[newspaper article(?)]After watching 'The Passion of The Christ'

[-Sassy-]

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The Passion of the Christ… Since its release, no, even since the very beginning of the production, this movie has been a bone of contention.  Not because its director is the world-famous movie star, Mel Gibson, not because the ancient language comes alive in the movie, but because this movie is about… about Him! After watching ‘The Passion of The Christ’ Yes, the movie was tough to watch.  It was the first time I left a cup of popcorns almost without touching it.  People were quiet whether or not they were those who believed in the Man who was being tortured and beaten to death on the screen.  Probably, they realized that this movie is more than just movies; that is only my guess but I am pretty sure, that it is a correct guess since I was one of those who found this movie something special. To be as simple as possible, this movie is about the final twelve hours of Jesus’ life on the earth.  Since many of you probably know more than I do about Jesus Christ’s life, I find it time-consuming to explain what happened on that day in detail.  The movie starts showing Jesus Christ desperately praying to His Father in the Garden of Olives knowing what will happen to him in a few minutes.  He trembles really hard with tears in his eyes.  When I was watching that scene, I did not think, and even if I did, I doubted that the shivering Man in the wood was Jesus Christ.  I had imagined Jesus Christ facing His life including the crucifixion without any fear since He was holy and He was the Son of God.  But I was wrong.  Probably most of you have heard that Jesus Christ has two natures: fully divine and fully human.  Before I watched the movie, especially that scene, I had only focused on the wholly divine nature ignoring the fact that Jesus Christ was also one of us, human beings.  Many people, as they went out of the theaters, say that it is a good movie which reminds them of how holy and admirable Jesus Christ is; for me, it was the opposite.  Throughout the movie, on Jesus’ way to Golgotha, where He will be crucified, several flashbacks are shown: Jesus’ teachings and how He has treated His disciples etc.  The one I want to talk about now is the scene in which Jesus spends happy time with his mother, Mary: he teases her just like we do to our moms, and he kisses on her cheek just like we do in the morning before we leave for school.  The message I got was that He was a human, nothing different from us, and He went through all the pains with a body which was exactly like ours and with heart which was exactly like ours.  For me, it was an amazing feeling; I had never thought that I would be more impressed after finding out Jesus Christ’s human nature.  One of the most interesting scenes of the whole movie is the contrastive scene of Mary and the Tempter.  The Tempter appears in the first scene of the movie trying to persuade frightened Jesus to give up His responsibility; however, Jesus Christ declines the Tempter’s offer by stamping a snake, the sign of temptation.  Anyway, as Jesus carries his cross all the way up to Golgotha, Mary follows His path with tears in her eyes.  In contrast, the Tempter who also walks along the path does not change his calm and cold face.  In my opinion, both Mary and the Tempter’s presence indicates the mental state of Jesus Christ.  In his mind, he has willingness to sacrifice his life for sinners following His Father’s words like the one in Mary’s mind: the willingness to accept God’s will and sacrifice her only Son.  However, as another human being, He is afraid of what will happen next, and in His mind a tug of war keeps going on between His spirit to accomplish the mission and the constant temptation.  The camera angle shows Mary and the Tempter alternately to show the contrast, and various effects such as sound effect and the speed the angle is changed foster tension between two characters.  It is impossible to explain all the things that have obsessed my mind since I watched ‘The Passion of The Christ,’ but at the end of this writing, there are two types of people I specially want to give some of my thoughts.  One group is Protestants.  Despite the fact that both Protestants and Catholics believe in the same God, the tension between the two faiths has been an ongoing problem.  I think the tension, the misunderstanding comes because we do not know each other well.  Believe it or not, a great number of Protestants of today think that Christianity is a faith which worships Mary rather than Jesus which is not true because we only honor her as a Mother of God.  Even some people totally go out of line and undermine the significance and virtue of Mary; they think Mary did not do anything to be honored.  Well, I highly recommend them to watch this movie and try to understand how much pain Mary had to go through.  I wonder if they can say that Mary is insignificant in Jesus’ life and in the church history when they get out the theater.  The other group is the people who refuse to go watch this movie because they think it is away too violent.  Others do not like the tendency that people are only interested in the crucifixion which is not everything about Catholic faith.  Certainly, it is not everything about Christianity, but is there any other word that can explain Christianity better than the ‘crucifixion?’  The crucifixion is different from common bloody executions: it was the moment human beings’ sins were forgiven, it was the moment all mankind actually killed the Son of God, and it was the moment Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and God’s will was accomplished opening the new epoch of the church history.  And when it comes to the opinion which says the movie is too bloody, my question is simple: what if that is what exactly happened?  Many experts proved that the descriptions of what Jesus Christ went through during His last twelve hours on the earth in that movie are quite accurate. For the last decades, there have been several movies released, which handled a similar topic; however, this movie directed by Mel Gibson is almost the first mega success as a Christian movie.  It is not just another Christian movie; it is something.  Check it out.                                                               -J.Y

[-Sassy-]

i know you guys prefer diary, but i just wanted to share this with ya.

[작은배]

thanks it is good.