Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” has created a worldwide uproar of raucous reaction. All over America, people are pouring into theaters. Over a hundred in Los Angeles couldn’t wait-they saw it at midnight, opening day.

Where else but in Texas?-the movie so impressed a financial planner in Plano that he decided everybody should see it. He bought out all 20 theaters at the Cinemark Tinseltown for $42,000 gave the tickets away to 6,000 people. (23,000 more flooded him with requests.)

A paralegal student in Los Angeles comes out of the movie fighting back tears, saying that he’s in shock, stunned. In Wichita, Kansas, a 57-year old woman collapses during the movie’s final scenes and later dies in a near-by hospital.

Money is flying out of wallets and into theaters at unheard of opening day speeds. “The Passion” outgunned “Lord of the Rings” for the most money for a Wednesday opening.

One viewer said, “If you’re a believer, it’ll increase your faith; if you’re not, you’ll probably treat others with love.” In theaters, people groan and sob audibly. “It’s all about triumph,” says an English major from Penn State. “It changed my life,” said another.

Strong reactions storm across the land. Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes” fame said that the movie “was good for a few laughs.” He considered Gibson to be “a real nut case.” But he admitted that he hasn’t seen it, and doesn’t “plan to spend $9 just to have a few laughs.”

The chairman of a major Hollywood studio vows, “I won’t hire him. I won’t support anything [Mel Gibson] is a part of.” Steven Spielberg is angry about the movie, while Dustin Hoffman has talked about Mel Gibson’s “strangeness.” A Hollywood producer says that Gibson makes him “uncomfortable.”

An entire nation, France, refuses to show the film (a decision that may be countermanded in April). The “New York Times” reports that Hollywood bosses have vowed to destroy Gibson and a report from the “New York Post” says that a Hate Crimes supervisor ordered 20 of his detectives to go see the movie to see if it might cause anti-Semitic crimes. [No increase has been reported.]

Even PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has gotten into the storm, saying they support the movie. One 77 year-old woman was planning to see it until she got some bad news from her cardiologist who recommended seeing a comedy instead, fearing her heart couldn’t take it.

What’s going on? Nothing unusual. Nothing except what the Bible has been saying since Paul put down his pen after writing

II Corinthians 2:15-16:

“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life . . .”

Paul uses the analogy of the Roman Triumph in which the conquering Roman general rode in a chariot, leading his legions into the streets of Rome in a magnificent procession. Thousands of the cheering masses lined the streets to welcome the troops and to celebrate the victory. It was sheer pageantry. All the altars on every street burned their incense to the gods, producing the sweet smell of victory.

But also in the triumphal procession were the POWs, the captives of the legions, marching in chains, captives who would later feel the blade as they were put to death at the Capitol. In the procession, they were the dead men walking. To them, the incense wasn’t sweet; it was the smell of death.

The same incense, two separate smells. Paul says that to those being saved by faith alone in Christ alone through grace alone, the smell of the gospel is sweet. To those who are rejecting the gospel, it carries the smell of death.

Mel Gibson’s movie smells. Whatever he has done, he has seen the drama in the greatest story ever told. It’s interesting that the reaction comes as a result of what is portrayed-the death of Christ, the last hours of His life on earth.

There would have been no reaction had the movie consisted of a recitation the Sermon on the Mount, but it is the Cross-work of Christ that divides. Didn’t Jesus say that His coming would be

like a sword, dividing the closest of relationships-

marriages, families, et. al? (Matthew 10:34)

In the final analysis, it’s not the movie that smells; it’s the passion of the Christ doing what it has always done and will continue to do.