Mel Gibson’s The
Passion of Christ shows the
Bread of Life broken. It proves to have a tough doctrine to teach from the response it has evoked in the cine-goers. It is simply Christ’s invitation to people to come and eat His
flesh and drink His blood so that their spiritual needs are fulfilled.
Ironically, even those who have a share in the Holy Communion have failed to understand the meaning of Christ’s invitation. Those who have no share in the Holy Communion
fail to see that it is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that Christ speaks to them are spirit, and they are life. They fail to rise above the literal level. On the other hand, the Christian fail to see “bread and wine” as the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. They consider all things religious on abstract level, not on the real. Significantly, the source of both mistakes lies in their lack of faith in Christ. It makes the non-Christian fail to recognize Him as He is dying on the cross, and the Christians, the resurrected Christ. In spite of their protestations of faith in Him, when he dies, His
disciples take Him for dead.
For the unbelieving believers, Jesus, who has risen from death, has to establish again His link with the One who died on the
cross by showing His
wounds to them. Until His disciples see His wounds, they wouldn’t believe that He is the same Christ who died on the cross.
To those whom He does not show His wounds, He shows the sign of dividing bread. One has only to remember that it is the sign of recognition for the disciples who were traveling to Emmaus. This explains why Christ asks His disciples to observe the ceremony of the Holy Communion in His remembrance. So, up to the present time they have been doing what He’s asked them to. The only thing is that to them Christ has never been as substantial as the bread and wine that’s offered to them. But because they are well aware of its symbolic meaning, they think it necessary to work up a certain level of seriousness in them during the ceremony. However, neither their faith nor their imaginative efforts are sufficient enough to see the flesh and blood of their Lord, and to have the same experience of fellowship with God as Christ intended for them. It’s for just such a lot that Mel’s “Passion” is being made. It was really time someone had shown us not only the “bread and wine” but also the wounds of Christ, and we are greatly indebted to Mel for doing it. Those who watch this film are supposed to recognize Christ and the difference his supreme sacrifice has made.
Many are of the view that it fails to convey God’s love and compassion for the fallen mankind - if that is the aim behind making it - because of the extreme violence shown in it. It’s enough for the people who hold such a view to know that Gibson has not even half suggested in his film the actual suffering that Christ had endured. The actual crucifixion lasted for more than six hours. Mel can show the insults and injustice He suffered, stripes of canes and the flesh-parting, blood-splashing scourging, the crown of thorns, the burden of cross, the nails piercing His hands and feet, and the spear piercing His side. But he could never show the burden of the sins of the whole mankind, and the curse it had been writhing under since Adam’s fall, and its sorrows and diseases with which Christ was laden. Neither he can show how dark the separation of the Son from the Father might be, howsoever brief it was.
And yet, what he has picturised is enough to make us imagine Jesus’ unseen sufferings. Especially the symbol of Satan carrying that big baby Death close to his heart when Christ is on His way to Calvary, is quite remarkable. Taunting Christ with His separation from the Father and tormenting Him with the prospect of His falling into his arms, Satan is fighting just another dubious battle against the Son of God. But what harrowing experience it must have been for Christthat only He could know. All alone, forsaken by the Father at the time, bearing the whole world’s sins and curse, He was, perhaps, facing the worst ever assault from His adversary. However, the devil’s defeat is a foregone conclusion. Christ dies with full guarantee of victory over death. Satan can never reduce Christ, the Life, to the order of existence that is his own. Jesus’ resurrection proves it to the world.
Finally, whereas Mel’s creation may not be as complete and perfect as the deed of Christ on the cross, we must confess what he has accomplished is far greater in value than the facile preaching of so many preachers that we may come across.
More summaries about the Mel Gibson’s “Passion”: the Essential Contribution