Category: Examen
Devotion
Next week some Christians will focus on following Jesus into Jerusalem and others will focus on Christ’s passion. I’ve always found it odd that our faith ancestors chose “passion” to describe what Jesus experienced while in Jerusalem for the last time. It is not the word that surfaces first in my mind when I read the gospel accounts. “Passion” is a word with many meanings in our culture. Have you ever been asked, “What’s your passion?” Some people treat their hobby like a passion while some parents are passionate about their kids sports skills, sports games, and their education. Some are passionate fans of a particular sports team or just a game. Most of us cannot follow our vocational passion 100% because there is too much risk or cost involved. Today, I encourage you to spend some time with the palms, with the stories, and fill in the blank, “I’m passionate about . . .”
What word, character, or phrase sticks in your mind first?
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. (Mark 11:1-11)
What word, character, or phrase sticks in your mind first?
When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Luke 19:29-48)
What word, character, or phrase sticks in your mind first?
The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!” Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. (John 12:12-26)
What word, character, or phrase sticks in your mind first?
Remembering in Prayer . . .
There are many known and unknown that need our intercession. Spend some time speaking the names you know and remember . . .
Go out and be a blessing. Go out and be blessed with gospel to be and do. Amen.
Lent Begins . . .
In several settings I’ve asked, “Where will your journey to Jerusalem take you this year?” Yesterday, Christians, those that believe, those that practice the way of Jesus, and those that are practicing believers, began a journey that most have taken many times before. It is a metaphorical journey of sorts as few actually travel to Jerusalem during this time between Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday, but like reading a good book can take one places never visited, those that follow Jesus of Nazareth mark in the gospels that Jesus sets his path toward Jerusalem. No doubt that some people will make a stop at a movie theater to see “Son of God.” I’ve yet to see the film, but from my reading about it presents as another telling of Christian orthodoxy that finds its roots, and this is an gross oversimplification of history, its roots based in Constantine’s ordering of Pauline Christianity into state sanctioned religion. It is not as bloody as Gibson’s, “The Passion of the Christ,” but reviews place it a close second. Apparently, a story about Jesus that is theologically challenging, interesting and divergent even if it does, in the end, bend toward Christological orthodoxy. . . those days and that kind of intellectual curiosity are not present. At least for now. Films like, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Jesus of Montreal,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Godspell” offer a dialogue that gives the characters depth, human depth, in a way that Gibson’s film did not and could not imagine. In Scorsese’s, “The Last Temptation of Christ” Jesus and Judas share an exchange about Judas betraying Jesus that is haunting. Huddled together Jesus and Judas talk.
JUDAS: There’s got to be something else you can do.
JESUS: I wish there was. At the temple I prayed. I prayed to die. But it’s not God’s will. I have to die on the cross. I prayed out of weakness and I’m weakening even more. You’ve got to give me strength.
JUDAS: I won’t let you die.
JESUS: You’ve got to. There’s no other way. The world around us is Satan’s world. It will be destroyed! The world of God will come! But only by my dying! By my sacrifice on the cross! Forget everything else! Understand that.
JUDAS: No I can’t. I’m not strong enough.
JESUS: You are. You’re the strongest. You’re part of God’s plan too. You once made me a promise. You said if I ever strayed, if I ever shied away from revolution, you would kill me. Remember? (Judas nods.)
JESUS: I’ve strayed, haven’t I?
JUDAS: Yes.
JESUS: Then you have to keep your word. You have to kill me.
JUDAS: If God wants that, then let God do it. I won’t.
JESUS: He will do it. Through you. The Temple Guards want to arrest me where there aren’t any crowds. Tonight we’ll be in Gethsemane. Arrange for them to find me. It will be terrible. But only for three days. Only three days! Then I’ll come back. We’ll all be together in triumph.
JUDAS: No.
JESUS: You’ve got to! Don’t abandon me now. Without you, the world can’t be saved, There’ll be no redemption. Without us together, the sacrifice can’t be made.
JUDAS: Could you betray God? If you were me, could you betray your Master?
JESUS: No. That’s why God gave me the easier job… to be crucified.(1)
There is a Judas you have never met before and are unlikely to meet in films that glamorize the brutality of death on a cross as the sacrificed lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. There is a Jesus that is unsure of his mission. A Jesus who changes through out the film and still provides the orthodox Christology ending, but it humanizes the characters in the words shared between follower and master. “Could you betray your master?” Or, maybe the question is, “When have you betrayed your master?” Those are places to stop on your Lenten journey.
