It is hard to sum up what I just saw, but here are a few of the many aspects as I see them.
It magnifies the understanding of what Jesus did out of love for us so we could receive forgiveness and spend eternity with Him and the Father. It is difficult to even begin to understand that He knew this would happen when He came to earth. The power of His love stretches my understanding!
The brutality of the process, and to think the Romans used scourging and crucifixion regularly when they were in power.
Maybe the thing that unexpectedly struck me is the shear power and deception of evil itself. The depiction of Judas the betrayer driven to hang himself after yielding to Satan’s control.
Injustice done by religious leaders in the name of the very God whose Son was on trial, and their callused watching of the whole process. Their blindness to the truth while knowing the scripture.
Brutal Roman soldiers with seemingly no compassion at all. What must happen in a person’s life to end up in such a condition?
So what can we learn from this film? First, Jesus did so much for me, and I have given so very little back. Second, the danger of yielding to the devil’s schemes and deception. At what point could we go past the point of no return as Judas did? Be sure beyond the shadow of a doubt that what we do in the name of the One true God is what He desires us to do. This is a story to share, never intended to be kept to ourselves.
My feelings were not what I expected them to be, yet I do have lots of them. The one that stands out is a feeling of compassionate sadness for everyone who doesn’t understand what this can mean in our lives.
