Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus asked His followers a question: “Who do you say I am?” It’s still the fundamental question of life. And the answer creates controversy.
It’s one reason why Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, is so controversial. This is a film that has had the audacity to portray Christ as He really was – not only as an historical figure, but as the Savior of the world.
If you’ve been listening to and reading the reviews you know that many people in the media have a real problem with this movie. Why? One writer has said that the film is “an offense to the postmodern sensibilities of our morally relativistic culture. Indeed, in the savagery of the attacks on Gibson what is coming out of the closet is a visceral hatred of Christianity.”
In other words, to say that Jesus is THE Savior is politically incorrect. Mel Gibson is under attack not because he twisted the biblical story about Jesus but because his film, for the most part, is faithful to the biblical truth. The world wants to say that there are many ways to God – that each and every religion is equally valid. So, we shouldn’t be surprised when the true story of Jesus as depicted on this film creates controversy.
The world likes to present Jesus as a man who went around doing good deeds, healing people, and kissing babies on the head. We’re to respect Him as a wonderful religious figure and as an example. But to say that He’s THE Savior… well, that’s just intolerant.
But the people who want to put Jesus in the great religious leader category have missed a central point. Great religious leaders who do good deeds, heal people, and kiss babies don’t end up executed.
Jesus wasn’t a kind, likable, generous religious figure. He was a revolutionary… with revolutionary ideas, revolutionary dreams, revolutionary expectations, and revolutionary claims. It got Him killed.
If you don’t really understand what caused Jesus to be in so much trouble, then you’ve missed a key point in the message of the Passion of the Christ.
What “crime” did Jesus commit?
Series: The Passion of the Christ: True or false?
Text: Selected
Talks in the coming weeks will give the biblical answers to: Did Jesus really suffer that much? Why did Jesus die? Couldn’t there have been another way? How now should we live?
The Passion of the Christ is a film about the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus. It starts with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and shows His betrayal, His trial, His scourging, His walk to Calvary, and His crucifixion. The film is long on the “how,” but not so keen on the “why.” That’s where examining the rest of the story as written in the Bible comes in. This morning, we’re going to look at the context – at what Jesus did to stir up so much controversy that the Jewish religious leaders said He had to die.
What caused Jesus to be in so much trouble with the religious leaders?
His call for integrity
The temple in Jerusalem was a money making machine. The officials sold animals for sacrifice. And jacked up the prices. They also required that you use temple money to buy your sacrifices. And they charged very high fees to exchange Jerusalem currency into Temple currency. The religious leaders had figured out how to make church big business.
Now, what did Jesus think about this?
Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves. He said, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a place of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” The blind and the lame came to him, and he healed them there in the Temple. The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the little children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.” But they were indignant.
Matthew 21:12-15 (NLT)
You must be men of integrity if you are going to lead people spiritually!
What caused Jesus to be in so much trouble with the religious leaders? His call for integrity…
His challenge to authority
People want to be taught. Before Jesus hit the scene, the Pharisees were seen as the true holy men. How they interpreted the Bible was considered to be true! They had positional authority. And people would listen and follow. But Jesus put things on the bottom shelf for the common man. They flocked to hear Him.
The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Matthew 7:28b-29 (NIV)
When Jesus returned to the Temple and began teaching, the leading priests and other leaders came up to him. They demanded, “By whose authority did you drive out the merchants from the Temple? Who gave you such authority?”
Matthew 21:23 (NLT)
What caused Jesus to be in so much trouble with the religious leaders? His call for integrity, His challenge to authority…
His claim of deity
The Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
John 8:57-59 (NKJV)
I am who I am long before Abraham was anything. Msg
The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born! NLT
Let’s take a look at a scene from The Gospel of John where Jesus claims to have a oneness with the Father. This scene is word-for-word from John 10. Roll that tape…
A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
We must deal with the popular but untrue statement: “Jesus never claimed to be God.” Matthew 26:63-64 tells us: ``The high priest said to him, `I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.’ `Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied.’’
So, the call to integrity, the challenge to authority, and the claim of deity caused such a stir that Jesus had to be eliminated. He was costing them money, costing them a following, and costing them security. He had to go.
What crime did He commit? No crime! The Bible says He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. The Bible that He knew no sin.
It is better that one man die for the nation…
Pilate is gripped by a moral dilemma, and takes the weakling’s way out, ordering Christ crucified -- though he believes Christ to be innocent.
Let me remind you once again: There is no room for anti-semitism. We can’t blame the Jews for the death of Jesus. Yes, from a human standpoint, they share in the responsibility.
But there is no single, earthly source to blame for killing Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders hated Jesus, so they arrested Him and delivered Him to the Roman official, Pontius Pilate, for execution. He could have released Jesus, but Pilate, too, shares responsibility because he gave into to the influence of yet a third party who contributed to the death of Jesus, the crowd in Jerusalem who kept shouting, “Crucify Him!” In the end, however, it was sinners like me and you who killed Jesus. No one can point a finger at any other person or group for the death of Jesus. Our sins were the reason Jesus had to be crucified.
