I have Jesus on my mind a lot these days.
The ‘Son of God’ movie was released last weekend. I was semi-interested in the conversation surrounding its release but with a trip to the East coast for family stuff and being off the internet most of time, I watched it all from a distance.
The previous week I had been up in the desert to visit a secret location of a major motion picture set about a movie involving Jesus (that is all I can say at this point). We got to talk to the big-time actor who is playing Jesus and to the writer/director who’s ideas about Jesus were some of the most interesting I have heard in a while.
Reading the script ahead of the visit to the set really hit a nerve with me – I often talk, when I preach, about the importance of both how we imagine Jesus and how we image Jesus. [note to progressive & liberal readers: if you don’t think that is a big deal, hang out after the sermon with me sometime and listen to the concerns]
I happen to be reading the script at the same time as I was preparing a series for the Loft LA called ‘A Different View of the Cross”. We are going to take the 5 weeks of Lent and explore different atonement theories that have come up through history.
It would be an under-statement to say that I have over-prepared for this series.
Now, all of this was going on at the same time that we had put our interview with legendary German theologian Michael Welker about his new constructive Christology (God the Revealed: Christology).
When you put these four things together (national movie release, reading a new screenplay, preparing a lenten series, and putting out the Welker podcast) that is a lot of Jesus – even for me.
What I thought might be fun would be to throw this out on a Friday night and see what kind of conversation might develop over the weekend.
Here are three questions:
- Did you see the ‘Son of God’ movie and what did you think?
- If you are not planning on seeing it, why?
- Why do you think there are so many Bible themed movies coming out this year? (Noah, Moses, Left Behind, etc.)
I would love to hear your thoughts!