Son of God on Film
by Martin Marty | Sightings | March 3, 2014This weekend was time for movies and for talk about them. The Academy Awards, as readers of Sighting may have heard, were awarded. They may also have noticed that “Son of God,” a film about Jesus, was released in 3,000 theaters. Reviewers are not free merely to view and write about this film. Instead they are obliged to treat it both as another movie and as the occasion for an argument about Jesus and about filming Jesus.
Nicolas Rapold in The New York Times tried to be generous to “Son of God,” but, lucky for him, his paper doesn’t use star ratings. It probably would have rated two stars out of a possible four. The spoken lines, Rapold thought, were marked by “pedagogical predictability” as in “Thomas, stop doubting.” He and other reviewers had difficulty with—dare we call him ‘glamorous’?—Portuguese actor, Diogo Morgado, because critics usually groan when Gentile actors play Jesus or other Jews.
In the Chicago Tribune, Roger Moore gave “Son of God” a mediocre 2 ½ stars and called it, in his headline, “Still a great story, even when tepidly told.” Moore saw “a pleasantly retro ‘hippies will inherit the earth’ take” on this Jesus. He knows that the “film’s main aim is to be inoffensive,” and it managed that. That is not high praise.
The Chicago Sun-Times used the headline: “‘Son of God’: The Good Shepherd in a not-so-good movie,” and the reviewer, Richard Roeper, gave it one star less than it was rated in the Tribune. Roeper came back to reflect on his vocation as a critic: “regardless of your faith (or mine), this space is for me to tell you if a particular film contains a high enough percentage of compelling elements to warrant” readers spending good cash on it. Verdict: “In all good conscience, it’s not even a close call.” He also knows that on opening weekend it may sell well; one relief organization alone bought 225,000 tickets in 40 cities. Roeper’s reflection, after seeing the Resurrection scene: “it isn’t nearly as powerful and moving as reading the Gospel According to Luke.”
He and other critics gladly announced that this film lacked the anti-Semitism and utter brutality of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of Christ” of a few years ago. Still, Moore writes, “no Jesus film these days is worth its salt without an unflinching treatment” of Jesus’ torture and Crucifixion, which is “avert-your-eyes awful.” And here it is again.
My purpose in Sightings is not to review movies or review reviews so much as to ponder the public place of such films as this. Roeper admits that one feels almost good ripping exploitative, cynical, porn, or brainless films, but “Son of God” is none of these. He knows those who produced it, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, as “two of the loveliest and most spiritual people.” Their work is reverent and faithful to the text.” Still, by film critics’ standards, they fail. Those who are proclaiming that there is a war on Christians will say that the critics are mere secularists who deride and heap on people of faith, including when they produce or watch films like “Son of God.”
Roeper says, “we know this story, as well as we know any story ever told.” Surveys suggest that this is a chancy observation. Biblical illiteracy is measurably and grossly high. While the main audiences will be the already-convinced people of faith, those surveys make clear that the story is not well known, certainly by the general public.
Envy Jews and Muslims, who are not allowed to depict the deity. Christians have to deal with the one they portray as divine and human—pity those who have to review film-makers’ efforts. And perhaps follow Roeper’s implicit advice: read the Gospel of Luke.
References and Additional Resources:
Roeper, Richard. “‘Son of God’: The Good Shepherd in a not-so-good movie.” Review of “Son of God.” Chicago Sun-Times.com, February 27, 2014, Movies.http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/25829003-421/son-of-god-the-good-shepherd-in-a-not-so-good-movie.html.
Moore, Roger. “Still a great story, even when tepidly told.” Review of “Son of God.”Chicago Tribune, February 27, 2014, A&E. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-27/entertainment/ct-son-of-god-movie-review-20140227_1_aramaic-jesus-king-james-bible.
Rapold, Nicolas. “The Greatest Story, Retold.” Review of “Son of God.” The New York Times, February 27, 2014, Movie Review.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/movies/son-of-god-recounts-the-crucifixion.html?_r=0.
Hornaday, Ann. “‘Son of God’ movie review: Undoubtedly sincere, but also simplistic.”The Washington Post, February 27, 2014, Movies.http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/son-of-god-movie-review-undoubtedly-sincere-but-also-simplistic/2014/02/26/45191ca2-9eeb-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html.
O’Malley, Sheila. Review of “Son of God.” rogerebert.com, February 28, 2014.http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/son-of-god-2014.
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1. Paul Schrader, Script from, The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988. Based on a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis.