The Passion, Yet Again

Peter J. Leithart, March 26, 2004

Here are some slightly repetitive notes for a short talk I gave on The Passion on Friday, March 26.

INTRODUCTION
I want to discuss a single scene of The Passion, which will lead into both commendation for its strengths and criticisms of some of its weaknesses. The scene is the first scene in the Garden of Gethsemane.

POSITIVES
This scene goes beyond the biblical evidence in a couple of ways. First, Jesus is not only praying to His Father about His upcoming death, but is also being tempted by the devil, a pale androgyne dressed in a hooded black robe. Second, at the end of the scene, as Jesus gets up from prayer, he steps on a snake that the devil had released against Him. (The snake first appears as a small worm going in and out of the devil�s nostrils; my first thought was, �ES)he needs to get that looked at.�E

In the gospels, of course, neither of these things actually happens. Despite that, I believe they are effective, and not merely for cinematic reasons. They are interesting theological and typological insights. The scene is obviously replete with echoes of Genesis 3: Jesus is, after all, the New Adam, praying in a Garden as He enters into combat with the serpent, whose head He has come to crush. Though not directly in the text of the gospels, then, these images capture an important part of the meaning of the gospel narratives; the evangelists INTEND that we think of Eden when Jesus goes to pray in the garden. And, it is clear that Jesus is being tempted and tested in the garden; Luke uses an athletic term (AGON) to describe Jesus as He struggles in prayer. Jesus�Evictory in this garden reverses Adam�s defeat in Eden, just as Jesus�Edeath on the tree saves the children of Adam, who brought death through a tree.

Throughout The Passion, Gibson�s additions to the gospels were often felicitous. Some of these additions were typological. During one portion of the via dolorosa scene, Mary is walking along one side of the road while the devil walks along the other side, holding what appears to be a child. When we see the child�s face, it�s an ugly dwarf of some sort, showing that the pair to be a ghastly parody of the Madonna and child. Other additions offered insight into the psychological or theological dimensions of the story. The portrayal of the Roman torturers and of the scourging of Jesus goes far beyond the brief statements of the gospels, but captured the contempt that the Romans had for Jews. Gibson alternated scenes of the Last Supper with scenes of the crucifixion, linking especially the elevation of the �host�Ewith the erection of the cross. This has certain Roman Catholic resonances, but it is a perfectly valid biblical insight, for Jesus�Emain explanation of His death occurred at the Last Supper. The juxtaposition of scenes with the disciples and the crucifixion also gave a certain nuance to Jesus�Estatement that His blood is shed �for you.�E It felt as if Jesus were promising to give His life specifically for the disciples. Though the text is properly taken in a broader sense, surely this is one part of what Jesus meant: He laid down His life for His friends, and the disciples were His friends. Barabbas�Ecrude joy at his unanticipated release was perfect, as was the high priest�s contemptuous dismissal.

Thus, oddly enough, Gibson often offered the most insight into the gospels when he went beyond the gospels.

NEGATIVES
Still, as I have written before, making Gethsemane the opening scene of the film was also, in my mind, an artistic mistake, one that attenuates the thickness of the gospel. As I have preached through Luke�s gospel over the past several months, it has become more and more striking to me how little the gospels include of traditional �atonement theology.�E This is not to say that this atonement theology is wrong. Paul and the other epistle writers of the NT make it clear that Jesus�Edeath is a substitutionary and propitiatory sacrifice, and even in the gospels there are allusions to the Suffering Servant that highlight a substitutionary idea of the atonement.

Yet, the story-line of the gospels themselves and the story-line of atonement theology are different. Atonement theology in its patristic, medieval, and Reformation forms, begins with the sin of Adam, whereby Adam came under the threat of death, perhaps runs briefly through the OT, and then skips to the death of Jesus as the substitute for the sinful race of Adam. That story-line is biblical, and is certainly one of the frameworks for Paul�s theology (the Adam-Christ parallels of Romans 5, for instance). But the gospel narratives are much more particular; the death of Jesus is one of the climactic scenes in a story whose main points are Jesus�Ebirth and baptism, His temptation in the wilderness, His ministry of teaching and healing, the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders to Jesus and His work, Jesus�Ejourney to Jerusalem for Passover, His provocative action in the temple, and His subsequent arrest.

Gibson�s film puts the Passion squarely in the narrative of traditional atonement theology, but makes little effort to show how the Passion fits into the narrative of the gospels themselves. Had the film begun with Jesus tossing the money changers out of the temple, or included a flashback to one of Jesus�Econflicts with the Jewish leaders, this crucial dimension of the Passion might have been clarified. As it was, within the film itself, it was not at all clear why the Jews wanted to kill Him, or what kind of threat He posed to the Jewish leadership. Had Gibson included some of these scenes from the gospels, he would have made not only a more theologically rich film, but a more interesting one.