Early screenings of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" have drawn gasps, tears and declarations of love in the Knoxville area.
Hundreds of viewers attended screenings Monday and Tuesday at the Regal Farragut Towne Square. The movie opens nationwide today.
Diana Downing was ecstatic Monday after seeing the film.
"It was phenomenal, fabulous," said Downing, an office manager at Exodus Chiropractic, a local business that organized the screenings with Petro's Chili and Chips, Chik-Fil-A, Christian radio station Love 89 and Regal Cinemas.
"It was such a portrayal of love. It was far more gentle and loving than what I expected after hearing the media hype."
"I have heard already from people inside that they will never look at Communion the same way," said the Rev. John Unthank, pastor of the College Connection for the Church of God at the University of Tennessee. "We realize how badly he suffered and to what extent his blood was shed. The purpose was for us."
Tears, nodding heads and choruses of "Amen" and "Yes" were offered both nights. Gasps throughout the movie affirmed people's discomfort with seeing on screen the extent of brutality they believe Jesus endured before the end of his earthly life.
At the movie's end, prayer teams assembled to assist those who decided they wanted to make a personal commitment to know Jesus. And everyone prayed.
As patrons stepped out of the auditorium, volunteers handed out Bibles.
Chiropractor Dr. Peter Sulack said the event is a gift to the community and a way to help share the Gospel. On Monday, one auditorium held 344 people, with 266 in the other.
Several patrons remarked they were saddened to watch an almost perverse pleasure on the faces of the Roman soldiers as they whipped Jesus with a spiked cat o'nine tails onlookers who pelted him with rocks and beat him and his pleas for strength or mercy from God.
"When you're told about it all of your life but to put it to a picture, it's painful," said Kristy Geller of watching the nails being jammed into Jesus' hands.
"It's very breathtaking," said Jeri Barbo. "It's very hard to imagine a normal person going through what he went through."
The movie is an account of the last hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The storytelling featured flashbacks to earlier times in Jesus' life: A verdant hillside, filled with people listening to him preach, is the same place where crowds gather to watch him crucified. Watching her son stumble as he walks to Golgotha and is pinned by the large cross evokes a memory for Mary of a time when he fell as a child, and she dashed to his side.
Images like this touched Robin Marion, who attended the movie with her husband, Chris Marion, who works for the "Hallerin Hilton Hill Show" daily morning show. Robin Marion said scenes with Mary reminded her of her our relationship with her own children.
Shelia Unthank, who saw the movie with her husband and sons and family friends, agreed.
"As a mother, you'd reach out automatically to protect him, to keep him from getting hurt," she said. "When she held Jesus that last time, that look of absolute grief, no words can ever begin to touch that hurt. To know you lost the very thing you loved but to know it was for a purpose cannot be imagined. To know she didn't have anything to stop it but love, that is powerful."
Jeannine F. Hunter may be reached at 865-342-6324.
