Of Being Condemned to Death
Watching 'The Passion of the Christ' once again a few days back gave me a fresh perspective of this film which the critics had a field day on years ago. I was surprised to note that not a word of English was in the script, yet even without the English subtitles, one would understand just by looking into the eyes of the actors. Symbolisms of evil were put carefully in place throughout the film, which even if you are non-Christian, would send creepy signals up your spine.
This is not a film review, for one I do not know much about film-making. I do search for two things in a film for me to love it; one, a good script (even if the storyline borders on the ridiculous, like for example, 'Bruce Almighty') and two, something which would make me 'think' after watching it. By now, those who are forcibly made to or accidentally, read my blogs, know that I like 'thinking', though a little too much for my own sake.
So the season of Lent did not fail this time to prompt me to do exactly that. Think. Revisit. Pray. When I started today, I thought of the story of a man called Jesus, and the film I watched. If I were alive then when Jesus started to preach the Word of God, I would perhaps feel the shock and disbelief over this man's preachings. Modern-day evangelists always succeed at annoying me, I say that with apologies. More often people who surround me with their overly-shown declarations of their love for Jesus are the ones who, well, are bad people simply put. I have had the privilege of knowing them, and each act of declaration they do is concomitant to another act of one who is 'un-Christian'. So at that day and age of Jesus, it was a natural reaction of people to say that He was blasphemous. Note that I write pronouns referring to Jesus in capital letters, because I believe in Him. Which is why I feel that despite the reactions to Him being natural, the anger by which this natural reaction was shown, is unacceptable. They condemned Him to death, and no one, absolutely, no one should be condemned or cursed to death, except Jesus as He was destined to do just that. To account for all our sins. Taking the responsibility for all our sins, He accepted His fate, because that was the ultimate way of teaching us about love.
Ahhhh, love. Maundy Thursday is dedicated by Christians to the teachings of Jesus for us 'To Love One Another'. In all accounts, love is defined by so many different ways that one has to ask, 'ok, which one do I do first' to validly 'love'? And the word is repeated over and over, to the point of it being actually spoken a million times, such that it loses its meaning. I think. Phil Kaye, an artist of spoken poetry brilliantly put it that way in his piece, "Repetition'. The trick, he said, is to say something over and over, until this word you want to rid of in your life becomes without meaning. At this day and age, saying, 'I love you' is as easy as saying, 'Hello' or 'Hi', like the phrase was some part of our daily pleasantries. I do not like that at all. I am very careful with using 'i' in 'i love you'.
I choose to view 'love' in two ways. One, Jesus showed us what love is all about, not by His words, but by the way He lived His life and the way He died. When He started to walk this earth and intended to spread the word of love, He chose twelve simple men to get the job done. No engineers, law experts, or rocket scientists there in the bunch. A fisherman, a tax collector. Jesus was a carpenter. So, from that, I deduce that love is a simple, unadulterated feeling for another, for your neighbors, for your fellow beings. And it begins by acknowledging this of how Jesus taught us by example. You help. You forgive. You embrace faults. You strive to be another person's anchor. And to do that, you help yourself, you forgive yourself, you embrace your faults, you become your own anchor. You cannot give to others, what you do not have of your own. It does not take a genius to know and do that.
Two, Jesus was crucified, and let the enemies do that to Him, to atone for the sins of others. He exacted the accountability from Himself, well because others were too proud to so much as recognize the wrongs they have done. This is why, I believe, that through Him, God gifted us with the privilege of choice. You make the wrong ones, you take the responsibility for them, not others. You do not go around spreading hatred, because your life is miserable, because you made poor choices.
There is what we call a 'second shot' at it, always, with the grace Jesus covers us with everyday. That 'second shot', will be followed by another, and another, and another. Each time we get that 'second shot', we learn. We strive to be better persons. Forge forward again. It is an unenending circle. But we must remember to take all in, and find meaning in that unending circle. I guess that is what love is all about. Or how I believe Jesus wanted us to keep in our hearts. Woody in 'Toy Story' would not have put it better, when he said, '...to infinity and beyond....'. We, however, must not lose sight of what Jesus taught us. We should pray for strength to continue loving despite and inspite all. We should love one another, along the road of one chance given us, after another. And another.
