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FIRST-PERSON: A few more thoughts on ‘Da Vinci’

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (BP)–After “The Da Vinci Code” opened nationwide, the two questions most posed were, “Did you see it?” and “What did you think?” The inevitable follow-up: “Would it make any difference if Jesus had married Mary Magdalene?”

Admittedly, after the book/movie’s hype, you can’t help but consider that proposition. But the question itself seems to emerge from a gaudy tabloid curiosity about the details of that human relationship rather than from a desire to understand more about the divinity of the One who died for us.

The Bible declares Jesus to be the Son of God — He was there when the worlds were formed and He bore every sin known to man. Because of His willingness to face that fate, mankind need never be separated from God. Is there any more wondrous revelation? Yet “The Da Vinci Code” phenomenon is built on an interest about an already debunked heresy instead of on that which has been established as truth.

In the garden the night of His capture, Jesus’ prayer was so intense that He sweated blood. He knew what lay before Him. I would offer that it wasn’t just physical torment, or even the sins of the world that burdened our Savior that night, but rather the realization that for the first and only time in all of eternity, the Son would be separated from the Father. Now, that’s a subject worth considering. But then, can man possibly comprehend the meaning of that separation? Would knowing the answer lead to a mental agony mere man could not bear?

Because the world’s true Messiah was willing and able to overcome that humanly unfathomable emotion and make the crucial sacrifice, we never have to go through such anguish. With Christ’s purpose fulfilled, we never have to be isolated from the Father.

Although “The Da Vinci Code” movie is declared fiction by the filmmaker, the overall effect of the movie has been to take the spotlight off Christ’s divinity. That’s how Satan sometimes works. Rather than deny Christ’s deity outright, he misguides men and women to misdirect humankind from the saving power of Jesus Christ. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

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Works of art once were dedicated to the glorification of God and to attest to the true nature of Christ Jesus. That is no longer the ambition of most artists. The best we can expect from the secular artistic community is them saying that Jesus is a son of God. Not the Son of God. There are exceptions to that declaration: most notably Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Just don’t hold your breath for many big-scale productions that paint an honest portrait of our Redeemer.

Did Jesus marry? No. Jesus didn’t become man in order to get married. The church is His bride. Us. And because of His obedience to the Father and His love for the souls of man, He paves the way for mankind to be forever united with the Creator of all.

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
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Phil Boatwright reviews movies from a Christian perspective. For more of his reviews, visit www.previewonline.org.