Passion

With all the excitement surrounding the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ", I began to take a new found interest in the word "Passion". It is a self-definable word. Jesus was passionate for you, will you be passionate for Him?

I have always considered myself to be a "passionate" person, about certain things. If nothing else, I felt that I had a zeal for Jesus that would put me in the category of passionate. My intrigue with the word "passion" caused me to do a little research. Mel Gibson was not the first to make a movie on the subject of Christ's death. Others had also dramatized the act and some had simply called it "The Passion". Why? I wondered where did that come about?

To begin my search, I went to the Bible. After all, there is no greater authority concerning Jesus Christ. Surely the Bible would show us the correlation between Christ and passion. There was only one place in the Bible, that I could find, where the word "passion" was mentioned.

Acts 1:3
"To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:"

There you have it. The crucifixion was classified as "Christ's Passion". I thought maybe the Webster's dictionary could shed more light on what the word passion is about. I was amazed when I looked up the word and the first three definitions involved the unselfish death of Jesus at Calvary. All of a sudden "Passion" took on new meaning. His passion was the selfless drive to redeem mankind no matter what the cost.

His passion drove him to take thirty-nine stripes with a cat of nine tails (whip with sharp pieces of metal and stone). His passion kept his focus off of the mockers and on the business at hand. Nails did not hold him to the cross, passion did. The passionate love of Christ compelled him to take on the sins of the entire world.

The next time that we state that we are a passionate people, we need to remember who defined the word "Passion" and how it was defined. Jesus Christ taught us the true meaning of passion. He defined the word with a whipping post and a cross.

Jesus was passionate for you. Do you have passion? Do you consider yourself to be passionate? What is your passion?