On this Good Friday, I'd like to give a commemorative shout out to Jesus. Whether or not you believe he was the son of God, few would deny that he existed on planet Earth and that he was indeed executed by the Romans over 2000 years ago. I watched the Passion of the Christ, but not until Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic drunk driving escapade a few years ago. I seriously doubt that the Jewish people forced the Romans to kill their own Messiah, and thus I am very skeptical of Rome's version of events. Perhaps that is a byproduct of my Protestant roots, but whether man or deity, I strongly believe that he was a brilliant and revolutionary figure.
I am a fan of Jesus Christ, and as we commemorate his crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, let us celebrate his contribution to humanity's history of moral philosophy.
Have a Great Friday!
(pun intended)
I personally like Martin Scorcese's Last Temptation of Christ, with William Dafoe as Christ and Harvey Kietel as Judas. It's a fictional telling of the story focusing on the man Jesus and the temptations from the devil. It's independent film version, without the big pomp of Ben-Hur epic style.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course there is Denys Arcand great Canadian classic, Jesus of Montreal. Where a group of actors update the Christ story, with references to archieological evidence, and anger the local Catholic parish on Mount Royal. More importantly it is a satire of modern Quebec, pop culture, and the role of the church. There even was a CBC Trudeau reference, where at least I was the only one in the theatre who laughed at it.
Both films I was lucky to see on the big screen at the Mayfair movie theatre in Ottawa.
Seems like an appropriate day to finally watch it. I thought Apocalypto was excellent.
ReplyDeleteWhich version of events belongs to "Rome"? Eyewitnesses are what we have in the Gospel accounts, so "Rome's" version doesn't enter into it. And for Christians to be angry with Jews for killing their Messiah is utterly stupid and misses the point. The point being that Jesus came for the express purpose of dying for our sin. That is the Christian belief, and it is incompatible with anger at the Jews for "causing" something we believe was in God's design.
ReplyDeleteIce - I would have to say that I agree with most of your post. I guess biblically, the manner in which he was executed pretty occurred the way Mel portrayed it. I don't agree with his drunken philosophy that the Jews started all the wars in the world though. There have been lots of disagreements that didn't even include Jewish folk, and a number of the more recent battles haven't been their fault, other than maybe the fact that they are Jewish, which apparently bothers some people (Hitler, Arafat, Ahmedinejad to name a few).
ReplyDeleteHello Jesus! (There, now I've shouted out too...)
Iceman, your remarks above reminded me of this famous CS Lewis quote:
ReplyDeleteI am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.
The Passion of the Christ, was truly heart breaking to watch.
ReplyDeleteIt is so awe inspiring to think of how much Jesus, loves his children, that he would go through that so man could absolve themselves of sin, by believing in him.
As for Mel Gibson, his father was also anti semitic.
After Mel Gibson made such a film it makes you wonder how he could say those things.
The Jewish people have certainly have had more than their fair share thrown at them.
But you know what?
They did defeat Hitler.
They are still here.
Glad you posted this Iceman.Not enough discussion anywhere today about Jesus.
ReplyDeleteJeff...great stuff. Jesus was/is liar, lunatic, or Lord. He is my Lord.
The blaming of the Jews for the crucifixion is a distraction.
We all nailed Him to the Cross.
bluetech
I am Ettore Grillo from Enna, located in the center of Sicily, where I live. In My town we celebrate the Good Friday in such a superb way. People come from all over Europe fro seeing the procession. There are fifteen confraternities filing along the streets. If you want to know Enna in a deeper way, you should read my book. My website is www.ettoregrillo.com The book talks of travels. The title is “Travels of the Mind”. It is available at http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TravelsOfTheMind.html
ReplyDeleteIf you have any question, I am most willing to discuss about this topic.
Ettore Grillo
As there is no contemporary evidence of the existence of Jesus, he probably didn't exist.
ReplyDelete