The Passion & The Truth of The Gospel

Transcript

GRM 890
02/29/2004
“The Passion” and the Truth of the Gospel
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I was in the restaurant this past Friday and after we had lunch one of the men who helps to manage the restaurant came by and said, you’re a clergyman, aren’t you? I said, yes. He said, well, have you seen the film on the passion of Jesus? I said, yes, I did. What did you think? He stood at our table for a little while while we talked about the film and what the Bible said about Jesus Christ. We’re just going to cover a variety of issues I think are related to the film, not in any particular order. I want you just to be aware of what some of the issues are, perhaps how we ought to deal with this opportunity. I think it is unique. No matter where you go people are talking about the film. And you turn on television, and I made a point the last week or two since I did want to talk about it with you, to try to check the paper and watch some of the programs that were on evaluating the film or interviewing people and so on. There were several on yesterday. You get an idea of what people are thinking. I mean, it’s amazing, everyone is talking about the death of Jesus Christ. You can tell for some, they are confused, some are angry.

But what an opportunity that people all over are talking about the death of Jesus Christ. I do want you to be aware that in some of the discussion I do not think it is dealing fairly with the point. “Newsweek” had an article, cover story article, February 16, “Who Really Killed Jesus? What History Teaches Us, The Storm Over Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion.’ ” It’s by John Mecham. He was on a program last night, there were an interviewer and three others. And one of the men was a Jewish man, film critic and Jewish man, then there were two who identified themselves as Christians, I take it from the conversations. One of the men was this John Mecham who wrote the article in Newsweek. I thought it was interesting as the discussion went along, some of you may have seen it, the Jewish man got a little bit frustrated. He finally said, I’m the Jewish person here, I’m defending the film. You two are Christians and you’re criticizing it. Just explain to me what’s wrong here. And I thought that was a good observation. He was very defensive for the film, the Jewish man. He said I didn’t take it as anti-Semitic, I wasn’t offended as a Jew. I thought it presented the facts as the Bible presents them and many Christians believe it. It was the two who professed to be Christians who didn’t see it that way.

John Mecham, who writes this article, my concern with the article when I read it a couple weeks ago is that it purports to be a review of Mel Gibson’s film, but what it really is is a critique of the scripture, and a rejection of those who would take the scriptures literally. Now there’s a place to discuss that. But for a person who purports to be evaluating a film, but really is criticizing those who would take the scripture literally, I think that’s dishonest. This came out in his interview last night, the interview he was part of. Toward the end of the interview he made the observation that we have to be careful about… and this is a generalizing, I don’t have it word for word… we have to be careful of fundamentalists who would take this literally. We know fundamentalism is a problem in the world, and particularly in other countries we see it. In doing what? Those who take the Bible literally are fundamentalists, and we all know fundamentalists are trouble. Just think about other places in the world, Muslim fundamentalists. And that way of dealing with the issue is not honest. We’re not dealing with what the scripture presents, we’re using it as an occasion for explaining why we reject the scripture. This man happens to be an Episcopal clergyman by background, I believe. He’s an editor for “Newsweek” now. The Episcopalians by and large don’t believe the scripture. Just so you know this approach which is out there, it made the cover of “Newsweek” and is on some of the programs.

He says, though countless believers take it as the immutable Word of God, scripture is not always a faithful record of historical events. The Bible is the product of human authors who were writing in particular times and places with particular points to make and visions to advance. And the roots of Christian anti-Semitism lie in overly literal readings, which in fact are misreadings of many New Testament texts. Well, he’s not dealing with whether, you know, the film, not dealing with whether the film accurately reflects what the Bible says if you take it literally. His point is to say that's not what the Bible is.

Countless believers take it as the immutable Word of God, but it’s not. Says who? He just writes off what countless believers do hold. That’s not worthy of consideration. One of the things that comes out clearly in this is a disdain for anybody who takes the Bible at face value. Here are some of the quotes from the program last night, I think they come from the same man. “No one is sure who wrote the gospels, which frequently contradict one another. The gospels are not historical documents, they are theological documents.” Now we get into this convorted thinking. “They are truth, not necessarily historical fact.” Now you can see how the conversation begins to get blurred because you hear him say, oh yes, the gospels are truth. And you say, oh yeah, he believes like we do. But they are not historical fact. But what his view is, and he says this, “the gospels were not written by eyewitnesses and men who were there, they were written a long time after the events by men who had a theological and political agenda they were trying to promote.” Now that’s maybe an issue that has to be debated and discussed. That is not honest to make that the issue of the movie here. Because what it comes to is those who believe the Bible is the Word of God are not allowed to present their view because they are trouble, they are unsettling to society, they create problems in the world, and so on. I thought, well, you know, people are going to see through this article. It’s a long article, I don’t have time to read you repeated statements like I read which he constantly attacks the scripture.

