Going to the Movies

Understanding who Jesus is and who we are

04/08/2025

John 8:21-30 Jesus said to the Pharisees: "I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come." So the Jews said, "He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, 'Where I am going you cannot come'?" He said to them, "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins." So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world." They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him." Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

On Sunday evening, Fr. Samy said he was going to Malco theater to watch the movie, “The Last Supper.” I asked if he was going with some friends, and he said he was going alone. I replied, “Whenever I see someone sitting alone in a movie theater I always feel so sorry for them because it looks like they have no friends.”

So, when Fr. Samy arrived at Malco, he saw an elderly couple seated close to the front, and decided he would sit right behind them, pretending like he was at the theater with them, and that he had friends. I am so glad that my associate priests take my advice and learn from me.

Fr. Samy shared later at lunch that the movie was very interesting because it showed two Last Suppers. Jesus and his apostles were in the upper room celebrating the Last Supper that would later become the Mass. But in the lower room (ground floor) the family who hosted Jesus were still celebrating the Seder Meal which would remain the old Passover meal.

In other words, the movie cinematically conveyed who Jesus was at the Last Supper by contrasting the old and the new Passovers. And that contrast was a powerful point to make. Why? Because if there is one burning question catching on fire all the pages of the New Testament, it is the question: “Who is Jesus?” The movie answered that question saying: You discover Jesus’ identity at the Last Supper.

In the gospel today, we see that this question is of utmost concern to the fourth gospel of John. In today’s pericope from John 8:21-30, Jesus uses the loaded phrase, “I AM” twice. Why is that particular pair of words – I AM – so significant? Because that was the name of God that Moses heard from the burning bush in Ex 3:14.

When Moses asked God’s name, the Lord replied, “This is what you will tell the Israelites [still in Egyptian slavery]: I AM has sent me to you.” So, when Jesus explicitly refers to himself as “I AM” it becomes abundantly clear how Jesus would answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” That is, he is equal to God, indeed, God himself.

In his popular book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis tackled this dilemma of Jesus’ true identity. He especially wanted to disabuse people of the common confusion that Jesus was “just another good moral teacher” like Buddah or Gandhi. Lewis argued that based on Jesus’ own words and actions in the gospel – like calling himself I AM – Jesus cannot be a good moral teacher. He was either a lunatic, a liar, or the Lord. But it is impossible for Jesus to simply be a good moral guru.

When the apostles arrived at Caesarea Philippi in Mt 16, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” And for 2,000 years Christians and non-Christians alike have attempted to give an adequate answer to that question. The latest Hollywood answer to that question came in the movie “The Last Supper” that Fr. Samy went to watch by himself, although he pretended to be friends with an elderly couple.

The best answer I know to that consummate conundrum is what Pope St. John Paul II offered in his Theology of the Body. That is, Jesus is not only our Savior but our Spouse. He has come not only to save us from hell but to carry us off on his white stead to a shining city on a hill called the heavenly Jerusalem. There he will reign as King of kings and seat us beside him on a throne as his Bride, the Church.

You see, the question about Jesus’ identity invariably attempts to answer the unasked but implied question about our own identity. When we discover who Jesus is, we likewise learn who we are. If Jesus is a good moral teacher, then we are dim-witted disciples. If Jesus is a savior, then we are wretched sinners in need of salvation. If Jesus is a divine Spouse, then we are the damsel in distress.

In other words, the question, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” is not just a question Jesus aimlessly asked 2,000 years ago. It is a persistent, even nagging, question he puts to you and me today. And the answer we give says as much about us as it does about him. Or, then again, maybe we are just a guy going to a movie by ourselves.

Praised be Jesus Christ!