And, as we learned last week, ultimately, it was God the Father who killed His Son, Jesus. Acts 2:23 clearly says that Jesus was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” Jesus did not die by mistake. Yes, our sins made Jesus’ death necessary. But God brought it to pass. So in God’s sending Jesus to receive His wrath so we could receive eternal life, sinners are saved from God, by God.
Jim Caviezal, when asked if the film is anti-Jewish in an interview, said, “Our faith is grounded in our Jewish tradition. We believe we’re from the House of David. We believe we’re from the House of Abraham, so we cannot hate our own. That crowd standing before Pontius Pilate screaming for the head of Christ in no way convicts an entire race for the death of Jesus Christ any more than the actions of Mussolini condemn all Italians, or the heinous actions of Stalin condemn all Russians. We’re all culpable in the death of Christ. My sins put him up there. Yours did. That’s what this story is about.”
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
Romans 5:8-9 (NIV)
Now we’re moving from the reasons for Jesus’ death to the purpose for His death. It helps to move from the gospels to the epistles to learn more about the purpose.
Last week, we read a verse about Jesus death and saw the word “propitiation.” This week’s word is “justified.” Did you see it? Jesus’ death accomplished justification for all who believe.
Justification: Pronouncing (declaring) a person guiltless and righteous
We must understand that we are guilty.
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23 (ESV)
Usually, we’ll admit that. “Yeah, I’ve sinned.” But we don’t think it’s that bad. In fact, we think we’re really pretty good all things considered. We overestimate our own performance and underestimate God’s expectations. We think God owes us His forgiveness. But we ought not to think “how could God be a good God if He did not forgive?” but “how could God be a good God if He did forgive?” He’s a judge and a judge must punish sin. No amount of good that we do can atone for our sins or earn us a place in Heaven. And if we die without receiving the benefits of Jesus’ death, the wrath of God will fall on us forever.
The death of Jesus was unique because His life was unique. Since Jesus never sinned – never committed a crime – He never had to die; rather He chose to die. And because Jesus never broke the law of God, He could die as a substitute in the place of lawbreakers.
Without Jesus paying the price to cover our sin, there would be nothing standing between us and the eternal agonizing damnation that we rightly have earned as fallen sinners:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ...
Romans 1:18
Someone had to pay that enormous price for our offense against God. Either us, or Jesus. So, the passage in Romans 3 continues:
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. He [is] just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:23-25a, 26b (ESV)
To be "justified" means more than having all sins forgiven. It also means to be given credit for living the perfect life Jesus lived. Only a perfect life earns entrance into a perfect world with a perfect God. And only through the death of Jesus can we get the perfect life of Jesus that we need to enter heaven.
We made an “F.” The teacher forgave us for our “F.” And then turned it into an “A.”
Three responses to the Passion of Jesus:
I’ll live righteously, Lord Jesus.
Let’s face it. It’s easy for us to become complacent – lukewarm. We can take Christ’s suffering for granted as we follow Christ over the years. But it’s my prayer that viewing the film and, more importantly, really thinking through what Jesus accomplished on the cross will shock us into a new appreciation of His sacrifice.
Last Sunday a teenager came up to me after one of the services and said, “I’m going home and getting rid of some stuff.”
I’ll live righteously, Lord Jesus.
I’ll worship You, Lord Jesus.
I’m praying that this film and our thinking about the cross of Christ will result in a massive intensification of our affections for Christ. We need an ongoing deep sense of worship of Jesus. All of our worship must be more intense. We must be less cavalier about the things of God. We ought to have more depth of joy.
Yesterday I was walking and praying. I was thanking God for His attributes. I was thinking, “All that God is is infinite.” So, I prayed, “I honor You because Your mercy is immeasurable. Your grace is irresistable. Your love is unfathomable. Your joy is irrepressible.” Then, I thought of His wrath and I almost said, “Your wrath is unquenchable.” But I caught myself. His wrath is not unquenchable. It has been quenched! But how? How can the righteous wrath of God against sin – against those who have enjoyed His benefits but lived in rebellion – how can that wrath ever be quenched? Then it struck me. Only God can quench the wrath of God.
And that’s what happened on that cross.
I’ll worship You, Lord Jesus.
I’ll follow You, Lord Jesus.
After one of the preview showings of the Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson was interviewed. When asked what his goal is for the movie, what he hopes people will glean from it, he said, “I hope they watch the movie and want to read the Book. I hope they are changed.”
I’ll follow You, Lord Jesus.
A point to ponder: The Passion of the Christ ought to produce in me a passion for the Christ.
This is not just an evangelistic opportunity but a great wake-up call for the Church.
A verse to remember: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Questions to consider: Since I have now been declared righteous, what changes ought to take place in my life?
“Lord Jesus, I am moved by Your agonizing passion on the cross. I understand that it was for my sins that You suffered. Thank You for Your sacrifice. Thank You for loving me so passionately. Please forgive me of my sins. I want to turn my life around and begin life anew with You as my Lord and Savior. Thank You for conquering sin and death so that I can have eternal life with You. Amen.”