But then George Will, and I often like what George Will writes, doesn’t write in the religious realm usually, but he is conservative and I appreciate some of his observations. He had an article that appeared in both the Lincoln and Omaha paper this past week, an editorial, “Passion is Only the Latest Addition to a Rising Tide of Jewish Bashing.” The last part of the article shows the serious rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. I’d think they’d put two and two together, because, you know, what has happened in Europe? By and large they have totally rejected the Bible and Christianity. Less than 10% of the population in Europe even bothers to attend church, in England particularly he was thinking of. But he makes a comment on this Newsweek article. John Mecham’s deeply informed cover story in Newsweek, February 16. He sees it as deeply informed. It comes across as very intelligent and scholarly, because true scholars have learned you just don’t take the Bible at face value. You don’t take it as historical fact. What do you do? You make up your own story and then you fit the Bible into it.

There is issue over the film, is it too violent? I’m amazed that people are on TV, writing articles, and so on with a straight face. All the vile, the rubbish, the gruesomeness that is passed off and what is it always defended? Well, we want to present life as it really is. Of course, we have to have graphic sex, that goes on in life. Of course, we have to have graphic language. And, of course, we make slasher movies, movies where people get all cut up and murdered and dismembered. But, you know, everybody knows we’re just making a movie. We have to allow artistic license. But, oh my, somebody presents the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and it looks like it was a terrible event. Oh, this will scar you. I watched a medical doctor last night, and from my observations of this man over several years, he’s a vile man. A medical doctor, young, good-looking, I’ve seen him a number of times, I’ve read some of what he wrote. No problem presenting all kind of sexual promiscuity and things like this. But he’s sitting there being interviewed and serious face, no smile, how we must be careful that we don’t take young people to this movie, this will traumatize them. The interviewer said, well, can you explain how that will happen. Oh, we have studies that show exposure to this kind of violence can traumatize them. That’s why young people become teenagers and they start taking drugs, they’ve been traumatized by things like this.

Somehow now a depiction of the crucifixion of Christ is a reason why our kids will grow up to become drug addicts. I think of Romans 1, because of their rejection of the truth of God they have become darkened in their understanding, they are unable to think. It’s not a matter, well, there is a lot of violence… and there is violence in the movie, I’ll refer to that in a moment. You may want to be careful. What do they say in other graphic movies? Well, we’ll let parents decide and it’s a decision of parents, and on they go. I’m not saying you should take your young children to this, not saying you shouldn’t, it’s your decision. But I think somehow the graphicness… What did you think about… I was asked that question this week. What did you think about the violence and the gruesomeness that went on there? The person hadn’t seen the movie yet, but they had heard so much about it. All I can say and I think we need to be careful. These opportunities come up, we don’t want to get mired down in side issues. Well, it is vile, it was clearly brutal, but you understand crucifixion was a brutal act. The Romans crucified people because they wanted to put the ‘fear of God’ into people. It was as brutal as could be, as violent as could be.

Now the question is, are we allowed to present historical fact? If you’re presenting a war movie and they show somebody’s arms getting blown off or legs they say, well, that’s just war. We’re just presenting war as war and war is a terrible thing. You don’t find people saying they should not be doing that kind of violence and graphic violence on TV or on the movies. But somehow with the crucifixion of Christ, how could they do such violence?

I want to talk to you a little bit about crucifixion and scourging. You ought to know they are right. The gospels do not talk in any detail about the crucifixion. They present it as a fact but they pass over it rather quickly. They refer to the fact that Jesus was scourged and beaten, the crown of thorns was placed on His head, He was crucified. But there’s no attempt to drag it out. I believe these men were eyewitnesses. These would have been men living in the time and at the time and they would have observed many crucifixions. You know, there were occasions when the Romans crucified thousands of people at one time because of revolts. It was always done in a public place, to put them on public display, as a warning to anyone who would be found guilty of revolting against Rome. That’s why Christ could be crucified. Remember what Pilate put above His cross, “King of the Jews.” The Jews didn’t like that, they wanted to crucify Him for blasphemy. The Romans didn’t crucify people for that kind of blasphemy, but they would crucify someone for insurrection. So Pilate could crucify Him as a Roman authority because what? He claimed to be King of the Jews, even though he didn’t feel it was just.

