"Evil through the Ages": Past and Future Supernatural Battles between Satan and Jesus in The Passion of the Christ Rebecca Schneider
He goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, the devil, demon, fallen angel, and diabolos. But in Mel Gibson's Christian blockbuster, The Passion, Satan is taken to a whole new level. In passion plays around the world Satan makes short appearances or no appearance at all. He is depicted as a simple character that makes fast appearances to tempt Jesus and then leave. In other words, before Gibson, Christian passion narratives didn't make Satan central to the story. Mel Gibson's film on the other hand centers heavily around an underlying supernatural battle between good and evil, pitting Satan against Jesus. Gibson realizes that Satan is in fact integral to telling a truthful account of the passion story. Why do we need Satan's character to have a truthful account, when Satan is hardly mentioned in the scriptures that tell the passion story? By adding in Satan we begin to understand that Jesus was not only fighting an earthly battle as seen in the passion plays, but a supernatural battle that was part of an ancient and continuing feud. Mel Gibson's film really brings to light past and future encounters of Satan and Jesus and how they affect the plot of The Passion. Satan, therefore, changes the whole dynamics of the ancient tradition of passion play. Satan, it seems, is the key to unlocking the mystery of Jesus' final hours on earth. The Garden of Gethsemane is both the beginning and the end, for in the garden was when Satan first took control of the earth, and in the garden Satan seeks to end Jesus once and for all. In essence this scene represents the beginning of the end. The scene opens with Jesus, sweating blood, praying to God. Jesus is visibly scared to go through with the ordeal to come. Satan comes to Jesus, ready to fight another battle. Unlike the battle of wills that Jesus is having with God the Father, or the battle with the Sanhedrin who want to crucify him, Jesus is fighting the long standing supernatural battle with Satan. Satan approaching Jesus to tempt him is a sign that they have had battles before in the past, and that Satan wishes to end it here and now. Satan whispers in Jesus' ear, “No one man can carry this burden…. Saving their souls is too costly….No one…. Ever” (chap. 1). Satan feels he has the upper hand, and is offering Jesus the chance to join him, to allow Satan to save him. He wishes to undermine God, and bring Jesus to his side by asking, “Who is your father?…Who are you” (chap. 1)? Of course Jesus rebuffs Satan's first attempt by not acknowledging him at all. This scene sets the stage for the rest of the movie as it makes the audience aware that there is animosity between these two supernatural characters that is not only involves the present time, but battles of long ago. While Jesus is praying to God, the moon darkens, implying that God is turning away from Jesus. One can see similarities in God's action to how in the past he turned away from Satan in the Garden of Eden. As God is the head of Jesus (his father), so Jesus is the head of Satan. Because Jesus is laden with fear, God turns away from him. Satan, in the garden, was not fearful, but sinful, and those actions caused Jesus to turn away from him. Genesis 3:14-15 states: So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (New King James Version) The serpent in this passage is referring to Satan. It is interesting to see how this scene plays out in the film. As you see Satan hunched over the stricken Jesus, offering him a chance to let Satan save him from his ill-fated mortal life, a snake crawls out from Satan's robe onto the ground. The snake cleverly slithers up towards Jesus. When Jesus finally notices the snake as Satan's messenger, he fulfills the prophecy from the past and crushes the snake into the ground with his foot. Mel Gibson cleverly draws from this Old Testament passage, bringing the old tale of Eden into the Garden of Gethsemane. The snake is not merely a prop used to bring about a gothic-like feeling to the movie, but it also points out to the audience the origins of the battle between Satan and Jesus. The snake alludes to the Garden of Eden, where the snake not only tempted Eve, but earned God's wrath starting the feud between the two. The Garden of Gethsemane, likewise, is a continuation of this supernatural battle. While Jesus is being scourged by Roman soldiers after he has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Satan appears once again to tempt him. This scene leads viewers to see a present battle between the two, but it also alludes to a past supernatural battle, and a battle to come in the future. Gibson, in filming this scene, uses point of view shots in important ways. He makes the viewer think that Satan is only viewed by Jesus himself. The viewers come to this conclusion because no one else in the crowd notices Satan, but Jesus locks gazes with him quite often. Therefore, the point of view shots that Gibson chose create a sense of intimacy and allude to a pre-history between the two characters. Except here instead of providing a link to the past Gibson invites us to see a link to the future. Satan is not merely moving through the crowd by himself, but he his carrying a black clothed bundle. Inside this bundle is a baby. The scene shows Jesus locking gazes once again with Satan, but this time the baby swivels its head around and smiles demonically at Jesus. The baby also caresses Satan's cheek, while his eyes are locked on Jesus. What seems to be just a simple shot of Satan holding a demon is really a powerful scene symbolizing a potential future for Jesus. On one hand the baby symbolizes that Satan will nurture, care for, and end the suffering if Jesus allows Satan to win. This battle of wills had been fought previously in the desert when Satan came to Jesus offering to end