The Jesus of the Movies

In preparation for my upcoming Wednesday classes that I talked about in my last post, I watched the movie, “The Gospel of John” which is a word for word rendition of that writing. Although the movie was done well, there were some things in it that continue to seem to be the purview of religiously-oriented films and videos. And they just drive me nuts.
First, when crowds are gathered, no one talks, it seems, in the crowd. Most normal crowds of people will have at least a low-buzz of murmuring and quiet talk. People just don’t stand in a crowd when no one is commanding their attention and not say or do anything. But in religious movies, it seems that’s what they do.
Second, religious actions seem to be artificial. Jesus folded his hands and held them to his face when praying, just like we teach children to do sometimes in our culture. I don’t know how Jesus prayed, but I venture a wild guess he didn’t do that.
Third, events of monumental importance and significance receive a dearth of emotion from those witnessing them. We saw walking on water and the raising of Lazarus in this movie. In both cases, there was a generally non-emotional reaction to these events. And what emotion was shown was artificial, in my view.
I can only imagine the chaos in the boat when they saw this figure walking on the waves. And I can surely hear the shouts, the cries, and the human noise of utter disbelief when Lazarus came floating out of the tomb (His hands and feet were bound together, it says…how did he get out of the tomb? I’m not the only one who believes he may well have “levitated” out. Many serious Biblical scholars and commentators agree.)
And Jesus himself was rather short and unimposing. I suppose that could indeed be true; however, I have to believe that God would have His Son to be a fine human specimen, and that He would have had the presence and command of his environment to have chased out the money-changers, elude would-be captors, and make the soldiers who came to arrest him fall back in fear.
Besides, Jesus had command and control of his disciples. I know he could well have done that through divine means, but these guys were sailors, tax collectors, zealots, and other miscellaneous “lower class” life. I’m not sure a wimpy Jesus would have made the impression on them that he did. And what of Jesus’ appearance to John in Revelation chapter 1? Was that a wimp who appeared to him? I hardly think so, given that John fell to the ground as a dead man.
I had anticipated better from this movie. Maybe I shouldn’t do that; I only become disappointed when things aren’t the way I envision them. One of these days, though, someone will make a movie and cast a Jesus who is as I imagine him to be…THAT’LL be the day.