If you want to know the details of crucifixion and particularly crucifixion of Christ, you have to go to the Old Testament. Psalm 22, why don’t you turn there. I say this so you’re familiar when people say, well, you know the Bible doesn’t describe, in the gospels the crucifixion of Christ isn’t described, and you say that’s right, that’s right. But the Bible does describe the crucifixion of Christ, just not in the gospels. Psalm 22, Psalm 22 would have been written a thousand years before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It’s a psalm of David you have in the subtitle of the psalm. David lived about a thousand years before Christ. Note how the psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The very words that Christ spoke from the cross. Verse 6, “I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, “Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” And you can use your cross references, I’d encourage you to do it. Sit down and go to the gospels, Matthew 27 and so on, and see how these very words are used.

Look down in verse 14 of the description of the crucifixion of Christ, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.” There’s an issue in the film, and I’m not into debating whether the film is accurate in all its details. Obviously there is a lot of artistic license in it. But one of the things, when Christ is put down to be crucified, they pull His arm and pull it out of joint. I heard on one of the interviews last week or so, a person said, well, they said it pulled His arm out of joint; the Bible doesn’t say they pulled His arms out of joint. No, it doesn’t in the gospels, and we don’t know that the Romans did that. But Psalm 22 does say in verse 14, “all my bones are out of joint” and that was one of the results of being crucified. As your body hung there and the weight and everything else, you did have bones come out of joint. I don’t want to get into a debate is that how it happened. But it does happen, it does say it happened here.

“My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet.” You know, it’s interesting because when David wrote this, crucifixion was not even practiced, was not even the form used of execution. Now here we’re told what’s going to happen to the Son of God. They couldn’t have beat Him to death, He had to be crucified because the Old Testament also said cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree and He’s going to hang on there in a special way.

“I can count all my bones.” As He hung there, the ribcage, and you’re gasping for breath, you can see the bones, the ribs. You can get an idea of the description. “They look, they stare at me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So it’s a graphic description. Verse 22, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.” It’s quoted in Hebrews 2:12 as a reference to Christ. This is a psalm, much of which anticipates Christ and in particular focuses in verses 14-18 on the sufferings of His crucifixion. Again, it doesn’t drag it out in great detail, but you get some idea of it. Pierced in the hands and the feet, bones out of joint, mouth totally dry, His tongue sticking to the sides of His mouth, ribs showing. It’s an awful event.

Isaiah 53 is the other passage. When I was asked this week, and I’ll refer to this just because it’s a current example, about the graphic violence and did I think it was too graphic and too much. I don’t want to mire down into those kind of discussions with people. So I simply said, well, you know, can’t say about the details of whether it was too much in the film, but the Bible does say that Christ suffered terribly. In fact, the Bible says… Isaiah the prophet wrote seven hundred years before Christ was crucified. He prophesied that His appearance would be marred more than any man.

Look at Isaiah 52:14, “So His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.” Here we are told that there was tremendous suffering in Christ. Now again, they make a movie and it is difficult because they can portray something of physical suffering. But Christ was the God/Man, He suffered more intensely and to a greater degree than anyone else who was ever crucified. Because He’s not just suffering the death of crucifixion, He is also bearing our sins in His body on the cross. So here we’re told “His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.” So quite frankly, I saw the film, I thought of Isaiah and I thought probably not able to portray how intensely and great His suffering was. They are limited to try to portray the physical evidence of this, but there was far deeper and greater suffering.

Verse 2 of chapter 53, He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” You know, in a discussion (and this is where we went in the discussion I was having) we need to be careful as we talk to people that we don’t get into the sidelines of, well, do you think this went too far? Do you think this was too much? Well, you know the Bible says He suffered intensely, more than any man ever did. And you know what you really need to consider is why would the Son of God be on earth, suffering such a horrible, terrible death. And you know Isaiah tells us “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities… All of us like sheep have gone astray, we’ve turned each one to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” The real reason Jesus had to suffer so terribly is because we are sinners. A person says, oh, I’m a Christian, I believe in Jesus, too. I say to them, you know that didn’t save you, that doesn’t save you. Every Protestant and every Catholic if you ask them, oh yes I believe in Jesus. You have to come to grips with why Christ has died. It’s your sin. Your sin is so serious that there was no solution to it. Not your good works, not your baptism, not going to church, not sacraments. The wages of sin is death. The Son of God had to come and suffer so terribly and die such an awful death because you are a sinner, on your way to an eternal hell, and there is no other hope.

