Through the connections of my friend Larry, several of us were privileged to spend a day at Six Flags Over Mid-America two weeks before the official opening date of their very first season in 1971. And one of the few attractions that still survives from that time (as far as I know!) is the Cinerama Theater. Originally billed as The Chevy Show, the screen was bent in a curve towards the audience. When a film was shot with the same type of lens and projected onto this screen, the 3-D effect became very powerful.

Many of the early films consisted of mounting a camera on a roller coaster and filming the ride. The effect was so startling that if you got sick riding the real thing, you had better not watch this! What was even more fun than ‘feeling’ the twists and turns was to pull your eyes away from the screen and watch your fellow audience… even though the only thing actually moving was the film through the projector, everyone would lean to the right or left during a ‘hard turn’, or forward when the ‘brakes’ were suddenly applied. The effect was just too real for most people to ignore. Another standard that seems to be in all of these types of films over the years is the obligatory helicopter dip into and through a narrow canyon… a ride sure to get your adrenaline pumping by any measure!

Some years later I had an opportunity to ride the helicopter in Branson for a seven minute ride up and over Tablerock Lake and back. In those days, the helicopter was one of the early Bell models with a clear bubble cockpit and no doors. I sat on the outside edge with nothing but a seatbelt separating me from eternity. Believe me… as exciting and life-like the movie may have seemed, there was absolutely NO comparison with the reality!!!

I, like many others, went to see The Passion of the Christ when it first came out. I had been told how graphic some of the scenes were by friends who had already seen it… indeed, some said that they had to close their eyes or look away… it was just too intense, too real for them to watch… so I felt somewhat prepared as I sat in my seat just before it began. And you know what…? I didn’t see anything that I had not already seen in my own mind any number of times over the years!

I have often pondered and spoke about the fact that Jesus was a real, living, breathing human during His time on this earth. I feel like we far too often tend to think of Him as being more the Son of God and less the Son of Man.

What I mean by that is I think we are sometimes tempted to discount His human side because He was the Christ. After all, when Satan tempted Him in the desert, didn’t Jesus know that all Heaven and earth was already subject to Him? When He prayed in the garden for deliverance, didn’t He know that it was only temporary? The obvious answer is ‘yes’. But, that then begs the question, if He knew these things… if He knew that in the end He would sit at the right hand of God, His Father… what’s the big deal? How could He really feel and understand the things that you and I have to deal with in our lives everyday? What kind of sacrifice did He actually make if He knew that He would be alive again in three days? My answer to that lies in accepting the premise that Jesus really was a man… and was as human as you or me!

Consider, if you will, what I believe to be one of the basic premises of the human psyche… that no matter how positive we might be about something… no matter how sure we are of our facts and/or our beliefs… there is always room for doubt. In fact, in at least my limited experiences with my own life and those of whom I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the years, I believe the human mind is incapable of being one-hundred percent certain of anything!

Thus, the true nature of what exactly Jesus felt and dealt with while human depends on just how human He really was! And I believe He was 100% human! Because of that, He felt every temptation that we feel… lust, self-importance, the desire for success and acceptance. He knew pain… He knew hunger… He knew joy… and He knew sorrow. Because He was truly human, He felt all of these things, as well as the myriad of other feelings and failings that confront each of us everyday! And perhaps most important… because of His humanity, He was forced to doubt all that He knew was true.

In the movie, we saw a scene of Him as a young man working on a table and interacting with His mother in a very loving way… but I’m sure that the reality of it was even more touching. In the movie, we saw Satan tempting a struggling Jesus by attacking and using His uncertainties against Him as well as offering rewards… but I’m sure that the reality was far more difficult than we can ever imagine. In the movie we saw a scared, uncertain Jesus praying in the garden for deliverance from the anguish and torment He knew was soon to come… but I’m sure the reality was far more poignant. In the movie we saw the stripes cut into His flesh… we watched Him struggle and fall carrying His cross… we saw the nails hammered into His body… and yet I know the reality of it had to be far worse than any movie screen could ever present.

This Easter, as you ponder the sacrifice made in your name… remember that it was a human being… with all of the same doubts and uncertainties and fears as each of us have… who elected to make that sacrifice! He may have also been the Son of God… but on the Cross He was the Son of Man… in other words… on the Cross, He was human!

        Let none of us ever forget that!