With each American watching an average of twenty-eight hours of television a week, the media and entertainment industry obviously have a great deal of clout in setting the moral climate in our country.

Finally, a Hollywood insider has taken a step in the right direction.

Knowing that the big screen is a powerful medium for influencing people, Gibson has taken his passion for film making to introduce America and the world to the passion of the Christ.

The movie intensely focuses on the brutal, agonizing beating and crucifixion of Jesus, with periodic flashbacks to poignant moments in his ministry. In one scene, Gibson makes use of an unusual ground-level camera angle, showing Jesus stooping down on the ground. In the foreground are the sandaled feet of an angry, bloodthirsty mob.

The angry mob came to Jesus, a rabbi who taught with authority, with a woman they wished to stone to death because she had been caught in the act of adultery. The law said that the woman must be stoned to death, but they wanted to know what Jesus had to say about the matter.

Stooping down, he drew some unknown words or images in the sand and told the woman’s accusers that the one among them who had never sinned should cast the first stone.

In Gibson’s scene, the rocks are seen dropping to the ground, the sandaled feet of the men turning and walking away, the woman laying her weeping face on the chalky, sandaled feet of Jesus, thanking him for sparing her life.

The Bible says that “Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said.

‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.'” John 8:10-11

Gibson’s movie has the nation in conversation again about this man who extended this type of forgiving love to humanity, claiming to be the way to eternal life. The film has unleashed the passions of many, including those who feel the Jews received a less favorable treatment than Pontius Pilate, a historical figure known to have ruthlessly killed hundreds of thousands of Jews. Charges of anti-Semitism have been levied.

But even more passion has been unleashed among Christians who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that this movie comes closer than any other movie in being true to the Gospels.

This film also is creating passion in people who are lukewarm toward Jesus and is awakening the passions of those who have never placed their faith in Jesus at all. The film may be the most significant passionate Christian medium since Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel.

This film is the Gospel. It is not an infallible film. It is not the Gospel without error. It is one man’s interpretation of the Gospel.

Yet it presents to us a powerful presentation of the life of Jesus in a medium that modern culture accepts. Because of the numbers of people this film will reach, it may become the single most important event in modern Christianity.

Just a month ago every talk show in the country was discussing the diminishing moral standards of our nation after Janet Jackson revealed her right breast on the Super Bowl halftime show.

Now, as the Christian community moves through this season of penitence known as

Lent, Mel Gibson has provided us with a film that reminds us that Jesus is our Moral Compass. Jesus is the standard by which all humanity will be judged. What we decide about Jesus is the single most important decision we make in this life.

The movie shows in graphic detail the ancient words of Isaiah evidenced in the life of Jesus: “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isa 53:5-6 (NIV)

Evidence abounds in our culture that we have turned to our own ways.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray. But we worship a God who is passionate about us despite our wicked ways.

Through Jesus, we have come to know God as the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep.

If we believe this, how can we not live passionate lives that reflect our love for a God who loved us so much that he gave his one and only son to die for our sins?

As we move through this season of penitence and spiritual reflection toward the passion week and Easter Sunday, perhaps we should each evaluate whether we are allowing Jesus to be our moral compass or whether we have become passionate about going our own way.



The Rev. Michael Helms is the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.