The Easter season may not have quite the mainstream cultural presence that Christmas does, but the Easter story lends itself well to dramatization—as we’ve seen recently in 2004’s The Passion of the Christ, the 2013 television miniseries The Bible, and the 2014 film Son of God (based on the aforementioned miniseries).
[Browse Lent and Easter resources in the Bible Gateway Store]
This year, there’s another big-screen adaptation of the Easter story: Risen, which opens in theaters today. Risen examines the Easter story from a different perspective—that of a Roman centurion tasked with securing Jesus’ body after the crucifixion. Here’s the trailer:
Clavius, the centurion and protagonist, is an invention of the film and not part of the biblical account, although he does call to mind a specific character mentioned briefly in the gospel accounts:
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 (NIV)
The plot of Risen is clearly inspired by this passage from the Easter story:
The next day [after Jesus’ crucifixion]… the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”
“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. — Matthew 27:62-66 (NIV)
Whether Risen is a good film—either as a work of art, or as a faithful reflection of the events surrounding the first Easter—I can’t say, as I’ve not seen it. I will say that the premise—exploring the Easter story from the perspective of not only an outsider to the drama, but a Roman outsider with a neutral or even hostile predisposition to it—sounds intriguing. I look forward to reading reviews and reactions from viewers who go in with an eye toward discerning the film’s merits, biblical and otherwise. Will you be watching this sometime during the Easter season? If you do, you may want to prepare by reading the various accounts of Christ’s resurrection in the Bible: