So far, I have had little good to say about the content of the much-discussed film The Passion of the Christ. Yet that is only one side of the story. I just received an email from a couple we are friends with who had gone to see the film with a niece who is not a believer and her husband. The latter two knew hardly anything about the Bible and were deeply impressed by what they had seen. The same, incidentally, was true of our friends themselves. They know the Bible quite well and recognized various non-biblical elements in the film, but still thought it was good overall. After the film, the four of them talked from 9:15 in the evening until 1:30 in the morning about the Gospel, the Bible, and so on. Wonderful!

A few weeks ago, a neighbor came by and told us that she had gone to see The Passion… the previous evening. She had cried terribly during the film and, a day later, was still completely astonished at the price Jesus had paid… for us. She does not know much about the Bible, so I spared her my critical notes. In that context, of course, it would have been foolish and unloving to steamroll a response like that with criticism of the film. Recently, my wife Petra also went to see the film with her sister, and they too came home with a mainly positive assessment. We talked about the film for quite some time afterward…

What I especially want to say is this: if a film turns out to prompt many people to reflect on what the Bible has to say, what does it matter that it is a “bad” film? Or, to put it more modestly: what does it matter that I think it is a bad film? After all, even a bad film can produce a lot of good! After seeing The Passion…, many people become curious about the (much better) Script. After all the critical comments that have been made, I wanted to make sure that this was said as well.