Dr. Michael D. Halsey
GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE (2004)
"WHY DOESN'T SOMEBODY
STOP THIS?"
INTRODUCTION
Recently, I became part of the bazillions of people who have seen "The Passion of the Christ."
If you had told me that somebody was going to make a movie that no studio would
back, that the movie would be in Aramaic and Latin with English subtitles, and
that starring in the movie would be nobody anybody ever heard of, I would have
said, "What a disaster! Who'd want to sit through a movie they have
to read?" So, what do I know? From the latest information
I've heard, "The Passion" is on track to become the biggest box office
hit worldwide of all time, even surpassing "Titanic."
From the second the movie flickered on the screen, I and everybody else sat
stock still, like each of us had a ramrod up our spines, enthralled by what we
were seeing/reading. We watched the last day of Christ's life on earth
portrayed in an accurate way with dramatic license here and there. To my
knowledge, nobody has ever portrayed the last day of Christ's life on earth as
physically accurate as this movie does.
There were several things that ran through my mind as I watched it: how in
the world did they get people to speak Aramaic like natives; where did they find
so many people who spoke Latin so fluently? (Mrs. Johnson, my high school
Latin teacher, one of the best teachers I ever had, and my college Latin
teachers would have been proud that I noticed that the Romans who spoke Latin in
the movie pronounced the "v" with a "v" sound, whereas they
should have been pronouncing it with a "w" sound. But that's
hardly important.
I thought how accurately the movie showed what the impact a crucifixion would
have on a human body, for after all, God did become true humanity with a human
body. As Hebrews says, "A body You have prepared for Me . . ."
and as Peter wrote, "He bore our sins in His own body on the tree."
The physical pain He felt would be the same as our bodies would feel,
indescribable and unbearable. His body would bleed from whips; His lips
would swell from slaps.
Afterward, I thought about how our sermons we preachers preach fall so far short
of describing what we were seeing on the screen. I think the reason for
that is that we don't present the Bible as God did. His Word is a story,
yet we pastors mess it up and present it as points. We goof it all up and
present it as outlines, such as, "I want to present to you the three
reasons John gives us in his gospel for the suffering of the theanthropic
Person, and next Sunday, I'll go into the three points of the doctrine of the
hypostatic union as it pertains to the sufferings of Christ."
(I can't find a talk Jesus gave where He announces three points to His audience.
Most of His talks were great stories with plots that we call parables, which we
preachers mess up and transform into three lecture/moral points. I guess
we figure Jesus didn't do it right, so we repackage it.)
To his credit, Mel Gibson saw it for what it was-- a story with a beginning,
middle, and ending, one with plot development. And as someone said a
long time ago, "It's the greatest story ever told."
It was during the movie that I had one overriding reaction, one I wasn't
expecting. A portion of the movie focuses the Roman beating of Jesus prior
to the crucifixion. (In this regard the movie was anti-Italian, if it was
anything.) The Romans were a very cruel people and the film brings that to
the forefront. Pilate gives the order for the soldiers to beat Him, a job
usually done with a cat-o-nine tails which, just as in the movie are strands of
leather which contain bits of metal.
In the movie, the beating seems to go on forever. But finally it's over
and Jesus is standing before Pilate as a bloody mess with one eye swollen shut.
This goes along with Isaiah 52:14, where Isaiah predicts that (after the
beating), He doesn't appear to be a human being, He looks so awful. In the
movie, even Pilate is surprised at what they've done to Him.
Then the walk carrying the cross begins with the Romans still hitting Him,
beating Him as He continually falls to the ground, sometimes in agonizing slow
motion. It was during all this that the reaction I wasn't expecting came.
I kept thinking during the beating, "Why doesn't somebody stop all
this?" Peter and John are helpless to do so. No group surges
from the crowd surges forward to stop the Romans team. No Roman soldier
steps forward, grabs the cat-o-nine tails, and says, "Enough!"
(Finally, a soldier does, but it's way too late.)
And then I got to thinking that, along the way, there were those who tried to
stop it. Early in the story, Herod tried to stop it by ordering all
the babies executed. That would have stopped the Messiah, wouldn't it?
It would've stopped everything.
Then Jesus is on the cusp of launching His public ministry and just at that
moment, Satan comes to Him in the wilderness and tries to stop it. That's
what "The Temptations" are all about-stopping the Messiah by getting
Him to act independently of God the Father and sin, thereby disqualifying
Himself as the future sin bearer because the Sin Bearer can't be a sinner.
Satan tried to stop it.
During His ministry, a large group of enthusiastic people tried to stop it. This
bunch was all for Jesus. In John 6, we have the greatest popularity Jesus
ever had. You know how emotional Middle Easterners can be-these 5,000+ are
head over heels about Jesus. He's just fed all of them; He's just created
food for everybody. So here we have thousands of people who've seen Jesus
both heal diseases and feed everybody. All 5,000+ are unanimous:
"Jesus for King!" They intend to ask Him to be King, and if not,
they plan to force Him to go with them into Jerusalem where they'll proclaim Him
King and then get on about the business of throwing out the Romans.
But no. The kingship doesn't come this way. The Cross comes first,
then, later the kingdom.
