Paul told Timothy, "Everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted' " I think that goes for film crews who attempt to tell the truth as well. I have found that, more often than not, the more potential a project has to promote the Gospel, the harder it can be to produce. It was certainly the case with the television production The Christ Files and it appears that The Life of Jesus will be no different.
We're fifteen days into our film trip now, and that's usually when you see Satan go to work on the stresses and strains that any long shoot produces. So it should come as no surprise that the last few days have had an amazing number of minor and major production hiccups.
Besides the continuing heat, we've had to deal with dubious characters intent on swindling film crews, guards who want to close sites early, missing pieces of military machinery, unforeseen fences around crucial ruins, locations that inexplicably change the times they are expecting us and others that forgot us altogether.
All of these can take their toll on tired crew members, but they have not diminished God's resources one iota.
Four days since my last blog from Israel and I am relieved to report that we continue to finish each day with every shot required " or ones that were better than we expected. Since that entry we have filmed the black basalt buildings of Chorazin, the city Jesus condemned. It was a staggeringly hot day, but thankfully this kept all of the tourists indoors, so we had the site largely to ourselves. We also scaled the heights of Mt Arbel that provides excellent views over the entire Galilee region. Here a National Parks officer was determined to close the gate long before we would be able to complete our shots. However masses of permissions prepared by our production assistant, Katrina, ensured we had an answer for his every objection.
Some of the most interesting locations for this historical analysis of Jesus' life have involved traveling through the Golan Heights. One of our scenes called for shots of a wrecked military vehicle left over from the 1967 war with Syria. The last time I was here they were fairly easy to find. However some sort of clean-up campaign had me wondering if we were in for a rapid re-write. Miles of empty roads, and still no wreckage! However, just as we were nearing our next location we happened across some sort of military memorial that literally looked like a "Used Tank Lot'. Better than one wrecked vehicle, we now had five tanks to choose from.
I could tell similar tales of blessing-in-the-face-of-adversity for our visits to Gamla (a hill-side fortress from the first century), the Golan Museum (containing artifacts from the time of Jesus), the Church of the Annunciation (dedicated to Gabriel appearing to Mary), Nazareth (Jesus' home town) Capernaum (Peter's home town and the scene of many of Jesus' miracles), Tabgha (the location of some very ancient Christian mosaics) and The Mount of the Beatitudes (the scene of the Sermon on the Mount). Big blessings and little ones, all arranged by God to show us He was present even in the midst of our tiredness and frustration.
But I'll finish with a vignette that has become quite emblematic for me"
We were entering the grounds of a church where we believed we had paid for permission to film. As we approached our desired location we were stopped by a church worker and asked what we were doing. It quickly became clear that he had no intention of letting us proceed, whatever assurances or pieces of paper we had been given. However a few minutes of conversation made it clear that passage could be bought for handful of US dollars. This is a difficult situation that I find hard to judge, and not terribly uncommon filming in some parts of the world. Sometimes these additional incentives can be all that keeps a person, even a ministry afloat. So, even though I was prepared for this sort of eventuality, it left a sour taste in my mouth. I found myself a bit depressed by the way this person had used his position to gain a profit. I knew he might have good intentions for that money, but it is not how anyone wants to enter a Christian site. However, while we were setting up for the scene, John Dickson approached me with a marvelous tale. He had been sitting by a fence bordering the property rehearsing his lines. On the other side was a grove of date palms. A woman who was picking dates there called to him through the fence. She said, "Please take some dates. The Lord has been too generous to me today."
John handed me some of the woman's gift and I sat there considering God's provision. Those dates were the sweetest I'd ever tasted, and more than enough to remove the sour taste from my mouth. Yes, we were facing unforeseen struggles and disappointments, but we were also becoming very familiar with the Lord's generosity.
The Life of Jesus crew is John Dickson (Presenter), Allan Dowthwaite (Director), Greg Clarke (Presenter / Researcher), Mal Hamilton & Paul Moss (Camera operators), Neil Kelly (Sound recordist) and Mark Hadley (Producer).
