Last month I wrote about Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion of the Christ'.  Since then the film has received a large amount of publicity in the national media.  Much of this has been negative; accusing Gibson of anti-Semitism and his film as grossly and unnecessarily violent and bloody.  On the other hand Christian reviewers have praised the film as moving and authentic, and it has already broken box-office records in the USA.  How will it be received by British audiences?

This week I saw the film for myself. Yes, I found it brutal and bloody, but it is also at times moving, beautiful and thought-provoking. Anyone thinking of seeing 'The Passion' must be prepared to witness the savagery of a Roman scourging. The scourge was a whip with jagged pieces of bone or metal attached to the thongs to maximise the pain and damage to the flesh. Men frequently died under such flogging. The flogging of Jesus is graphically depicted in the film, as are the agony of carrying the heavy cross and then being nailed to it.  If these long scenes were not interspersed with flashbacks to various incidents in the life of Jesus it would be almost unbearable to watch.

What justification might there be for making, or watching, such a film? 

As a Christian it brought home to me more powerfully than ever before the suffering endured by Jesus on my behalf. I don't believe the film is anti-Semitic - the responsibility for Christ's death lies with all of us.  Mel Gibson knows this, and it is his own hands which are shown nailing the hands of Jesus to the cross.

If the story of Jesus had ended with his agonising death on the cross then the Christian faith would never have existed.

However, the true meaning of Easter, and the reason for the Christian faith, is not only what happened on Good Friday but the amazing event of Easter Sunday. After the brutal torture and the agonising death by crucifixion, confirmed by a spear thrust into his heart - after being bound up in grave clothes with 75lbs of spices and left in a stone cave with a huge stone rolled across the door, sealed and guarded by soldiers - on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead.  Here Mel Gibson's film ends.  But the Jesus story continues.  The Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, take the story further. The Christian church was born out of the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus. Millions of believers all over the world will celebrate this Easter in the knowledge that Jesus is alive and that he is the Son of God.

Should you go to see 'The Passion of the Christ'?  Perhaps you would like more information to help you make up your mind. Several articles relating to various aspects of the film can be found on Premier Online which may be of interest.

Peter Wells.