Mel Gibson’s take on Satan (part 2)
Disciple Dojo continues its series by Olatunde Howard on the topic of angels, demons, God and Satan as portrayed in pop-culture, particularly in movies. So far we’ve looked at “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “The Devil’s Advocate“…now Olatunde takes a look at perhaps the most eerie depiction of Satan in recent film history–the androgynous figure in “The Passion of the Christ”
Please share your thoughts, questions or feedback in the comments section below! And, again, if you would like to read more from Olatunde on this or similar subjects be sure to check out his book “The Mind of Christ” …which sports an excellent cover designed by yours truly!
JM
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[Continued from PART 1]
Satan won’t be so beautiful or alluring or attractive or intriguing that his evil won’t somehow come through.
This is true with any and every temptation. There will be something in the temptation, or the very nature of the temptation itself, which the tempted person knows should be resisted–something that shouldn’t be trusted or yielded to. But when sin is committed, the evil, or perverted good, KNOWN BY THE PERSON BEING TEMPTED, gets ignored or rationalized.
For example, if a man is tempted to commit adultery, on one hand, the adulteress will seem irresistible. On the other hand, there will often be something repulsive or untrustworthy about her, either physically or in her personality. Something will alert the man to her evil, her untrustworthiness. And something will remind the man of marriage, of what is trustworthy, a picture of tried and true beauty. But of course Satan will try to down play the wife’s beauty of personality and body, while exaggerating the adulteress’s beauty, yet minimizing what is ugly about adultery.
The same is true for the adulterer’s spouse. She will often know from the beginning that there is something “off” about him, a “red flag” if you will.
(Disclaimer: I’m speaking here of someone who loves his spouse deeply, yet is tempted, rather than every adultery temptation in general. There are some who feel they’ve “married the wrong person,” and that the one they are committing adultery with is the one they should have been with in the first place. I’m not speaking of this, because Satan would use a different temptation altogether, namely a downplaying of commitment until death. Satan would down play the fact that the adulterous relationship will lose its “fire” and go through the same trials as the unsatisfying marriage is going through in the adulterous situation. He’ll down play why the marriage happened in the first place, namely the fire of being in love that was there in the beginning. He will cause the adulterer and adulteress to forget that there used to be fire in the failed marriage, or with the disappointing husband or wife. They used to be “hot for each other.” He’ll make it seem like it was a mistake from the very beginning, and that there was never any fire. There are many scenarios leading to adultery, and I’m not dealing with them all here. I’m only dealing with the hidden perversion in one specific type of adulterous situation.)
I cannot emphasize this enough! With EVERY temptation, there is a perversion–an IGNORED perversion–which will bring condemnation ONLY AFTER THE SIN IS COMMITED!
“I knew it!”
“I saw it in his eyes!”
“I heard it in her voice.”
“I should have left when the phone rang!”
The sinful experience WILL NOT BE PERFECT! As alluring as the adulterer or adulteress is, there will be something unattractive about him or her THAT WILL BE IGNORED!!!
BUT WE MUSN’T IGNORE THE PERVERSIONS OF SATAN AND SIN! These give a genuine motivation to resist.
That’s the first point. Now the second…
Look at the dialogue from the movie in the previous post.
Gibson portrays Satan tempting Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed. The scriptures do not say this, but it seems an accurate depiction of the spirit of that night, especially since Satan entered Judas only a short while before (Luke 22:3).
However, we do have scripture in which Jesus is directly tempted by the Devil (Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2). Now I once heard a minister say that all of this temptation took place in the Lord’s mind. I find no evidence of that in the passages themselves. The minister seemed to be attempting to make the Lord’s temptations like ours. Of course they are like ours in that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). But remember, we are to be imitators of Christ, conformed to his image and likeness. He is the norm–the standard–not us. He was filled with and led by the Spirit for the specific purpose of being tested by Satan. This temptation was unveiled. It wasn’t through a person or situation that Jesus was tempted, but directly by Satan.
This is what we see in the Passion, and I believe it’s accurate. Not only this, but I believe that we will, and should be, able to detect Satan directly based upon spiritual perception.
It’s clear that throughout his life Jesus had a spiritual perspective on life. He called death for God’s people “sleep.” In fact, He was consistently misunderstood by his apostles and others because he spoke spiritually when they were thinking in purely physical terms.
For example, when talking about Lazarus who had just died, Jesus said he was going to “wake Lazarus up.” His disciples thought it was good for Lazarus to sleep if he was sick so that he could get better. Then Jesus told them “plainly”: “Lazarus is dead.” This reveals a spiritual truth: From God’s perspective, His people don’t “die,” they “sleep.”
Or the time when Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it,” He was talking about his body, which the disciples didn’t understand until after He rose from the dead.
Or again, when Jesus told His followers to “eat my flesh and drink my blood,” He said that His words were “spirit and life.” Yet He lost many followers who were “offended” by what seemed to be a call to cannibalism.
I say all of this to illustrate the spiritual perspective Jesus had. He lived so fully in the Spirit that he could directly encounter and resist the devil. This doesn’t mean the devil didn’t act through others, as he did with Judas. It just means that Satan couldn’t fool Jesus. Jesus could “see” Satan behind things so clearly that He could resist him directly.
And how did Jesus resist?
In “The Passion” we don’t see Jesus responding to or addressing what the Devil is saying. Rather, Jesus addresses God the Father according to scripture.
And look at how the devil addresses Jesus:
Do you really believe that one man can bear the full burden of sin?
Here we see the devil’s subtlety. Just as he began his discourse with Eve by asking a question with a false assumption, he does the same thing in the Passion. Note the wording: “really,” “one man,” “full burden.”
“Really” implies doubt even on the Lord’s part. “One man” and “full burden” implies that it’s too much for Jesus.
Yet the Lord resists by focusing on God as His refuge and the source of His strength, the object of His trust. This “quenches the fiery dart” of doubt, because Jesus does not focus on Himself or His own strength. He doesn’t even answer Satan’s question, or address Satan!
No one man can carry this burden, I tell you. It is far too heavy. Saving their souls is too costly. No-one. Ever. No. Never.
Again, as Satan did with Eve, so he does with Christ in the movie. He goes from indirect to direct. He answers his own question, “No one man can carry this burden…” He attempts to get Jesus to focus on Himself, on His own personal strength as a man, a mortal. His words are then powerfully emphatic: “No one. Ever. No. Never.”
Now, I like words. So I must admit, I “like” how Satan said that.
It reminds me of how I heard a minister describe the verse in I John 1:5, where according to the emphasis in the original Greek it would read, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. No. No darkness. At all!” In Scripture, words are repeated for emphasis. We use “very” or progressions like “good, better, best, bad, worse, worst” for emphasis. What Satan says in this scene of the Passion reminds me of this, and struck me with power.
1 Peter 5:8 compares the Devil to a roaring lion, one who inspires “fear, doubt, and disbelief” (to borrow the words of Morpheus!). A lion’s roar paralyzes the prey, expressing his supreme confidence as predator. This is what Satan does. He plants the seeds of fear, doubt, and disbelief, then “roars” with certainty, lies, and enmity. Or as the Borg would say: “Resistance is futile.”
If the seeds of temptations and accusations are entertained and believed, then Satan will roar, declaring his lie with such convincing confidence that resistance does in fact seem futile.
[To be continued…]
Categories: Arts and Culture, Biblical Theology, Blog
[…] [Continued from PART 1 and PART 2] […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » Mel Gibson’s take on Satan (Conclusion) on Jan 26, 2012 at 7:33 pm