Violence, Drama, and the Passion

I'm struck by the Gospel accounts of the Passion of the Christ.  They are very matter of fact: "Pilate had him flogged";  "they spit upon him and mocked him"; "they crucified him".  There is no screaming, no cries of agony and pain, no descriptions of how badly Jesus bled, no gore.  Except for one account while Jesus was on the way to Golgatha, there is no weeping and wailing.

I'm not saying these things didn't happen.  I'm saying they aren't recorded in the Gospels.  There is simply no drama.  Read them for yourself.  It just isn't there.

WE are the ones who add the images of profuse bleeding, the flailing flesh, the screaming, the gore, the violence, and the drama of the whole thing. We film it, produce it, act it out on stage, AND... we'll pay money to watch it. 

I wonder what that says about us??

Biblically, the real drama begins at the Resurrection: fear and trembling, running, weeping, unalloyed joy, confusion, wonder, shouting...

And yet good, churchgoing folks still want to watch Jesus put on trial, flogged, spit upon, nailed to the cross... killed and buried... over and over again, especially on Good Friday.

I'm afraid that we are too accustomed to looking AT the Passion when we should be looking THROUGH the Passion to the joy that awaits on the other side of it.  That's where the real action begins!  Shouldn't we be more excited about life than about violent death??