Getting Inside the Role by HS

APRIL 7, 2015

Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5

No actor or actress can successfully play the part of another individual without finding out who that person really is, getting into their skin, thinking as the other thought—not simply having a make-up artist turn the actor into a look-alike. When Mel Gibson asked Jim Caviezel to play the role of Jesus Christ in his film, The Passion of the Christ, Jim knew who Jesus was. He had been raised as a Roman Catholic and along with his four siblings, he went to mass on Sunday. But he didn’t really know Him.

Watching Billy Graham on television as a teenager was also a pivotal moment in his life, so he reflects, but it was playing the role of Jesus in the film that forever changed his life. In the process, he discovered who Jesus really is. It wasn’t learning Aramaic, or getting struck by lightning with no adverse effects, or the hardship and suffering that he endured playing the part. It was painfully coming to a deeper understanding of who Jesus Christ is and why it was necessary for Him to die.

Though you may have never considered this, that kind of understanding was exactly what Paul said every child of God should have. In his letter to the believers in the city of Philippi, Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 NKJV). Another version put it, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ.”

Your life—and I am confident that Jim Caviezel would tell you the same thing—will be affected five ways.

1. Your perspective will be different.

Jesus saw the end from the beginning, while our vision is so limited. Jesus’ perspective was different because He knew God had the power to raise Him up from death. He said confidently, “No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18). He was in control—not the Romans or the Jews who sought His death.
Your attitude will be different. Focus on just one area of attitude—worry versus trust. Did Jesus worry about what was on the horizon? Not in the least. He set His face like a flint and walked to Jerusalem with head high.

2. Your values will be different. 

Your time would be spent differently. Your relationships would take on new importance, and your money would be spent differently. The reality is that five minutes after you die, your car will be meaningless, the size of your home unimportant, the amount of money you have left in your bank account inconsequential. What you have invested for God and eternity, though, will take on immediate importance.

3. Your boundaries will be different as well. 

I’ve been reading of the history of Ireland, a beautiful country that has been so torn by religious strife and prejudice. How we have faithfully held on to our beliefs (better described as prejudices) pales in light of how we have been treated by our neighbor. Our boundaries, our prejudices, our attitudes of racial superiority will melt and fade away when we gain the mind of Jesus.

4. Finally, your thinking will be different. 

Jesus looked at life from an entirely different perspective, and, according to what he has told reporters, Jim Caviezel will play roles differently in the future—to the great dismay of directors who don’t like the new and different Jim Caviezel as much as the pre-Passion one.

The bottom line is that when you begin to think as Jesus did, you will be a different person. It’s just that simple.

Resource reading: Philippians 2:1-11.