The Passion (BBC) Episode 2

I caught up with the second episode on Wednesday, and found this to be a much better on the whole than the first. This episode was shorter, and led us up to the beginning of the Last Supper. On the whole it seemed more faithful to the Gospels. This episode however did read as if someone had been reading a little bit too much liberation theology. Now of course there is some good liberation theology, but, especially in the earlier phase of this theological movement there was a tendency to cast Jesus too much as a revolutionary leader of a failed uprising. i.e. the way in which Jesus' disciples followed the man with the water jar in order to find the 'upper room.' In many ways this was a good scene, and drew out the unusual fact that it was a man carrying the jar. (This has led some commentators to posit a link with the Essene tradition of celibacy). However, it had a heavy emphasis of skullduggery..... The intention of course is to flesh out the characters in the dram of the passion, make them seems a little more human and ordinary, and to provide more psychological motivation. Thus there is an emphasis on presenting Jesus' teaching in a way that makes it difficult for Caiaphas not to see Jesus in this light. Here we see the downside of this kind of dramatization.  It provides us with an apparent window in the events of Holy Week, a fly on the wall documentary - surely we think this must help us to get closer to Jesus in those final days than the written accounts in the Gospels. Except, (and leaving aside the divinely inspired nature of the Gospel accounts) what we find is that the media of TV requires us to provide a lot of interpretation. Thus Jesus' teaching often seems reduced to a sort of religious egalitarianism - down with organised religion and be nice to everybody. Now Jesus is certainly critical of aspects of contemporary Judaism, but he is also a faithful Jew who comes to fulfill the Torah and the Prophets. Fr Hunwicke in his blog draws attention to the interesting writings of Jacob Neussner who is clear that the cleansing of the Temple has to be interpreted as leading to the end of Temple Sacrifices. And the Gospels are full of other actions of Jesus which lead to similar conclusions, such as his forgiving sins. This episode drew attention to this as well. However, because we can't be expected to draw these subtle conclusions ourselves the drama has to make them in unsubtle ways - and this it seems to me leads to a distortion of what Jesus actually said and did. In passing it worth noting that Pope Benedict in his excellent book on Jesus engages in a discussion with some of Neussner's writing on Jesus. So on the whole a good episode, but again one which must be read with close attention to the Gospels. So brothers and sisters this is a reminder to you that you need to read your Bible and be aware of the Gospel accounts actually say - then you will be in a position to watch programs such as this is a positive and yet also critical way.