'The Passion' reminds world of Good Friday

Thomas Hidya Tjaya, Lecturer, Driyarkara School of Philosophy, Jakarta

This week, Christians all over the world will commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This event maintains a very important place in Christian faith because through the suffering and death of Jesus, mankind was saved and their covenant with God, restored. Through Jesus' sacrifice in bearing the cross -- the sins of all men -- and God's sacrifice of His only son, the world came to salvation. Christians thus commemorate Good Friday as God's redemption of man.

This year, the death of Christ is also marked by the recent release of the much talked-about movie, The Passion of the Christ, directed by Mel Gibson.

The movie opened to the public on Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, and portrays the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ. It has sparked some heated controversies, particularly among those critics who deem it anti-Semitic -- that it blames the Jews for Jesus' death. Despite such controversies -- or precisely because of them -- people have flocked to movie theaters and other venues to watch the movie.

Insofar as this movie has been discussed, it cannot be denied that The Passion is extremely violent and bloody. In the opening minutes, the audience is thrust into the world of violence that will continues to shock until the final credits.

Some critics say The Passion is inherently a "celebration of violence" in which torture is displayed in all its gruesomeness and blood is shed copiously. As Gibson has said repeatedly, he meant to shock -- and in this regard, he certainly succeeds in confronting viewers with the harsh reality of Jesus' agony.

For most of us, it is extremely hard to watch such graphic violence -- images of flayed, swollen, scarred and torn flesh, rivulets of blood, the crack of bones breaking and the groans of a person enduring the ultimate in physical suffering. It is not the alleged anti-Semitism, but the sadism thus depicted that is most striking. Many viewers may need to hold their breath and finally shed their tears throughout the viewing.

At the same time, the relentless gore detracts from the image of Jesus as the bearer of divine truth. The violence he suffers swallows up, as it were, his divine glory. It is dreadfully bleak. What is left is only a gory picture of his suffering and death.

While one may feel uneasy watching such a violent movie, one should realize that many people across the globe have actually lived and continue to live the same harsh reality portrayed in it.

This month, the people of Rwanda commemorate the 10th anniversary of the genocide that happened there, a horrible atrocity they will never forget. They cried for help, but nobody listened. Those who have been persecuted unjustly -- prisoners of war or innocent civilians alike -- surely know such bitter suffering.

Like in The Passion, victims of violence all over the world may suffer not only the pain, but also the humiliation that is part and parcel of torture. In the movie, the Roman soldiers laugh when torturing Jesus, as though he were just a toy to them.

Victims of violence usually suffer such mental, emotional and physical scars that after enduring the agony, they often do not look like human beings any longer. In watching The Passion, viewers will find it all too easy to imagine the torture and violence that many people have to endure in this world -- even today.

This is not meant to legitimize violence in our midst, but rather to show that this harsh reality still exists in the world of mankind. What happened recently in Iraq -- and what continues to happen there -- shows how badly we human beings can treat each other.

After four U.S. security contractors were killed in an ambush in Falluja, Iraq, and their vehicles set ablaze, a crowd of cheering residents dragged two of the charred bodies out of the vehicles and hacked at them with shovels. Two other bodies were mutilated and publicly paraded through the town's streets (The Jakarta Post, April 1, 2004).

Putting aside the political issue in the Iraq conflict, we should find the incident abhorrent because it is so dehumanizing. It may make us wonder whether we have the conscience and goodwill to treat others, particularly those we consider enemies, with respect.

In his book Jesus the Liberator, Spanish-born theologian Jon Sobrino reminds us that the crucifixion of Christ is a great scandal in that "it involves death unjustly inflicted on a just and innocent person by human beings" (p. 233). He says such acts deeply offends reason -- that we could do such things to fellow human beings. It is sadder still that up until now, we have never learned from the tragedy and ruthlessness of such acts.

Violence occurs every single day in this world, mostly for political or religious causes, not to mention domestic violence and other abuse at home. It seems there is so much hatred among us that needs to be unleashed. Ironically, however, many of us cannot stand watching violent movies like The Passion -- what we sometimes inflict on others is precisely that from which we try to incubate ourselves, even if is just a movie.

Violence can be accidental, as in the case of a mob beating up a pickpocket caught in the act. But there is also the violence that is systematically engineered, in Sobrino's words, the "structural injustice in the form of institutionalized violence" (p. 215). Structural injustice occurs when we let the system oppress the poor and the defenseless by washing our hands of the matter or simply walking away from the victims.

For Sobrino, this form of violence is the origin of all dehumanization and therefore, it is the worst and the most inhuman; but since institutionalized violence is the root of all other violence, it is the hardest battle of all.

We should also bear in mind that we unleash violence not only against our fellow man, but also against other living creatures and our environment. When we trade in endangered species or damage our forests through illegal logging, we have committed violence against the Earth. So far, we have been slow to acknowledge just how much violence we have brought into the world through our irresponsible actions.

Perhaps we need to learn, once again, as Sobrino points out, that all violence -- even violence that seem justified -- is potentially dehumanizing. Violence triggers a cycle of violence which, in the end, destroys those who exercise it.

Jesus, on the other hand, offered an alternative to violence -- the utopia of peace. It is the ultimate goal and to achieve it, He taught: Be prepared to lose your life to win it, happy are those who are persecuted, those who are pure in heart.

The graphic violence depicted in The Passion exposes us to countless sufferings inflicted upon so many in the world -- there are many "Good Fridays" happening around the world that never reach us, their stories never told. While many viewers may have sobbed loudly through the film, we may never hear the sobs and the lament of families who have just lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers or husbands and wives.

The timely shock of The Passion should be a wake-up call for all of us -- to stop any form of violence in this world.