The Family Letter

The Passion

Okay, so I went to see the film with a group from church today. I'm glad it was the 1600 showing, because any later and I am not sure I could have taken it. It did, literally, shake me. Some Good Friday services leave me the same way, where I don't really want to interact with people, but rather just go off and think. I had to stop at the store on the way home, and I even deliberately used the automated check out line. The thought of interacting–especially cheerfully, bubbly cashiers–was almost beyond consideration.

But I would not say that the film was depressing. Nor was it so horrific (as some feared) that I was disgusted. Rather, I think it was the fact that I had just experienced a very familiar story in a very new way, in a way no sermon, lesson, or liturgy ever has. And if any of those three ever come close to this, I will be really, really surprised.

It was worth going. I do recommend it. Highly. Very highly.

I will go see it again. One of the others in the group I was with said she couldn't ever go see it again. So I guess that depends on the viewer.

It is very graphic, I kid you not. The scene where Jesus is being flogged is almost too much. It might be for some people, but I was able to watch the whole thing. Someone else said she didn't think a person could survive such a beating, but I'm pretty sure they can, if only barely. And for the rest of the film Jesus was the way he was at the end of the flogging: Skin raw, missing in places, bleeding all over. It's an image that I imagine might be real close to what someone being beaten and then dragged around really looks like. The crown of thorns… Wow. I really wanted to throttle a Roman soldier or two, though you could see flashes of recognition in even them from time to time, like they knew something wasn't right.

The actual crucifixion was incredible, too. The camera did not turn away at the crucial moment. You do see the hand, the nail, everything. His face when the other nail goes in… Wow.

Okay, and then there were the two Marys. His mother, in particular, really got to me. There's a scene where she is watching him pass, carrying the cross. She can't go to him. Can barely even look. Then he falls, and she remembers a time when he fell as a child, and how she ran to comfort him. Then she runs to the fallen adult Jesus and lifts him. He says, "See, I bring new meaning to everything." Yep, the mother/son thing really tore me up. My mom and dad lost a son (my older brother). I hope I never know what it is like. Though I think looking into that actresses' eyes I have a new understanding. Wow.

The flashbacks in general were well timed, and (with apologies to the Seabury crowd) juxtaposed the crucifixion and other even from Jesus' life. That's why I will never look at the Eucharist in quite the same way. It was while the nails were going in and while he was hanging and dying that they flashed back to the Last Supper. It connected things in ways I'm sure I've connected them, but so much more powerfully. Again, wow.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone. I don't think I can, even if I talked about every minute. After all, you've all probably read this, heard it in church, and heard sermons about it. This isn't new material. I think I could have appreciated the film without subtitles. I knew exactly what was going to be said. It was that faithful to the gospels. Yes, there were things inserted that aren't in our canonical gospels. Yes, there were things pulled in from other biblical sources. But it was still, in my estimation, a darned good job.

Excellent cinematography, too, by the way.

Go see this film. There's so much more I haven't processed, or blogged here. Wow. Go see this film.

My car is back and the bumper is better! W00T! Check it out yourself: Before and after. Or look at one image at a time using these links (a little clearer, I think):

Before 1
Before 2
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After 1
After 2

My life, continued…

Okay, so it's been about two weeks since I last posted. Wow. How to summarize… How about just the high points!

From what I can recall the week of the 8th was pretty uneventful. We had clericus in Oil City, PA on the 10th. I'd never been even by that church, so it was fun to look around and a good bible study and lunch. Tim's Beetle did well on the trip, even if he didn't have a PA map in the car. The car did well all week, and is really a fun car to drive. Not quite as peppy as I'd like, but very maneuverable and when cruising quite nice. Well put together and engineered, too.

That weekend I went to another parishioner's home for dinner, and again really enjoyed myself. I got home sooner, which was good, as I preached on Sunday the 15th. The sermon had to do with Christians being counter-cultural, so I wrote a set of American Beatitudes. Blessed are the rich, for those that accumulate the most money, the best car, and the nicest home will truly find happiness. But woe to the poor, for they are just lazy! If they'd just get jobs, they wouldn't have to be poor! Each one had a lecture attached. "Rich" was attached to debt and how much time we spend in and effort we spend getting out. "Poor" came with a wake-up call about how the system works to keep people on welfare and the like. It all got summed up with a lesson about little-g gods and big-G God. I used the "what's in your wallet" commercial but changed it to, "what's in your heart."

I got a lot of good feedback on this one. (Which is odd considering that one of the Beatitudes is, "Woe to you when people speak well of you.") Several people said it was "powerful." I'm not entirely sure what that means, but if I reached people, cool.

I left right after church on the 15th for Gambier, OH (Kenyon College). That's my brother's undergraduate school, and the school where Karl Stevens is the chaplain (Karl graduated from Seabury in my class). I met Tim there, and then Tim, Karl, his wife Amy, their daughter Ella and I all had dinner at the deli. It was good to catch up with them. Then Tim and I swapped cars and drove the extra hour to Columbus.

We went first to Easton Town Center, a huge mall complex (you can even live there). We were late in the day, though, so I just barely had time to buy iLife from the Apple Store before we left for his place. We hung out there Sunday until he left for a movie and I turned in.

Monday morning I called around looking for museums to visit. Turns out they're all closed on Mondays! So we hung out a bit, then went to a pub he knew for lunch (very good). On the way there I had the idea that we could go test-driving, so we went to the dealership where he has his car serviced and did that all afternoon. I drove a Jetta Wagon (1.8L Turbo) and he drove a SAAB 93 Turbo. Nice cars. I talked with the VW sales guy for a while. I think my next car might just be a Jetta or Passat (depending on how much I'm making then). Both cars h