I say this because when we do have opportunity, I think it’s a great opportunity that people all over are talking about a film that focuses on the death of Christ. We want to be ready to seize the opportunity and talk to them about the death of Christ. You know sometimes people don’t want to face the reality of how terrible the suffering and death of Christ was, and I don’t want to read a lot of graphic description. In 1986 the “Journal of the American Medical Association” quoted in their journal an article by a medical doctor and some other men writing with him on the physical death of Jesus Christ. And I have the article and the follow-up letters that were written to the “Journal” and so on. I didn’t bring it with me. But you know, it’s the same kind of thing. You know, there was an outcry, how could you put this in a medical journal? But all he does is analyze what would happen to a person that was crucified. What would have happened to Christ as one who was scourged? What was scourging? How did that affect the body? And he unfolds it medically. It was a terribly death. You know, a Roman citizen was not allowed to be scourged except under certain special circumstances. Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified, except under special circumstances, for example, desertion from the army. It was considered too degrading.

I don’t know whether to read you this or not; I’ll read part of it. They have pictures, they have medical diagrams of different parts of the body, bones, tissue. If you want the whole story, there it is. I have another article written by another medical doctor in a different publication and he goes through a similar… What they use for scourging. We read it and think, oh, He got beaten. Well, you know we see people getting beaten, there’s not anything… Well, “the Roman scourge was a short whip with several single or braided leather thongs.” So it had a handle, then it had these leather straps coming out of it, a number of them. “They were various lengths in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals. For scourging, a person was stripped of his clothing, hands tied to a post.” Skip some of this. “Then two soldiers come and they take turns flogging the person.” That’s basically what takes place in the movie if you see it. “The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lickters,” the ones doing the beating. “It was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. After the scourging the soldiers often taunted their victim.”

Then he goes on with the medical aspects of scourging and some of the words I probably won’t even say right. “As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions. The leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Then as the flogging continued the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles producing quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh,” and on to the loss of blood and so on. Again, the Bible doesn’t go into this detail, but as we study the Bible I want to go back and find out about what are they talking about. They talk about Pharisees, I have to go back and try to understand something of what were the Pharisees, who were they? Who was Pontius Pilate? How did he relate to other governors in that region of the world? So I do go to look and see. I want to know what was a Roman scourging. What was crucifixion?

He goes on then to describe crucifixion, and both describes crucifixion and then gives the medical description with diagrams and has the parts of the hand and the bones and the muscles and the feet and all of that. And I’m not going into all that. But I do think we ought to be realistic. Here is a person presenting a historical event, some people may not believe it was a historical event, but most people at least acknowledge He was crucified. There may be disagreement over the reasons and the details of how it was carried out. What was Roman crucifixion? What was Roman scourging? It was as brutal as could be, it was as bloody as could be. I mean, isn’t it a little bit stretching things for people to sit there and say, do we really think Romans would have done that to people. I mean, have they ever seen anything on Saddam Hussein, what he did to people? I find it hard to take seriously people saying, oh well, I don’t know that the Romans would have been that brutal. It’s like people today saying, well, I don’t think Saddam Hussein was that brutal. Remember in the book of Daniel when He prophesied to Daniel, chapter 7, the coming Roman Empire. It was pictured as a great beast that crushed everything. The Romans weren’t known for their kindness, and they maintained control by power and when you were going to be crucified, you had been condemned to the worst kind of death. The intention was you were to suffer the worst possible way.

You know, a person crucified, after being scourged and going through that, then hung on a cross, it might take him two, three, four days to die. The purpose of this was not to dispense them quickly. They could have done that, they could have beheaded them, one swing of the sword and it would have been over. The whole purpose of crucifixion is to draw this out, make it as painful, as awful, as frightening, do it in a public place so everybody sees. They’re going to say, one thing I don’t want to do is cause trouble for Rome and the Romans, because one place I don’t want to end up is on the cross, being crucified. Like I said, the Romans crucified literally thousands of people. You go back and read history, go to the Bible encyclopedias and look up cross, crucifixion and you read articles of when the Romans crucified 3,000 people on one occasion because they rebelled against Rome. And when they sent their army in they crush them. They’re not coming back, so we’re going to leave a lesson to be learned. So here the crucifixion of Christ is unique because He is the Son of God dying for our sins. But the Romans used crucifixion effectively.

