Blood, Guts and Passion

When the movie, "The Passion of the Christ" came out millions flocked to it despite warnings about the gore. Undoubtedly many were moved greatly by the sight of such simulated suffering. In the final analysis it turned out to be anything but the "greatest evangelistic opportunity in 2,000 years" that some had predicted. If it ever was such an opportunity it seems very few unbelievers were actually reached by it.

Barna Research found that the number of people actually professing conversion as a result of the movie was less than 1 tenth of 1% of all viewers. If what we know about evangelistic crusades in general has any bearing here, less than 3% of those making a profession will actually go on to live the committed Christian life. Doing the math would bring the final number down to 0.003%, of the 64 million Americans who saw the movie - or about 1,920 people. To be scrupulous, according to other research, less than half the moviegoers needed conversion to begin with (which I seriously doubt) - so the 1,920 actually represents about 0.006% of the "target" group. To put the numbers in perspective, C.H. Spurgeon, in his entire lifetime, preached to far fewer people (about 10 million) and yet 15,000 souls were baptized into the faith under his ministry. This is a success rate of about 0.15%. Slim pickings by today's CGM standards, but still better than Mel.**

Admittedly, I'm having a bit of fun with the numbers. In reality the salvation of even a single soul is worth a whole world. The real point is to step back and to examine the unbounded and undiscerning enthusiasm with which many Christians, and especially Christian leaders, simply jumped on the bandwagon. What does it say about their credibility? What does it say about their discernment?

I seriously wonder if any of these enthusiasts ever stopped to ask why all four gospels - which have been the instrument of bringing people to Christ for 2,000 years - why these gospels have virtually nothing descriptive to say about the Passion of Christ. Jesus is described as having been scourged and having been crucified. There is no inordinate elaboration. Yet no detail, and no absence of detail in the Word of God is accidental. If the gospels do not give graphic descriptions of the Lord's sufferings it is for a good reason. A reason that was conceived in the Eternal Mind, wrought out in history, inspired in the writers of the Holy Scriptures and passed on to the church of all generations as the indestructible, unalterable, eternal Word of the Living God.

It won't do just to say that people in Jesus' time were familiar with the horrors of crucifixion and so didn't need graphic detail. The word of God was given to people of all generations until Christ returns. It is sufficient. It is complete as originally written. It contains all that is necessary for life and godliness in Christ. It is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Of course, we ought to study the history and culture of Bibical times so that we are able to see the message of the Bible in a clearer contextual light. I'm not decrying scholarship. We are not the sort of fundies that simply bury their heads in the sand. But it is ultimately whatever the Bible has to say that guides us - and if it deliberately chooses to say little about what we think is important it ought to be a flag to us.

So how does such scarcity of detail about so central a part of the gospel divide asunder our soul and spirit? Why not knock us down with the sheer physical horror of it all, as Mel Gibson does? I think the answer lies partly in what I mentioned above about evangelistic crusades. While God may use every part of our psyche in the process of our salvation, He does not rely primarily upon our emotion. The depiction of the terrible suffering of another can be powerfully provocative of the emotions, but emotions themselves are notoriously unreliable as a basis for true faith. We all know that our feelings might soar in love and adoration for God one day and that the heavens might seem like brass on the very next. Emotions, though valuable in worship and devotion to God as a part of our whole being, are not to be the thing that leads our minds and our wills. We are to have our faith grounded firstly upon facts.

Any faith that finds its primary source in the emotions is likely to wither as soon as the feelings subside. This is what happens at crusades. The emotions associated with peer pressure, temporary need, moving music and a friendly message dissipate under the glare of the world, the draw of the flesh and the power of the devil. These are false conversions brought about by an appeal to the wrong part of people's makeup. God undoubtedly saves some, but it is only a remnant of those that actually go forward.

Far more important is the fact that God has not given us a Christ Who needs our sympathy. He didn't come to be crucified so that we would feel sorry for Him. He's not appealing to our emotion. God is displaying His eternal character of selfless love and grace, while satisfying His eternal fury against sin. The cross is His glory, but it is our shame. What we see upon the cross is not just a man suffering - though it is a also man. We see the Eternal Son of Almighty God, come from heaven as a sacrifice to take away the sins of the world - to save His people from their sins. He is living out a plan that He and the Father settled before the world began, founded in a covenant between the Persons of the Godhead. It is an unalterable plan. A plan that was effectively complete as soon as it was conceived in the Divine Mind - since the thoughts and intentions of God are always brought to pass flawlessly.

You can't see this sort of God when your emotions are being put through the wringer. There is a place for the contemplation of the sufferings of Christ - but it bears fruit only to believers who are firmly grounded in Christ to begin with. Though God never limits Himself with regard to His means of drawing a soul to Christ (except always to be consistent with His holy character) neither does He appeal to the emotions as a routine means of conviction of sin. When the mind and heart are convinced of sin, the emotions will inevitably follow. And conviction of the heart is the work of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of Christ.

The blood of Christ, of which so much was depicted in Gibson's movie, is something that used to be spoken of and sung about constantly in the church. But try actually speaking about the Blood today. Try preaching upon it. Try putting it forward as the precious Blood of the Lamb of God and you will likely empty your churches, not fill them up. People who flocked to see the gore of Gibson's spectacle will run from the preaching of the same blood they swooned over in the movie theater. Many of those who had a temporary emotional burst of sympathy for a suffering man will flee when they hear what that Man's claim upon them truly is. The preaching of Christ, and of His Blood, is an offence to the world - foolishness - and it is torment for Satan. It is the Blood that cleanses us from all sin. It is the Blood that makes us acceptable in the sight of God - the Blood of Christ our Saviour.

We need to explain what the Blood of Christ truly is. The Blood of a thing is the life thereof. The Blood of Christ is the eternal, infinite, sufficient life of the Son poured out for His people to the very last drop. To the very last drop! Eternal life in the presence of God was wrought for us by the sacrifice of His life of infinite and eternal value. It was given to us freely, who caused His death. It is imparted to us for eternity starting the moment we first believe. It is by the Blood that we enter and by the Blood that we shall be able to stand eternally in the presence of God. These are spiritual truths expressed in the physical realm in the life of Christ Jesus.

The Blood, though a literal physical fluid that drained from the mortal body of Jesus, is symbolic of His infinite life. Not the span of his life as a man - but as the God-man. It represents the reality of His eternal and infinite, His pure and holy life. He bought for us with His life the infusion of that life into our sin-soaked beings. He bore in His body on the tree the wrath that God feels towards all our sins of the past and of the present and of the future. He has made the impossible possible. He has made a way for Holiness in the Person of God the Son to abide side by side with corruption in our beings, while He works by the Spirit to make us experientially holy - through sanctification.

I don't think Mel had these things in mind. And I don't think they came across in the movie. People were too distracted by the gore and by their own emotional sympathies. God might use the images to sow a seed that will effect something in some people later on, but He wants us to see Christ as victor, not as a victim. We lift Him up - Christ crucified - a scandal to the world and the power of God unto salvation for those that believe. The cross of Christ is His supreme victory, putting to shame the principalities and powers of darkness in the spiritual realm through the salvation of His church. It is finished!

So find the guts to speak of His Blood often. Sing about it. Preach on it. Be passionate about it. Pray the prayer of thanksgiving for it. The true saints know the importance of it, and what it represents – and if they don’t then the God of Heaven knows how to open their minds.

[**In order to properly punctuate this post there follows below the simple hymn “Nothing but the Blood” .]