If I was going to film a movie about Jesus, I might be tempted to take the hero action film approach. When Pilate "tried" Him and had Him flogged, I would've had Peter and John and some other disciple muscle bust in and roll some heads. These soldiers put a purple robe (which spoke of royalty) and mocked Him again and again, saying "Hail, King of the Jews!" and then they'd strike Him in the face. I would've staged a rescue at this point and had Jesus riden out of town on a beautiful black stallion.
Pilate is often portrayed as a quasi innocent pawn in the "game" that brought Jesus to the cross. "I wash my hands of this man's blood," he stated, but he was guilty. He had Him beat mercilessly and let Him be taken away to be crucified. One of the henchmen in my film would've sliced his throat during the escape from his palace.
The only time Pilate showed any spine was when he stuck by the inscription he had written on the cross: "King of the Jews."
When Jesus was on the cross, He looked down and saw Mary cubed (Mary 3): His mom, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene (His supposed wife, if the Davinci Code conspiracy weren't false). He looked down and told His mom and John that John was to take care of her. He didn't say anything about Mary Magdelene. Isn't that odd that He didn't make any provisions for His wife? That's because He wasn't married! (but the Davinci Code conspirators will say that's because the Scriptures were edited by the Church to change history. Puh-leeze!)
It's interesting that Jesus was laid in the nearby, previously-unused tomb. Joseph of Arimathea was one of those "secret agent Christians," who followed Jesus but didn't tell anybody, for fear of losing his status, etc. But He asked for permission to bury the body of Jesus. John 19 talks about the tomb as if it were a convenient after thought because of its proximity (and the fact that time was running out before sundown and the start of the Sabbath). The book of Matthew, however, tells us that Joseph owned this tomb, having cut it out of the rock.
One of my favorite verses to refer humorously to is John 21:12. That number, of course, is famous among my generation of rockers, as the Canadian trio Rush had created a progressive rock opus / concept album called 2112. In this verse Jesus says, "Come, let us eat breakfast." What's amazing is that the resurrected Christ was eating food. This is something that a spirit body most likely could not do. This was after a miracle where Jesus hollered to the disciples out in their boat. They didn't recognize it was He, but they followed His directions and caught a haul was huge -- 153 large fish. Peter kind of new at that moment that it was the Lord, and he jumped into the water to meet him. All the way in (about a hundred yards) he was probably thinking, 'I need to ask for forgiveness for denying Him three times. Will He forgive me? What if He doesn't? Surely He will.' Much like our minds wander when we jog and exercise, I bet Peter was thinking such thoughts. It must have delighted Jesus to see His disciples so excited to see Him. He was really loved by those guys, and the drama of losing Him only to gain Him again via resurrection was just over-the-top joy. What happened next was beautiful: Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him. While Peter got exasperated by being asked repeatedly, it was the same amount of times that he had denied Him, so it was like poetic retribution for him to affirm Jesus three times later. And Jesus didn't once rub Peter's nose in his failure. He treated him like a leader. "Take care of My sheep," He said.
Jesus loves us just as deeply and uniquely as these 11 guys. I imagine that even if Judas had not committed suicide but later asked forgiveness, Jesus would have received him, too.
The warrior in me really liked your movie version of the "trial" of Jesus. But if it had happened like that we would be living in darkness, if we were living at all.
Posted by: solomon at November 14, 2005 05:10 PM