Then, of all things, one of those on the inside tries to stop it. Jesus
and His students are walking toward
At Jesus' arrest, Peter tried to stop it physically when he drew his dagger and
went for the head of Malchus, one of the arresting party. (Peter had just
seen the soldiers and everybody with them sprawled on the ground when Jesus
said, "I am!" so he just knew they could stop this. Jesus told
him to put it down and then He said, "The cup which My Father has given Me,
shall I not drink it?" (That's an important statement because He'd
just been in
Pilate's wife warned him to stop it. Pilate saw that Jesus was innocent.
Pilate tried to stop it by having Him beaten and released. No go.
Then he tried to stop it by giving the crowd their choice. No go.
They did the unexpected and chose Barabas.
In a mocking sense, the one next to Jesus on the Cross and the religious leaders
themselves tried to stop it, when they mocked Him by saying, "If you are
the Son of God, You stop this. Come down from there, that'll stop
it!" If ever there was a last ditch opportunity to show them and to
stop it, that was it!
But the thing is, nobody could stop, and some very powerful people tried!
With the might and authority of the Roman government on his side, Pilate still
couldn't stop it. Peter and the disciples, although not part of the
powerful people couldn't stop it, even though the Romans had just been lying
helpless on the ground in front of them.
Herod couldn't stop it with his murderous rampage, and Satan couldn't disqualify
Him by leading Him to sin.
But God the Father could have stopped it. Jesus could have stopped it.
But they didn't because of Their love for you. "At the cross we see a
revelation of human evil and at the same time, a revelation of the divine
purpose to overcome the human evil it exposes." (J. R. W. Stott).
The cross is also a revelation that man can't stop the plan of God and the cross
was in the plan of God before He created the world (I Peter
This should be a great comfort to us because it shows us who's really in
control. God will allow man to rebel against His plan, but will even use
that same rebellion to accomplish His plan! God's plan is to save those
who come to Him by way of the Cross, by relying on Jesus' work on the cross for
forgiveness of sin and eternal life. Nobody can stop that plan either.
So, if you've relied on Christ alone by faith alone for forgiveness of sin and
eternal life, God's plan is that Jesus will "give them eternal life, and
they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand."
Then He says it again. (Jn. 10:28-29)
CONCLUSION
The mockers are still with us. In fact, we let them in our dens all the
time. Andy Rooney of "60 Minutes" fame said that he didn't plan
to see "The Passion" unless he needed a good laugh, besides, he said,
the ticket prices in
Listen to a sample of what the E-mails said:
"After watching your segment on "60 Minutes Sunday, I was reminded of
what a trashy liberal you are."
"Andy Rooney is a nut case, and should be fined and removed for his
obnoxious, sarcastic, and vicious comments . . . or better yet, he should have
his eyebrows shaved off."
"You're getting too old for anyone to take you seriously."
"Andy, please get some help before they find you walking aimlessly down the
streets of
And this one, well it takes the cake: "You asinine, bottom-dwelling, numb-skulled,
low life, slimy, sickening, gutless, spineless, ignorant, pot-licking, cowardly
pathetic little weasel."
So, I decided to join in the fray and write to him as well. Here's my
letter:
Dear Mr. Rooney,
I read with interest your comments on the movie, "The Passion of the
Christ." I would hope that they misquoted you, as so often happens to
those in the public eye. (I suppose it's one of those crosses of celebrity
that some are called upon to bear.) But if they didn't misstate your
words, I would like to address your comments to see if maybe you'd be willing to
rethink them.
I said that I read your comments with "interest." I chose the
wrong word, because I read your comments with grief, and it's that sadness that
prompts this letter. When I read that you said that you'd see "The
Passion" only if you needed a good laugh, I truly felt sad.
When I was in college, the culture wars were just beginning. When
conservative leaders would issue their ideas about books they classified as
"filthy" or "immoral trash," the common rebuttal was,
"But have you read the book?" For the most part, this stopped
the "discussion" and made the conservatives look ridiculous when they
admitted they hadn't.
When you mentioned that you hadn't seen the movie, and didn't intend to waste
the money, I recalled those earlier culture war arguments. If you would
see the movie, it's my opinion that you wouldn't laugh. I don't know what
your reaction would be, but I don't think it would be laughter. But even
if it is, in fairness, I think you ought to see it, if for no other reason, just
to repay those aforementioned conservative leaders who waded through those
"trashy" books, just so they could say, "We read it."
I would like for you to be able to say, "I've seen it."
One other thing: in the final analysis, it's not important what you or I think
about Mel Gibson. It's not even important what you or I think about his or
any other movie. But what we think of the passion of the Christ is of
tremendous importance.
In that regard, I'm enclosing the primary source document (as historians say)
that records the passion in detail along with it's meaning. It's short,
easy to read; yet I've found its concepts to be both profound and life-changing.
It's a book that didn't take me long to read, but I found it to be so
challenging that I've devoted my life to studying it. I hope you'll be
able to say, "I read it." Please
find enclosed a copy of the book of John from the New Testament.
Yours truly,
Dr. Mike Halsey
P. S. Since you complained about the high price of
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What you think about the movie isn't important. What you think about the
Cross of Christ is of vital importance. Do you believe Jesus' statement
that was in the movie, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes
to the Father but by