God, People, Self-Identity in the “Jesus” Movie

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What were the 3 – 4 most memorable ways Jesus described God? How do these descriptions of God by Jesus compare with what you learned about God from the Old Testament?

One of the most memorable descriptions of God by Jesus, as seen in the film, is that according to Christ, God’s ways are counterintuitive and one may never cease to experience the sensation of humility while interacting with the Creator of the universe. This description refers to the film’s scene in which Jesus tells people the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector (00.24.58).

Another notable description of God is concerned with Jesus insisting that God’s foremost quality is his mercifulness: “He (God) is good to the ungrateful and to the wicked. He is merciful, just as your father is merciful” (00.36.20). These words of Jesus are fully consistent with the idea that God is love.

The third memorable description of God, on the part of Jesus, is the one that implies that God never ceases to take close care of just about any living creature in this world. As Jesus pointed out: “Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap… God feeds them” (01.01.36). This again exposes God, as an all-loving force.

It is understood, of course, that the above-mentioned descriptions of God do not quite correlate with how the Old Testament addresses the issue of divinity. The reason for this is apparent – in the Old Testament, God is described as an irrational, revengeful, and tribally-minded deity, who appears to derive sadistic pleasure out of subjecting his ‘chosen people’ to the different types of hardship, and who never hesitates to kill people, when in a bad mood. This was one of the reasons why, throughout his earthly service, Jesus continued to be accused of being a ‘false prophet’ – whereas, Christ’s message to people was essentially concerned with mercy/forgiveness, the Old Testament is primarily about law/punishment.

What were the 3 – 4 most memorable ways Jesus described people? How do these descriptions of people by Jesus compare with what you learned from the Old Testament?

What is indeed utterly notable about how Jesus goes describing people is that, according to him, the poorer a particular person happened to be, the easier it will be for him or her to win favor with God: “It is hard for a person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (01.07.02). This, of course, implies that the measure of one’s worth has very little to do with the concerned person’s ‘talent’ in accumulating riches.

Jesus also used to describe people, as such that fall into different categories, reflective of these people’s ability to remain God’s loyal followers. The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated, in regards to the film’s scene, in which Jesus tells his followers the parable of the Sawyer (00.45.14). It is one’s strong commitment to God, which Jesus considered the foremost indication that the individual in question lives a productive life.

There is yet another memorable aspect of how Jesus used to describe people – the fact that he promoted the idea that one’s intellectual sophistication can hardly be considered an asset, on the way of him or her trying to grow closer to God: “Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (01.10.15). This confirms the validity of the suggestion that the ways of God are utterly mysterious.

The above-mentioned points out to the fact that the ways, in which Jesus used to refer to people, are indeed much different from those of the Old Testament’s God Jehovah. After all, according to the Old Testament, one’s material prosperity is the clearest indication that the concerned individual is in favor of God. Jesus, on the other hand, used to suggest that this is the other way around.

What were the 3 – 4 most memorable ways Jesus described Himself? How do these descriptions compare with what you learned about God and people from the Old Testament?

Throughout the film, Jesus continues to describe himself as the ‘Son of Man’, as seen in the scene where St. Peter answers correctly the answer about who Jesus was (00.53.44). This description is usually being taken as proof that, despite having been the Son of God, Jesus had a material body – just as it happened to be the case with the rest of us.

This, however, did not undermine the extent of Christ’s divinity. The reason for this is that Jesus used to refer to himself, as a man who knew the ways of the future, and who was capable of bending the objective laws of nature. The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated, in regards to the film’s scene, in which Jesus predicts his fate: “He (Jesus) will be whipped and killed. But on the third day, he will rise” (01.14.57). In its turn, this added to the overall legitimacy of Christ’s claims.

Finally, we can well mention the fact that Jesus never hesitated to describe himself as the ‘King of Jews’ – something that can be confirmed by the film’s scene, in which Christ provides a positive answer to Pontius Pilate’s question whether he did belong to royalty: “You (Pilates) said so” (01.38.56). This, of course, suggests that Jesus believed he had a secular authority over Jews – something that brought about his ultimate demise at the hands of the Pharisees.

The mentioned descriptions are consistent with the fact that, in the Old Testament, there can be found several prophecies, as to the eventual birth of Messiah, who will deliver his ‘chosen people’ from evil. Nevertheless, because Jesus used to stress out that his mission was concerned with saving all the members of humanity, regardless of what happened to be the particulars of their ethnocultural affiliation, it sheds a certain doubt on whether he was the actual Messiah – at least as the beliefs of some ‘chosen people’ are being concerned.

What were the 3 – 4 most memorable ways Jesus described God’s kingdom? How do these descriptions compare with what you learned in the Old Testament?

According to Jesus, God’s kingdom is a place exclusively populated by the souls of those people, who during their time on Earth remained in the state of poverty: “It is harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” (01.07.07). This description implies that God’s Kingdom is essentially the opposite mirror-reflection of our world – the rules of logic, to which we are being accustomed, do not quite apply there.

Another Christ’s description of God’s Kingdom is concerned with suggesting that it is nowhere to be found, in the physical sense of this word, and that it is, in fact, a metaphor: “The Kingdom of God does not come in such ways to be seen… The Kingdom of God is within you” (01.07.32). In other words, God’s Kingdom is being more of a state of one’s mind – it is something that exists subjectively rather than objectively.

At the same time, however, Jesus used to refer to God’s Kingdom as such that does not only exist objectively but as such that presupposes that the bodiless souls of this Kingdom’s ‘citizens’ will require nutrients – just as it happened to be the case with living people: “You (Peter) will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom” (01.27.06). It is understood, of course, that this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven does not quite correlate with the above-mentioned one.

Thus, there is a good rationale in suggesting that Christ’s account of God’s Kingdom differentiates rather considerably from that of the Old Testament. After all, unlike what happened to be the case with how Jesus used to do it, the Old Testament utilizes the notion of ‘kingdom’, as such that is being primarily concerned with the earthly (not divine) affairs.

Evaluate the final 5-minute summary of the movie (2:02:13 – 2:07:42). How does it summarize the main points of Jesus’s identity and purpose? How did this add to—or conflict with—your previous knowledge about Jesus Christ as a religious leader?

In my opinion, the summary summarizes the main points about Christ’s identity/purpose (as seen in the film) perfectly well. Nevertheless, I find it somewhat troubling that this summary also aims to convince viewers of the validity of the specifically Protestant view of Jesus. For example, according to the off-screen narrator: “Jesus is to be called the Son of God in a spiritual, not a physical sense” (02.02.57). Yet, this suggestion contradicts the Biblical account of Jesus having been conceived in the body of St. Mary by God himself, which in turn implies the appropriateness of the literal interpretation of Christ’s title the ‘Son of God’.

The validity of this statement can also be illustrated, in regards to the fact that Jesus was known for being rather intolerant to the ‘sophisticate’ interpretations of God, offered by the Pharisees. While preaching amongst the uneducated/rurally-based Jews, Jesus could not possibly expect his words to be taken in any other way but literally. Nevertheless, the film does deserve to be given a credit for having portrayed Jesus more or less accurately.

Works Cited

Jesus. Dir. Peter Sykes. Perf. Brian Deacon, Yosef Shiloach and Rivka Neumann. Inspirational Films, 1979.

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