Jonathan Roumie: The Weight of Playing Jesus in The Chosen, & How to Raise Your Spiritual Awareness

You're an actor.

You're looking for work.

Your agent or somebody calls you and says,

we'd like you to play Jesus.

What's that like?

It was an answered prayer. The person who made that call was a friend and a colleague by that point, a guy by the name of Dallas Jenkins, who created The Chosen.
And I had played Jesus for him for his church's Good Friday service in these little vignettes three times over the course of four years between 2014 and 2017. Just literally in a church.
In a church. So we'd go and shoot out on a farm, these vignettes, whatever, build sets into this.

And his church has like a little studio.

But mostly on location, we would film these little films that would be in the spirit of Good Friday

or illustrate a particular gospel passage or scripture scene.

And that was in line with the theme of of the the service for that year and yeah so the first time i played jesus in one of those short films uh was the crucifixion it was i was in it for five minutes um the the the film itself it's called the two thieves you can actually find it i think on amazon still um and it was about it was a it was a what if story about the two thieves crucified on either side of christ like who were they how did they get there how do you go in like one of the gospels in in one paragraph from you know he was being mocked and reviled even by the thieves next to him to all of a sudden the penitent thief, as he's referred to, gives his life basically to Jesus in that moment and says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says, truly today you will be with me in paradise.
And he basically, it's like the first confession on the cross and he grants him access to the kingdom. And so how does that, how do you go from being one of the mockers, revilers to this sudden conversion on the cross? And so he tries to, Dallas tries to answer that question in the course of this 25 minute film.
I actually read for The Penitent Thief because he's got this fantastic narrative arc. And I thought I'd had a great audition.
It was in L.A. at the time.
And I knew it was an opportunity to get paid a nominal stipend for some work in another city, in this case suburban Chicago. And I thought, man, I would audition for this short film.
I don't care if it's for a church. It's a great story.
The script is great. So I go and I audition.
I had a great audition. I'm like, I think I nailed it.
A couple of days later, I get a call back to come back in,

but this time to read for Jesus.

And I thought to myself, ah, man, I didn't get the first role.

And then I looked again at the script.

I'm like, Jesus got like five lines in the whole thing.

But I had happened to have played Jesus six months prior

for another completely independent project up in Washington State at a studio for this Catholic company called St. Luke Productions about this saint in the early 20th century named St.
Faustina, who was considered a mystic. She had these visions.
She wrote an entire diary that was sort of dictated to her by Christ himself in these visions. and so I played Jesus in the vision aspect of that story for this traveling one woman show where it was an actress playing the saint, a screen behind her, a couple of rudimentary set pieces.
And then all of the other characters in the show, in the play, including these visions of Jesus, was projected on a screen that she would choreographically time out her scenes with for 90 minutes. So fast forward six months later, I get to audition for the two thieves.
I didn't get the penitent thief. I go and I audition for Jesus because I'm like, you know what? I enjoyed playing Jesus six months ago.
Like, this would be cool if I got anything. It'd be cool because I wasn't working steadily consistently.
And the way Dallas tells the story about 10 seconds into the audition, he's like, that's Jesus. That's my Jesus for this show.
And so we did that film and it was screened. He brought me back to view it like a month later at the good friday service with his church about seven services it was like 15 000 people saw this thing in a matter of a day and a half and it was remarkably well received it was so beautiful and it was it was the essentially the the foundational bones of the concept of the chosen which is this um this sort of ignatian spirituality this ignatian uh insight into uh the gospels which is basically you put yourself in the gospel you ask in the gospels you ask yourself a series of questions and that's how you meditate on the gospels through this form of spirituality and so this this process of filmmaking was kind of like a living example of that on on celluloid or digital celluloid and so we did it again the following year for a different kind of scene and then we skipped the year and then 2017 spring 2017 I did one more film with him for his church.
And then it was in probably the summer of 2018 where he called me and said, hey, want to put the sales back on? I think we're going to do this four episodes of a crowdfunded TV show. Probably not going to go anywhere, but it'd be some consistent work.
And I jumped at the chance. I thought, okay, I had now played Jesus for him a few times.
I was getting really comfortable with the role. I was also pulled in during that time between like 2016 and 2019.
I started doing these passion plays, being involved in these passion plays that a friend of mine was directing. And then I helped co-direct and then I co-wrote a version of the passion that we would put on for our church.
And so for whatever reason, God was putting me in these situations, in these stories about Jesus so often in such a short, I mean, a relatively short period of time. In a few years, I'd played Jesus like five, six, seven times.
And I started to think like, well, there must be something to this. Like, I don't know what it is yet.
And then when I got the call for The Chosen, the penny dropped. And it was like, oh, all of that was preparation for this.
And it became much more than anyone thought it would be. I would say so.
Yes. The four episodes that probably wouldn't go anywhere became eight episodes of a first season of the show that was crowdfunded by selling shares to fund the show and then released in the fall of 2019 re-released for free

