wfn.org | Commentary: Real Jesus is bigger than any movie depiction

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Feb. 26, 2004	News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
7 E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org 7 ALL{077}

NOTE: A photograph of the Rev. Dan Dick is available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Dan R. Dick*

Actor Jim Caviezel joins elite company by portraying Jesus Christ in Mel
Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." 

The canonized gospel story - written in many different forms between the
early second century and the late 1960s - is cinematic in its raw form. As
director Cecil B. DeMille once claimed, it "cries out to be filmed."  For 80
years, a handful of men have been chosen to represent Jesus in movies and on
TV, all to mixed critical review.

What does it take to be Jesus, even if only in a movie?  Many actors claim
that the honor is both humbling and life changing, while others see it as
just another role. Regardless of the opinion of the actors, viewers tend to
hold high standards against which any portrayal of the Son of God is
measured.

Many people who came of age in the '60s still remember the performances of
Max von Sydow ("The Greatest Story Ever Told") and Jeffrey Hunter ("King of
Kings") as the very definition of the role. Both men gave deeply respectful
performances that helped imprint visual images of the life and death of Jesus
in the minds of millions.

A decade later, two very different portrayals of Jesus resulted in
controversy and conflict.  Jesus was a face-painted jester in a Superman
T-shirt in "Godspell," an off-Broadway play that moved to the silver screen
in 1973 with Victor Garber as the whimsical Christ.  By the time the movie
was made (two years after the play), much of the controversy had quieted.
Still, many people were offended by the less-than-holy presentation of God's
son.  

Much more troubling to many more people - both on stage and screen - was
"Jesus Christ Superstar." In the movie, screeching, bawling Ted Neeley
offered the most extreme Jesus to date. Written as a rock opera without
pretensions to proselytizing, "Superstar" opened to picket lines and
inflammatory sermons worldwide. Neeley's shrill, emotional, down-to-earth
rebel Jesus offended many Christians. In truth, both Neeley and Garber opened
millions of young people to a more real, more accessible Jesus.

Television gave the world one of the most memorable - and without argument
the prettiest - portrayals when Robert Powell assumed the role. Powell's
angular figures and deep blue eyes most closely evoked the famous "Head of
Christ" painting by Warner Sallman.  This mini-series garnered widespread
approval for its images of Jesus, though it was criticized for the license
taken with the gospel story.

Perhaps the most controversial screen Jesus ever appeared in the person of
Willem Dafoe in 1988's "The Last Temptation of Christ." Based on Nikos
Kazantzakis' novel rather that the canonized gospels of the New Testament,
this film deeply enraged conservative Christians worldwide. Thousands of
people took to the streets to protest a Jesus with human emotions, desires
and psychological weaknesses. Kazantzakis intended to present the loneliness
and deep anxiety and pain that might have been felt by the human Jesus as he
wrestled with the mantle of the Christ.  

"The Passion of the Christ" opens to both rave reviews from Christians across
the theological spectrum and deep controversy from Jewish leaders concerned
with the strong anti-Semitic inferences of the film. Some university and
seminary professors are concerned with the narrow theology and the liberties
taken with the story. Other concerns deal with the graphic and violent nature
of the movie, as well as with the commercialization of the Christian faith.  

However, taken on the merits of the film itself and specifically focusing on
the portrayal of Jesus by Jim Caviezel, there is little disagreement.
Caviezel presents a deeply moving, real, and powerful Jesus - so powerful, in
fact, that a whole generation will think of him when they picture Jesus in
their mind.

The most recent portrayal of Jesus may forever alter the way actors approach
the role.  There is not much characterization in "The Passion of the Christ."
 Jesus is an object - abused, sadistically beaten, torn and humiliated. The
humanity of the man Jesus is obliterated, while glimpses of the divine are
allowed through briefly. 

Jesus is a victim in "The Passion" to such an extent that the greater message
gets lost. There is little to celebrate of the one who conquered death and
atoned for the sins of all. In earlier versions of the story the message of
Jesus teachings, the power of his healing, and the glory of the resurrection
balanced the horror of the crucifixion. 

Movies communicate with power visual images that stay with us all our lives.
We may endlessly debate the best screen Jesus, but almost every Christian has
a nominee to defend. The challenge to each of us is to remember that the real
Jesus is larger and more complex than any image - graven or celluloid. Actors
who portray the Christ point not to themselves, but beyond themselves. The
story they enact is a grand and glorious story, but it is much greater than
the messenger, especially human messengers portraying Jesus the Christ.  

Every screen representation of the gospel story is incomplete - some terribly
incomplete, like "The Passion of the Christ" - and should challenge us to dig
deeper.  May these films and all the portrayals of Jesus that they contain be
for us an invitation - an invitation to meet Jesus in prayer, in Scripture,
and in a community of faith that enables us to meet the Christ in others.

# # #

*Dick is research manager for the New Solutions Team at the United Methodist
Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tenn.

 
 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org