Almost one year ago at Easter time, a commercial movie smashed into the consciousness of the United States. “The Passion of The Christ” was an in-your-face, big-screen presentation of the writer-producer-actor Mel Gibson’s understanding of the Passion of Christ, or the last 12 hours of Christ’s life.
Almost one year ago at Easter time, a commercial movie
smashed into the consciousness of the United States. “The Passion of
The Christ” was an in-your-face, big-screen presentation of the
writer-producer-actor Mel Gibson’s understanding of the Passion of
Christ, or the last 12 hours of Christ’s life.
A year ago, when movie houses showing the tremendous
production were filled to overflowing, many wondered what the lasting
impact of the movie would be. Would the movie change the lives of those
who saw it? Would the movie bring revival to the church? Would the
unabashedly religious movie change Hollywood’s attitude about the
profitability of different kinds of movies than the ones they have been
producing?
A year later, we apparently know the answers to
these questions, and they are not what most in the church hoped they
would be.
A recent Barna Research Group poll shows that the
vast majority of people who saw the movie say their lives were not
lastingly changed by viewing the movie. Although 32 percent of all
American adults, including 31 million “born again” people, saw the
movie, only 16 percent said the movie affected them to the point of
leading them to change something they believed about the Christian
faith. Only 18 percent of viewers said the film led them to change
their religious practice. And only one-half of 1 percent of those who
saw the movie said it motivated them to be more active in sharing their
faith. (See Baptist Message article of July 28, 2004).
Because individual lives were not changed in large
numbers, there has been no apparent revival in the churches of our
land. Hollywood continues to grind out movies that glamorize lifestyles
that are anything but Christlike. Indeed, makers of Hollywood movies
have not been impressed that Mel Gibson’s movie is the eighth-highest
grossing movie of all time. The movie industry snubbed Mel Gibson and
his movie as “The Passion” received only two Academy Awards nominations
this year – and those were in minor categories.
George Barna, Jr. said that although the immediate
reaction to the movie seemed to be quite intense, “people’s memories
are short and are easily redirected in a media-saturated, fast-paced
culture.”
Then, Barna added, “It is rare that a single media experience will radically reorient someone’s life.”
The failure of “The Passion” to bring about
strong changes in most viewers’ lives also brings the church back to
the realization that there is no shortcut to winning people to Jesus
Christ and proclaiming a life-changing gospel. While media events and
other events may prepare a person’s heart for the gospel, there is no
substitute for an honest, straightforward appeal for the hearers to
accept Christ.
The purpose of “The Passion” was not foremost
to bring people to a saving relationship with Christ. Perhaps for Mel
Gibson, a thoroughgoing traditional Roman Catholic, that may have been
– in his belief system – too involved to present in the movie. Having
such a powerful idea of how Christ suffered for our sins is not
adequate for salvation. And Mel Gibson’s movie did not take the step
beyond the suffering of Christ to explain how one can appropriate that
suffering to his or her life by entering into a personal, redeeming
relationship with Christ.
As wonderful as the overall experience of “The
Passion” was, it brings us to understand again that evangelism
and revival come primarily through Christ’s bride, the church. The
church will be wise to use events such as Mel Gibson’s movie as an
evangelism component but not expect it to replace the value of the
church’s ongoing presentation of Jesus Christ as the only way to enter
a saving relationship with him.
Mel Gibson’s effort to present “The Passion” to the
world deserves the highest accolades from the church. And it should
motivate the church to speak clearly and lastingly to the hunger of
mankind’s heart that the attention and the attendance of Mel Gibson’s
movie validates.