This is not a film review, for one I do not know much about film-making. I do search for two things in a film for me to love it; one, a good script (even if the storyline borders on the ridiculous, like for example, 'Bruce Almighty') and two, something which would make me 'think' after watching it. By now, those who are forcibly made to or accidentally, read my blogs, know that I like 'thinking', though a little too much for my own sake.
So the season of Lent did not fail this time to prompt me to do exactly that. Think. Revisit. Pray. When I started today, I thought of the story of a man called Jesus, and the film I watched. If I were alive then when Jesus started to preach the Word of God, I would perhaps feel the shock and disbelief over this man's preachings. Modern-day evangelists always succeed at annoying me, I say that with apologies. More often people who surround me with their overly-shown declarations of their love for Jesus are the ones who, well, are bad people simply put. I have had the privilege of knowing them, and each act of declaration they do is concomitant to another act of one who is 'un-Christian'. So at that day and age of Jesus, it was a natural reaction of people to say that He was blasphemous. Note that I write pronouns referring to Jesus in capital letters, because I believe in Him. Which is why I feel that despite the reactions to Him being natural, the anger by which this natural reaction was shown, is unacceptable. They condemned Him to death, and no one, absolutely, no one should be condemned or cursed to death, except Jesus as He was destined to do just that. To account for all our sins. Taking the responsibility for all our sins, He accepted His fate, because that was the ultimate way of teaching us about love.
Ahhhh, love. Maundy Thursday is dedicated by Christians to the teachings of Jesus for us 'To Love One Another'. In all accounts, love is defined by so many different ways that one has to ask, 'ok, which one do I do first' to validly 'love'? And the word is repeated over and over, to the point of it being actually spoken a million times, such that it loses its meaning. I think. Phil Kaye, an artist of spoken poetry brilliantly put it that way in his piece, "Repetition'. The trick, he said, is to say something over and over, until this word you want to rid of in your life becomes without meaning. At this day and age, saying, 'I love you' is as easy as saying, 'Hello' or 'Hi', like the phrase was some part of our daily pleasantries. I do not like that at all. I am very careful with using 'i' in 'i love you'.
I choose to view 'love' in two ways. One, Jesus showed us what love is all about, not by His words, but by the way He lived His life and the way He died. When He started to walk this earth and intended to spread the word of love, He chose twelve simple men to get the job done. No engineers, law experts, or rocket scientists there in the bunch. A fisherman, a tax collector. Jesus was a carpenter. So, from that, I deduce that love is a simple, unadulterated feeling for another, for your neighbors, for your fellow beings. And it begins by acknowledging this of how Jesus taught us by example. You help. You forgive. You embrace faults. You strive to be another person's anchor. And to do that, you help yourself, you forgive yourself, you embrace your faults, you become your own anchor. You cannot give to others, what you do not have of your own. It does not take a genius to know and do that.
Two, Jesus was crucified, and let the enemies do that to Him, to atone for the sins of others. He exacted the accountability from Himself, well because others were too proud to so much as recognize the wrongs they have done. This is why, I believe, that through Him, God gifted us with the privilege of choice. You make the wrong ones, you take the responsibility for them, not others. You do not go around spreading hatred, because your life is miserable, because you made poor choices.
There is what we call a 'second shot' at it, always, with the grace Jesus covers us with everyday. That 'second shot', will be followed by another, and another, and another. Each time we get that 'second shot', we learn. We strive to be better persons. Forge forward again. It is an unenending circle. But we must remember to take all in, and find meaning in that unending circle. I guess that is what love is all about. Or how I believe Jesus wanted us to keep in our hearts. Woody in 'Toy Story' would not have put it better, when he said, '...to infinity and beyond....'. We, however, must not lose sight of what Jesus taught us. We should pray for strength to continue loving despite and inspite all. We should love one another, along the road of one chance given us, after another. And another.
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