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THE GOD WHO CRIES AT FUNERALS #3

TRYING TO SAVE PRIVATE RYAN

We're recording this week just a few days after the 71st annual Oscar Awards ceremony, which happens only about 50 miles down the 101 Freeway at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion here in Los Angeles. So the L.A. Times' Calendar section is full of stories and photos of Gwyneth Paltrow and Steven Spielberg and Roberto Benigni and Shakespeare In Love and all the rest.

And I'm sure all of these talented people who took home that coveted gold statuette would admit that their greatest goal, before they step in front of a camera, is to understand, to comprehend as fully as possible, not how THEY feel, but how the CHARACTER feels. Tom Hanks doesn't want to think like himself; he wants to think exactly and feel exactly like Captain John H. Miller of Addley, Pennsylvania, as he and his fresh-faced GIs ride in that Higgins landing boat into the face of death there on Omaha Beach. How would Miller feel as he saw bullets crashing into his men? How would Miller react to the challenge of trying to save Private Ryan? THAT'S the challenge of being an actor.

We've mentioned on previous radio broadcasts the incredible Christian testimony of an actor named Bruce Marchiano, who was called on in 1992, by director Regardt van den Bergh, to play the part of Jesus in a four-hour film based entirely on the book of Matthew. And so this became his immediate challenge: to think — not like some gangster, or a romantic leading man, or a hero from World War II — but to think like JESUS! The miraculous, impossible-sounding statement from I Corinthians 2:16 — "But we have the mind of Christ" — was literally his Hollywood assignment.

In his book, entitled In the Footsteps of Jesus, Marchiano writes that this was the toughest part of his job. Oh, he could bulk up physically with weights so that he looked like a strong 30-year-old carpenter, an outdoor itinerant preacher. He had a bit of Middle East in his blood already, so the coloring was there. But the MIND of Christ! How could he accomplish that? "It's essential," he writes in the book, "for an actor to grasp the character's point of view." And, knowledgeable film star that he is, he describes what he calls the "through-line," which is the character's essence and core. What DRIVES this person? What is the main, sometimes mysteriously hidden, foundation conviction which makes this man or woman what they are in the deep inside? Everything branches from that "through-line," Bruce explains, and he was determined to find out what that through-line was.

Well, as you read through this book, In the Footsteps of Jesus — which, by the way, is must reading, published by Harvest House — one thing we find is an abundance of tears. Marchiano was always crying. In scene after scene, as they spent literally months in the African desert on location, he would find himself shaking with great sobs. And of course, with this series title, THE GOD WHO CRIES AT FUNERALS, we become more than a little bit interested in finding out WHY the real Jesus or the Hollywood actor Jesus would cry so much?

In the story of the Sheep and the Goats, which you can find in Matthew 25, right near the end, Marchiano had to get himself ready to play out this scene. Here it is in his own words:

"When I got to the part, ‘Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels,"' again a depth of grief enveloped my heart that I can't describe, and I could barely continue with the remainder of the speech. It was like a knife of pain thrust into my heart, and I fought with everything I had to get the final words out." Isn't that incredible? Here's a bit more. "We did two takes on that speech, and on the first I just sat with my back against a wall and cried like a baby. When Regardt finally whispered, ‘Cut,' everybody froze — nobody even breathed — and tears were rolling down the cheeks of many crew faces. The cameraman straightened up, his eyes sopping wet, and silently nodded at me over the eyepiece. Everyone was blown away at what had happened — including me."

Well, that's very moving, but here's our question. The Bible doesn't record in Matthew 25 anything about Jesus crying during this story. And this scene follows right after a "Wedding Banquet" parable, back in Matthew 22, and as Marchiano acted out that vignette, the same thing happened. He and the director and the whole crew were in tears again. What was going on here? Had this actor truly captured the "through-line" or had he not?

