I don't know how to write about it.  I don't know where to start.  But Mel Gibson knew where to start -- with Jesus stomping his foot on the head of the serpent.  CRACK!
I screamed in the theater.  Silence was broken.  The loud and sharp CRACK of a snakehead being smashed under the weight of a Godly foot caught me by surprise.  We are not so accustomed in modern times to seeing evil get so literally squashed -- especially from the loving, sweet, tender, mushy Jesus that modern society has created to excuse us from all sin.
This immediate, deliberate, decisive demise of the serpent affirmed for me that everything will be okay.  There will eventually be justice on earth as well as in heaven, and that will bring peace of body and soul, and peace of mind.  God will confront the evildoer who scatters chaos all over the world.  I heaved an audible sigh, sat back in my comfortable theater seat, and took a sip of my Diet Coke.
For the next two hours, however, there was no evidence of justice on earth.  It was hell.  It was dreadful.  Our Lord was bloodied and tortured and crowned with thorns and crucified.  My sobs were drowned out by the ugly mob shouting, "Crucify Him."  My heart was torn to shreds as I watched Mary watch her suffering Son. 
I did not turn away from any of it for even one second.  "Can you not watch one hour with me?"  It seemed a way to console Him, to witness to the truth of His terrible suffering.
I guess I never knew what "scourge" really meant.  It is a word that seems used only during Lent, only in the Bible, and only as it was done to Jesus the Christ, the Word made Flesh that came to dwell among us.  Now I know what scourge means.  I should have looked it up long ago in my American Heritage Dictionary. 
Scourge is "a means of inflicting severe suffering, vengeance, or punishment."  Severe means "unsparing or harsh treatment, extremely violent or intense, very serious, grave."
Scourge is "a whip used to inflict punishment."  Scourge means "to afflict with severe or widespread suffering and devastation."  Devastate means "to lay waste, to destroy."
Scourge means "to ravage." Ravage means "to bring heavy destruction, grievous damage."
Scourge means "to chastise severely, to excoriate, to flog, to whip."  Excoriate means "to tear or wear off the skin, to abrade."  Abrade means "to rub away by friction, to erode."  Erode means "to gnaw off, to eat away, to eat into."
Mel Gibson knew what scourge meant.  He knew it meant extreme violence to flesh and bones.  Violence means "physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing."  It means "the abusive and unjust use of power."
It was for our sake, for his sake, and for God's sake, that Mel Gibson showed us the violence that was done to Jesus, our Lord and our God.  But Mel Gibson didn't show the violence to us for the sake of the violence itself.  He knew that violence for its own sake has no redeeming feature, no redemptive value, no Redeemer.
Mel Gibson showed the violence to us in imitation of Christ who showed it to us first.  It was a public scourging and crucifixion.  Jesus could have suffered and died for us in private, but He didn't.  God desired for us to know the truth of His suffering so we'd be more inclined to mend our lives and obey His command-ments.  Now we know it, if we didn't know it before.
Mel Gibson showed us a lot of other things.  He showed us the worst of wickedness, the eeriness of evil, the coldness of contempt, the madness of malice, the bitterness of revenge, the rot of ridicule, the ugliness of hatred.  He showed us the mob mentality.  He showed us the shame of betrayal.  He showed us what we do not want to be. 
Finally Jesus hung dying on the cross.  He had been bleeding and dying for several hours already, and I can't imagine how He made it up the hill.  I wanted it to be over for Him, but then the two criminals that were hanged beside Him started talking.  In the very last moments a big black crow landed on the cross bar of the unrepentant criminal and plucked out his eyes in a moment of justice.
Then, when it was finished for Jesus the Christ, there was another sharp CRACK as the earth shook and the rocks were split and there was an earthquake.  Creation abhorred the vacuum left by the death of the Son of God.
Contrary to my reaction to the CRACK of the serpent's skull by the foot of Jesus, I was not surprised at earthly things being smashed by the force of a Godly hand.  We are accustomed in modern times to seeing the hand of God reply in this manner to evil.  All we have to do is turn on the television to see the earth quiver and quake or vomit mud or strike with gale winds.
A lot of the major media and their chums don't want you to go see The Passion of the Christ.  They have mocked and ridiculed it, lied about it and called it names and spat upon it, just like the Roman soldiers at the scourging.  Doesn't it make you wonder what they're afraid of?  Could it be the love of God?
                                                  ~Sue