Crucifixion as a form of capital punishment was abolished by Constantine. So we’re 1700 years or so removed from crucifixion, so it’s easy for us just to think of it, well, it would have been over quickly. That was a terrible death to die. All that to say, I don’t know that I look at the film and say it’s brutal in light of the history that we know of. Is that exactly the way it happened with Christ, the way the film portrays it? I don’t think in some of the ways, no. But I’m not sitting there thinking this violence is too graphic. It’s reality. He would have suffered it more intensely than you or I can imagine. Do you want to take your 5-year-old? Well, I would say you ought to see it and make a decision. This whole idea we shouldn’t be producing such a graphic film… It’s the most graphic film I have ever seen. I don’t know, I’m a lot more taken aback when I’ve seen taking the religious dimension of who Christ is and what He means to us. You know, we watch a war movie and now with their, they can show somebody’s arm getting blown off and they want to show the flesh dangling or whatever. And their excuse, that’s war. You see the film you get an idea that was scourging and crucifixion. We like to pretend it wasn’t that bad. He suffered terribly on the cross and leading up to the cross.

The Bible does not draw this out, nor do the writers. You know, Luke was a physician. I read you just an excerpt from a physician. Luke was a physician. He could have written an extended medical analysis of what went on. He lived there, whether he had been at the crucifixion of Christ or not, we’re not told, but he interviewed eyewitnesses. He would have seen other crucifixions to be sure. He could have talked about the amount of blood lost, the puddling and pooling of the blood at this location. The Bible doesn’t do that. We need to be careful. The death of Christ is an emotional event, nothing wrong with being impacted emotionally by the death of Christ. But we are not saved by being emotionally impacted. The Bible could have described this in such a way as it would have been moving and a lot more intense than the simple, short descriptions given. The Apostle Paul as he reflects back later and writes about the death of Christ -- Peter who was there, He bore our sins in His body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He doesn’t go into graphic detail: they beat Him and He was lacerated and He was bleeding great amounts and there was a trail of blood from this point to this point, and on. That’s not what the Bible is concerned, the Bible is concerned to present the truth.

Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with people seeing the movie and being moved emotionally and weeping. We need to be careful we make a distinction. People are saved by believing the facts of the gospel. That means understanding the reality of their sin and guilt before God, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was dying to pay the penalty for our sin. In this sense the movie is very Catholic. And some have noted that the Stations of the Cross as Jesus periodically falls, Mary is there with towels mopping up the blood and it’s precious to her. Well, you know, that’s not the focus of the scripture. He shed His blood for us, He died for us, He suffered terribly as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But the Bible is not involved in that graphic, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t very graphic, horrible. It gives you an idea of what crucifixion would have been like and maybe some of what the Son of God would have had to endure.

There is a lot of embellishment. Mary was the mother of Christ. I take it that it was an awful time for her. The movie presents her and I was not particularly bothered by the presentation. There are elements which clearly go beyond what I would see would be biblical, but it wasn’t an overt presentation of Mary. Like I said, some of the things I would say they’re not in the Bible, they are what we call artistic license. But generally the truth that is presented is a clear scriptural truth.

And I would just want to encourage you -- and then I want to look at some passages with you on the Jews -- as you have opportunity to talk about it don’t get mired down in, well, that’s not Biblical. We want to demonstrate to people we’re biblical scholars, well, that’s not in the Bible. Well, you know, do you think the way He suffered, was that biblical? Like I said, I just want to pick the man up where he is. Well, the Bible does say His appearance was marred more than anything. So if that’s exactly how it was, I don’t know, but the Bible does say He suffered greatly, and He died on that cross for a purpose. And what we need to be clear on, I want to keep bringing it back to that point. Why did the Son of God die on that cross? That makes clear how great your sin is. Some people say, well, look I don’t believe, and there are articles on that, we’ve seen it… that a God of love, one person I had his article (I don’t know if I have it with me) said, I couldn’t worship a God like that, who would do that to His Son. That person said, do you think a God of love could do that to His Son? What a great opening. What are you saying? You know that is so interesting because you know what the Bible says is the greatest demonstration of God’s love for us? It’s put this way, Romans 5:8, this is the great demonstration of God’s love “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So isn’t that something? God loved us so much He was willing to have His Son die for us. That means your sin is so great, so serious, there is no other solution to it. So we want to take advantage of these opportunities with friends and family.

