| BAPTISTS TODAY
News Release www.baptiststoday.org |
March 5, 2004
MACON, Ga.
—
"When next they worked on the right hand of Jesus,
it would not reach the hole for nailing
unto the cross, off the mark.
Then those criminals tugged at the arm
until hand corresponded to the hole.
His ball-and-joint socket was dislocated
because of the violent pulling."
"When they had nailed him,
they turned over the cross, truly.
Jesus was made to lie prostrate;
his face ground
the earth and dust.
Those iron nails
which pierced through the back
were bent and pounded back,
hammered and made secure
on the cross of crucifixion."
Are these quotes taken directly from Mel Gibson¹s screen-play? You may have
searched your Bible in vain. They are not there; so where did they come from?
These are direct quotes from an 1882 Philippine version of the "Passion Story"
written in the language of Tagalog. It is titled: The History of the Passion
of our Beloved Lord Jesus Christ that heals the heart of all who read it. (Casaysayan
nang Pasiong Mahal ni Jesucristong Panginoon Natin na sucat ipag-alab nang Puso
nang Sinomang Babasa). I will refer to the "Casaysayan" for the folk
passion story in future references. This 2,600 stanza text is translated and
expanded from a 1703 Spanish edition that can be traced back to a still earlier
edition titled Retablo de la vida de Cristo, hecho en metro, a text
written by a Carthusian monk that appeared in 1585.
So what do Mel Gibson and a Filipino "Passion Story" have in common? They share
a history of folk Catholicism and that folk Catholicism reaches around the world
today allowing Mel Gibson's "Passion of The Christ" to touch the emotional heart
strings of hundreds of millions of Catholics world wide. The Filipino story is
just one example of this global folk tradition.
Never in the history of the Catholic Church in the Philippines were there enough
priests to attend to the spiritual needs of the indigenous population under the
Spanish colonized islands from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth century.
The early Jesuits evolved a solution to help the masses of Filipinos grow in
faith with the lack of priests. They established a lay community of indigenous
leaders to serve as "magpapahesus." "Magpa" means someone who causes someone
else to do something and "Hesus" is Jesus. So these were lay-leaders who caused
the sick and dying to "confess their faith in Jesus" and thus these lay-leaders
competed with the local shamans for the heart and souls of the indigenous
population.
Now remember, all this occurred well before the Catholic liturgy was permitted
in the vernacular of the people so some text, some officially sanctioned
translation, of the Christian story would be needed in the local language of
Tagalog. Enter now the little known editor and author Gaspar Aquino de Belen.
He is believed to be the Jesuit poet who pieced together a still older European
version of the Passion of Jesus Christ in a meter and story-line that would be
familiar to Filipinos. This epic poem could be used as a spiritual exhortation
for both the dying and those who attended the dying. The point of the epic
poem: to remain faithful to Christ until death.
His poem was structured around the motif of Christ's last journey: a journey
from Last Supper to Calvary to the Resurrection. The journey of Jesus had a
still deeper meaning; it was a prototype of all journeys to the afterlife.
Arrayed along the path of Jesus are different actors in the story who symbolize
possible attitudes that humanity might have toward Jesus. There is Judas who
betrays him. Peter who, because of weakness, loses faith in Jesus and denies
him. There is the ever faithful Mary. These characters are portrayed as types
that the hearer of the "Casaysayan" is asked to understand so that the hearer
may learn how to relate to Jesus. In other words, that he or she may learn how
to be faithful to Jesus till the end. Jesus is the protagonist who is the
recipient of the hearer's faithfulness, who remains the open-hearted shepherd to
all who stray in spite of rejection and suffering, and who mercifully forgives.
If Jesus is the protagonist of this story it is only because he is acting on
behalf of the Divine Father. Both in the Casaysayan, and Gibson's "Passion" the
story is set in the context of God's plan for humanity's redemption. Gibson and
the Casaysayan clue their audiences with the proto-evangelium reference to
Genesis 3: 15 and the fourth Suffering Servant Song from the cryptic Isaiah 53:6
passages. Why? Because God has an enemy and it is the devil. The deceiver that
took advantage of the first couple in the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake
now faces off with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The devil enters in and
out of the folk tradition's recollection of the Passion and likewise in the
Casaysayan's and Gibson's retelling. The Passion story provides a cosmic middle
ground between heaven and hell where the devil and God meet in cosmic battle
that comes to a head with Jesus' obedient acceptance of divine humiliation for
humanity. The devil miscalculates Jesus' ability to endure divine wrath by
assuming that Jesus was a mere mortal who could not bear the burden of all
humanity's sin.
