Here’s a quick list of selected movies about Jesus Christ, followed by a longer post.
From the Manger to the Cross (1912)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
***
While I’m sure I saw movies about the Savior growing up, my first memory of watching one centered on Jesus is as a nineteen-year-old in the Missionary Training Center. We gathered together as a large group of missionaries to watch The Lamb of God. As I saw the Savior nailed to the cross, the Spirit washed over me and testified to me that what I was seeing really happened. Others have had similar experiences.
One woman shared with me her experience watching the movie The Testaments: “Watching Christ be crucified filled me with such an agony in my soul that I just sobbed. I knew that I had caused some of the pain he felt, but I also knew that Christ didn’t hold it against me. I felt he loved me and did it willingly—for me. I was of worth to him! I’ll never forget the Spirit I felt as I watched that powerful scene.”
I love watching movies about Jesus Christ and have found that they can be deeply spiritually moving. Thinking about The Testaments, just mentioned, reminds me of when I saw it in the Legacy Theater in Salt Lake City on my honeymoon. I cried so hard during the last 30 seconds of that film!
So far as I have been able to tell, the church has made four movies about the life of Christ (please let me know if I’ve missed one!) Here’s a collection of the movies that the church has produced.
The first was “The Lamb of God,” originally created as a seminary movie called “Unto this end was I born.” It’s short, but powerful, and changed my life while I was in the MTC.
“The Testaments” is perhaps my all-time favorite movie produced by the church. While the focus of the movie is on what happened in the Americas, it does portray Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Christ’s appearance to those in the New World is spiritually powerful. The last scene, while fictional, demonstrates the one-by-one love Christ has for each of us.
“Finding Faith in Christ” is a short movie (30 minutes) featuring the same actor who played Christ in The Testaments. We hear about the life of Christ through Thomas, the apostle who doubted Christ was actually resurrected. A great movie!
The most comprehensive movie the Church has produced about the Life of Christ is the Bible Videos series. Here’s a compilation that puts them all in order for a couple of hours of great opportunity to come closer to Jesus Christ!
I’m embarrassed to admit that it was not until later in life that I realized entities outside of the Church also made spiritual movies about Jesus Christ. In recent years, I’ve deeply enjoyed watching what filmmakers both inside and outside the Church have portrayed about the Savior’s life (see the list of movies at the top of this post). In future posts I’ll share some of my favorite movies about the Savior from filmmakers outside the Church (update: see all posts about movies).
Sign up to receive occasional emails with more posts like this one.
