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Bruce Marchiano

by Sarah Scherf

Kyria: You are best known for your role as Jesus in The Gospel According to Matthew (The Visual Bible), which is celebrating its 15th anniversary. In this film you portrayed Jesus with raw emotion—excruciating grief, but also overwhelming joy. What has informed your interpretation of Jesus? And have you always understood Jesus in the way you portrayed him in the film?

No, I haven’t. It wasn’t until I had to portray Jesus that I realized I’d never really taken the time to get to know him. Making The Gospel According to Matthew forced me to begin that journey. I knew that no basic actors’ skill was going to be enough. I needed to, first, understand Jesus, and second, to personally pursue conforming to his likeness. Once I began, I became more and more desperate to know Jesus; that was the cry of my heart. I buried my nose on the carpet seeking God in preparation for the film.

Scripture says that Jesus loved people with an everlasting love. That means you get down in the dirt with people and cry over their pain and hold them until that pain is gone. Anyone who hangs on a piece of wood and bleeds for the love of people is not a detached person. It was within this wide range of heartbreak and joy that the interpretation was born.

You are now in the process of making a film based on the Gospel of John, which will be called Jesus: No Greater Love. How does John portray Jesus differently from Matthew?

The Gospel of John is very different from Matthew. In John, Jesus’ answers to people’s questions often seem mystical, which makes you dig and dig and unpack to put the words into reality. I’m constantly asking Why? Why would Jesus answer in a way that doesn’t seem to match the question? He must have had a reason.

John brings to light the fulfillment of things that had been prophesied a thousand years before. At the end of the gospel, John writes, “Jesus did many things, but these are written so that you will believe.” Every move Jesus made was a fulfillment of something written in the Old Testament. He was the fulfillment alive.

I make the joke that Jesus: No Greater Love will be like The Gospel According to Matthew on steroids. It will be a hundred times the joy, and a hundred times the passion and heartbreak. But the constant theme in John is I Am, the Old Testament name of God—I Am the light of the world; I Am the bread of life. And so there will be what I call a hero factor—a heroic presence to this Man that we didn’t quite capture a hundred percent of in Matthew.

I know The Gospel According to Matthew was translated into many languages. Will you do the same with Jesus: No Greater Love?

Yes. My long-term vision is to start dubbing the new film into the languages of the world—to get it into the hands of missionaries and the people. I want people to have the film whether or not they have the means to pay for it. That’s why we’re building it into a nonprofit ministry outreach, financing it with donations instead of investment, because investment requires return, which can lead to competing goals. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of that. That’s why we’re going the nonprofit route, and we’ll dub the film in many languages.

You’re very globally and missions minded, and I know you do a lot of work in South Africa. What drew you to that country in particular?

It was more just the opposite: South Africa embraced Matthew and began to invite me to come and speak. I look for the open door. Matthew really touched that nation.

The film was released right when the government of South Africa was transitioning. Mandela was turning the nation on its head, and people’s hearts were very raw. Matthew landed in the middle of all this change. The film is very multi-cultural, and it was the first time many African people saw themselves in relationship to Jesus. The country embraced the film and embraced me as a result. I go there three times a year for ministry, and I love it. I love Africa.

Will you describe your experience with the South African church? How does it differ from church in the United States?

The South African people are refreshingly uncomplicated, and you can see that in their worship. Heidi Baker, who does ministry in Mozambique, has found that if she does a church service there in which miracles don’t happen, no one will ever come back. If there’s no change, God must not be present. This is a completely different mindset than that of the West. These people believe that God can heal, and so they expect that fruit. It’s a very uncomplicated mindset; they easily trust in God’s power. It’s a lovely thing.

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Posted by Bonnie McMaken on March 31, 2010 1:10 PM

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