A Ramble About Jesus Christ

As I was looking at my Facebook news feeds lately, I saw several mentions of a new movie about the life of Christ called “Son of God.” I haven't seen it myself, but from what I've read, it is made up of extended clips from “The Bible” miniseries which aired on The History Channel not that long ago. I have heard this film being accused of everything from New Age teaching to outright heresy by those who haven't bothered to see it (hmm, sounds familiar from a number of things), and I have, myself defended its creators because I don't agree with denouncing something of this nature without at least seeing it for yourself. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with “The Bible” miniseries, and from a cinematic viewpoint don't understand why they thought it was a great idea to put the Gospel section of it into the theaters. I wouldn't have thought it was of sufficient quality to merit a theater release, not like Gibson's “Passion of the Christ” which is the de facto standard par excellence for movies about Jesus as far as I'm concerned. But that's my humble opinion. I suspect that it was because it only took 22 million to make, and even a modest showing in the theaters was guaranteed to make a profit. Yes, I'm just a little cynical when it comes to Hollywood and studio executives.

The chief complaint I saw on Facebook, after the critical parties saw the film in question was that it didn't do enough to evangelize people. That is, it didn't do enough to explain Jesus' death as a propitiary sacrifice for sins. For a Gospel film, it didn't present the Gospel as they understood it, instead only presenting the life, teachings, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The flaw in this understanding is the belief that the Gospel only entails one aspect of one part of who and what Jesus Christ is. That our whole existence as Christians is limited to a specific doctrine about Him without understanding which we cannot truly be called Christians.

Jesus Christ our Lord does not just play a part in the Gospel. The Gospel is not about Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. He is our good news, and not just one part of His life. Not just one teaching about Him. All of Him. Everything about Him, and more; the Man Himself. He did not command us to remain or stay put in only one teaching about Him, He commanded us to remain in Him as branches remain on a vine. You cannot dissect Jesus Christ and say that only this part is important, or only that part is truly important. He is one Savior, one Lord, and one God through whom all of heaven and earth was created.

One of the greatest truths I've found whether in writing or preaching a homily is this: if I try to give my opinions on subjects, if I stray off to focus on this specific doctrine or that tidbit of speculation, anything I say loses its power and falls flat. It doesn't matter how well I prepare, or how much I study for it, or how much evidence I have to back up my claims. But if I focus on Jesus Christ, who He is and what He taught and did, then there is power behind it, not mine but His. And this is because the Gospel is the power of God to those who believe, and Jesus Christ Himself is the Gospel.

When we share the Gospel, we share Jesus Christ. When we preach the Gospel, we preach Jesus Christ. When we share or preach Catholic dogma or Reformation dogma or Evangelical Bible dogma we are not sharing or preaching the Gospel. We are not giving Jesus Christ to people. We are trying to make them Catholics or Protestants or Bible Evangelicals. In order to disciple people we must teach them Jesus, we must be Jesus for them, we must be connected to Him and allow Him to flow through us to them. Jesus Himself said as much when He said “without Me you can do nothing,” and “anyone not remaining in Me is cast out... and is dried up and thrown onto the fire where they are burned.”

Jesus Christ is the Gospel. He is the love of God made flesh, and the power of God for salvation to all who believe. Jesus Christ, not our endless speculations and theologies whose only purpose are to give our minds something to latch on to so that we can grasp the ungraspable. And it is all too easy to let go of Him in order to chase down some trivial piece of doctrine which may or may not reflect absolute reality which our human minds can't process to begin with.

Whatever its faults, this latest life of Christ movie has one thing going for it, as I understand it. It does nothing more or less than show the Gospel, Jesus Christ our Lord. And this, ultimately, is the most important thing it can do.