The Visual Bible

I recently found the Book of Matthew on dvd and Tim and I have had many discussions about the thoughts we have as a result of watching it. It has always been one of my favorite religious things to watch besides Charleton Heston in the Ten Commandments. The Matthew video is a bit more realistic – if you know what I mean.

The cool thing about this movie is that the dialog is totally done verse by verse out of the Book of Matthew using the New International Version. You can see the chapter and verse down in the lower right hand corner of the screen and you can follow along with your own bible if you want. The other cool thing about it is that they act out what is being said and it flows from scene to scene. It’s amazing.

After I watched this movie (?), I was struck by how joyous the actor portrayed Jesus. I loved it and after it was over, it suddenly dawned on me that the reason I liked it was because it made more sense to me than the man of constant sorrows portrayed in art and in stained glass pictures. To see Jesus smile after someone was healed seemed natural. Why wouldn’t he smile when someone was able to see for the first time and the first face they saw was the Son of God? This actor was able to tap into the human-ness of Jesus while helping you to see that Jesus had his eye on the heavenly goal at all times.

If you haven’t seen this – I would highly recommend it. It is food for the soul.