I am just coming to the end of 'Tell it slant' by Eugene Peterson. This is the 4th book in his series on Spiritual Theology. Towards the end of the book he comments on the words Jesus spoke from the cross. When reflecting on the words 'I thirst'(John 19:28) he suggests: -
'"I thirst" is the sacred witness that there was "no spring of water gushing up to eternal life"(John 4:14) left in him'( p 256).
He is also anxious that we should avoid either trying to spiritualise Jesus and treat him apart from his body( as the gnostics did) or focussing so much on the pain and suffering of Jesus on the cross to a degree that depersonalizes Jesus' pain so that "it becomes a thing, an object to be pitied or admired, or a truth to be preached and taught." (p257).
On reflecting on this he writes:-
"sexual pornography is sex without relationship, the intimacy of sexuality reduced and debased to an object to be looked at or used. Spiritual pornography is prayer and faith without relationship, intimacy with Jesus reduced and debased into an idea or cause to be argued and used". In a footnote he suggests that Mel Gibson's film The Passion of Christ' was a conspicuous instance of this. All the parts of Jesus' words from the Cross are embedded in the whole story of Jesus.
