Review: The Last Temptation of Christ
This movie raised the ire of a lot of Christians. It was a very controversial movie that presented an irritating portrait of Jesus.
Before my wife and I viewed this movie, we asked a Catholic priest if he recommended our viewing it. He told us that there are many people whom he would not recommend the movie to. But he recommended the movie to us, telling us the movie was thought-provoking. It sure was!
The Last Temptation Of Christ is much more a work of art than a story of our Lord. It centers on the struggle between the human side of Jesus and Jesus the Son of God: A struggle which is substantial by the prayer Jesus said in the garden before he was taken by the soldiers.
However, the movie shows Jesus as being desperate to learn God's plans for Him while the New Testament clearly states that Jesus knew God's plans when He was 12 years old. (Luke 2:48 - 52)
The movie focuses on the temptations Jesus suffered primarily due to his human side. The author took lots of license in doing this even to the point of angering some Christians. The majority of the temptations shown in the movie are not in the New Testament.
There is nothing wrong with showing how the human side of Jesus was tempted, but there are very few instances in the Bible where Jesus actually revealed He was tempted. When He spent 40 days in the desert, He very well may have been tempted, but temptation is not revealed in the way he responded to the devil's offers. (Luke 4:1-13 and Matthew 4: 1-11)
And why would Jesus be tempted while dying on the cross? Imagine the pain of being nailed to that cross for six hours and tell me how any human would be able to think of anything other than the pain. The scene of Jesus as a married man in bed with his wife was totally unnecessary. The movie had already made it's point.
I agree with the Catholic priest. The movie made me think of the suffering Jesus may have endured because He was human. But He also was and is the Son Of God. And as the Son of God, he was offering himself so that we may someday be in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And showing Him as a tormented man struggling with human temptation is not the way to thank Him for dying to save us. The only proper thanks is constant praise and prayer. I'm not sure if there is any such thing as thanking and praising Him enough!
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Published by John Mario
As a child, I wrote short stories and read them to my friends. I studied interior house wiring in a vocational high school. I majored in electrical engineering in college. I worked for 8 years as an electon... View profile
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1 Comments
Post a CommentI am not sure if I liked the movie or not, but I like showing the human side and the suffering, often Christians gloss over that, and by doing so the pain of the torture and crucifixion is lost on them.