Recently released by UrantiaBook Films, Re-Imagining Jesus is a masterful depiction of the life, times, and teachings of Jesus, based on Part IV of The Urantia Book.
Written, directed and produced by David Kantor, a great deal of the film is shot “on location”, allowing us to see the places associated with different parts of Jesus’ life and ministry. It is easy to imagine Jesus and his followers living, laughing, and teaching in these locations.
Seeing or visiting historical places often makes people feel more connected to the history and events that occurred there (that is the whole psychology behind pilgrimages), and Re-Imagining Jesus is more than successful in arousing these feelings. In this light, David’s movie comes as close as you can get to a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, without actually getting on a plane. Interestingly though, having watched it a few times now, this ‘armchair pilgrimage’ seems to be stoking a deep desire to actually get on the plane myself.
From Truthbook.com:
Modern seekers of Jesus are thirsty for more of Jesus than has been available for 20 centuries. Re-Imagining Jesus is meant to engage any and all followers of the Master, and it is hoped that this new view of Jesus will open meaningful discussion among all those who seek a deeper understanding, and a closer walk, with Jesus.
Highlights of the film include:
- The classic New Testament story illuminated with detail from The Urantia Book’s biography of Jesus
- Beautiful footage of seldom seen places associated with some of the most important events in the Master’s life
- Detailed maps providing important geographic orientation
- Timeline of events between the baptism in the Jordan and the resurrection
- A compelling story about his primary mission — the revelation of a spiritual kingdom accessible here and now
Jesus lived well into his thirties. It only stands to reason then, that biblical accounts of a few miracles and details focused solely on the final three days of his life would be hardly the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what we could know about those few decades. Another recently released film about Jesus called Son of God, serves to illustrate this point: in 138 minutes of movie, scarcely 5 minutes were devoted to any of Jesus’ teachings or message! We know that people were attracted to his message, but how often these days do we get to hear what it is that he was teaching everyone?
The challenge of our age is to dig down deep and uncover his message, his teachings, buried under centuries of dogma and misinterpretation- both unintended and otherwise; latently awaiting their rediscovery so that they can again burst forth into the world in all their transformative power. Re-Imagining Jesus takes on this important challenge of lifting Jesus out of the context of the Christian religion about him, and focuses instead on the religion of him; the religion and message that Jesus lived and taught his followers and the multitudes.
The religion about Jesus dramatically changed the face of the western world, imagine what the religion of Jesus is destined to accomplish.
Re-Imagining Jesus is a compelling film with beautiful cinematography, and most assuredly worthy of your time.
In fact, why wait? Watch it now:
Re-Imagining Jesus from UrantiaBook Films on Vimeo.
