passion

I just watched the special, hosted by Diane Sawyer who interviews Mel Gibson concerning his film, The Passion of The Christ. It was interesting that in the title, the word Passion actually comes from the greek word pathos (ðÜèïò), which means suffering. So the movie is really titled "The Suffering of The Christ".

Which I suppose is more accurate since the movie depicts the last 12 hours of Christ's life, whereas maybe it if covered the first 33 years of His life, then it would actually show more of His "passion".

Mel Gibson still seemed the same as before, except that to me it seems like he's been through a life-changing experience. He's been there, to the top, in terms of popularity and riches, a place where most can only dream of. But he's realized how meaningless all of it is and he's not afraid to share his experience with the rest of the world.

Most of the show centered around the issue of people being afraid of the backlash of how people might react to the movie. It's not anti-semetic, and neither is Mel Gibson, but in the movie it makes it appear as though the Jews are to blame for Christ's crucifixion. The whole time Diane kept trying to nail this point. But the thing is that's not the point and Gibson obviously knows this as well the rest of us knows this, so he seemed to have a difficult time answering her questions straight up.

Mel's message (or rather God's message) through this movie isn't about who's fault it is, but rather to show the love and conviction Christ had in going through this ordeal for the sake of saving mankind. I guess at a certain point though, even through the drama and violence, people still miss the point. But I think Mel made a good point by bringing up just about any movie, in which one side harms another -- these movies don't encourage hatred nor do they spark a backlash against the brutalizers. It's just the way that it happened, and Gibson tries to capture it in the movie.

I don't think that if they did a movie about Hiroshima, that the Japanese would hate Americans any more than they already do (or don't). Just the same I don't see why there is so much hoopla over "who's fault" it was that Christ died. It was God's will that Christ died for us. If it wasn't the Jews, then He would have made it someone else. Regardless it's not about fault but about salvation and sacrifice.

I think I repeated myself in this blog, in trying to articulate my ideas. Sorry about that! I taped the show, if anyone is interested in seeing it.