For Holy Week, Catholic Exchange is presenting a series of condensed excerpts from Inside the Passion by Father John Bartunek. These reflections will greatly enhance your appreciation of the movie The Passion of The Christ, but even more, they are rich in theological insights into the suffering our Lord experienced for our salvation.
The Intensity of Love
Flagellation, also called flogging or scourging, was a common punishment for criminals and slaves in the ancient world. Sometimes it was even a form of execution, as the appearance of some of the tools used to administer it (the ones eyed greedily by the guards when they were told to change instruments) makes clear. The screenplay also communicates this when it has Pilate give the order: “See to it that the punishment is severe, Abenader, but do not let them kill the man.” Sometimes flagellation was used to weaken criminals before they were executed. In the case of Jesus, Pilate was hoping to satisfy Caiaphas and to free himself from having to ratify or deny the death sentence.
The method of scourging depicted in the movie coheres with most historical studies. First the criminal would be bruised with rods, then his skin would be broken with a whip, then his flesh would be torn with a whip tipped with sharp pieces of bone or metal. Experts disagree on some of the details, but are unanimous on the appalling severity of the punishment.
Because the methods were so brutal, and the penalty so common, the men assigned the task of punishing and executing criminals were usually hardened soldiers, if not criminals themselves. Compassion wasn’t called for in the job description.
Even knowing all this, the overriding sentiment when one witnesses this brutal sequence is disbelief. It couldn’t have been that horrible, could it?
Early on in the production process, critics launched an accusation of gratuitous violence against the film, responding to rumors of the extremely graphic depiction of the flagellation and crucifixion. But much thought and research went into this particular aspect. In other film versions of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, the failure to show the real physical brutality that He suffered is one of the things that is unsatisfying for many moviegoers. This film doesn’t show the full reality either, at least if you accept what the mystics and visionaries say about it. Most historians agree with them on that point. The consultants for this film investigated the historical record — how Roman prisoners at the time were treated, what flagellation “looked” like, how crucifixion worked. They also examined multiple studies of the Shroud of Turin which shows an entire body lacerated by more than a hundred lashings, far beyond the Deuteronomic limit of forty. The Shroud shows that welts from the flagellation covered Jesus’s body, blood drenched His head and face, and holes were driven right through His hands. The film attempts to make this as real and accurate as possible, while toning it down just enough for the audience to actually watch it.
But was it really necessary to show so much violence? Wouldn’t a taste of it been enough? From a Christian perspective, none of the violence is gratuitous. The purpose is not to make viewers squirm and say, “How gross!” It’s there because that’s what Jesus suffered. Those are the wounds that heal. It really happened, and so, the film seems to say, if God let it happen, there must be a reason for it.
What is the reason? Few would claim to understand all the theological ins and outs of it, but you can’t really tell the story right without showing what really happened. Christian doctrine teaches that God suffered for every human being — that He freely chose to endure extreme physical violence for the salvation of sinners. What does such a decision indicate? The fact that someone would willingly take on such excessive torment demonstrates an extreme intensity of love — God’s love.
That’s why the film has to go there. Jesus chose a hard and excessive price of salvation. One of the reasons other Passion films don’t elicit the same kind of visceral reaction is because they don’t make you face the enormity of that sacrifice.
Every stroke of the cane and the whip constitutes one more rejection of Jesus Christ, who, Christians believe, is the incarnation of God’s love. Every stroke of the cane and the whip symbolizes a rejection of God’s love. Rejecting God’s love, turning away from His loving plan, is the essence of sin. Each stroke, therefore, stands for a sin. Because Jesus took upon Himself all of mankind’s sins, He is taking on more sins than any one person can imagine — this is the theological implication of the “excessive” torment the film attempts to depict. The sufferings of the Savior needed to be in proportion to the sins of those He came to save.
Another Glimpse into Jesus’s Heart
As the flagellation is about to begin, you see Jesus chained to the marble stump, shaking with fearful anticipation reminiscent of His combat in Gethsemane. As in Gethsemane, He utters a prayer: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.”
This too is a line from a Psalm, just like His prayer in Gethsemane. The Gospels make no mention of Christ praying during the flagellation. Co-screenwriter Benedict Fitzgerald chose to put that line there, explaining, “The Psalms were the prayers that Jesus used His whole life — all the people of Israel used them. They too are inspired by God, and they reflect the complexity of the human spirit more effectively even than poetry. Certainly something was going on in Jesus’s mind and heart while He suffered; the Psalms were our best guess at exactly what. We felt confident in the choice because the Gospel does have Jesus praying a Psalm later on, while He is dying on the Cross.”
Those who are familiar with the Psalms will appreciate the richness of the allusion. The Psalms are well known in Christian spirituality as the “school of trust in God,” the place where the believer goes to rehabilitate the trust that original sin fractured. As a result, the Psalms often put expressions of distress and helplessness back-to-back with shouts of joy and confidence in God’s goodness. This incongruous mix embodies the truth of human prayer, because that is the truth of the human condition: God meets man where man dwells, in a world shattered by suffering, confusion, and injustice. Precisely there God teaches the human heart to believe, to hope, and to love.
Faith, Hope and Love
Christ’s brief prayer and look heavenwards as He braces Himself for the scourging express — and teach — all of that. Here is the whole text of the Psalm from which Jesus’s prayer is taken. (It is Psalm 56, though it is numbered 57 in some Bible versions.) It reveals the faith, hope, and love surging through Christ’s heart as the forces of evil tear at His flesh. In Christ’s prayer, the enemies the Psalm refers to would not be primarily the men who are punishing Him — He has come to save them — but the ancient Enemy, the Devil, Satan, the instigator of evil and of the Fall, whose kingdom of sin was destroyed by the unconquerable love exhibited throughout Christ’s Passion. As you read it, imagine Christ praying it in His heart while He is being brought to the flagellation courtyard — it perfectly expresses His deep anguish and His unshakable confidence in God:
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me:
for my soul trusteth in Thee.
And in the shadow of Thy wings will I hope,
until iniquity pass away.I will cry to God the most High;
to God Who hath done good to me.He hath sent from heaven and delivered me:
he hath made them a reproach that trod upon me.God hath sent His mercy and His truth,
and He hath delivered my soul from the midst of the young lions.I slept troubled
[amidst] the sons of men,
whose teeth are weapons and arrows,
and their tongue a sharp sword.Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and Thy glory above all the earth.They prepared a snare for my feet;
and they bowed down my soul.
They dug a pit before my face, and they are fallen into it.My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready:
I will sing, and rehearse a psalm.Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery and harp:
I will arise early.
I will give praise to Thee, O Lord, among the people:
I will sing a psalm to Thee among the nations.For Thy mercy is magnified even to the heavens:
and Thy truth unto the clouds.
Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens:
and Thy glory above all the earth.
Fr. John Bartunek received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Stanford University in 1990, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He spent a year as a professional actor in Chicago before entering the Legionaries of Christ, a religious congregation. He is currently studying for an advanced degree in moral theology in Rome, where he resides. You can write to him at fatherjohn@insidethepassion.com.
Deepen your journey into the unforgettable film, The Passion of The Christ, with the only authorized book that goes behind the scenes. Fr. John Bartunek, LC, provides biblical, historical, and theological insights gleaned from hours spent on the set and interviews with the director, actors, and filmmaking crew. Inside the Passion is the most complete and thorough commentary on the movie you will read. Foreword by Mel Gibson. Click here for more information or to order.
