In search of a body

Risen

DISTRIBUTOR: Sony

RELEASE DATE: 19 February 2016

RATING:  M

There are many books you might send your Christian friends to if they have questions about the resurrection, including Frank Morrison’s Who Moved The Stone?, but not many films. Until now. Risen addresses many key arguments sceptics wage on the most amazing event in human history.

Risen is being touted by its producers as Gladiator in tone but thriller in nature. It certainly follows the trajectory of a classic mystery. Joseph Fiennes stars as the tribune Clavius, a veteran Roman officer tasked with avoiding a political crisis for Pontius Pilate. The battle-hardened soldier oversees Jesus’ removal from the cross and his burial in a rock-cut tomb. However, when rumours emerge that the Nazarene has been seen walking about, the governor dispatches Clavius to produce Jesus’ body and end the turmoil that threatens his authority. Clavius is a bloody-handed sceptic shown ruthlessly crushing the rebellions of religious fanatics, and he sets about systematically investigating the claims, aiming to prove the resurrection a fallacy. In so doing Risen provides a dramatic first-hand account of what it must have been like to sift the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection in the days following his death.

Risen is a Hollywood imagining, but its attention to biblical accounts runs far closer than movies such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings. The Gospels confirm the leaders of the Sanhedrin did go to Pilate asking him to secure Jesus’ body because they were afraid people might believe in his resurrection. The Gospel of Mark also records the Roman officer in charge of Jesus’ execution coming to his own conclusions about the man being crucified: ‘And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”’ (Mark 15:39)

Risen rearranges the timeline and embroiders heavily on these starting points. Yet it offers excellent answers to alternative theories for the lack of a body in Jesus’ tomb:

1. Jesus only swooned and recovered in the tomb – A spear-thrust ensures the Nazarene prophet is certainly dead. Even if there were any doubt, wounded men weakened by blood loss don’t move stones, the likes of which were used to close the tomb.
2. Disciples stole Jesus’ body – Clavius discovers Jesus’ followers were running scared from the Sanhedrin and lacked the courage to overpower the tomb’s guards or hide the corpse.
3. The believers went to the wrong grave – Clavius has no problem finding the grave the priests placed seals and guards around.
4. Early Christians fabricated the story – If so, they made unlikely choices. Clavius’ investigations take him to Mary Magdalene, the woman first to see Jesus alive, who also is unable to testify in a Jewish court.

Risen races to a climax that departs from the Bible, yet keeps the spirit of the centurion’s conclusion. In so doing it should help jaded audiences see the central truth of its mystery: you don’t have to understand resurrection to acknowledge Jesus returned from the dead. As Clavius writes: ‘I have seen two things that cannot be reconciled. A man dead without question, and that same man alive again’.

Described as an unofficial sequel to The Passion of the Christ, Risen certainly shares the same potential to get viewers thinking. If indeed Jesus did rise, then any filmgoer, faced with the inevitability of death, would be foolish to ignore the consequences. Clavius is asked what frightens him most about his investigation and he rightly answers, ‘Being wrong, and wagering eternity on it’.

This review comes from The Lutheran March 2016. Visit the website to find out more about The Lutheran or to subscribe.