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“The Passion of The Christ” – a Two Edged Sword
A re-Newed-Look at the Epic Movie – “The Passion of The Christ”
By Robert Mock MD
robertmock@biblesearchers.com
www.BibleSearchers.com
March, 2004
Topics
Jesus as the Red Heifer
Jesus as the Tzaddik, the Righteous One
Overall a majority of the written comments
of the American media on the effect of “The Passion” on the American
public were initially positive. Yet in private conversations many
express reservations or emotional conflicts of aroused passions that
are subterranean and latent.
It was the will of the
Father that “He gave His only begotten Son so that the world through Him
might be saved.” (John 3:16) The cross or the tree was
not an event that just
happened in the life of Jesus. The
cross or the execution on the tree was Jesus’ purpose for being here.
His purpose for coming to this earth was that He would die for all
mankind for He was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
(Revelation
13:8)
Taking the birth of the “only Begotten Son of God” as a mere
human babe to a teenaged mother, Mariam had no meaning
without His execution on the tree. Yes it was He “who Himself
bore our sins in His own body on the tree…” (1 Peter 2:24)
Jesus as the Red Heifer
By understanding the
crucifixion of Jesus with all the shadow-pictures of the Hebrews, we see Jesus as
the fulfillment
of the sacrifice of the ‘red heifer’. The
holiest
of all the sin offerings using a young bullock was the sin offering
of the Red
Heifer. The red heifer, offered
as a sin offering
for
purification of the collective congregation of Israel
was slaughtered
according to the dictates
of the Lord of hosts to Moses outside the camp of Israel. (Numbers
19:3) Unlike
the other
sin offerings, the Red Heifer was walked
over to the Altar on the Mount of
Olives (outside
the camp of Israel/Jerusalem) and there burnt in its entirety.
The difference
of the red heifer and the other sin offerings was that the other three were
absolving sin, giving the recipient freedom from sin
or in a sense,
salvation. On the other hand, the ash of the red heifer was to bring purification
and holiness.
The blood of the red heifer was sprinkled outside the camp, the body burned to ashes, and then the ashes through some mystical process that transcended even the wisdom of Solomon, when it was mixed with pure spring water bestowed holiness and purification as its was sprinkled over not only people, but over the land. They purified the temple with it. They could purify the entire city of Jerusalem if needed or the entire Land of Israel.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, our way to holiness would come only through the sacrifice and blood of Yahshua, the Son of God. It was Jesus, who was sacrificed as a ‘sin offering’ not only to bring holiness for his brethren the Jews and the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” but to all people. It was they, who by belief in the sacrifice of the blood of Yahshua are “adopted” and “grafted” into the literal and spiritual House of Israel.
According to the historical records kept by the Jews in their Mishnah, a total of nine perfectly red heifers have been burned. In the Mishnah 5, called the Tractate Parah, is a record of these nine heifers burned in the sacrificial history of the Israelites and the Jews in their Sanctuary and their Temples:
Mishnah 5, Tractate Parah - “The first heifer that was burned was under the supervision of Moses on that 2nd day of Nissan in the second year from the Exodus. The second heifer was burned under the supervision of Ezra; two were burned by Shimon Ha Tzaddik; two were burned by Yochanan, the High Priest, the seventh by Eliehoenai, the son of He-Kof, the eighth by Hanamel, the Egyptian, the ninth by Ishmael, son of Piabi and the tenth will be burned in the time of the Moschiach.”
During the special
ceremony of slaughtering
the red heifer, we
need to be reminded that this occurred
only nine
times between Sinai and the destruction of the temple
in 70 CE.
The red
heifer was led out of the eastern gate, cross over the doubled tiered arched
bridge called the Bridge of the Red Heifer,
to the Mount
of Olives and led
up to an altar near the summit of the Mount of Olives. (Middoth
1:3; 2:4; Yoma 7:2 plus the Talmud in Yoma 68a and Zebahim 105b).
Here
on this altar
called the Miphkad (Appointed) Altar, the ceremony of preparing
and burning the red
heifer was performed.
Let us note the words of the author of the Book of Hebrews in the reNewed Testament of the Brit Hadassah.
Hebrews 13:9-13 - “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the gate. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside, the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Consider now the entire scene of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus was condemned and died just before a High Shabbat (Sabbath of the festival Passover), was judged and condemned in the Chamber of Hewn Stones in His Father’s House and in the presence of God, His Father. As Adam was cast out of the Garden to the east, so also Jesus, accursed and condemned, was led out the Eastern Gate away from the presence of His Father.
