A few weeks ago I was one of the Lynchburg area church leaders who
attended a private pre-release screening of the new movie Son of God which officially opened today. Son of God was produced
by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband and wife team who were the
executive producers for The Bible,
the 10-hour TV miniseries that premiered on the History Channel in March of
2013. Footage from The Bible was
edited to create this new feature-length motion picture about the life of
Christ, the first major motion picture about the life of Jesus since Passion of the Christ was released ten
years ago.
Mark Burnett and Roma Downey have impressive resumes both
individually and together. Five time Emmy Award winner Burnett is one of the
pioneers of the “reality TV” genre with such shows as Survivor and The Celebrity
Apprentice to his credit. Downey has been nominated for an Emmy of her own.
She is best known for her recurring role as a tender-hearted angel in the
series Touched by an Angel. In
addition to co-producing Son of God,
she also appears in the film in the role of Mary.
I only saw the first installment of The Bible when it came out last year so this was my first look at
their portrayal of Jesus. The excessive artistic license in that first episode
of The Bible turned me off. (I think
they lost me when Moses was shown engaged in a sword fight with young Prince
Ramesses.) So I went to today’s screen with very low expectations. I was pleasantly
surprised. This is a compelling film.
The issue of artistic license is still in play. As a serious
student of scriptures I found myself regularly annoyed by the writer’s
ignorance or at least indifference to the chronology of events as recorded in
the Gospels. For instance, in the gospel account of Jesus reading from the book
of Isaiah in a synagogue, the event took place in Galilee at the beginning of
his public ministry. In the movie it happened near the time of his arrest at an
unspecified location but apparently somewhere in the vicinity of Jerusalem. But
since gospel chronology is a matter that even the scholars debate, I’m willing
to cut the production team some slack. What they did capture admirably was the
spirit and thrust of the gospel story. The viewer is offered a compelling and
reasonably accurate account of the life of Christ and the meaning of that life
for you and me. And I must say that Diogo Morgado, the young Portuguese actor
who portrayed Jesus, did a marvelous job in presenting a winsome Savior.
Son of God is certainly
no substitute for reading the Gospels for yourself. But it does offer a moving
and visually satisfying artistic portrayal of the greatest story ever told, one
that people who would never open a Bible would watch with interest. As a pastor
I will encourage my members to use this film as a non-threatening evangelist
tool, something that you could invite an unchurched friend to watch with you
and that will offer you easy and natural opportunities for further sharing of
the Good News.
