by Anna Hodges

Created on: April 02, 2010   Last Updated: April 03, 2010

Easter is a time when we commemorate and hold dear the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. It is also a time for reflection and soul searching. This is assuredly the most emotional Easter Season I have experienced in a long while.

My husband and I bought The Passion of the Christ movie in 2004 when it first came out, but we were not able to bring ourselves to watch it until just a few weeks ago. We talked with our son about how some of us, who became Christians at a very young age, can become too comfortable and complacent in our walk with the Lord. We forget the suffering that Jesus experienced and we, therefore, tend to lose some of our burden for the lost.

I have seen "The Greatest Story Ever Told" many times over the years, and though it is a beautiful rendition of Jesus' adult life and death, I know that it is a watered-down version of what He really went through. The part where they have Jesus nailed to the cross, stand it up and thump it into its whole brings me to tears every single time I see it. So I was not sure I would be able to make it through such a graphic portrayal as The Passion until now. Or so I thought; sigh.

I learned years ago that Jesus was literally beaten to an unrecognizable state, but to watch this take place for nearly two hours was totally devastating for me. I could barely breathe when He lay on his stomach; one arm chained to a stump, as they ripped through his flesh with the Cat of Nine Tails. Then they turned him on his back and did the same. He never once cried out.

The actor who played Jesus played the part to a T as far as I am concerned. There was a point when they showed the audience looking into Jesus' eyes, through a Roman soldier's eyes, as he paused briefly from whipping Jesus. The look in Jesus' eyes clearly spoke, "I do this for you."

I made myself sit through the movie, trying to choke back the sobs, while yelling, "Stop! Stop! Enough!" at the Romans who were spitting on Jesus, kicking him, mocking him, and whipping him all the way on the road to Golgotha. I tried to tell myself that this was a stark reminder of how really filthy and heinous our sin is to God and that it requires a sinless blood sacrifice. I also contemplated the fact that they sacrificed animals in Old Testament times, but I thought, "They did not torture those animals, they just killed them. Stop torturing my Lord!”

For a while I was angry because I felt that God let it go on for too long. "He is, after all God, He could have

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