This article is about the film The Last Temptation of Christ.

Source: Reformed Perspective, 1988. 3 pages.

Christ in the Cinema

 The Debate about "The Last Temptation of Christ" 🔗

There have been many films which dealt with biblical topics, depicting everything from the Exodus to the times of the apostles. In 1927 Cecile B. De-Mille made the standard epic film on the life of Christ, called King of Kings, and since then biblical topics are regu­lar (controversial) features of the Holly­wood industry. But perhaps no film about Christ has created so much fu­rious opposition as Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, released by Universal Pictures last August.

Already long before this film was released to public audiences, there was a huge effort underway to have it banned. The film received a "O" rat­ing from the Roman Catholic Church, meaning that it is morally offensive. Campus Crusade for Christ officials in California offered to buy the film for ten million dollars in order to be able to have the right to destroy it. All this and more, was to no avail; Scorsese's film was released even a month ahead of schedule. The publicity generated by the pre-screening reactions has only served to give more prominence to this sordid movie.

The Last Temptation🔗

Martin Scorsese is a well-known Hollywood director who has made ear­lier movies which graphically depict violence and sexuality. In response to all the opposition to his latest film, he emphasizes that this work is not based on the Bible. Therefore, he argues, one cannot expect this film necessarily to be in accordance with the biblical ac­count. It is merely one interpretation among many others.

The film is based, then, on a book by Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, written in 1948. Apparently this film, in contrast to many other films based on books, is quite true to the book, without all kinds of cinematic trimmings added to embellish the original. 1

Kazantzakis, perhaps better known as the author of Zorba the Greek, an­other book put to film, during his life came into conflict with the Greek Or­thodox Church for his views expressed in the novel, The Last Temptation of Christ, and was nearly excommunicated. When he died, Kazantzakis was not giv­en normal funeral rites. The book has been translated into English in 1960, but has received little attention in the Anglo-Saxon world. Only now, through this movie, does Kazantzakis get some real attention in North America.

It is important to know this back­ground. Scorsese himself states, "It is very important that people under­stand this film is not based on the Gos­pels... The film is fiction, and the book is taught at certain Catholic semi­naries; it is not Gospel." 2 Because of this, Scorsese and other defenders of this film feel they have the right to in­terpret the story of (the death of) Christ in their own manner.

We must maintain, however, that any account of the life of Christ, in books, on film, on tape, or in spoken form must agree with the infallible Word of God and be in accordance with the true confession of the Chris­tian faith. Otherwise, it is indeed blas­phemous misrepresentation of the truth of God.

Ideas Not New🔗

The fierce controversy surround­ing Scorsese's film, The Last Tempta­tion of Christ, is somewhat surprising. What really upsets most people is that Christ is depicted as a morally weak and corrupt man, who did not really want to be a "messiah" but would have preferred to lead a "normal" life like everyone else. Somewhere I found this description, "In early scenes William Dafoe portrays Jesus as a mumbling wimp who admits to being a liar, a hy­pocrite and a coward. He is highly re­luctant to serve as a messiah. Tormented by voices and visions, he wishes God would find somebody else for the job. But after his vigil in the desert, he emerges as a wild-eyed demagogue — a revolutionary leader armed with the wrath of God." 3

The "last temptation" then al­legedly takes place while Christ is on the cross, involved in hallucination and fantasy in which He dreams that He comes off the cross, marries Mary Magdalene, has children through her, and reaches a ripe old age. It is the sex scene with Mary Magdalene which is particularly upsetting to most protes­tors, but our concern must go much deeper here.

We should note that in both Ka­zantzakis' book and Scorsese's film Christ does "overcome" this last temptation. But it all serves to demonstrate one main point: Christ was as weak and sinful as we are. If Christ was fully human, we are told, He will have struggled and failed in the same way that we all do. For this reason Christ can fully identify with us. Scorcese says: "Christ's struggle is very much the way we all struggle. We all struggle to the last breath. The last breath is between us and God."4

The idea of an indecisive, weak, sinful Christ is not new. In the early seventies a Danish film was made about the sex life of Jesus Christ. There was a short wave of protest. Then came the Rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, which portrayed Christ as a mad and bumbling idiot who went beyond the limit by claiming that He was God and so caused His own undoing. Here, too, a sexual relationship was suggested be­tween Mary Magdalene and the Lord. The same is now the case some ten years later.

In 1977 a film was released under the title, Jesus of Nazareth, directed by another Italian, Franco Zefirelli. This film also "interprets" the account of Christ's life by going directly in against the Gospels. Although this film does not go in the blatantly sexual direction of Scorsese's The Last Temptation, it sets a precedent in that it promotes an unbiblical interpretation of the gospel. 5

What we have here is not new. We have seen it all before: the portrait of Christ as an insecure sinner, the casting of Judas as a well-meaning, misled vic­tim, and the rendering of Mary Magdalene as a tough prostitute. All this is totally contrary to the infallible Word of God which is our only norm.

The first error was not made in the movie studio but in the theologians' studies. We should not first blame the cinema, but seek the cause in the false church. When theologians denied or downplayed the divinity of Christ and ascribed to Him a potentially sinful human nature, the movie directors fol­lowed suit. Scorsese's film is a reflec­tion of the humanistic theology of our time. People should not protest only at excesses, but should dig deep to the roots: the denial of the truth of the Bible.

Tempted in every respect🔗

We must remember that our Lord Jesus Christ indeed did undergo every possible temptation. In Hebrews 4:15 we read,

For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every re­spect has been tempted as we are.

This means that our Lord also faced sexual temptation. Yet He did not once give in to such temptation, not even in His heart, for we read, "yet with­out sin."

We know that our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane experienced great sor­row and was deeply troubled at the prospect of His ultimate suffering, but never once was He an unwilling Mes­siah, for always did He say, "Thy will be done" (Matthew 26:39, 42).

We do not know exactly what went on in Christ's mind when He was hanging on the cross. We know that He was alone in the God-forsaken de­solation of hellish agony. Yet He was not occupied with fantasies of how His life could have been, but intent on His sacrificial work by which He would still the wrath of God and secure the life of His people.

It is a fundamental error to think that "Christ's struggle is very much the way we all struggle." His struggle was one of victory over sin and death. His suffering was unique. He knows what we are going through, yes. But not be­cause He is in any way sinful. He knows the power of temptation and the sweet­ness of victory like no one else. For He is Son of man and Son of God, and there is no one like Him. The deepest flaw of the film, The Last Temptation of Christ, is that it makes Christ into an ordinary man with extraordinary obsessions and so denies that He is our only Savior.

Endnotes🔗

  1. ^ Review in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, August 11, 1988 by Amy E. Schwartz (The Washington Post).
  2. ^ Interview Kitchener-Waterloo Record, August 11, 1988.
  3. ^ Maclean's, August 15, 1988.
  4. ^ Interview, Kitchener-Waterloo Record, August 11, 1988.
  5. ^ See my articles, Christ and the Cinema, in Clarion, Volume 26, 1977.

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