Beginning with Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, The Passion of the Christ shows Jesus confronting Satan in the garden, being betrayed by Judas with a slow-motion kiss and restoring a soldier’s severed ear.

Played by Jim Caviezel, this Jesus wears suffering and anguish on his face as he undergoes intense spiritual and physical torment. The scourging of Jesus is extremely bloody and sadistic, but he endures it and embraces the cross, praying for strength from his Father to fulfill his mission. He receives help in carrying his cross, and is offered water and a towel by a young girl. The film intercuts other flashbacks of Jesus preaching, and of the last supper, as well as his mother remembering how she ran to him when he stumbled as a young boy.

A nail enters his palm. Blood drips from the nails as they exit the other side of the wood. His ankles are hammered to the cross, which has not yet been raised. The cross is turned on its side, as the nails are hammered down on the back side of the wood.

Hanging near Jesus, a thief confesses and asks to be remembered in the kingdom. Mary says, “My son, let me die with you.”

“It is accomplished,” Jesus says. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

A teardrop falls, the earth quakes, and the Temple splits in two. Soldiers break the ankles of the thieves, but seeing that Jesus already appears to have died, they pierce his side, causing blood and water to pour out.

Satan is shown screaming in agony. A pieta is followed by a shot of a stone rolling away, and an empty sheet. Jesus, in profile and bathed in light, stands, a hole in his palm clearly visible.

Each of these films takes liberties with the Gospels, and each has been both admired and condemned by Christians. Yet the story of Christ continues to be filmed. From the reverent, biblical epics of the 1950s to The Passion of the Christ, the power of Christ’s suffering and the joy of his triumph over death continue to be the greatest story ever told.

For Further Reading:

Matthew 28:1-10
Mark 15
Luke 24:1-12
John 20