By now we have heard many reports about Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ based on the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ironically, the liberal media continually criticizes the violence of Gibson's depiction of the death of the Son of God. Violence is everyday fare in the modern media, in movies, plays, novels, and even news reports; yet, the media would have the crucifixion portrayed with less violence. If anything, Gibson tempered his portrayal, making it less horrific than the actual crucifixion. It is not violent for violence's sake, but it is violent in order to truthfully depict crucifixion, a torturous form of capital punishment common in the time of the Roman Empire, the historic validity of which is well-known and documented. Despite the media's insistence to the contrary, I do not believe their issue with The Passion has anything to do with violence.
    Another criticism leveled against the film is that of anti-Semitism. The vigilance of Jewish organizations against anti-Semitism is admirable and necessary; however, in this instance, I believe the charge of anti-Semitism is unfounded. If you argue the movie was anti-Semitic, then you could easily conclude that any portrayal of the Passion of Jesus is anti-Semitic. Further, The Passion presents good Jews and bad Jews. In the film, it wasn't even the entire Sanhedrin that was against Jesus; some spoke out in His defense and were silenced. Almost all of those who supported Jesus and grieved over His crucifixion were Jews. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was even played by the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. What then is raising the ire of the liberal media?
    I believe it has nothing to do with the violent content of the film or with anti-Semitism, but rather with the film's indisputable Christian nature-it depicts Jesus Christ as the suffering servant, the Messiah, as prophetically described in Isaiah 53. What makes this crucifixion worse than all others, what makes this violence so convicting, is that Jesus of Nazareth is not only a man, He is the Son of God. Our culture is so secular and anti-Christian that it finds a public display of God's love for all humanity intolerable.
    Why is Christianity so difficult for many people in our Western world? It challenges our right to do whatever we want. If we acknowledge Christ and the Gospel to be the truth, then we must respond to the truth. The stronger the message pointing to the truth, the more we must wrestle to come to grips with it, or to fight against it. When we wrestle with God, recognizing He is the truth, and discover in Him the true meaning of life, we will be immediately faced with the need to change our lives. Change frightens us because of our inherent insecurity; we want to be in control. We desire to be master of our own destiny, and yet, at the same time we know we are part of something larger than we can comprehend or control. We get angry when we cannot be the god of our lives and when life does not go according to our plans.
    I believe The Passion offers an in-your-face presentation of a portion of the Gospel that our libertarian world does not want to face. To face the prospect of Jesus Christ being who He says He is, to acknowledge our sins, and to know He atoned for our sins, is to admit we are wrong and need to change.
    For those of us who have accepted Christ and are seeking to walk with Him, the film presents an additional challenge. The challenge before us is to take stock of our life and to ask God, "Am I living the kind of life You are asking me to live, and am I doing what You called me to do?" For us these may be frightening questions. Like the rest of the world, we like our lives secure. We dislike disruptions, and we especially dislike being out of control. What makes us different from the world is that we often coat our sin with a Christian coating or deceive ourselves into thinking we are doing all that God is asking of us. We may even convince ourselves that God wants us to do exactly what we want to do and attribute our actions to the directives of God. But He died so that these sins might be forgiven too. Reevaluating our commitment, examining our conscience, and confessing our sins can lead to renewed relationship and direction. We must continually respond to our Lord Jesus' great sacrifice of love.
    Our response to God is the central issue of life. I would like to summarize our response to God with four "C" words: conversion, call, courage, and commitment.
    Conversion of the heart, whether you believe in adult or infant baptism, is essential to living out the faith. Conversion means we have come to recognize the reality of God and the essential role Jesus Christ plays in our life as both Savior and Lord. It involves repentance: turning from self to God, from sin to holiness, from brokeness to wholeness. It comes about in the lives of people by many different means. God made us all different, and therefore, He provides many different methods for us to recognize the truth of who Jesus is. The experience of conversion usually involves our whole being-our spirit, our soul, our intellect, and our emotions. It is not merely a mental assent; it is fueled by the supernatural power of God. Once we have experienced conversion, we are faced with the next important "C" in our lives.
    The next "C" word is call. Though God is transcendent, He is also ever present and desires an intimate relationship with each one of us. Every human being ever conceived has been created by God for a purpose. Though we all share the same basic purposes, each of us has a unique purpose as well. Primarily, we were created to commune with God and to reflect His image. In Genesis 1:26, we are told mankind was created in the image of God. Jesus Christ lived and died as the perfect man, reflecting God. In John 14:9, Jesus tells us if we have seen Him or known Him, we have seen or known the Father. We also know that Jesus came to glorify the Father (John 17:1). As we seek to love and imitate Jesus, we fulfill our call more and more to be the image of God and to reflect Him to His glory.
