Jesus, bloody Jesus

During this blog's recent dark period, I managed to see that movie about those horrible Jews who killed the Savior of Mankind.

Actually, I felt a bit sorry for the Jews while watching them instigate the greatest crime in history. While Mel Gibson chose to focus at length on poor, tortured Pilate and his impossible situation--damned if he does damn Jesus, damned if he doesn't--I tried to fill in the blanks a little and imagine the situation the Jews were in.

By "Jews," of course, I mean "the Jews in power." The Gospel According to Gibson breaks down roughly like this:

This scheme sets up the Jews in power at the time as the antagonists of the story, so when I say "the Jews," that's who I mean.

Anybody can tell from watching The Passion of the Christ that Jesus is truly the Messiah. It's not just the lighting that the God of this movie's world shines upon Him, although that helps. And it's not just the music that underscores Him, or the attention Satan pays to Him or the long hair and the beard, although those help, too.

Mainly, it's this: At the start of the movie, Jesus performs a miracle. In the garden, a soldier gets his ear lopped off, and Jesus puts it back on. With magical powers.

Gibson to audience: This guy is the Messiah. It is fine, clear screenwriting. Right from the get-go, we know that this isn't one of those stories where a central question is whether the hero is/isn't The One. Within minutes, at the film's first location, the matter is settled by Gibson without any ambiguity: Jesus has awesome magical powers possessed by nobody else. Clearly, He is divine.

But you know who Gibson didn't tell? The Jews.

As I understand it, the Jews of the time were both expecting and desiring the arrival of a Messiah. However, reasonably enough, they weren't willing to believe every bearded longhair who showed up and said, "Hey, I'm the Messiah!" (Much as, later in world history, most Californians who encountered Charles Manson expressed reservations about H/his similar claims.)

As they interrogated Him, I got the distinct impression that Gibson's Jews would have bowed down in submission to Jesus of Nazareth if only the alleged Messiah would have grabbed a lightning bolt and thrown it at someone, or raised a few people from the dead or maybe even just levitated Himself a little bit. Even an inch. But Jesus wouldn't give them that inch. Instead, in answer to very straightforward questions about His divinity and perfectly reasonable demands for proof, He offered only cryptic statements.

What, were the Jews supposed to guess what Gibson explicitly showed his audience with the miracle in the garden at the beginning of the film?

As The Raving Atheist puts it in a list of Passion flaws:

1. The Passion Teaches that Blasphemy, Not Cruelty or Other Harmful Conduct, is the Worst Sin.

The central message of the Passion is that the most serious moral offense is denying the divinity of a being which, although supposedly omnipotent, can’t completely convince anyone (not even itself or its own mother) – of its true identity. Thus, the only issue Jesus ever debates with his Jewish accusers is whether he is God -- the value of love, compassion and forgiveness never arise in those discussions. Since Jesus refuses to perform any miracles in their presence or offer anything but his own say-so, he’s naturally sentenced to death for blasphemy.

The parties don’t dispute that a torture-killing is the appropriate penalty for blasphemy – the only disagreement is a factual one over whether Jesus is, in fact, God. Although the modern viewer might be appalled by the horrific violence on the ground that it’s simply wrong to torture human beings, the message of the movie is that it was wrong only because Jesus happened to be innocent of blasphemy. Indeed, Jesus himself punishes blasphemy. Judas is driven to suicide by demons for his betrayal of Christ; one of the criminals crucified with Jesus, Gestas, has his eyes pecked out by a crow for doubting him; and after the crucifixion, an earthquake destroys the temple of the errant Jews.

It's a really weird religion. God says, "I will send you a Messiah. There will also be many false prophets who only claim to be the Messiah. Try to tell them apart. Guess right, and you get to sit with Me in Heaven. Guess wrong, and you are damned to Hell for eternity and also Mel Gibson will make a movie about you where you wear evil-looking costumes and have giant hook noses."