Would I be telling you, you should go see the film? I don’t know what to say. I went for free. To be honest I’m not one who is drawn to these dramas and graphic presentations. I’ve read the article, I went and watched the movie and I didn’t find myself shocked. And many of you have done the same thing as you study and teach and that you’ve read graphic descriptions of crucifixion, of scourging. I didn’t sit there and say, wow, this is almost overwhelming violence. Similar to descriptions I’ve read in other places. I’m not particularly drawn to that because I always think he’s portraying it exactly as he sees it and that’s not the way… But I wouldn’t get into that with a person. If I have an unbelieving neighbor who says, I haven’t seen that but I hope to see it, I’d say, let’s go together, I want to see it, too. I wouldn’t get into when I come out, I’m not going to say, you’re a Protestant, did you think what He did with Mary…

I would just say, I’m sure Mary His mother suffered greatly in seeing her Son die that way, but, you know, what really gets my attention is… We’re back to the same thing, right? Why would the Son of God be on this earth suffering so terribly and die for me? What has been my response to that? Wouldn’t it be terrible… You know what God says? If you don’t recognize your sin and guilt and turn to His Son, He says, you’re trampling on my Son, Hebrews 10 [verse 29]. It’s trampling underfoot the Son of God and treating the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing. This is a serious matter to God, that He would send His Son and then you would say, I don’t care, I’m not particularly interested. Everything has to come back to that issue.

Satan is portrayed in the film, and it is a woman who portrays Satan, but they use a man’s voice. Well, how are you going to portray Satan? I’ve heard Gibson say I wanted it to be a beautiful creature, and the masculinity, the femininity, whatever. Well, I can understand. I don’t know, it’s as good a portrayal of Satan as I could come up with because I don’t know what he looks like. So I say, well, should he portray him? Well, he does. And in the Garden there is license: of a serpent comes out and Christ steps on the head of the serpent. Well, someone said, does the Bible say that Christ crushed and stood on the head of a serpent in the Garden? No, it doesn’t. But you know what the Bible does say? Romans 16 says that God is going to crush Satan under your feet because that’s what Christ came to do, to destroy the works of the devil, to defeat the devil.

So again, I’d say as believers in the Word of God we don’t want to mire down if we have opportunity to talk to people. I want to talk to them about Jesus Christ and His death. And to me it’s marvelous that people are talking about it, interested in it. What an opportunity for you to say, you know, I’ve watched this in the paper, all this on “The Passion.” Have you seen that movie on the passion of Christ? No, I didn’t see it either. Isn’t it interesting that there is so much interest in a subject of the crucifixion of a man who died 2000 years ago? Have you ever thought of why Jesus Christ was on earth and suffering and dying on a cross? Even if they haven’t seen it, they know about it.

What about the Jews? It has been a great issue. You know, go to Acts 5, if you would, and then we’ll back up to the gospels. You know, anti-Semitism has been the charge against proclaiming the death of Jesus Christ from the beginning. You know what happened to Peter when he preached his second sermon? You know what they said he was doing? He was trying to make the Jews guilty for the death of Christ, Acts 5:28. And in verse 17 the high priest and his associates, these would be the leaders in Israel, they’ve arrested Peter and now he’s been set free miraculously, they’ve called him back. Look what they say in verse 28, “We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching,” note this last, “and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” You know what happens when you preach the cross of Christ. And what happened? Man that talked to me Friday said, do you think the Jews… is it anti-Semitic? What could I say? The Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. They bear special guilt. He was their Messiah, He came to be their King, they led the opposition to Him, they were determined He would be crucified. Yes, they were guilty. But they are not alone in their guilt. We want to be careful we don’t imply, well, you know, the Jews don’t have any more guilt than anyone else. The Jews are under special judgment of God for their rejection of their Messiah. Well, now you’re anti-Semitic. One article I had here said, this will set Jewish/Christian relationships back forty years. Well, I’m sorry, truth is truth. Peter had to face that. Jews were up in arms, he preached in Jerusalem the death of Christ, and you want to put His blood on our hands.

Come back to Matthew 26. We don’t have time to go through all the gospel accounts. Look at the end of Matthew 26. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden, verse 57, they took Him away to Caiaphas the high priest. The scribes and elders are there, the Romans aren’t even in on this. People want to say, well, you know, this doesn’t accurately portray because Pilate would have been a lot stronger man than the movie portrays. You see their problem is not with the movie, their problem is with the scripture. And Mel Gibson addressed that. And I don’t know where Mel Gibson is. You know, they’ll say do you think he’s a Christian or don’t? Well, it’s not my call, it’s not something I want to mire down in. Somebody asked me that. I’d say, I don’t know, that’s between him and God. The real issue is, what is your relationship to God? Have you come to trust in the Savior who suffered and died? It’s not my call. What’s the difference? We could talk all day, well, what do you think: is Mel Gibson a believer or not a believer? Is he saved or not saved? When I saw him on an interview he said this, and then I saw an interview he said that, and I saw an interview and he said this, I saw an interview he said that. When all is said and done the real issue is where are you? We need to be careful we don’t sidetrack.