   When we enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we are saying we are ready to take the next step to mature Christian living: to learn the unique purpose and plan of God for our lives. We must now be ready to say with Isaiah, "Here I am! Send me" (Isaiah 6:8b). Just as there are many different ways God reveals himself and brings us to conversion, He, knowing the gifts He has placed within us, has a plan for our life that will bring us rich fulfillment. The call of God is as much for us as it is for Him, perhaps even more for us. It is intended to stretch our faith, so that it may become a powerful tool in this life and for the work He has prepared for us in the life to come.
    The next "C" word is courage. Courage is the gift from God that enables us to carry out His call on our lives. When we begin to walk in our call, we realize fairly quickly that we are out of our comfort zone, over our heads, and stretched to the max. The natural tendency is to turn back and hope God calls us to something different. God will not change His mind about our call. Saint Paul tells us in Romans 11:29, "The gifts and call of God are irrevocable." We may mess up so badly that God chooses to employ an alternative plan for our lives, but His ultimate will is going to be accomplished. As we seek to respond to God, it is important for us to be firmly established in our call, so we need to be crying out to Him for the courage and strength to do that which He has called us to do.
   It has been said, "Courage is fear that has said its prayers." I believe this is a true statement. The courageous person is afraid but chooses to put his trust in God and to receive strength from Him.
    Jesus is the example for us of courage. I especially see His courage in the Garden of Gethsemane where, in agony, He cries out to God the Father as He contemplates His death on a cross. In His agony, He asks His disciples to pray for Him, but as they are weak, God sends an angel to minister to Him and to strengthen Him. In this example, we see God providing even when His disciples failed, but we also see, in a prophetic sense, a glimpse of what is to come in Christ's establishment of His Church. After the day of Pentecost, the Church was empowered by the Holy Spirit. As Saint Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 12, the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit are to be used in the Church for the benefit of all. The virtue of courage does not arise in a vacuum; it is what God gives to us in response to our prayers to Him. It is also granted us by Him through the prayers, insight, and encouragement of our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
     The last "C" word I want to talk about is "commitment." It is not enough to recognize we have a call from God and to cry out to Him for the courage to walk in it; we must be committed to persevere. Our commitment is tested after God has given us the courage to respond to the call, and we begin to walk in it. There are many who have begun to walk in their call, only to discover the way God has chosen for them is tough. As I indicated earlier in this article, God does not often call us to the easy way. I often tell myself and others if what we are doing is easy and within our natural capabilities, there is a good possibility we are not walking in the call of God. Yes, Christ tells us His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but as we are yoked with Him, we are called to accomplish the impossible to the glory of God through His supernatural grace and not by our own strength.
     If I am to remain committed, there are two relationships that are essential for my life. The first of these relationships is, of course, my relationship with the Triune God through His Son Jesus Christ. The second essential relationship is with the Church. Both individual and corporate relationships are essential for me to maintain my commitment; in and of myself, I lack the strength and fortitude to carry out what God has set before me. The strength of God through His Holy Spirit is essential, but so is the prayer and encouragement of those whom He has called to speak into my life.
     Lent is almost past; we will soon walk through our Lord's Passion in Holy Week; and then we will celebrate the most important of all Christian feasts, Easter. At Easter, we remember that Jesus, in His love for us, not only endured the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, but won for us victory over Satan and the grave. In our joy, it is a time to consider God's call on our lives and His desire to sustain that call for the furthering of His kingdom. It is a time to consider the real purpose of our life and to ask God for the grace to live to His glory and to our fulfillment.
    Mel Gibson, in response to God's call on his life, said "yes" to God in producing what I believe to be one of the most important motion pictures of our time. He did it in the face of fierce opposition and lack of support, yet he did what he was called to do. The result is countless people have been either encouraged in their faith, challenged to live a new life in Christ, or in some cases, restored to Christ and His Church.
    Our "yes" to God may not be as dramatic as Mel Gibson's, but in the eyes of God our "yes" is equally important. As we close out Lent and begin the Easter season, may God move mightily in our hearts, and may we walk with transformed and fulfilled lives to His honor and glory.