March/April 2000
In the Footsteps of Jesus
by Bruce Marchiano
Like many others, I first "met" Bruce Marchiano when a friend recommended the video, The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. In Matthew, Bruce depicts Jesus in a convincing and authentic manner, so unlike the roles portrayed by other actors in many other cinematic and theatrical productions. On the strength of his success in Matthew, Plain Truth Ministries asked him to host our video, Millennial Madness, and Bruce's contribution helped make Millennial Madness an award-winning video.
With the cooperation of Harvest House and Vision Video, we are delighted to be able to share excerpts and photographs from Bruce Marchiano's books, In the Footsteps of Jesus and Jesus, Yesterday, Today and Forever. Bruce shares insights, background and his own spiritual journey as Jesus "directed" him in the making of The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. We hope the pages that follow will only begin to whet your appetite and that you will want to see and read more about the personal relationship Jesus offers to us all, and how he has used Bruce Marchiano to convey that reality.--Greg Albrecht
I've never been an atheist, built a financial empire, spent time in prison or been raised from the dead (well, not literally anyway). I've never seen a vision of Jesus or had thousands healed at my touch. I lay claim to nothing so dramatic or grandiose. The truth is, I imagine I'm not much different from most folks sitting in the pews every Sunday. My weeks are more or less filled with the same day-to-day struggles and bearing up under day-to-day (sometimes it feels like hour-to-hour) hardships, challenges and question marks. I suffer my share of blunders, enjoy my share of victories and try hard to live and apply all the faith, seeking and trusting that I can.
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You're reading a book written by an ordinary guy--an actor by profession--who, a handful of years ago, was quite simply blown away with the unique and extraordinary experience of portraying Jesus in The Gospel According to Matthew. It was a stunning honor, a humbling privilege, a breathtaking wonder--an adventure so phenomenal, words cannot begin to convey the marvel of it. Each day on the set was a lifetime of experiences and discoveries, every moment unveiling Jesus as I'd never known him to be nor even dared to dream he was.
Before Matthew, I knew Jesus as my Lord and loved him. But in doing the film--in walking through his life, in speaking his words, in putting my fingers into the eyes of a blind man, and more than anything else, in hanging on a cross--I fell in love with Jesus. Oh, who I discovered him to be! A Man among men--joyous, dynamic, passionate, full of life; a picture of heroism, integrity and truth--the Son of the Living God in every sense of the title; and his story is not merely "the greatest story ever told," but the greatest LOVE story ever told.
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RealitiesThere is a specific image of first-century Jesus I'd dare say most folks have ingrained in their minds. It's the image I grew up believing, and in speaking to people around the world, I've learned how common an image it is. It's of a serene, mystical figure: manicured hands, perfectly combed hair, cascading white robes, rosy cheeks, arms stretched wide, gaze fixed heavenward, baritone-voiced and divinely aloof.
Now as lovely as that may appear, one of my first and most significant discoveries was that reality was very different. Jesus was a real person living a real life, and everything around him was real as well.
| One of the most exciting privileges I've had through Matthew is seeing teens and kids turning on to Jesus after years of turning their backs on a Savior who had been so tragically misrepresented to them as a stern, anything-but-loving marble statue image. |
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field..." As he spoke those words, there had to have been babies crying, people coming and going, donkeys braying, camels doing whatever camels do, and a whole mishmash of other first-century activities going on all around him.I remember, in several of the scenes we shot, being interrupted by those very things and distinctly thinking, Wow, this had to have happened to Jesus (and he didn't have the benefit of a second take!).
I remember as well when we filmed the feeding of the 5,000. What a glorious experience it was! The day was steaming hot, the crowd was 2,500 strong, complete with children, animals and every other first-century effect the art department could come up with. The cameras rolled, and I coursed through the throngs, stopping to heal a lame man who was lying in the dirt--he hugged and hugged me in thanksgiving. John the Beloved belly-laughed, and we each threw an arm around the other. Little ones were thrust into my embrace left and right. An old woman took my face and kissed me with all she had. A basket of loaves and fishes was laid in my hands.
After an hour, a look in the mirror showed sweat tumbling down my neck, robes soiled from top to bottom, hair a windblown mess, face dark and weathered--believe me, I was anything but glowing and rosy-cheeked. Our makeup artist took one glance and threw his arms up in surrender.
But you know, it really hit home that remarkable day--that's the way it must have been 2,000 years ago. It was real life, and it wasn't the pretty side of life. It was people, and people were poor, hungry, oppressed; emotions were running high; there was excitement, celebrating, laughter and weeping; the sun was beating down, the wind was blowing and every broken heart and sick body for miles was pressing in on their newfound hero--Jesus.
I'll never forget the smell of sunbaked humanity and the dribble of infants I'd held overtaking my robes. Field dust and mud was caked between my toes. My face and arms were glazed with soil, sweat and hard sun. It was not a pretty picture, but undoubtedly a picture resembling first-century Jesus as he moved among crowd upon crowd, day after day. One afternoon while we were filming, a sandal strap broke, and I sat on a stump to fix it. There I was working this strip of tired leather into a fresh knot, and it hit me--Jesus could raise people from the dead, he could feed thousands with a handful of scraps, he could walk across a stormy sea, yet he repaired his sandals with his own two hands. I looked at the dirt under my fingernails and thought, Jesus. I'm telling you, I was overcome with emotion--it was so simple, so basic, so shockingly right.
