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WHAT A SAVIOR! #1

PASSIONATE ABOUT PAIN

It goes on . . . and on . . . and then on some more. In fact, if you’re one of the millions of Christians and interested others who have been to see the runaway hit Mel Gibson film, The Passion of the Christ, you didn’t get into that theater unless you were 17 years old, or with an adult guardian. Because this graphic, R-rated portrayal of Jesus’ last 12 hours of life contains a beating scene that is violent beyond comprehending. For a good ten minutes, the blood-letting is relentless as the Teacher from Nazareth is flogged literally within an inch of His life.

And as the film reviews came in from all around the globe – evangelical church leaders and the Roger Eberts of the media world – the unrelenting violence almost became THE story. Why so much blood? Why the focus on the gore and the physical abuse? When one questioner asked director Gibson why he didn’t tone it down, he’s said to have replied: “Dude, I did tone it down.” Clearly, this devoted Catholic wanted to tell the story exactly the way he felt it had actually happened.

If you went into the theater expecting to see Jesus beaten exactly 39 times, you were probably stunned that the blows just kept raining down far beyond that almost lethal number. And the NIV text notes for Mark chapter 15 comment:

“The Romans used a whip made of several strips of leather into which were embedded (near the ends) pieces of bone and lead. The Jews limited the number of stripes to a maximum of 40 (in practice to 39 in case of a miscount), but no such limitation was recognized by the Romans, and victims of Roman floggings often did not survive.”

Well, friend, let me tell you why I begin our Bible study right here in this “eye of the storm.” I saw The Passion of the Christ at a complimentary advance screening held at the convention of the National Religious Broadcasters. And those ten minutes were agony for me too. There was a hush in the auditorium when it was done; most of us weren’t able to speak. But one film reviewer did sum up the concern that many believers do have. Millions of people who see this brilliant and ambitious project, he suggested, will get the idea that the unique thing about Jesus Christ was His willingness to bear pain and hurt and agony on our behalf. That this is essentially the full story – Jesus will take a beating for you. Lawrence Toppman, critic for the Charlotte Observer, writes:

“Gibson has made an extraordinary, focused movie with blinders on, showing mostly one color – blood-red – from the full Christian spectrum.”

Now, friend, I want to tell you something. That IS the Bible story. Jesus is unique in being willing to die for my sins and yours. He experienced pain on my behalf that I don’t think anybody else in this universe would be willing to bear. The prophet Isaiah writes in chapter 53 the great classic line:

“Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”

But for the next few weeks, we want to simply think together about the totality of this Man who went up on that cross. Why did He do it? Was He just a politically unlucky person who ran afoul of Caiaphas’ sensibilities and the Roman legal system? Was He a prophet? Or “more than a prophet”? Or just the greatest tolerator of whips and cuts and bruises there ever has been?

You can understand that what we’re thinking about here is – in my view – THE biggest spiritual subject there is. Who is Jesus? What is He about? What did His death accomplish? What more is there to Him than a willingness to be whipped and executed for something He didn’t do?

You may remember a rock-and-roll line from another controversial media project going back more than three decades. We read that singer Carl Anderson, who played the role of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway musical and film, Jesus Christ Superstar, died in early 2004 of leukemia. And he probably sang this line a thousand times – it was his signature song in that production:

“Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Who are You? What have You sacrificed?”

And you know, I believe God welcomes these questions. Are they irreverent? Well, they can be . . . but often people go to the theater with a bag of popcorn and a supersize Coke, because they really want to know. Who was actor Jim Caviezel portraying for those bloody two hours and five minutes? And the Bible has an answer to that question that defies what any film producer can answer in one film.

There’s a book that we have on the back shelves here at the office, and I understand it made its own buzz of controversy in my own denomination when it came out back in the 1950s. But some friendly critics came into national headquarters and began to ask some of our church leaders: “What does your church community teach and believe about this or that doctrine or issue?” The resulting book, which contained our answers, was entitled Questions on Doctrine, and you can understand that a project like that will tend to split people into various camps. But recently we were glancing at the question: What do you believe about Jesus Christ? Well, the cryptic answer to just that question runs something like 36 pages . . . and could have gone on for much more! But here in these next few broadcasts, we’d like to just dialogue about Jesus and what we all think of Him.

Now as we prayerfully discuss together, there’s one essential ground rule that will lead our study. Here it is: whatever the Bible says about Jesus, we’ll accept. If there’s a verse which describes Jesus in a certain way, that is what we’ll believe and embrace. We certainly will quote great thinkers through the ages, and other sources which might guide our journey, but none of them will be authoritative.

Let me give you an example. We understand that Mel Gibson drew from the writing of Anne Catherine Emmerich, a nun living in France during the period of 1774 - 1824. She shares an anecdote where Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane on that dark Thursday night. The weight of the world is upon His shoulders. His heart is breaking, filled with sorrow. Now, that’s in Matthew 26. He falls on the ground and prays. In Luke’s telling, He’s in such anguish that His perspiration is like blood streaming down His face. But Emmerich, in her writing, creates an imagined conversation between Jesus and His ancient foe. Lucifer challenges Him in the dark shadows.

“Takest thou even this sin upon thyself?” the serpent hisses. “Art thou willing to bear its penalty? Art thou prepared to satisfy for ALL THESE SINS?”

Well, that is a colorful, inspiring anecdote. And the gospel of the disciple John has John the Baptist crying out when He first sees Jesus coming to the River Jordan:

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

But we’ll take the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as settled truths, where the play and interplay of events as interpreted by a Sister Anne Emmerich or a C. S. Lewis or a Philip Yancey or a Mel Gibson will be clearly labeled as what they are: suggestions and ideas of what-might-have-been.

In our few remaining moments today, we’ll just put one Bible reality on the table. What Jesus did in Gethsemane, and then on the Cross that Friday afternoon, was to achieve our salvation. Friend, if you are saved in God’s kingdom, it will be because of the Cross. How much pain there was that weekend might be the point, or perhaps not. We can think about that together. But if you accept the 66 books running from Genesis to Revelation, then you believe that Jesus’ death at Calvary was not just an R-rated miscarriage of justice, or someone’s bad luck in getting on the wrong side of a mob, or pro- or anti-Semitism. Jesus died as a way of saving me in heaven and saving you there too.

In fact – I say this as gently but as boldly as I can – Calvary constitutes not only a plan of salvation, but it’s the ONLY plan. Acts 4:12 says so.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

This is why I think many Christian leaders there in that NRB ballroom, and those who flocked to the theaters in the weeks to follow, were mostly grateful for this cinematic effort. It may be too bloody. I’m sure there were details that were wrong. It doesn’t tell the entire story. Actors and directors and cinematographers are all frail, sinful human beings. But if there is one – and only one – way that a person can be reconciled to God and to find a restored place in God’s kingdom, then you want to tell that story as clearly and as forcefully and as accurately as you can. If you mess up, you mess up . . . but you keep telling the story. That’s why the Voice of Prophecy has been on radio airwaves for three-quarters of a century now. And we’ve had our share of mistakes, believe me. But with this Calvary saga, which is vital, which is a must-see, or must-hear, story, you pray and you pray and then you do what you can. I hope you’ll be with us.