We say, well, I had a good opportunity to talk to people about the movie. What did you talk about? Well, we talked about whether Mel Gibson is saved, we talked about whether it is an accurate portrayal of Mary. What a waste of time. You’re talking to someone who is on their way to hell. They are talking about the Savior who died so they could be forgiven. Don’t talk about extraneous things, don’t be excited I got a chance to talk about God and we talked about the movie and we talked about the serpent and I told them that wasn’t really in the Bible. Oh, wonderful. That didn’t help them get closer to heaven. What they need to hear is this: Christ is dying to pay the penalty for your sin and if you don’t turn from your sin and believe in Him you are going to hell. This is a serious matter. You see how the Son of God had to suffer and die so you could be forgiven. You’d better not turn your back on that provision.

Matthew 27, the Jews are leading the way. The Romans had no reason, they don’t care whether Jesus claims to be God. They don’t care whether the Jews like Jesus or not. The Romans didn’t particularly like the Jews. Then Pilate ruled, he is the governor of the region, he’s ruling that particular area, but he rules as all Roman representatives did, at the whim of Rome, and had these men out there governing areas and they were expected to keep those areas in line and keep the peace. Pilate had already been recalled to Rome a couple of times secular history tells us, be called on the carpet for mismanagement. He might have realized if I have a revolt here, the Jews get our of hand, I’ve got to step in with my army, I’m going to have turmoil and my superiors are going to say, I don’t think he can manage that region, maybe we’ll have a recall. Not good. So to say, oh, this would have never happened the way the Bible says. Now you see the argument has been shifted, and that’s what happens in the “Newsweek” article. That’s not the way it really would have happened, so we reject the only history we have and the four writers of the history because we’ve decided we don’t like their history.

Well, that’s like people who want to reject other things. We have people today who don’t want to believe the Holocaust occurred. Well, you can believe it didn’t occur if you want, but that doesn’t change reality. That doesn’t mean no one is allowed to talk about the Holocaust. Interesting, the Jews, they don’t want you to talk about their role in crucifying Christ. You know if you go as a tourist to visit Israel you have to visit the Holocaust museum because they don’t want you to forget what the Germans did to them, what the world did to them. But, oh, the outcry, they put His blood on our hands. Well, that’s what history tells us happened.

They led Him away to Caiaphas, the chief priests in verse 59, the council, Sanhedrin, trying to find enough witnesses that will have enough credibility to get Him proclaimed guilty. They want to put Him to death. It’s true, the Jews didn’t have the right of capital punishment, that’s why they go to the Romans. But we all know they might not have the right of capital punishment, but they were in a position of influence and they could create a lot of trouble for Pilate. And they got him in a box when they told him that Jesus claimed to be King of the Jews. Now they’ve got him in a spot. If Pilate has to go all the way to Rome and defend himself for not executing a Man who claimed to be a rival king to Caesar, he’s not going to win that. The Jews are going to be on the winning side. We have no king but Caesar. You’re willing to accept a rival king. Pilate couldn’t survive that and he knew it.

So the Biblical account, there’s no problem with it. The people don’t want to believe what the Bible says, so we can’t accept this. This was written long after the events occurred by men who had a theological agenda and wanted to make the Jews look bad, look guilty. Well that handling of scripture is not a handling of scripture, it’s just a rejection of scripture.

We don’t have time to read anymore of chapter 26. Come down to 27, and again if you start reading in chapter 26 and read through the rest of the Matthew, you’ll cover material. Do the same in each of the gospels, just read the end of the gospels, the last couple chapters and you’ll see the role the Jews played, the role Pilate played. Refresh that in your mind. Matthew 27:22, he realized what the Jews are doing, he’s dealt with the Jews. “ ‘What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?’ They all said, ‘Crucify Him.’ He said, ‘What evil has He done’ But they kept shouting the more, ‘Crucify Him.’ ” That famous scene, and it’s in the movie, Pilate washes his hands. You can’t wash your hands of Christ. But note (and we’re not going to go over to John right now) Jesus did tell Pilate, he who has delivered Me up to you has the greater sin.

