It has been a few years since I saw The Passion of the Christ, but there is a line in that movie that absolutely sticks with me to this day. It comes at the height of tension, the instant you want to stand up in the theater and yell at the soldiers to stop beating him, to let there be another way. Jesus is carrying the cross, stumbling, bleeding… but he rests his hand on Mary’s cheek and says, “See, Mother, I make all things new.” Then he pushes himself off of the ground and shoulders the cross again.
The words come at the 4:00 mark, but to get the full impact, you should watch the whole clip…
There were two points in that movie when I lost it, and that was one of them. Those words encompassed every single thing Christ did for me. It was in that moment, when Jim Caviezel as Jesus uttered those words, that the Cross became so very real to me. Every lash, every drop of blood, every moment of agony was to “make all things new.” It was to make me new. And there was never a moment in the long journey to Calvary that Jesus forgot that. Even in the middle of paying a price higher than we can imagine, he knew why he was there. And the insane part is he struggled toward a goal that could give him nothing in return. He knew we’d continue to break his heart. He knew we’d never, ever be able to begin repaying him. He knew the heartbreak wouldn’t end at the cross… and yet he shouldered the burden and moved forward.
Why? To make all things new. All things. Even me. Even you.
-JB
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this movie too. I’m glad you blogged about this today. I needed this reminder. One thing I took from The Passion was … Christ loved his mother. I had not thought of their relationship until watching that movie. It was a wonderful example of respect for parents … a wonderful example.
Since I became a mother, I think of Mary a lot from the perspective of a mother. Until you said it, I had not thought of her from Christ’s perspective. Ooh… I want to go and think on that one now!