The Passion of the Christ Sequel

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Luke 24:46-47

A sequel to the 2004 motion picture, The Passion of the Christ, is scheduled to be released later this year.  The film will once again be directed by Mel Gibson and feature Jim Caviezel as Jesus.  While the original movie focused on the events leading up to Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, the sequel will pick up the story with His resurrection and all that follows.  Christ’s Passion and Resurrection are not just storylines for movies though.  Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross and His victorious resurrection from the dead are the center of all our preaching and teaching.

Before the risen Christ ascended into heaven, He gave to His Church the task of preaching repentance and forgiveness in His name to all nations.  We are part of the sequel.  As the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed from pulpits and in classrooms, at kitchen tables and at hospital beds, God is carrying out His mission to the ends of the earth.  The preaching of repentance is how God puts to death the sinful nature within us and the announcing the forgiveness of sins makes us alive in Christ.  This is God’s mission and message for all the world.

As the Church celebrates Christ’s ascension tomorrow, there is work for us to do.  The ascended Christ has bid His Church to bear witness to Him to all nations.  After He has accomplished that work of bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the risen and ascended Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  May God bless our participation in that work as we await the end of the story – the resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting.

Prayer – O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant tat we may think about those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. 

Fraternally in Christ,

President Lee Hagan