Psalm Devotional
The Forsaken One
Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ is among the 10 highest-grossing films of all time (as of September 2004). Why has this film been such a success?
Part of it is that we live in an image culture. People understand events through images, and they desire to understand Christ and the crucifixion in a similar way. The Gospels give us a factual account of the crucifixion, but they don’t allow us to see Christ’s facial expression or to hear the tone of His voice when He says, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Mel Gibson’s film attempts to give us insight into these moments, to give us insight into the innermost thoughts of Christ. Of course, we know that Gibson’s film is his interpretation of these events and, although I have not seen the film, there is evidence that his interpretation contains severe flaws.
There is a place in Scripture where God allows us into the innermost thoughts of the Messiah. There is a place where we enter into the subjective experience of Christ on the cross. Psalm 22 gives us an authoritative account of the passion of the Christ. One of the arguments for singing the Psalms is that they allow us into the mind of Christ like no other part of holy Scripture. As Geerhardus Vos noted, “Our Lord himself found his inner life portrayed in the Psalter and in some of the highest moments of his ministry borrowed from it the language in which his soul spoke to God” (Grace and Glory, Banner of Truth, pp. 169-170). This is certainly true of Psalm 22.
