Lessons from Mel Gibson

Now that the story of Mel Gibson's anti-semitic remarks is over a week old, I think I'll take time to write about it. I know I'm a bit behind on this one, but bare with me. Although this is not primarily a news driven blog, if I find something in the news that is interesting and I feel that I can relate it to the gospel somehow, then I'll write about it.

So here goes. What are we to make of Mel Gibson's remarks? Well, first of all, I don't think we can honestly say that his remarks cast a shadow on "The Passion of the Christ." Gibson took great measures to preserve the scriptural integrity of the film and he equally portrayed the Roman soldiers as monsters as he did the Pharisees as self-righteous hypocrites. He also left out the "His blood be upon us and our children" part in the subtitles although it was kept in the original language of Aramaic, which is still spoken today by the Assyrian Christians in modern day Iraq.

As far as his remarks, I think that Gibson was surprised by his own words. Given the wording of his apology, I think that it is clear that even he was surprised at the anti-semitism that lied dormant in his heart until it was exposed to the world.

But isn't that a lesson for us all? I imagine that most of us are largely unaware of the deep rooted secrets of our hearts. The Bible says there will be a time when the "secrets of the heart are revealed" on judgment day. This is why David prayed, "Cleanse me from my secret sins." I think we could all use a little inner cleansing from time to time. This is why it is so important to daily ask the Lord to reveal to us the areas where our lives are not fully submitted to Him. The good news is that when we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us based on the blood that Jesus Christ shed on the cross for our sins. The bad news is that we still might have to face the logical consequences for our actions in this life. Most of us will not have our dirty laundry exposed to the world as in the case of Mel Gibson. But that doesn't really matter. I'll take an angry press over a holy and righteous God any day.