I am writing this through tears of joy.
Yes, “Bible movies” can be problematic, and are certainly no substitute for Scripture. Nevertheless, this scene from The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead–well, what can I say? I’m overcome!
This helps me to imagine what it would have been like to have been there, on the scene, to witness this miracle. It would have been overwhelming.
If you cannot believe in Jesus by the things He said, or by the things the prophets said about Him–then believe in Him for the sake of the works which He did, which no one else could ever do. This is what He taught us.
Amen!
One thing I’ll say for bible movies is that they do help us to visualize events from the Bible and make them, perhaps, more relatable to our own life experiences.
I can only imagine that Jesus caused quite a stir. He traveled in a relatively small area and came to be known by a relative handful of people, then, at the very end, performed a resurrection that had to have been the talk of the region.
What must it have been like for the Romans? They dominated Israel and here comes someone that appears to be a nobody from nowhere, and he upsets the apple cart. They may have been pagans, but they had to have at least wondered what was going on.
The Jewish religious leaders were clinging to what little influence they had (as compared to the Roman hegemony) and here comes someone that appears to be a nobody from nowhere, and he really upsets their apple cart. He made fools of the religious leaders, frequently by turning their own words against them.
And the world has not been the same ever since.
Here’s what I take from this. Right now, today, Christians are the most persecuted group on earth. The relative calm that we’ve known most of our lives has been replaced and we now have to watch our every word. Anti-Semetism is on the rise and growing rapidly. Some foresee another Holocost, or at least the attempt to have one.
When we see these things, the thought of Jesus as a real, flesh and blood messiah, should give us strength. The disciples and Jesus experienced life the same way that we experience it. They faced opposition in bodies of flesh and blood. They grieved, they rejoiced and they felt all the emotions that we feel. Most importantly an apparent nobody from nowhere overcame the entire world. Want proof? We’re talking about it nearly 2,000 years later.
We are given Holy Spirit to empower us. It’s the same thing that Jesus had at hand. One more thing, Jesus proved that life itself can be restored.