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The truth is, parts of The Last Temptation work extremely well. It does a splendid job of re-creating the texture of life in first-century Palestine, and there are stunning visual sequences, such as Jesus in the wilderness. The film was not helped by some bad casting choices, especially Willem Dafoe as Jesus.

The controversy over the movie focused primarily on two issues: the character of Jesus and the assertion that Jesus committed sexual sin. The first of these carries the most weight, for Scorsese's Jesus is a man as much tortured as loved by God. His calling to be God is not a welcome one, and Jesus never seems to fully embrace it. To some extent Schrader and Scorsese do overcorrect the historic neglect of the humanity of Jesus by a church that has generally preferred a magisterial, God-sure Savior. Scorsese significantly overstates Jesus' struggles, making him uncertain and self-abusive, much like characters in his earlier films, including Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980). There is never any doubt that Jesus is God, but Scorsese so wanted a Christ with whom frail humanity might identify that his Jesus appears troubled to the point of neurosis.

The other protest indicted The Last Temptation for presenting Jesus as guilty of sexual trespass. But this does not happen in the movie. Yes, Jesus is tempted on the Cross (through a vivid dream sequence) to leave it to enjoy the glories of ordinary life—marriage, children, friends, and long life—but that is clearly specified as a temptation, the last temptation, pitched to him at his most vulnerable moment. It is seductive and powerful, which is the nature of temptation. In the end, Jesus emphatically rejects these blandishments of the devil (here coming as a young winsome girl) to embrace the sacrifice that is the Cross. This trenchant sequence captures the very nature of temptation while clarifying and deepening the measure of Jesus' sacrifice.

Scorsese's movie, though an extreme example, raises a compelling question about Jesus films in general. Can any treatment of Jesus' story really convey a fair, helpful, or faithful presentation of God in the flesh—or hint at the mystery and miracle of the Incarnation? Or will Hollywood forever see its own ideologies, weaknesses, and yearnings in the cinematic Christ?

Film stock catches light to tell its story. It is, however, far harder to put Light itself on the screen. In the movies, as in life, we have a hard time seeing Jesus. The great help of these many portraits in the Jesus pictures is that they challenge us to test the accuracy of what we really know of Jesus, specifically whether our understanding comes from Scripture or pop culture. And, better yet, Jesus movies can often stretch the soul to know and see Christ, as if for the first time.

In this busy TV season of Jesus movies, it's clear that the genre is very much alive. Though cinematic approaches have changed through the years, filmmakers continue a quest that goes far beyond the pursuit of higher ratings and bigger box-office receipts (though that's certainly a part of it). This quest is about seeing and hearing—knowing—a first-century Rabbi whose deeds and words still jar us. It's about glimpsing just a bit of what Emmanuel—God with us—might look like. Jesus movies will continue as long as Hollywood has cameras and people thirst in their souls.

Roy M. Anker is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the coeditor of Perspectives: A Journal of Reformed Thought.

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May 22 2000, Vol. 44, No. 6