The Rev. Paul Gray knows when he’s beaten.

He preaches about Jesus nearly every Sunday at Heartland Community Church, 619 Vt., but even he understands he’ll likely never be able to match the compelling drama of the upcoming film, “The Passion of the Christ.”

“Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘the greatest story ever told,’ but most of us aren’t storytellers. Mel Gibson is,” says Gray, pastor of Heartland Community Church.

“He’s telling this story with $25 million and the best Hollywood production tools. It’s transcendent.”

Gray is one of two Lawrence pastors who attended a special Jan. 20 screening of the film at a church in suburban Chicago. Nearly 4,500 people came to the screening, which was followed by a live, in-person interview with Gibson.

“The Passion of the Christ,” which has been 12 years in the making, opens Feb. 25 — Ash Wednesday — in theaters across the country.

Gray was among the 2,000 pastors invited to attend the private screening by the Willow Creek Assn., a cooperative network of more than 9,500 evangelical churches around the world.

Invitees each were permitted to bring one guest to the event, and Gray brought the Rev. John McDermott, pastor of Morning Star Christian Church, 998 N. 1771 Road.

The screening was at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill. The church is led by the Rev. Bill Hybels, who interviewed Gibson after the screening.

Gray and McDermott are among the relatively small number of people in the nation who have been offered the opportunity to see the film before it opens. Gray feels fortunate to have been given the chance.

“John and I like to say, ‘It’s a God thing.’ We both would have paid good money to go somewhere and do this (attend a screening). But here we were invited,” he says. “I would encourage every adult to go and see it, and then ask someone who is a student of the Bible to explain the ramifications of it to them personally.”

Story of good versus evil

“The Passion of the Christ” tells the story of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus in Jerusalem, including a graphic and brutal portrayal of his crucifixion.

Gibson is said to have gone to great lengths to make the film as authentic and accurate — both historically and scripturally — as possible, including having the dialogue spoken in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of first-century Palestine. It is subtitled in English.

Pope John Paul II is reported to have seen the film and responded, “It is as it was,” though some in the Vatican have disputed that he made the comment.

The film has generated controversy in the media for months, with some critics saying it explicitly lays the blame for the death of Jesus at the foot of the Jews — an accusation (called the “blood libel”) that has fueled persecution of the Jewish people for centuries.

Some Jewish leaders have criticized the film and expressed fears that it could re-ignite anti-Semitism.

Gray doesn’t feel the movie singles out the Jews of that time, or places a collective guilt on their successive generations.

“I can say there is nothing that differentiates between the Romans, the Jewish people, the Greeks who were in Jerusalem or the gentiles. It portrays how evil manifested itself in mankind,” he says.

“It doesn’t even show that the people (at the crucifixion) were Jewish, and it certainly doesn’t make any distinctions between the Jews and anybody else.”

Gibson also has been criticized for being highly selective about who gets to preview the film, clamping down on negative press by showing it only to friendly audiences at tightly controlled screenings.

“We had to have our personal invitations (to the event), our IDs, a computer printout of our acceptance (of the invitation), and there were security guards there,” Grays says.

Evangelistic tool

The film, and Gibson’s storytelling ability, deeply impressed both Lawrence pastors.

“It made me just fall in love with Jesus even more. The movie made me feel like I was there, a witness to it. It’s a work of art that transcends fact. I have a relationship with the Lord, but this movie reinforces it,” McDermott says.

Gray believes the film is historically and biblically accurate. And that unsettles him.

“I had a feeling of angst, wondering if I was capable of acting like the people in the movie did — a lynch mob who were filled with malice, hitting Jesus, beating him, ripping out pieces of his flesh — an uncontrolled mob going mad,” he says.

“I just thought, ‘This really happened.’ Under the right circumstances, I’m probably as capable of being as bad as these guys are. Evil is really present, and it can be present in me, too.”

The R-rated film does not spare the viewer from seeing every bloody detail of the tortures Jesus was subjected to on the way to his death.

“I had to make myself watch it. I literally just prayed to God to help me keep my eyes open. I wanted to see it,” Gray says.

“John and I both studied and read about what a crucifixion was like. You can read that, but seeing it portrayed realistically is another thing. You can’t get that from reading.”

Movies with religious themes have traditionally fared poorly at the box office. So will there be much of a mainstream audience for a film about Jesus that’s spoken in Aramaic?

“Two words: Mel Gibson,” Gray says.

Gray and McDermott believe Gibson’s reputation alone will draw people into theaters, including those who probably would never experience a story about Jesus in any other context.

The film has the potential to be a powerful evangelistic tool, they say.

“We feel that this movie is going to be a catalyst for introducing people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ,” Gray says.