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One of the most exciting privileges I've had through Matthew is seeing teens and kids turning on to Jesus after years of turning their backs on a Savior who had been so tragically misrepresented to them as a stern, anything-but-loving marble statue image. I spoke once to kids in an elementary school. We laughed and talked about Jesus for an hour or so. A few days after the meeting, I received a huge envelope full of homemade greeting cards from the kids. As you can imagine, there was some very funny stuff, but one card in particular really knocked me out. Unlike the others, there were no drawings anywhere, just a simple, three-word sentence written probably a hundred times all across the front. It said, "Jesus is cool! Jesus is cool! Jesus is cool!" And when I opened the card, there it was one last time in huge block letters: JESUS IS COOL!
I'll tell you, if that's the one impression those kids walked away with, I couldn't be more thrilled. And that is simply because it's true--Jesus is "cool." He's not this overbearing, heavy-handed figure waiting for someone to make a wrong move so he can loose a lightning bolt. Quite the contrary! Can't you just see first-century Jesus sitting on a tree stump with a giggling baby girl wrapped in his arms? What a glorious picture! I have no doubt that Jesus would have been giggling and playing and beaming with love for that little girl with all the fullness that God is.
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Jesus had no need to maintain some air of poise, trying to impress people with his holiness. He had no insecurities, and his holiness certainly wasn't wrapped up in outward appearances. He had nothing to prove and no reason to hold back. He was God, and he had no problem fully being who he fully was and fully living what he fully felt every full moment of every full day.
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All during the shoot, tiny phrases from scriptures I'd read a thousand times would suddenly leap off the page as if I were seeing them for the very first time. One of those little phrases completely redesigned my perception of Jesus and the love he's dying (or should I say, died) to give me.
Most of us know the story. Jesus is doing his usual--pouring buckets of truth on the hungry hearts of ancient Judea. Suddenly a voice in the crowd belts out the $25,000 question: "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
I can picture a Pharisee primping himself to receive his "well-deserved" honors--or maybe Peter, clearing his throat for an impromptu acceptance speech. I hear a rumble of hushed speculation flow through the crowd: "Moses!" "Elijah!" "No, it's Jeremiah!" And the buzz of anticipation: "Who will Rabboni choose?" "Who is the greatest?"
There's no way I can vouch for what anyone may have expected from Jesus in reply, but I guarantee it was nothing close to what they received. Their collective jaws must have dropped to the ground when Jesus turned, called a little boy to his side and spoke a sentence that blasts centuries of stained-glass sophistication right through the roof: "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
I remember noticing it while I was in L.A. preparing. It so struck me, I ran down to the local park to sit and watch. What I saw there I'd seen countless times, but oh, what I learned--He wants me to come to him as one of these. Wide-eyed, dirty-faced, barefooted, openhearted; with a hug, not a handshake; with a nuzzle, not a notebook; with a giggle, not a grovel--as a child.
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You know, I find myself thinking of that card, "Jesus is cool!" It came from a kid, maybe eight or nine years old--no reputation to uphold, no superdoctrine to fight for, no years of emotional dulling, no grand vision to pursue... in other words, none of that grown-up stuff. All that kid knows is what is fun and what isn't; all that kid has is heart--probably a lot like the little boy who stood alongside his Messiah 2,000 years ago and heard himself proclaimed to be a model of the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I never thought of it until now, but I bet when that little fellow felt Jesus' sure hand settle on his shoulder, heard the words that came out of his divine mouth, and saw the shock sweep across the crowd--I bet, in that moment, he just kind of looked up at Jesus and thought to himself, "You know, this Jesus-guy is pretty cool for a grownup. Yeah, Jesus is cool."
Recently I chatted with a friend who'd given her grandmother a copy of Matthew for a Christmas gift. This granny is one of those longstanding Christian ladies now living alone in a convalescent home somewhere in Maine. Her granddaughter told me, "She sits in front of the television watching Matthew and just cries and cries and cries"
When I heard that story, I got a little choked up myself, and Jesus' words once again warmed my heart: "For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I remember thinking, She gets it. That little old granny gets it.
You know, I get asked a lot, "What's the most significant thing you learned through the whole adventure? What discovery stands above the rest?" It may sound crazy, but it's something I'd been hearing all my life. Funny thing is, I don't know that I ever truly heard it, or perhaps I heard it so much I lost all sense of what it truly is. But I'm going to tell you right now what that most significant thing is, and I want you to hear it as if for the very first time in your life. I want you to close your ears and listen with your heart. I want you to let it sink
in and find a very deep place, never to be uprooted, not ever. Because, I have to tell you, it's the only thing that will be left standing when all is said and done.
That one thing I learned; that single most significant discovery?
He loves you.
He loves you so much.
It doesn't matter who you are, or how many mistakes you've made, or what anyone thinks of you, or what you may think of yourself. It doesn't matter if you doubt it, laugh at it, or if you love it. There's nothing you can do to change it or make it go away, and it's as real as the ink on this page:
He loves you.
Jesus.