The Red Heifer had been examined and inspected and was found perfect and without blemish, so Yahshua was examined and interrogated by the High Priest, the whole Sanhedrin and then Pilate, who could find “no fault in Him”. (Luke 23:4)
The Path of the Cross or the Via Dolorosa in Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of The Christ” is a medieval recreation of orthodox Catholic Christianity which has very little historicity. When the script says that Jesus was “led away to be crucified” (Matthew 27:31), the most prominent passage and path for the temple priests to go outside the city was out the Eastern Gate of the temple, across the Kidron Valley over the Bridge of the Red Heifer to the summit of the Mount of Olives. There, where the red heifer was slaughtered and burnt (Holocaust), Yahshua was executed on a tree. (1Peter 2:24)
Jesus as the Tzaddik, the Righteous One
The
second part of “The Passion” that impressed me was the lack of
understanding not in the super-human character of the actor for
Jesus, Jim Caviezel, but in the nature as a human nature of the
Tzaddik or Righteous One, that Yahshua lived on this earth. It
was the Apostle Paul who understood best the inter-dimensional role
of the death of Jesus, His life as a righteous man (tzaddik) on earth,
and the role of the Anointed Moshiach (Messiah) who would return
again as a Savior to recover the remnant of His people who
are surrounded by the demonic forces of evil at Armageddon.
It was this Tzaddik/Moshiach, who would sit on the right hand of
the throne of His Father. Did not Paul state?
Indeed He says, ‘It
is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the
tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will
also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be
My salvation to the end of the earth’.”
The
third part of “The Passion” that impressed me most was the overemphasis
on brutality and the super-human strength of Jesus, with the lack of
historical gospel evidence to account for it. To put the
life of Jesus in a context that He is doing something that is
super-human or non-human reduces the role of all of us to seek
our Savior. As such, we do not feel responsibility to act
in obedience to God the Father.
It was true
that many bore false witness against Him but no two of their
testimonies were in agreement. These were therefore not
useful in the Jewish or Roman court of law. (Mark 14:56) Jesus was later
pronounced guilty in this illegal nighttime trial by the High
Priest Caiphas asked, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
(Mark
14:61)
Here with Jesus’ testimony “I am, and you will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven”
was He was charged with blasphemy, with no need for two witnesses.
He was then condemned by Caiphas in the full Sanhedrin as
“deserving of death.” (Mark 14:64)
It was Pilate who
was the image of Rome’s ruthless power. Pilate was well known
for his cruelty yet he knew integrity and honor and recognized
that Yahshua was a man without sin and properly proclaimed, “I
found no fault in Him.” Yet, standing in front of Pilate were
the chief rulers and priests of Israel who were selected to be
the righteous ones who atoned for the sins of their own people. Instead
of righteous ones, we see wicked, ruthless and greedy rulers who used
their power to oppress their own people along with the weakness
of a governing ruler who appeased wickedness. After washing
his hands of this whole affair, the gospel states;
Mark 15:15-20 – “And he
(Pilate) delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be
crucified. 
Then the soldiers
led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called
together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple,
and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute
Him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” They struck Him on the head with a
reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshipped Him.
And when they had mocked Him they took the purple off Him and His
own clothes on Him and led Him out to crucify Him.
Is there any meaning to an understanding
of the symbol and shadow pictures that surrounded the death and
resurrection of Jesus? I believe so. The Lord of
hosts used the shadow pictures of the Festivals of the Lord
to portray the drama of the exile and restoration of the children
of Israel. It will be this same role that will bring restoration
and redemption for all mankind in the final drama at the
time of the end. The death and resurrection of Yahshua was a fulfillment
of several typologies that portrayed the role of the Anointed One
of Israel. The death and resurrection of Christ was a new
prophetic drama of the saint, whether Jew or Gentile, who at the time
of the end will follow their Lord through death and resurrection.
If we truly believe that we are in
the time of the end and the Lord of hosts is intervening in the history
of man, then Jesus is already in the process of dividing the ‘sheep and
the goats’. Those that are inherently good will become righteous
and those that are evil will become fully demonic. That is the story
of Revelation. Either way, we will eventually be possessed;
either by Jesus or by Satan.
Photo Credits to HollywoodJesus
Message from BibleSearchers
BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.
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