Well, the whole book is something you should read, but as Bruce reflects back on the whole experience, two things shine through. He decided, first of all, that the "through-line" of Jesus was this one sentence: "ON A MISSION OF REDEMPTIVE LOVE." That word love — defined by redeeming, rescuing, saving, lifting out of slavery, pulling free — that word love was the whole essence of Jesus.

But now how did LOVE, the love of Jesus, play out in these scenes where Christ shouted out "Woe unto you" at people? When He talked about people sinning and rejecting God and ending up in hell's outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, how was THAT a mission of redemptive love? As Bruce describes the entire experience of being Jesus, of FEELING and THINKING like Jesus, he came to realize that 2000 years ago, Jesus lived among us and basically saw one thing:

"A SEA OF PEOPLE LIVING LIVES IN WAYS HE DIDN'T PLAN."

All around Him were people Jesus loved. He loved them with such intensity! But time after time, it was His experience to watch in near-helplessness as these treasures scurried into sin; they were literally hell-bent on destroying themselves through rebellion. And so when Jesus tells the story of the sheep and the goats — representing people who either live selfless, generous, giving lives, or selfish, egocentric, "me-first" existences — He knew where those "goats" were going to end up. They were going to end up destroying themselves. Their selfishness was self-destructive; they were headed into the darkness of their own self-made doom. And this Hollywood actor, trying so hard to UNDERSTAND the despair of Jesus over these wrong paths, these deluded children, just kept bursting into tears. He couldn't help it; he had to cry.

Earlier in the story, Marchiano had to do that scene where Jesus cries out: "Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!" It's a big crowd scene, with many, many extras milling around, hurrying this way and that, ignoring this bearded Stranger standing among them. Bruce describes them this way:

"People living lives away from His love, away from His care; outside of His goodness, His embrace, His plans, purposes, and hopes for them."

Nobody was DOING anything so wicked or rebellious; they weren't killing anyone or committing rape. They were simply busy, hurrying along, moving AWAY from HIM. And suddenly Bruce saw how that must have seemed to Jesus. All these people, these desperately lonely, sad, busy, confused, lost people running in all directions — except toward Him. And now here's how Bruce Marchiano, the trained Hollywood professional actor, responded:

"It was so awful a thing — I don't have words to describe to you how incredibly awful it was. I remember when it happened, it was as if the wind got knocked out of me; I couldn't breathe, and my heart just broke. It broke on a level I never knew existed, and I just started shaking, and weeping . . . I would weep uncontrollably that day for more than an hour, completely unable to compose my emotions."

You know, I have to confess that it gives a whole new meaning to many of these stories in the four Gospels if we comprehend the tears of Jesus mingled into them. Actually, over in Luke we find a story that mentions the tears of Jesus once again. It's the story of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where He permits His followers to hold a parade. All four Gospels tell this story, but in Luke's account, we find that as this great procession gets close to the city, as they're all looking down over Jerusalem, the parade suddenly comes to a halt. What's going on? People are craning to see. And all at once, Jesus is crying. Why? This is His big day! And Luke records the weeping, anguished words of Jesus here in Luke 19:

"‘Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down,' He wept, ‘and now it is too late. Your enemies will pile up earth against your walls and encircle you and close in on you, and crush you to the ground, and your children within you; your enemies will not leave one stone upon another — FOR YOU HAVE REJECTED THE OPPORTUNITY GOD OFFERED YOU.'"

That opportunity, of course, was Jesus Himself. He was just a few days away from the Cross now, and He knew it. And this city, Jerusalem — meaning the people living in it — were just going about their lives, walking in all directions but His direction, looking for any messiah but THIS one. And so He wept. He had six billion Private Ryans to save, and nobody was even looking.

Well, friend, that wasn't acting. We've thought about two Jesuses today, and neither one got an Oscar . . . because I guess they weren't acting. The tears of Jesus are real. When He sees us moving away from Him, living our lives in ways He didn't ever plan, it breaks His heart. And He cries.

What else can we do but to turn around? And to come to Him?