Joel C. Rosenberg
Monday, Nov. 3, 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Oct. 23, as my book tour for "The Last Days" was just getting under way, I got a call inviting me to attend a private viewing of Mel Gibson's forthcoming film, "The Passion of Christ."

An intimate group of about 35 or 40 prominent Washingtonians would gather at a hotel in downtown D.C. We'd have the opportunity to meet with members of Gibson's team, view an unfinished rough cut of the film, and discuss it amongst ourselves.

The viewing would be off the record. We would need to sign a non-disclosure form. But given that I was now a best-selling author and an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, they were interested in my take.

It was an unexpected honor, and I gratefully accepted. We all met Friday night at 8 p.m., and I didn't get home until two o'clock in the morning. The film wasn't six hours, but our discussions lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. There is much that I cannot say about the film – yet. Not until closer to the Feb. 25, 2004, release. But I have been given permission by a top aide to Gibson to write this and talk about the film in various interviews and speeches I have over the next few months.

The film – and Gibson personally – have been viciously attacked as anti-Semitic. Nothing could be further from the truth. "The Passion of Christ" is one of the most powerful and spell-binding films ever made, and sure to spark the most important debate of all time: Who is Jesus?

I am not typically someone who cries during films (that's my wife's department). But I have to admit I wept repeatedly during the horrific scenes of Jesus' torture and execution. The images are brutal and realistic. I was watching an innocent man beaten, flogged, bloodied and crucified for nearly 90 minutes of the two-hour-plus film.

It was hard to process. Why would Jesus suffer all that for my sins? How could Jesus have endured so much, and stayed so silent, taking my punishment upon Himself? I know the answers in my heart and in my head. But this was different. Sitting in the dark. Transfixed by graphic, disturbing images. Gripped by haunting, excruciating questions, never so emotionally asked.

Christians are going to embrace this film. Hard-core atheists and those who passionately despise Christianity are going to attack this film without mercy. Never has the essence of the Christian gospel – "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" – been so powerfully illustrated by Hollywood.

The real question: How will those in the middle will react? How will nominal Christians, unchurched Baby Boomers and rebellious Gen-Xers see the "Passion"? I suspect they will be drawn to it. I suspect they will find themselves wrestling – perhaps unexpectedly – with the divinity and the humanity of Jesus in a way they've never done before.

Gibson's desire to show the world what really happened on that "Good Friday" nearly 2,000 years ago should be applauded, not vilified. And Gibson, to his credit, got it right by carefully following the Gospel accounts in the New Testament: the Jewish people are not to blame for the murder of Jesus. Nor are the Romans.

We are all to blame. As the Apostle Paul – also a Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background – tells us in Romans: "We all have sinned and fallen short of of the glory of God." We all need the message of the cross.

That said, the more I mull over the film I saw, the more it strikes me that an intense new cultural battle is brewing over this fundamental question: "Who is Jesus?"

Jesus Himself said He was the Messiah. He said He was God. Is He, or isn't He? If He isn't, what do we have to fear from His story being told? But if Jesus is the personification of the living God, will we follow or reject Him? Mel Gibson is about to use his Hollywood star power to raise those profound and eternal issues. But he's not the only one.

The No. 1 New York Times best seller for most of the year has been "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, a writer who's never been a big best-seller before. What's troubling about "The Code" is that it draws you unsuspectingly into the murder of a man who's protecting a 2,000-year-old conspiracy: secret documents that "prove" that Jesus had an adulterous relationship with Mary Magdelene, had a child with her, never believed he was the Messiah, and actually believed in goddess worship.

It's fiction, but a full-bore attack on the person and message of Jesus Christ, and it's finding a huge audience. Over 3 million copies of "The Da Vinci Code" are in print. The "Today" show featured it last week. Other network shows will feature it over the course of the next month.

So, it took me by surprise at my book launch party in New York when a Christianity Today reporter interviewed me about "The Last Days." Yes, he understood it begins with the assassination of Yasser Arafat, triggers a new war in the Holy Land and a wave of Palestinian suicide bombers heading to the United States.

That's all well and good, he said. But he was far more interested in the fact that the characters in "The Last Days" are on a spiritual journey, not just a political journey. He was intrigued with their pursuit of questions like "Is this new war on terror and the battle over control of Israel and Jerusalem evidence that we are living in what the Bible calls 'the last days' before the return of Jesus Christ?"

He wanted to know more about my background, how someone from an Orthodox Jewish background could come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah ... and what I thought about Dan Brown's book.

It appears he's writing a story for Christianity Today pitting "The Last Days" against "The Da Vinci Code." We'll see what happens. Until then, I just finding it interesting that a big cultural battle is brewing over the person and message of Jesus. It's a battle that's been raging for two millenia, and yet it's also somehow a battle that's long overdue.

To read full World feature on "The Last Days," please go to: http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/10-25-03/cultural_2.asp

To read the first chapter of "The Last Days," please go to: http://www.worldmag.com/world/home.asp

To go to the official Web site for "The Passion of Christ," please go to:
http://www.passion-movie.com/home.html

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