Two Thousand Years Later (the Passion Of The Christ)
By Marquez Comelab, Fri Dec 9th
TWO THOUSAND YEARS LATER
Following the release of the film: The Passion Of The Christ, weshould take this opportunity to remember what it was that JesusChrist may have died for. Perhaps we can re-think and re-learnthe message He had been trying to tell us two thousand yearsago. ----------------------
The Passion of The Christ has caused a lot of discussions. Somepeople accuse the film to be anti-Semitic or that it has thepotential to incite hatred and violence towards Jews. Otherpeople object mainly to Mel Gibson's gruesome depiction of JesusChrist's last 12 hours on earth in his latest film: The PassionOf The Christ. Though these are of importance, we should notallow Christ's main message to drown and be set aside in favorof our discussions of religion, politics, film-comparisons,film-critiques and censorship. We should take this opportunityto remember what it was that Jesus Christ died for. Perhaps wecan re-think and re-learn the message He may have been trying totell us two thousand years ago.
I would have preferred this paper to discuss only the mainteaching of Christ and how it relates to us today; however Ifeel that I should address the two most popular discussionsregarding the film before I can continue on. Was itanti-Semitic? I don't believe the film was anti-Semitic. TheJews had to make a decision then and they did it no differentlyto how we, as a society, conduct our affairs today. In thelatter part of this document, I argue that there is no reasonfor non-Jews to blame the Jews for what had happened. Was thegore and violence of the film appropriate? Yes. I think that thegore and violence of the film was important in illustrating thesacrifice that Jesus had to make, and was willing to take, sothat we would understand what he had been trying to tell us allalong. The pain and suffering he had endured shows the amount ofstrength that is required to love - completely and truly.
Regardless of what your religious beliefs are, or whether youhave a religion or not, let me first ask you to assume, just forthis paper, to forget religion. Forget the notion that JesusChrist was the Son of God. Forget the notion that he was senthere by a Divine Power. Let us just assume that he was a mortalman, made of flesh and blood, just like you and me. He saw theworld differently however. He interpreted information, hisexperiences and his emotions differently to how most of usprocess our internal and external environments. As a result, hegained immense wisdom and knowledge beyond the comprehension ofmost of us. He tried to tell us something. He tried to sharewith us what he knew.
The main teachings of Jesus Christ revolve around the core ideaof LOVE. Love everything. Love everybody. Even your enemies! Ifthey hit you on one cheek, turn the other cheek. Like Buddha'smessage: Do NOT do unto others what you would NOT like others dounto you. Be compassionate towards all beings. That was whatthey taught: LOVE.
He believed that it is the only philosophy that will allow usall to achieve harmony and happiness in our universe and in ourlives. No amount of hate should be allowed every day and inevery way that we conduct ourselves. No matter what happens, wemust not hate or wish malicious thoughts towards anything oranybody.
To spread that message, he spoke about it when he could, wherehe could. People flocked to the mountains and in the templeswhere he preached. A lot of his ideas fascinated people. Theywere new, bizarre and sometimes his ideas went against basichuman instincts and the prevailing beliefs that people had atthe time. He was a leader, like a shepherd guiding his herd ofsheep. He led with utmost integrity.
We have had a lot of leaders in the past, now and we willcontinue to follow them in the future. They tell us one thingbut they do not have the strength and courage it takes to refuseto do another. They contradict themselves and their ideals.
Is it only our leaders, celebrities and other prominent membersof our society - whom we read about in the papers - who are atfault? No. Their faults are our faults. How is that? Because westill believe that it is OK to hate or express negative emotionstowards others whom we feel have done us wrong or will do uswrong. We, as people, still exhibit little signs of compassion,consideration, thoughtfulness and understanding towards otherpeople and other beings.
We experience negative emotions towards other
people when theymock us, when they ridicule us, when they bully us, when theyhumiliate us, when they deny us justice or fairness, when theytorture us, when they kill or threaten to kill our loved ones,or when they deny us anything else that we consider to be our'human rights'.
"Of course", we say. "That's natural!"
That is exactly my point! Jesus Christ had to endure all thatand yet he had gone through his last twelve hours withoutdisplaying any signs of anger, hatred, disappointment, greed orfear. In fact, during his crucifixion, he still asked that hisenemies be forgiven for they knew not what they were doing. Whoamong us has the courage, strength and wisdom to be able toaccept our predicaments like that?
Jesus Christ has shown us that we must love even our enemies, bewise enough to increase our capacity to understand and showcompassion towards all beings...regardless of what happens.
The Jews at the time had to make a decision: to kill Jesus ornot. What would have been the right thing for them to do? Theydid not know. If you were a common person in the streets ofJerusalem at that time and you were asked what you would like tohappen to Jesus, what would you have said? For a lot of people,the information they had of Jesus Christ was very sketchy. Hewas whispered to be The Messiah. He had many controversial ideasbut he seemed very wise and he had helped ease the misery of alot of people. At the same time, Jesus was also accused of beinga liar, a madman, a witch and a blasphemer. He had made Lazaruscome back to life, walked on water and he had turned water intowine. Would you have believed those miracles? If they were nottrue, why would people have made them up? If they were true thendefinitely, Jesus was no ordinary man. And if he had powers likethat, what else was he capable of doing? What if he was theDevil in disguise? Maybe it was right that he be killed whilehis threat could still be subdued. There were so many peoplechanting for his death. Surely their reasoning would not havebeen baseless.
It was not an easy decision for any person or any group ofpeople to make. Even Pontius Pilate who was in a position tohave all the information in the land to make a decision, wastorn what to do with Jesus. Pilate was like the President of theUnited States, with all the advisers, intelligence agencies andreporters at his disposal. Yet, he did not know what he wassupposed to do.
The decision came to pass to crucify Jesus. The High Priestswere threatened of him. Pontius Pilate weighed his decision andallowed the people to make the choice for him. Those who weremost vocal and more aggressive in their belief that Jesus Christought to die, got their way that day. There may have been peoplewho probably felt strongly against it but they were not willingor able to do anything to stop it. Others were not thereprobably because they allowed themselves to be in a positionwhere they knew too little information to have an opinion at atime when it was crucial that they did. Sadly, many may not justhave cared.
Think of all current issues we face. There are some of us whochoose FOR or AGAINST a motion. Others do not choose, however,by not choosing, they have also made a choice. As one globalvoice, we are all divided in our opinions towards most of theseissues. And only with hindsight, can we truly assess the impactof the choices we have made. It is the same dilemma that theJews faced then.
Should we look outside ourselves to see whom we can blame forthe killing of Jesus? No. The Jews killed Jesus, a fellow Jew,but how different are we when we kill or hurt our own? Howdifferent are we when we allow others to suffer because it wasnot our problem or because we did not yet know enough about theproblem?
Added with our inability to be wiser than we are to accept andfeel compassion towards all beings, it was our 'human nature' tohate and inflict pain and suffering on others that crucifiedJesus Christ. That 'human nature' still remains unchanged evenafter two thousand years. What Jerusalem was then is what theworld is now. And it will be that way forever...until we change.
About the author:Marquez Comelab is a private forex trader. He is the author ofthe book: The Part-TimeCurrency Trader. The book outlines the process of how youcan develop your own trading methodology that suits yourpsychology and financial circumstance to buy and sell currenciesin the forex market, while minimizing your risks. It can bepurchased from www.marquezcomelab.com.
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