Below is Fr Hopko's article on the Mel Gibson's movie.
Jeff the Finn
Fr Thomas Hopko
Mel Gibson's Messiah
Whatever the artistic merit of Mel Gibson's film, his messiah is not the
one witnessed to in the various testimonies of Hebrew and Christian
scriptures. Nor is he the Christ of early orthodox Christian teaching and
tradition in whom, as the apostle Paul claimed, "all the fullness of God
was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven, by the blood of his cross." (Letter to
Colossians, 1:19-20)
Mel Gibson's messiah is a monochromatic exaggeration of one aspect of
the biblical messiah to a distorted degree. He is God's suffering
servant whose passion is reduced to his being rejected, ridiculed and
relentlessly beaten in a manner far beyond what the scriptures record,
and, ostensibly, for far different reasons.
The many and varied scriptural testimonies to the messiah and his
shameful death by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, by instigation
of the leaders of his people, are traditionally summarized and explained
in three ways that illumine each other and cannot be separated. In our
church tradition we see it this way.
The scriptural messiah is first of all God's final prophet who speaks
God's final word. He is also himself the very word of God in human
flesh. He is the last teacher sent by God who is also God's perfectly
obedient disciple. His death by crucifixion is God's ultimate word to the
world. It is the definitive epiphany of God who is love, the
unsurpassable revelation that the Lord who is merciful, gracious,
longsuffering, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness does not keep his anger forever, nor deal with us according
to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities. (Exodus 34,
Psalm 103, 2 Chronicles 30, Jonah 4, et. al.) The "word of the cross,"
to use the apostle Paul's expression, is God's final word eloquently
uttered in the resounding silence of death. It is God's ultimate word
about himself and his world that remains forever scandalous and foolish
to those unwilling to see and believe. (First Letter to Corinthians, 1:18-2)
The scriptural messiah is also God's final highpriest, not in Aaron's
line, but appointed by God according to the order of Melchisdek. He
gives himself as the ultimate sacrifice of love and mercy to God his
father on behalf of sinners who despise and reject him, which is the
whole of humanity scripturally symbolized by the Jewish and Gentile
religious and political leaders and their pathetic rabble. His paying the
debt to ransom humanity from sin and death on the cross is not a debt of
punishment that God must exact from sinners to assuage his wrath and
satisfy his justice. It is rather the debt of justice and
righteousness, of love and truth that God requires of his creatures in
the keeping of his commandments. For, according to Hebrew and Christian
scriptures, the only sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a
contrite and humble heart in the face of divine mercy and human
madness. (Isaiah 1, Hosea 6, Psalm 51, Letter to the Hebrews, etc.)
The scriptural messiah, finally, is God's last king who, through his
innocent and shameful death by crucifixion, accomplishes God's ultimate
victory for humanity and the whole of creation. The messianic king
becomes the slave of all by taking upon himself the sins of the
world. Through his suffering and death on the cross he conquers and
destroys all divine and human enemies: falsehood, injustice, insanity,
arrogance, pride, cowardice, sickness, wickedness in every form, every
possible demon and spirit of darkness, and the final enemy that is death
itself. The messiah's final words, "It is finished!" do not mean that
he dies. They rather mean that through his suffering and death he has
perfected and fulfilled all of God's work in redeeming the world. As
some Christian writers have put it, the cross is the bed upon which the
divine bridegroom consummates his love affair with his unfaithful
creaturely bride.
Christian scriptures about God's messiah, like the Bible generally, are
not historical records. The gospels cannot be historically verified or
harmonized. They differ in significant ways about important details of
the life and death of the Christ. For example, the inscription attached
to the cross to record the crime of the crucified is given in the four
canonical gospels in four different wordings. In a word, no one knows
exactly what happened historically at Christ's passion. We do know
however that Jesus existed, that he was crucified, and that some of his
disciples believed that God his father raised him from the dead and
declared him messiah and lord "according to the scriptures," which is to
say the law of Moses, the psalms and the prophets.
God's messiah, in a biblical understanding, had to refuse the
temptations of earthly power, prestige, position, possessions and
pleasures. He had to be poor, meek, humble and lowly of heart. He had
to die at the hands of sinners, whose wickedness is more often miserable,
banal and pathetic than it is violent, spectacular and dramatic. His
ultimate rejection by both Jews and Gentiles, according to Christian
writings, is not his crucifixion for which the whole of humanity is
guilty. It is rather the rejection of his prophetic word, his priestly
sacrifice and his kingly victory on the cross as God's unique son which,
according to some Christians, alone give meaning and life to the world.
Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
Dean Emeritus
St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary
Crestwood, New York
