Turned On By Yourself

In the film, besides Jesus and three of his apostles (Peter and Jean Jacques), a fifth figure is this: the devil. Why Mel Gibson did he choose to represent the devil in his film?

R / The Gospels tell us that early in his "public life", Jesus went into the wilderness and fasted forty days to prepare for his mission. However, in the desert, "he was tempted by the devil" (read the story in Matthew 4, 1-11). The evangelist Luke tells us that after having exhausted every possible temptation, "the devil away from him until set. Tradition the Church sees in this 'fixed time' to which Luke refers to the time of the passion, the "hour" to which Jesus himself refers several times to discuss the mystery of his death.

"Father, the hour has come: glorify thy Son
,
that your Son may glorify you
and that, under the authority
thou hast given him over all flesh,
he gives eternal life to all those thou hast given
! (John 17.1-2).

In the film, we see Jesus as crushing a snake with his foot. This scene is an allusion to the story of the first sin of men book of Genesis. In fact, after Adam and Eve had eaten the "fruit of knowledge of good and evil" and Eve bore the blame on the serpent, the Lord said to him:

"Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and every beast of the field, you crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between thee and the wife [see Apocalypse 12] between thy seed and her seed [Jesus]. It [his offspring, that is to say Jesus] will strike at the head and thou shalt bruise the heel. "(Gen. 3.14 to 15).

course human appearance, androgynous devil's in Gibson's film is purely an artistic choice. Satan, like all angels, no body whatsoever. But the choice still reflects a certain spiritual reality.

"The devil tempts us in manifesting itself as" an angel of light. "That is why the tradition assigns the name Lucifer (" light bearer "). He proposes an action that seems good but in fact is bad. He wants us to believe that God is a stern teacher who wants to oppress us with arbitrary laws. He wants us to see sin as liberator. What is his purpose in doing this? He wants us separated from the love of God in this life and eternity. Remember that the devil has rebelled against God by pride and for this reason it is deprived of God's presence for eternity. He hates God and wants to get as many people as possible to hate it too, or at least to disobey him and reject the grace of salvation in Jesus "( Catholic Passion Outreach, Leader's Manual ).