Mel Gibson is good in what he does. The passion of Jesus Christ directed by him made great sense to me, with a lot of emotional connection.
He made it look real ,touching deeply the very emotions of many. Only a man with a still and stale heart would stay pleasantly happy, smiling and laughing while watching that passion.
Only a “willing Jesus” could go through such sessions of man’ inhumanity to man, wickedness,frustration and lack of empathy without snapping and throwing in the towel.
He was willing, even the scary scene or vision at the Garden of Gethsemane couldn’t persuade him to be unwilling. His body was weak but strong and uncompromising in spirit.
He saw the pains, the flagellations, the spatting, the crown of thorns, the noise of the nails, tearing his flesh and crushing his bones, he saw blood in drops, driping down his face, his hands,by his sides, the shame of his nakedness and the betrayal of Judas and Peter . All these made him unwilling at some point( human nature) hence he prayed for the cup to pass him by.
As I watched that passion of Christ by Mel Gibson, it dawned on me, only a willing Jesus could go through such and still have a heart of unconditional forgiveness.
What would an “unwilling Jesus” do in such moments of extreme cruelty? Shame and inhuman treatment? What would an “unwilling Jesus” do at the sight of Judas in the midst of the Jewish army? What would he possibly do, when his ego was touched and was challenged to come down from the cross if indeed he was the son of God? What would the “unwilling Jesus” do, draged on a bumpy and stonny path of calvary with the burden of the cross on his shoulder?
It looks so emotional watching him ,the wiling Jesus endure all that, after all , he is God, many would say to justify his pristine approach to the whole gory drama. No! The “willing Jesus” didn’t go to the golgotha as divine, rather as human, with all his senses and emotions intact.
He wasn’t less human than anyone of us . As human and emotional anyone can be, so was he , through out those moments of falling, flagellation, crowing, tearing off garment and his crucifixion, his human nature was at its full operational alertness with no divine immunity or head start.
He could have chosen to be and act as an “unwilling Jesus” in all the very steps and moments that culminated to his crucifixion.
The “unwilling Jesus” wouldn’t in the first place ask the Apostles not to put up a fight against the Jewish army.
He would have put up a fight against that soldier that slapped him. His head for the thorned crown and his legs and hands for the nails he wouldn’t have willingly submitted.
Coming down from the cross at the challenge of people wouldn’t be a big issue. Seamlessly he would have done it to feed his ego.
At the Garden of Gethsemane, the “unwilling Jesus” wouldn’t bulge and bat an eye lid, declining to drink from the cup.
The world we live in ,is filled with many “unwilling Jesus” on the road to the golgotha. Many of such “Jesus”, would say no to the weight and burden of the cross. Right on the cross of shame and ignominy many of these “unwilling Jesus” in our midst of which I may be one would have come down at such a challenge, just to save battered ego.
The road to the cross, the path to ones salvation , the terrain that leads to the crown of glory are not plied on with the garment and cloak of an “unwilling Jesus” that is not dead to human nature.
The Church presently is under severe attack. Bandits and kidnappers are currently having field days within the circumference of the church. Life is lost, churches’ desecrated , men of God killed.
It is about time we made away with all shades, appearances and signs of the “unwilling Jesus” in our church circles.
An “unwilling Jesus” that would rather follow the emotions and sentiments of their craves and desires against the will and desires of God.
Could it be that the church has left that ancient path of the “willing Jesus” who would forgive unconditionally, love without barrier, obedient unto death in God’s will, sacrifice without holding back, mortify with joy, live in purity without compromise etc to that path that shows nothing but selfishness, crave for worldliness, materialism, ego tripping and willingness at all times not to do the will of God and drink from that chalice of salvation?
It seems to me that the church is too alive in ephemerals, ready to embrace those things that fall short to the Apostolic spirituality but dead to things that made them seen and called Christian by mere life lived.
The “willing Jesus” is urgently needed in the circle of the churches’ activities, behind and in front of closed and opened doors.
The incursion of these daredevil miscreants is by day getting closer and daring, to say it would by matter of time get embarrassing and hapless is everything but false.
The Church bleeds, the congregation griped in fear and the “Lord’ anointed” an endangered species in their garment and oil.
It is time we get off our comfort zones and embrace both in words and deeds the willingness of that Jesus that shuned the devil , his gifts, distractions and pleasures ,focusing more on the glory that comes through the cross.
I may be that “unwilling Jesus” breaking the hedge, creating spaces and opening for the serpent bite in and around the church.
You too may equally be the one. It is getting messy, whoever is in possession of this “looted bleating goats and sheep” from the “Amalekite” should let them go, for the wrath of God seems imminent. A lot of such goats and sheep bleat around us.
Jarlath Uche Opara
