Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the hit television series “The Chosen” and is a devout Catholic, recently had an opportunity to share a crucial reminder about what Christmas is really all about. Too often in our modern world, we tend to think the Christmas season is about planning big family events, buying and trading presents, parties, lights, decorating trees, and mythical figures like Santa Claus. While a lot of that stuff is fun and can be part of the celebration of the holiday, that’s not its full meaning.
Christmas is about God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity, taking on human flesh, being born of a virgin, and entering our world in order to save us from the power and penalty of our sins. And this is exactly the point Roumie was trying to emphasize.
“The epitome of what all of us as Christians believe is that God came to Earth in the form of a baby […] that would grow up to be a man who saved humanity by reconciling us back to God, the Father,” Roumie stated. “When you really consider what takes place when we get to Easter, it all starts here at this moment, in this season of Advent, with Christmas. It’s much more monumental and impactful, and heavier spiritually, than I think most people, especially nowadays, have come become so familiar with.”
Highlighting the rampant consumerism that plagues Western society throughout the Christmas season, he said, “We’re so used to Christmas being absconded by commercial endeavors and consumerism and all of those aspects of the holiday that have culturally overshadowed the meaning of Christmas and the spirit behind Christmas and what Christmas actually is about.” Emphasizing the true point, he continued, “It’s about the arrival of the Savior of the world, and the humility in which He arrived into the world, in a stable by two Jewish peasants in a backwater town in Israel. That can’t be lost on us. I think this challenge really brings people back to the heart of what Christmas is about.”
The Christian Tribune previously reported on comments from Roumie sharing his experience playing the role of God in “The Chosen.” He said, “I don’t know what it’s like to [be] the perfectly sinless Son of God — nobody does. I tend to stay out of the way when it comes to playing Jesus. But I do know what it’s like to be fully human, you know, fallible and all the ways humanity can be fallible and broken and weak.”
“So I use a lot of humanity in all these other roles, especially in a role like Lonnie Frisbee where he had such a wild and broken childhood,” Roumie went on to explain. “But God uses that. Despite his weaknesses, despite his trials that he went through to make him this beacon of hope, this dynamo of the Holy Spirit with the charisma of healing and touching people and reaching people’s hearts and knowing that Christ was looking for them.”
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The actor then took a moment to speak about the topic of the media and how powerful a tool it can be for spreading the truth about Christ: “That’s the power of media, that’s the power of the image, and when you have an image, I think with the Jesus of Nazareth, I really feel that Zeferelli was inspired by the Holy Spirit. I think it had such power to reach in. When you go to some of the religious bookshops and they have portraits of Jesus and it’s Robert Powell’s face, and even seeing images of my own face, to me is shocking and bizarre and I don’t know how anybody ever reconciles that, especially playing Jesus.”
Jesus came to our world, became one of us, and then gave Himself as the final sacrifice to take away sin for all who believe in Him. Belief isn’t simply intellectual assent. Demons and Satan himself have intellectual assent about the existence of God and the truth of the gospel. No, it’s also believing what God said is true and obeying His word. All of that is what defines faith in the true, historic, biblical sense of the word.
This Christmas, remember that all of the festivities we enjoy are simply means to praise and glorify Christ, the true reason for the season as they say.