Jesus meant no disrespect to his mother when he said, during the Sermon on the Mountain, "Blessed, rather, are those who follow the Word of God." I am actually quite surprised at this movie, which gained the pre-approval of the late Pope in 1999 before it aired on Italian and German television. Mary is held in such high regard in the Catholic faith, almost a diety they pray to, so for the Pope to be ok with Jesus saying this about his mother is a surprise.
There are numerous mistakes in the movie, erroneous interpretations of scripture. For instance, when the Gentile woman begged Jesus to heal her daughter, and he said, "I can't give the Master's good food to dogs," the movie would have us to believe that Jesus didn't realize that non-Jews were meant to have God's blessings as well. Jesus knew everything he was supposed to do and be. He was only testing this Gentile woman to see how much faith she had in him, but the movie makes him look like he has things to learn.
The worst was when he went to John the Baptist to be baptized. Jesus was totally without sin. Let us remember this, Christians! I was completely offended when John told Jesus that he had to repent of his sins! This is ridiculous. Jesus was the spotless Lamb of Sacrifice, sent by God the Father to purchase our sins with his death, blood and resurrection. If Jesus had been a common sinner as us, God would never have selected him to be our Savior. Jesus was pure and unsullied, holy and untouched. I did not mind that he had a crush on Mary, because he being was tempted. Being tempted is not sin, giving in to it is. Once this very important detail was botched, it was hard to enjoy this movie, until the second half. I overlooked the offenses of Part I, and after Part II, the movie got much better, and Jesus began to act like the one we know from the Bible, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, sharing God's love and message, praying for strength, and portrayed as not only a weak human who needs God's strength, but the Son of God, whose strength is already there.
I love Jeremy Sisto, and he did such a great job. I did not blame him for the offensive parts of the script, that was whoever wrote the movie. They should have followed scripture, otherwise why bother. The way it really happened is, John said to Jesus, "You don't need to be baptized...you should baptize me!" But Jesus felt that he himself needed to be baptized, not to be washed clean of sin, for there was no sin, but to set an example of what we must do, which is obey him and follow his examples: His baptism, his holiness, his goodness, his mercy, his hate for evil and sin.
And yet in spite of the things I took great offense at, this is a very positive and heartwarming family movie about the most precious name in human history!
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