because we were charging, I think, 15 bucks for the season,

the entire eight episodes on DVD and streaming.

And then when the pandemic hit,

the Chosen, the folks at the Chosen said,

we want to do something to kind of ease people's burdens

and give the show away for free.

And it exploded after that, like beyond anyone's imagination. And since then, it's always been free on the app, the Chosen app.
So, and then now we just did a deal with Amazon. Amazon is going to be our exclusive window for the streaming of the show after its initial theatrical run, which for season five will be March 28th.
It'll be in theaters for about a month. Then it'll go to Amazon for 90 days exclusively.
And then it'll go to the app where it will remain free. I mean, it's turned into the biggest thing in that genre, maybe, ever.
Yeah. Yeah, they don't often...
Nobody really releases figures in streaming for viewership and any of that kind of data, but we do because we're like, well, we don't care. We want to tell people.
It's been estimated right now that about 280 million people have seen the show globally 340 million in the united states total yeah so that's that's pretty deep penetration as we say in tv i would say so that's amazing yeah so the reason i asked the question and you didn't flinch was that i think some people would feel like that's a pretty heavy role it's jesus yeah basis of the world's largest religion yeah god himself according to christians did you ever feel that on you like that's a lot in the first season i did um there was this moment especially um which i've kind of talked about at times where and it's still i think it's still sort of affects me. I actually like telling the story because it's a reminder for me to remember what it's all about and who I'm serving as I endeavor to portray this role.
And so we were about midway through the first season and And the time came for me as Jesus to start preaching, you know, full on sermons. And we started filming.
And then as I was going through these words, I suddenly, it's like I kind of felt I was outside of myself, listening to myself preach to a crowd outside the doors of, in our story, Zebedee, James and John's father, Zebedee's house. And there was a crowd of people that was growing, a crowd of onlookers, and our wonderful background actors that participate in the show, and many of whom have participated for years.
This crowd starts growing outside the house as Jesus begins preaching. And the scene's not specifically about Jesus.
It's about other stuff that's happening in the background that becomes the foreground of the story. And in the background, Jesus is preaching.
But I still have to preach. I still have to say these lines from scripture convincingly and try to mesmerize and galvanize the people that are listening to me and get their attention.
And they seemed really attentive, so much so that it made me really self-aware. Yeah.
And I thought, what am I saying? What are these words like? These are holy, holy words set by the holiest being that ever walked the face of the earth. I shouldn't be doing this.
This feels wrong. And so I would have those feelings and then we would stop and then move on to the next setup and put the camera in a different place.
And then as it went on, I just had to stop the production for a moment to talk to the director, to Dallas Jenkins. And I said, can we just slow down a second? And he said, what's going on? And so I took him aside.
I said, listen, man, I'm having a hard time right now. Like, I was starting to feel panicked and overwhelmed.
Almost like I've only had one panic attack in my life. And it started to feel like it was creeping into that.
And I didn't know what, why or how. Well, I kind of knew, I thought I knew why and what was going on.
But I just said, can we slow it down? And he said, what's going on? And I said, I'm saying these words and hearing them, hearing myself say them,

I don't feel worthy to be saying them.

This is why I tell this story

because it drives home the point

of the gift that I've been given in playing this role.

And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he says,

brother, none of us are truly worthy,

but here we are.

I mean, it's you and me, here we are.

We're doing this so that the world may know his story.

Those who haven't heard his story may know the impact that he's had on the world and on our lives personally.

And I'm slightly paraphrasing because it's been many years since we shot that.

But that was the essence.

