It really does not matter what you think of Mel Gibson these days. He has had some bad years lately. He has come so far from the days that he was on the screen playing Benjamin Martin in the Patriot, William Wallace in Brave heart, Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon series, or even Mad Max Rockatansky in Beyond Thunder dome.
You would be justified if you did not like him for his behavior, for the domestic abuse charge or the anti Semitic screed that have plagued his later life. It would be easy to discount the whole body of his work based on these incidents alone. However, even if you do not like him and would not see him in another film, every Christian owes him a debt of gratitude for his work on the Passion of the Christ.
Watching this film has become a yearly event around Easter. The raw nature of the film can bring the audience to near rapture allowing the watcher an understanding of the crucifixion that most will never realize through their Christian life. Maybe it is a case of God using Balaam’s Ass again but he deserves credit for making one of the most important Christian movies since the Ten Commandments.
There is one scene that is the most impressive scene in the whole movie. It is not a scene that really stands out that much, it is not the scourging, it is not the betrayal in the Garden, it is not the trip up the Via Delarosa but because of the way that it was filmed it is the most important scene in the entire film.
In the scene we see Jim Caviezel playing Jesus being lowered onto the cross piece of the cross. The arm and hands of the centurions wrestle our Saviors hands into place as one set of hands come into view with the nails and hammer. We catch a glimpse of the hammer descending towards the nail and then cut away to the underside of the beam as the nail pierces through it.
I do not want to concentrate on the brutal act of the crucifixion, we could fix our attention on the bloodied body, the ripped skin, the ravaged person of Jesus but it would not be the part that I am talking about. Do not get me wrong every second of the crucifixion is important, every lash of the whip, every drop of blood is necessary for us to realize exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. What I want to concentrate on are those hands holding the nail and the hammer.
Mel Gibson wanted to make a statement with this film; his statement, though veiled, was those hands. We never see the face of the people who play the centurions in that scene; the most important thing is the act that those hands performed, the actual crucifixion. We are led to assume that those hands could belong to anyone. But the hands that we see are Mel’s own hands.
The statement that he wanted to make was that he was responsible for Jesus’ Crucifixion and death. He wanted to say that it was his sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. Like him or not he is right, like him or not, it is a statement that each of us needs to take to heart. Each of us owns a part of the crucifixion, each of us nailed Him to the cross. We all should be on that cross, a righteous God demands it. We have all committed cosmic treason and are deserving of death. A loving God took our place dying for us. He paid the price we could not pay to receive the life we did not deserve. Our sins nailed him there, our hands held the hammer, our hands held the nail.
Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
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