Belen's poetic Philippine translation and arrangement began a history of
embellishment and additions drawn from biblical stories, extra-biblical and
legendary references. Your clue to the folk tradition in Gibson's film is the
variety of extra-biblical material that similarly corresponds to the material in
the Casaysayan: The wiping of Christ's face by Veronica; the extended
scourgining of Christ as decreed by Pilate (over 39 stanzas as compared to the 4
verses found in the four Gospels‹Mtt. 27:26, Mk. 15:15, Lk. 23:16 and Jhn. 19:1;
the elaborate scene of Judas¹ suicide (51 stanzas); the elongated material on
the way from Jerusalem to Golgatha (the traditional fourteen stations and over
160 stanzas); the elaborate role of Mary on the way to the cross and her
"insider knowledge" in the cosmic plan of redemption; and the correlation of the
devil with the snake (nowhere is this found in Genesis).
So what is it that organizes the biblical, extra-biblical and legendary
references in both Gibson's film and the Filipino Casaysayan? I would suggest
that part of the answer comes from the eleventh century Catholic theologian
Anselm who attempted to answer the question: "Why God became man?" Anselm
states the problem and his answer succinctly:
Humanity was created by God for eternal harmony and happiness. This blessed
state requires the perfect voluntary submission of all of humanity to God. But
the whole human race has refused to make this submission. A state of submission
lost in the beginning of human history with our primordial parents Adam and Eve.
No member of the human race can restore the lost blessedness, because even
perfect obedience cannot now make up for lack of obedience in the past.
Therefore, the created universe is deprived of its due harmony, and in the
absence of external aid, the whole human race has irretrievably forfeited the
blessedness for which it was created and falls under the domain of the devil.
God's purpose in the creation of humanity and the universe has been frustrated.
But it is impossible that the purpose of an omnipotent Being should be
frustrated. Therefore a means of redemption must exit.
To restore the lost harmony, an offering of obedience must be made equal to or
greater than all that has been lacking in the past. Only a human, as the
offender, ought to make this offering; but no individual human can do this,
because he or she already owes to God all and more than all he or she has to
offer. Only God can make an offering which transcends the whole unpaid debt of
past offenses; but God ought not to make it, because the debt is humanity's.
Since only a human ought to, and only God can, make this offering, it must be
made by one who is both human and God. Therefore, a God-Man is necessary for
the Redemption of the whole creation.
This seemingly rational explanation for Christ's extended humiliation and
horrible death merely masks the intensity of the requirement of carrying the
punishment for all of humanity's rejection of God. As I have mentioned earlier,
this "Satisfaction Atonement" tradition usually turns to the Fourth Servant Song
found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 as a clue for how to interpret the intensity of
Christ's suffering with its excruciating portrait of Yahweh's (God's)
scapegoated servant.
This brings me to the final organizing principle for both Gibson's film and the
Filipino Casaysayan, Catholic liturgy. The Catholic liturgy has been described
as a forest of symbols that has given rise to much of sacred art in the West.
But for anyone who has lived in or has been reared in the Catholic worldview
they will be familiar with the fourteen "Stations of the Cross."
Historically, when Christian pilgrims were no longer able to visit Jerusalem
and the sites associated with the life of Jesus, following the "footsteps of
Jesus" became a liturgical practice all across Europe. In the early sixteenth
century European villages started creating replicas of the "way of the cross"
with small shrines commemorating the places along the route in Jerusalem.
Eventually, these shrines became the set fourteen stations we know today. It
was this practice that inspired the Jesuit Belen's epic poem of the Casaysayan
and it is this tradition that captured the imagination of Mel Gibson. At the
end of Gibson's film you cannot help but realize that you have visited all
fourteen stations and you will have a better understanding of why Roman
Catholics give such prominence to the celebration of the Eucharist with the
transubstantiated body and blood of Christ. Yet, you'll probably begin to
wonder why the cross in your Baptist sanctuary is empty and what would be
different if the film had been seen through the director's camera lens of your
heritage. But, then, that's another story.
(Graham Walker is associate dean and associate professor of theology at Mercer
University's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta.)