his bodily suffering. Mathew 4:1-2 states: “The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, so that the devil could test him. After Jesus had gone without eating for forty days and nights, he was very hungry. Then the devil came to him and said, “If you are God's Son, tell these stones to turn into bread” (Contemporary English Version). Once again we see the past playing out in the future. The baby also possibly symbolizes temptation in the form of the antichrist. The antichrist is simply Satan in his future human-like form. According to Christian teaching the antichrist will be born a human baby of humble beginnings, and then rise up to rule over the world. Although the antichrist will be born human, he will eventually become Satan incarnate. It is important to note that the reason the demon is an infant is to show that the devil's plan is for the future. The baby must mature before it can take over the world. The child is foreshadowing the knowledge that Satan has a plan up his sleeve if Jesus does not come to his side. The plan might take thousands of years to perfect (i.e. the baby's growing stage), but Satan does indeed have a plan. When locking gazes with the baby, Jesus comes face to face with the future destiny of the world. The antichrist in the future will cause the world much suffering, and in the end it will cause the apocalypse. If Jesus is willing to come to Satan, Satan can stop that future occurrence from ever starting. By foreshadowing the antichrist one knows that a future battle will occur. Revelations 13:6-8a states: And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and all who lived in heaven, who are his temple. And the beast [antichrist] was allowed to rage war against God's holy people and overcome them, and he was allowed to rule over every tribe and people and nation and language. And all the people who belong to this world worshipped the beast [antichrist]… (New Living Translation) Therefore, the future, not just the past, is represented by allowing Satan a part in The Passion. In addition to referring to future events, the scene also takes into account the past. Even though to many viewers Satan's child is just a creepy prop, the figure that Satan and the baby make also seems to represent a past event, other than the future prophecy already discussed. Many people world wide know the Madonna figure: the innocent Virgin Mary dressed in pale shades of blue and red, holding a chubby baby Jesus. Satan represents the opposite: an anti-Madonna figure one might say. Not only is Satan dressed in black robes, but the baby in his arms seems to be content, just as Jesus is usually shown. When one usually thinks of Satan, a contented baby is not an image that comes to mind. Satan is mocking Jesus in the most basic of ways by using his mother. He is cruelly mocking the past event of Jesus' birth. Satan understands that the supernatural battle between the two of them is very psychological. Since Jesus is a human, and he loves his mother dearly, Satan knows that it pains him to see Satan adopting the anti-character of the Madonna. But once again Jesus does not give in the Satan's cruel barbs, or sly ways of tempting him. Instead, Jesus just turns away, and faces his present earthly battle. Jesus' death on the cross brings an end (temporarily) the battle between Satan and Jesus. Biblically based, yet left out of most passion plays, Gibson possibly alludes to Jesus' brief stay in Hell and his departure from it. In Acts 2: 31, Peter speaks of “the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hell” (King James Version). The movie only alludes to Jesus leaving hell, after his 3-day stay, before he rises from the dead. In the film, we see Satan on his knees screaming in distress, symbolizing Jesus' breakout. Satan is in a rage because he thought he had finally won. The sins that Jesus bore on the cross had made him go to Hell, and it appeared to Satan as though he had triumphed over Jesus and had finally gained the control he first lost in the Garden of Eden. Not only was Jesus locked in Hell, but Jesus was under Satan's control now. Or so Satan thought. However, Jesus rose again on the third day, and left Satan and Hell ending the battle between them. Satan then knew that Jesus had, and still has, power over not only heaven, but Hell (Satan's domain) as well. Although medieval passion plays performed this scene, foolishly present day passion plays world wide have left out Satan, and have left out this scene in particular. Satan and the subject of Hell should not be condemned as “scary,” but rather be used to teach others about how there was a supernatural battle during Jesus' “Passion”, and Jesus indeed won it when he left Hell. He triumphed over Satan; that should be something people should celebrate. As discussed, Satan plays an integral role in The Passion. He is a character that one needs to see to gain insight into what Jesus was feeling, and how Jesus was trying to win the battle between good and evil, while suffering through his earthly ordeal at the same time. Viewers also need to see that Jesus triumphs over Satan so that they can understand that the battle has been won, that indeed Satan does not control us. Without the character of Satan in this movie, one could have never seen the past and future events that effected the present. Every single time Satan was in the film, Jesus was in the same scene. This is essential because it shows that Satan was crucial to understanding Jesus, and one must understand Jesus to fully understand his last hours on earth. Whereas most passion plays don't include Satan, Mel Gibson's Passion does. And by including him, he makes this story not only easy to understand, but more truthful than other accounts. Passion plays around the world need to model this structure, as it is revolutionary in making an old story seem interesting again.
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