Representations of Jesus in religious imagery

¶ … Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" from 2004 is much closer to the image of Jesus presented in the New Testament than many other modern portrayals, including the image presented in "Jesus Christ Superstar." There is an element of him still being portrayed as trapped by the media. However, "The Passion of the Christ" shows Jesus more the way that the media would actually portray the Jesus from the Gospels. This movie is heightened in many ways from the gospels. Jesus is shown as undertaking more suffering than the Gospels specifically speak of. The suffering is heightened, and his relationship with the women in his life is also shown as greater than it might have been. The importance of his relationship with women in this movie is probably because it is presented as a very Catholic story. Catholics very much focus on the importance of the women in Jesus' life. The Gospels that this portrayal of Jesus is most like would be Luke, which deals more with his childhood and mother, and John, which deals more with his love.

In "The Passion of the Christ," there is a lot of focus on his suffering when he is whipped, but this is just barely mentioned in the Gospels, where many other things are more vital to the story. There is a sort of redemption shown in his suffering when he is whipped in this movie, where his blood becomes very important. The women wipe his blood off of the ground in this scene, which does not happen in the Bible.

There is a strange close relationship between Satan and Jesus in this movie. Satan is the only one who cares what is going on with Jesus, other than the women. Satan walks parallel to Mary when they are mourning Jesus. Lucifer temps Jesus in the garden of Gethsemene in this movie, but in this Bible this does not happen. Jesus, in the Bible, had been tempted by Satan much earlier when he was first starting his ministry, but in the Bible by this point in his life he was no longer feeling that temptation. Satan is portrayed as almost being a part of Christ in this movie.