Easter Thoughts

When "The Passion of the Christ" came out in theaters, we went to see it. The theater was very still throughout (though I know I was only just keeping myself from wailing). We filed out silently, rode home in silence, and continued on that day in a somber vein.

This was not the sweet, beckoning joy that most people think of when they think of love. This was a tremendous presence, something almost solid, landing in the room with the impact of a meteor.

That's what stunned me. Not the violence, the violence was barely endurable (but probably underdone in the case of the scourging); rather, the overwhelming love of someone willing to go through the horror for. . . . .us. That's someone worth following to the ends of the earth.

And that’s what I wanted to do when I got home. Just get up and walk out of the door, the house, and keep walking until I could walk up to Jesus.

"The Passion of The Christ" ripped me in half, like the veil in the temple. I had expected to be ripped, because I am an intensely empathetic person. What I hadn't expected was how it also rocked my soul, rocked it in a way it hadn't been rocked since the conference that led us overseas. No sermon I've heard since coming home has had that much power.

What I'm thinking this year is: Should we watch it on Good Friday again this year? I couldn't bring myself to one year, did watch it another, and last time I found movie standpoints creeping in.

I don't want that. I don't want to think of movie things when I watch it. I also know that His followers only saw His death once. Is it therefore wrong for us to watch a facsimile once a year, or is it instead a good reminder?