No film has ever depicted the relationship between Jesus of Nazareth and John the Beloved with more beauty, sensitivity, or respect than The Passion of The Christ.
John is the man tradition says is the "disciple that Jesus loved." He's also the man who Bible scholars say could have been Christ's gay lover.
Mel Gibson's controversial movie gives us the beloved disciple in the form of John, a handsome, goateed, raven-haired man who has a special, intimate place in Jesus' life.
From the garden of Gethsemane to the foot of the cross, John is rarely parted from his beloved.
John wept when Jesus was flogged. And when the body of the crucified Christ was taken down from the cross, John placed his hand upon his bloody thigh. As Jesus neared death, John stood with Jesus' mother and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross.
"Woman, behold your son," said Jesus at the film's unforgettable climax, speaking to his mother in reference to John. And Jesus also bid the disciple: "Behold your mother."
The significance of this moment cannot be properly understood without realizing that Jesus is bidding his mother to adopt his lover as her own son, and bidding his lover to adopt Jesus' mother as his own.
So says Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., speaking of the Gospel of John in The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament [read a review]. http://www.whitecranejournal.com/58/art5815.asp -- Michael Pugliese