Jeffery Overstreet on the Passion of the Christ: “I don’t believe Christ wants his sufferings to burden me so greatly that I lose all touch with the joy of his resurrection, or that I lose my zeal to serve him for what he’s done. That’s why I doubt that I will ever watch Gibson’s film again.”
Hard to Watch
– July 8, 2008
Jeffery Overstreet on the Passion of the Christ: “I don’t believe Christ wants his sufferings to burden me so greatly that I lose all touch with the joy of his resurrection, or that I lose my zeal to serve him for what he’s done. That’s...
About the Author
Richard Clark (Co-Founder/Editor-in-Chief) has spent his entire life writing, reading, listening, and playing. He has a Bachelors in Theology from the Baptist College of Florida and has a Master of Arts in Theology and the Arts from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville, KY where he is the classroom technology manager at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to writing at Christ and Pop Culture, he is also a staff writer for Kill Screen Magazine's website and has written for various other outlets such as Paste, Gamasutra, and Collide.
Email: deadyetliving [at] gmail [dot] com. Twitter: @deadyetliving. Xbox Live: deadyetliving 
I feel the same way.
Jesus didn’t agonize over going to the cross because of all the violence and the torture and the anguish of it. He agonized in the garden about the wrath of God that was meant for all humanity that He was about to take upon Himself. He was tortured mentally by the idea that His Father would turn His back on Him. The Resurrection itself was the climax of the story but in “The Passion” it might as well have been simply placed after the credits as a bonus for the people who stuck around to see who the dolly grip was.
The crucifixion is important and the cross is a symbol of our faith, but too much emphasis on the torture of Jesus makes us think less of the reason why He chose to endure the cross and the wrath of God in the first place: obedience to the Father.
nathancreitz
Brave words there, stating what Christ’s true thoughts consisted of in the garden…
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