Pastor Matt's Blogosphere

The Nativity Story

Saturday night, my family and some other families from church went to see The Nativity Story. I have been wanting to see this movie for quite some time and since I had a bulletin insert promoting the movie (along with an exclusive behind-the-scenes dvd with trailer to show during morning worship), I thought I might need to see the film. And boy am I glad I did! The film was very, very good. The main thing that I had to bite my tongue on was about the wise men being at the manger scene. However, I overlooked this common tradition and looked at it from the bigger theme of the birth of Christ. This movie is different from the Passion of the Christ in that it is not as intense to begin with. In fact my wife looked at me and said, "It's not as majestic as I thought it would be." However, later in the movie, the majesty of Christ's birth came through in a glorious way. But she does have a point. The whole story of Christ's birth is not majestic. I mean the King of Kings, the Savior of the world, being born in a manger! Of course, at the same time, it is majestic in what it means. Now, back to the movie. It portrays Joseph and Mary, in my humble opinion, as normal, everyday people. I think the producer did a great job not creating a Mary of worship but a Mary of Israel.

Okay, for the rating. I give it 5 stars out of 5 stars. Yes, in fact, I told the congregation that they ALL needed to see it, and I encourage you to see it too. In fact, I am going to buy the movie when it comes out.

P.S. I wish I could watch this movie on Christmas Eve...whew, what an emotional ride that would be!