of Jesus can we get the perfect life of Jesus that we need to enter heaven.

9. Do you understand the central message of this movie?
Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, was crucified as a substitute for sinners, and rose from the dead to be King over everyone and everything forever.

10. Do you know the biblical response to the message of The Passion of the Christ?
It's summarized in one of the best-known and best-loved verses in the Bible: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Many people will have deep, but merely temporary, emotional responses to The Passion of the Christ. Instead, may the Lord grant you to find in the greatest evil ever committed—the death of Jesus—the greatest, richest, and most satisfying blessing ever offered—God Himself.

-----J. Ligon Duncan III is senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, MS.