So we need to be honest when people say, do you believe the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. I do because the Bible says they were. Weren’t the Romans responsible? Yes, they were, but the Jews were more responsible. How do you know? Jesus said so. The Jewish leaders who have turned Me over to you have greater responsibility. Doesn’t mean Pilate is absolved, but Jesus did tell Pilate the Jews have more responsibility in this than you do. Oh, that means we can be anti-Semitic. No, because if you’re anti-Semitic and you hate the Jews and want to persecute the Jews, you don’t believe the Bible. We don’t have time to go to Romans 11, but Romans 11 warns the Gentiles not to get proud because God is dealing with them in grace and offering them salvation while Jews are under judgment. God’s grace will once again be bestowed upon the Jews.

So the fact that people pull verses out of the Bible and you have that famous verse, verse 25, “all the people said, ‘His blood shall be on us and on our children.’ ” And what happened when Peter proclaimed that the Jews had crucified their Messiah, you want to bring His blood on our hands, Acts 5:28. You want to make us guilty for His death. Because you are. And you wanted it, but then you want to be free from the guilt of it. So yes, they are guilty.

So he scourged Him and he handed Him over to be crucified. Then the Romans mocked Him, the soldiers. They say, do you think the Romans would have done that and been that cruel? Oh, yes. You know, we can find out about crucifixion. Cicero wrote about crucifixion. Tacitus and the annals wrote about crucifixion. So we can go to other sources and Romans of that general time. Tacitus was born somewhere around 60 A.D. or so, if I remember correctly. But we have Roman writers of the time who write about crucifixion and the terror of it. We’re dealing with a man here who deserves to suffer as much as he can, from the Roman perspective. Once you’re turned over to these men for crucifixion it’s like when you were turned over… and I use Saddam Hussein because we’re familiar to his tortures. There’s no evidence they were kindhearted people, because they were entrusted with what? Being as mean, creating as much pain as they could. Here you have these soldiers so are they feeling sorry for this Man who had been so beaten, suffered so greatly? Do they care He is innocent or guilty? Not the least. They mocked Him, put a crown of thorns on His head. This is someone now, from their perspective, who deserves to die and die the worst death. His blood be upon our hands.

Well, we can’t go further. I want to talk to you about some other things tonight. I want to end with John15, if you would. I don’t want to leave it on that note with the Jews. I’m sure some people will go out and say, you know, I heard Gil Rugh and he is an anti-Semitic. And he thinks the Jews are guilty and so it’s all right for people to persecute the Jews. I think the Jews are guilty, I do not think it’s all right for people to persecute the Jews. God has placed them under judgment, He is dealing with them according to His plan, and He’ll restore them according to His plan. And He’s dealing with me, not because I’m better than any Jew, He’s dealing with me according to Romans 11 because of His grace. Look at John 15:18, Jesus speaking and in those hours before He’s going to the Garden. He’s had the Last Supper with the disciples, so something of the context. “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

You’ll note it’s not just the Jews, it’s the world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” You understand it’s not just the Jews that hate Christ, it’s the world that hates Christ. This also explains so much of the animosity and uproar over the film. The world hates Christ. The preaching of the cross, it’s offensive, it’s foolishness, it’s offensive, it’s the scandal of the cross. People don’t want to hear about it, they don’t want to be confronted by it. Just like you, you get along well with people until what? You start talking to them about Jesus Christ and His death. Now all of a sudden they are antagonized. So it doesn’t surprise me that a film, regardless of the motivation, or who did it, regardless of the monetary gain, or whatever else that people want to talk about. The fact is we’re presenting out before the world and out in the world the death of the Son of God as payment for sin. That is antagonistic. We’d think it happened if we went downtown today, went to the university campus and started proclaiming Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. They’d say shut up, get out of here. What do they try to say when it’s done on a film? So I take… use the opportunity, be ready. As Peter wrote that we are to be ready to give an answer to every man who asks us and talk about the gospel. They want to talk about the film, don’t get sidetracked. Doesn’t mean you don’t answer the question. You think it portrayed Mary, as I said, well, I’m sure Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ in His humanity was greatly pained by what happened. But, you know, He had to die for her sin, too. You know, that’s the issue. Everything comes back to that, that’s what it’s about. What a great opportunity. May God give us the grace to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with many people in these days.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for a Savior who loved us and died for us. Lord, our confidence is not in a movie, not in the portrayal men would give, but in Your Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. We have heard that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved us and died for us. By Your grace we have placed our faith in Him and Him alone. Lord, we do thank You for the opportunities of these days. Thank you, that men and women and young people are talking about Jesus Christ, His suffering and His death. Lord, may we step forward with boldness, with love, with confidence to share with these men, women and young people why the Son of God died such a terrible death, so that He could be our Savior. We praise You for that truth. In Christ’s name. Amen.