I haven't yet had a chance to see Mel Gibson's latest film, 'The Passion of the Christ', but I suspect it is the must-see film of year, even if by all accounts it can hardly be described as 'entertainment'.
But, of course, you don't have to go to the cinema to experience the drama of the sufferings and death of Jesus of Nazareth in a direct and compelling way. The story of the Passion of the Christ as told by Saint Luke is a highlight of our services of Holy Communion on Palm Sunday. And the account that Saint John gives of the Passion is read in the worship of Good Friday.
For myself, the true horror of the story of what happened to Jesus in that last week of his life is not in the physical abuse and torture that he suffered but in the grim inevitability of all that followed from the moment that he accepted his divine calling to be the Lamb of God to be sacrificed for the sins of all the world.
Jesus enters into the torment and the anguish of being cut off from his heavenly Father so that he can truly and authentically carry our sins and break them upon the anvil of the cross just as his body was broken. We do not need to focus on physical cruelty that Jesus suffered in order to feel the full weight of the burden that he takes from our shoulders. His sense of sadness and pain and desolation at feeling abandoned by God are horrifying enough for anyone to contemplate.
Of course, for Christians, the death of Jesus is not the end of the story. Rather, it is only the beginning of the journey of faith.
For in the great festival of Easter our hopes in the loving generosity of God towards us are rekindled - in the lighting of the New Fire in the Service of Light on Easter Eve (Holy Saturday) and in the joyful celebrations of Easter Day.
Hope is the gift of the Easter faith - hope won through the death of Jesus on the cross and confirmed when God raises him from death. Hope is God's gift to each one of us in the Easter gospel. Hope is our heritage through the Passion of the Christ.
I wish you all a very hopeful and joyful Easter. Alleluia!
John-David Yule