The Greatest Story...?

I am a collector of Jesus movies. Call it an occupational hazard, if you will, but it's fascinating to me to watch how various filmmakers have tried to interpret the life of this most intriguing man. How do you boil down the four gospels to just a couple of hours? How can you begin to communicate through film who Jesus really was? So I've seen most of the classics and, I think, most all of the newest ones (including the most recent, "Son of God").

This past weekend, over a couple of days, I re-watched "The Greatest Story Ever Told." The title alone promises much which...it never seems to deliver. I've got to say that watching this interpretation of Jesus was painful...and not because of the crucifixion scenes. Those were surprisingly underplayed. In fact, the whole film is underplayed. The pacing is slow, dreadfully slow at times. The scenes leading up to the trial and the crucifixion are passionless (ironically). And even the walk along the Via Dolorosa, from Pilate's hall to the cross, is quiet, almost silent.

Never mind the historical inaccuracies (the U. S. desert southwest looks nothing like Israel) or the Biblical mis-portrayals (Judas did not dive into a fire to kill himself). What bothered me the most was how boring the story of Jesus became. Trying to get some answers as to why this particular approach was chosen, I even watched the "making of" documentary that was part of the DVD. The director, George Stevens, wanted this to be a piece of art, a collection of "moving paintings," so to speak. Well, that at least explains why, at the Last Supper, the disciples are all on one side of a long table just like Da Vinci's painting. But it doesn't explain the boredom I felt. Great art should inspire us, not bore us.

Is it just the difference in today and "then"? It is because we make movies differently today? We do, of course, and we've come to expect much from our films, but I don't think that's what I was feeling. I've watched other Biblical epics from those days and find them quite well done. It just seems that someone was trying to stretch this film out to fill over three hours (and the original cut was over 4!), slowing everything down to a snail's pace. And I'm not sure why.

I've often said we have no right to make the Gospel boring. Too many times, we preachers do just that. We water Jesus down and make him dull. And it occurs to me that it must be a sin to take this most extraordinary life, the Son of God's life, death and resurrection, and reduce it to mere "art" or even worse, a plodding collection of events. The God whom we worship visited Planet Earth, came here to rescue us, to save us from our sins. He gave his life in our place, then rose again to conquer death, the last enemy. That's an exciting message and we have no right to make it boring. It ought to be the most exciting thing about our lives. It really is the greatest story!

Does your life show that? Do people know what a difference Jesus makes? Or do they perceive Jesus as just a very small (maybe even dull) part of your life? Had the Jesus on my TV screen this weekend been the Jesus of reality, Christianity would never have taken off as it did. Let's not let that Jesus be the one people see in us. Let them see the real greatest story ever told living through you.

INTERESTING FACTOID (at least to me): Telly Savalas, who plays Pilate, shaved his head for this role, and he kept it shaved the rest of his live. So, had he not been in this film, we might never have had his distinctive look as Kojak. "Who loves ya, baby?" (Okay, I may be showing my age now...)