by Charlie Brammall

A friend of mine whose family is Greek Orthodox, but who is a gospel believer himself, was given a Christmas card with a religious icon on it this year by a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ friend. My friend understood the joke because he understands the danger of idols, but if the same card had been given to a devout Greek Orthodox person it could have been very unhelpful.
It illustrates the point that, depending on who they are marketed to, depictions of Jesus can either help or hinder people coming to know him.
Mel Gibson’s foreign language film The Passion of the Christ is currently in post-production and will open around the country later this month. It tells the story of the last hours of Jesus’ life, and is entirely in Latin and Aramaic. Gibson, a sincere Catholic, says the Holy Spirit lead him to make the film, which he fully intended to have without subtitles. He believed the visual and audial power of the film would speak much louder than intelligible words. Hollywood executives (especially Jewish ones) resisted him making the film for many years, and it was only after much pressure from Hollywood that he agreed to include subtitles.
Will The Passion of the Christ (and other popular depictions of Jesus) promote or hinder the gospel of Jesus? It depends.
Is the portrayal of Jesus accurate to the Bible, or is there something in his character that goes off on a huge tangent and distracts people from his gospel?
For example, in the powerful film Jesus of Montreal, Jesus is portrayed (by implication) as both falsely believing he is God, and being mentally ill.
Another example is the beautifully made The Last Temptation of Christ, in which Jesus is married to Mary Magdalene. This would be fine in terms of ethics, but is simply historically untrue.
It’s easy to assume at this point that these depictions of Jesus and the like could only hinder his gospel. But often they don’t.
On the contrary, after watching these films, believers are given a tantalising, almost irresistible opportunity to chat with unbelieving friends about the truth of Jesus, as opposed to what they’ve just seen. And not only Jesus, but God’s intentions for our sexuality, marriage, relationships, the historicity of the Bible, and a range of other related subjects.
In fact, actual depictions of Jesus are not the only means of doing this. One of the ways we introduce entertainers to Jesus in the Entertainment Bible Ministry is through a bi-monthly dinner and film screening at the Film, TV & Radio School in North Ryde, called ‘Trof-Fest’. We show part of a secular film or TV show, then analyse it in the light of the gospel of Jesus.
There are many films without actual depictions of Jesus which lend themselves to the discussion of Jesus with friends. There’s Flatliners with Keifer Sutherland, and its view of life after death; The Mission with Robert de Niro with a tragic scene of salvation by penance; The Apostle with Robert Duvall and the portrayal of a Christian man more committed to sharing the gospel than to holiness; The Exorcist with its terrible message of dualism between God and Satan; Prayer for The Dying with Mickey Rourke and its clever scene of him clinging to the cross (literally) to save himself from plummeting to his death; The Watcher with James Spader, and its powerful illustration of how passionately God loves each individual; and Chariots of Fire with one of the most challenging cinematic portrayals of a man for whom God is more important than even his most passionate dream.
Depictions of Jesus, and treatments of other life and death issues, in popular culture are a good gift from God to be used in introducing people to him.

The Passion of the Christ reviewed by Bishop Glenn Davies in culture@home.

Charlie Brammall is Anglican Chaplain to the film and entertainment industry and ministers to people in the industry with ‘ENTER’.