"Christ is punished instead of us"

Gibson’s myopic treatment of the scourging puts the crucifixion in the anti-climax and unfortunately undermines the highest point of suffering in the entire passion: the father’s rejection of the son. This is the suffering of the garden and it is the suffering of the cross. By shifting the focus from the cross to the flogging, the Father’s rejection of the Son and its centrality to the crucifixion is nearly lost (save the obligatory, “My God, My God” that is in the text and, therefore, in the movie). Lost completely (per Catholic theology) is the reality that God killed his Son (see John Piper’s statements below).

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