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Thoughtful Conversationalists |
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Many of you have seen the film, “The Passion of the Christ.” Greenville College provided for all our faculty and staff to see it together, along with our students and a number of our community leaders. As a Christian liberal arts institution, we passionately desire followers of Jesus Christ to reflect carefully about any issues that impact our culture. An important part of our calling is to help equip the church to be “thoughtful conversationalists,” Of course, that may sound far too passive for some, but consider the conversations in which we may find ourselves engaged because of this film.
It is difficult to imagine millions of people viewing this film without
stopping to ask basic questions about who this man Jesus really was.
Some may have only idle curiosity, while others may look inward for the
first time to decide what they really think about Him. As believers,
are we equipped to engage in this conversation? How recently have we
considered the essentials of our historic faith in the physical birth,
life, death, and resurrection of the Incarnate God? But more than that,
how recently have we conversed about these foundations of our lives
with someone who does not believe? We talk among ourselves about having
these discussions, but do they, will they, really occur? If so, what
form will they take? Will we make it our goal to “win” an argument or
simply “witness” to what we have experienced ourselves? Will it be full
of jargon or begin instead with the language and issues our partner
brings to the conversation? The differences depend in part on how
reflective we have been in preparing for this conversation. Have we
thought about the questions our partner in dialogue might ask? They may
be about matters that for us are not questions at all but deeply
embedded assumptions. Are we ready?
There will also be conversations among ourselves; among those who
confess Jesus as the Christ. What might those be like? Is the violence
“too much?” Does the film appropriately combine multiple Gospel
accounts? Does Pilate seem too open-minded but morally weak? Do the
Jewish leaders and the High Priest Caiaphas appear too irrational, too
responsible, letting the Romans “off the hook” without capturing the
essential point that Christ died because “All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God?” Does the strong historical evidence of
Christian anti-Semitism still apply to the Church today or within our
own hearts?
But hopefully our conversations with one another may include discussion
about our attitudes toward one another. Does the powerful story of
Jesus’ painful sacrifice for us inspire us to set aside the differences
we so often elevate to levels of divisive importance? Do the words we
see coming from the actor’s lips, “Forgive them for they know not what
they do” or “Love one another even as I have loved you” embarrass us as
we contemplate how we treat each other despite the painful price He
paid in His body for us? These conversations can help set aside the
petty judgments that trivialize the suffering He bore on our behalf.
Finally, we may have thoughtful conversation with our self. For a
significant portion of the film I found my body stiff, my jaw tense. I
found myself reflecting on the incredible fact that God had indeed
become a particular man, with particular flesh, in a particular time,
with a particular mother. It was astounding in fresh ways; foolishness
and a stumbling block. “It simply could not be, this cannot be right!”
filled my head. Then, almost aloud, I said, “I believe this! My whole
life, every bit of meaning it has, depends on this story being true
pretty much as it is here portrayed.” It was a renewal of doubt and of
faith all rolled into one powerful visual, intellectual, and emotional
experience. As I watched, no, endured, the seemingly never-ending
tortuous flogging, I found myself repeating, “This is the Lamb who was
slain….By His STRIPES we are healed…By HIS stripes we are healed….By
His stripes we are HEALED!” Oh those painful, unbelievable stripes! How
impossible, but oh how precious!
We do believe we will never need to pay the price for our sin that He
did “once for all.” But Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest
directs us to “the delight of sacrifice.” How can it be that we are
called to “lay down our lives” for our Friend? Not throwing it down, or
flinging it away, but deliberately laying it down. Only because He did
so for us first. When we love as He loved, we can be door mats without
resentment.
May we all engage in reflective conversation. May the conversations
about his bloody unreasonable sacrifice, inform and redeem our own
hearts, our community, and our world.
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