LOVE is the true message of THE PASSION....please everybody read

I’m just one person..a very small and insignificant person at that. There are limits to what I can do, what I can accomplish...who I can reach. I wish I could write such an eloquent piece and state my cause so effectively that the whole world would read and take notice..but alas, my voice has always been soft, and even if I scream at the top of my lungs I’m afraid I will be drowned out by the noise of people going about their own affairs..unconcerned and unaware.

The message I want to get across is one of love and tolerance, of breaking down the barriers of misunderstanding and mistrust that divides people and replacing that with a bridge of compassion, acceptance and unconditional love. What started me thinking this way? What brought me to tears yesterday and kept me awake most of the night last night?

I went to synagogue yesterday. No, I’m not Jewish; I’m a Christian who loves God with all my heart and all my strength. I attend synagogue very regularly, while also continuing to attend church on a weekly basis as well. I find there is beauty and truth in both forms of worship. I’ve been drawn to Judaism because that is where God’s relationship with mankind really began. The earliest Christians and even Christ Himself were Jews who kept the holy days ordained by God and His holy torah given to them through Moses on Mt. Sinai. Christianity down through the years has distanced itself more and more from it’s Jewish roots, adopting some other symbols and rituals and developing some of it’s own until it hardly resembles Judaism at all. The true, Jewish roots of my faith have been calling to me and I’ve responded by studying Hebrew, learning about Jewish worship and making some wonderful Jewish friends whom I love with all my heart, so when something is perceived as a threat to my Jewish friends, it bothers me very deeply.

In synagogue yesterday, something was brought up and discussed openly after the Torah reading that tore my heart out. You may have guessed that the subject was Mel Gibson’s newly released movie, "The Passion." My Jewish friends have concerns that the violence in this movie might cause incidents of violence against them. "It can’t happen," you might say....but, can you say that with absolute surety? My Jewish friends’ concerns come from 2,000 years of Christian zealots trying to wipe them off the face of the earth. Their concerns are based in taunts of "Christ killer" remembered from their school days and from lifelong episodes of verbal taunts and attacks from co-workers and neighbors, all good, church-going citizens who live right here in this country. The sad truth is that some people do blame the Jews for Christ’s death.

Personally, I have never heard a minister stand in the pulpit and come right out and blame the Jews for Jesus’ death. Perhaps I have just been lucky in that way, because I’m sure it must have happened somewhere. The emphasis in revival meetings and Easter morning services has always been that Jesus died willingly...that his great compassion for a sinful world led Him to the cross and held Him there; that every one of us, that means YOU, ME and all those who have ever lived are responsible for Him having to die, and that God the Father sent Him here solely for that purpose...to die for all of us...to be the sacrifice for our sins so that through His sacrifice we could be ftruly forgiven and have a place in Heaven. That’s where the emphasis should be, was always meant to be. The movie, "The Passion," focuses primarily on the suffering of Christ...how terrible it was, how badly He was treated, and I’m afraid the true message of God’s love for mankind will get lost in the graphic violence and horror movie quality torture scenes. I am afraid that non-Christians will get the wrong message from this movie and indeed might commit acts of violence against my Jewish friends, for surely a true Christian would not have such thoughts or dream of doing such a thing, would he? Surely a true Christian would know that Jesus is not seeking vengeance through them for His death. After all, He tells us in the Gospel of John in His own words,

John 10 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

What worries me is those who already have latent feelings of hatred toward Jews. It seems some people just need somebody to hate, and the Jews are a good target for them, so they might use this movie as an excuse to be mean...to do harm.

I call upon all Christians to pray that only good things will come from this movie, that nobody will use it as an excuse for violence against another human being in the name of Jesus. Sadly, it’s happened many times before....we can’t let it happen again. I call upon pastors to emphasize that Jesus’s death was a willing SACRIFICE, and that He laid his life DOWN...nobody took it from Him. He did it out of LOVE for all of us, and he commanded that we love one another as He loved us. Most importantly, we must not forget that HE ISN’T DEAD. He rose again from the dead. We should be celebrating His LIFE and His kingship which are eternal...not his suffering which was temporary.

Don’t let the true message of pure LOVE be obscured or even lost for the sake of a movie filmed primarily to shock people with it’s violent content. Don’t let the LOVE be lost. Tell your friends...pass it on! LOVE was Jesus' true passion!

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