The Passion of the Christ

Dad asked me, "So you up to watching 'The Passion of the Christ'?"
My immediate answer is, "NO."
He always asks me why.

Think about this:
If at one point in life I watch my biological father, or a loved one, going through such pain, screaming out of unbearable suffering, barely having the strength to get up and keep walking... would I want to watch that
again? Not in a million years.

Now don't think that I abhor the happenings of Jesus Christ. Not at all.
I praise the Lord Jesus for what He did and what He went through. I've watched the movie once and tears flowed uncontrollably. I was frozen and in shock. The visuals that the movie portrayed were so vivid... to think that a person went through that agonizing pain and torture. And not just a person. Jesus, "Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death- even death on a cross!" Phil 2:6-8

And John Piper said in his book Don't Waste Your Life, "No manner of execution that has ever been devised was more cruel and agonizing than to be nailed to a cross and hung up to die like a piece of meat. It was horrible. You would not have been able to watch it- not without screaming and pulling at your hair and tearing your clothes. You probably would have vomited."

And that's exactly why I would rather not watch "The Passion of the Christ." It evokes intense emotions, even at the edge of insanity... an insanity of unbelief in such torture and not having enough emotions to express them. People might say that I don't have the guts to watch what Christ really went through. They might say that I really don't recognize His sacrifice by denying to watch the movie... but if knowing of His sacrifice [simply from His Word] and His victory changes and moves all of me into living for Him and worshipping Him with my entire life, the movie takes nothing away from the effect of His passion on my life.

Watching it [The Passion] makes my heart shrink, which isn't bad at all. In fact, it's profitable. It makes me realize my clear dependency on Him... on how great He really is. What He went through for me. Where He stayed for me. How on the cross He thought of me. ON THE CROSS! THINKING OF ME? Of all things... He thought of me. And finished His mission on the earth.

Watching it is ok. Not watching it is ok.
I'd rather not.

**Feed off of His Word.**