And it settled my spirit. And I thought, you know, he's right.
He's right. For whatever reason, God saw fit to put, for whatever reason, God saw fit to put me in that role and not somebody else.
Nobody else auditioned. There weren't auditions for the role.
He had just called me up and said, do you want to do this again? And I said, yes, of course. I didn't hesitate.
But then when we got to that moment, it started to dawn on me the weight of what it was that I was being given to do. And would then inform the encounters and the experiences that I would have as the show progressed and as we now arrive here at season five, the dawn of season five.

When you started the series, did you believe it? Did you believe in the gospel?

Oh, yeah. I was raised Christian.
I was baptized Greek Orthodox. We lived in New York City.
And then when my family moved into the suburbs, there weren't really Greek Orthodox options. So my dad, having gone to a Catholic school in Egypt, and my mom being Catholic from Ireland and raised in the faith as well, were more than happy to just go down the street to the local Catholic church.
was familiar to my dad and part of my mom's upbringing. And for

myself and my sisters, it just, it didn't feel different. It just felt right.
And so I'm in my

first communion and my confirmation as a Catholic. And probably when I got into my early twenties,

I was revisiting the idea of my Orthodox roots as cousins and family members were getting married in the Orthodox Church. And I so admired the beauty and the sanctity with which they approach the liturgy, which is quite different than Catholicism for the most part.
I mean, there's Eastern Catholic rites, which are more similar to Greek Orthodox, but it was different, but it didn't draw me to go back completely. Because I think I just felt like, no, this feels like the truth as I understand it in God's eyes.
This seems true. And it's the church that Christ himself ultimately started.
And for the reasons God knows, and despite every effort to thwart it, especially the largest empire in the world at the time, despite the Roman Empire's attempts to stamp it out. Through murder.
Yeah. It didn't happen.
It's still going. And that means something to me.
And so doing this show, playing the character of Jesus, working with the Hallow app, doing all

these prayer and meditation challenges with them, learning more about other stories of faith,

other people of faith through the challenges that we have coming up for Lent here.

I've grown deeper in my faith. It's drawn me closer to the church to want to know more about

Thank you. have coming up for Lent here.
I've grown deeper in my faith. It's drawn me closer to the church to want to know more about the aspects of the church that I didn't necessarily grow up learning.
I went to public school. So I had the Tuesday afternoon catechism or whatever the day was where you went to catechism.
CCD. CCD after school.
And I didn't learn any of the things that I've learned in the last several years because that's just not designed that way. And the church has such a rich history and tradition.
It's so vast. It's such a storehouse.
There's so much to know and to learn and through the experiences of playing Christ and getting to force myself to go into prayer and meditation prior to every season through these periodical prayer challenges like we just did one in Advent for Halloween, and now we're doing the Pray 40, which starts today, Ash Wednesday. It's forced me to just spend more time in the presence of God, and it wants me to get closer to him.
What is Lent? Lent is...

Begins today.

Begins today is 40 days of prayer,

fasting, and almsgiving,

leading up to Good Friday,

the Friday before Easter,

the day Jesus Christ died on the cross

and gave his life for humanity.

Two days later, three days later,

we say if you include Friday, Easter Sunday, Jesus resurrects from the dead and original sin on, you know, the stain on mankind is lifted through our belief in Christ. And so Lent, And for me, Lent is a time to, I think, simplify.

And it's a time to sacrifice. And it's a time to draw myself closer through, you know, the way of the cross, basically the theme of how I pray 40 challenge this year is called The Way.
And it's the way of surrender,

you know, the way of Christ, basically. And everything that he did leading up to his passion, death, and resurrection is something for us to meditate on in that 40 days.
Typically,

we try to make some sort of meaningful sacrifice.

Some people say, oh, it's the time to give up chocolate.

Well, if chocolate is something that gives you joy and happiness,

then yeah, that might be a good thing for you to give up for 40 days.

And it can be really hard.

For some people like me, it'd be coffee. For some people, it's alcohol.
For some people, it's cigars or cigarettes or something. You do asparagus every year.
It's not the toughest Lent program. Does asparagus give you joy? Because if it doesn't...
Just kidding. Tucker, I would think you may want to revisit that.
Lent is here. The period before Easter, the 40 days, and it's a unique chance to get closer to God.
That's the point of it. Halo, the world's number one prayer app, can help you do that.
Joining their prayer 40 challenge. It's a great way to connect with Christians all over the world and unite in preparation for Easter, which is the payoff of this season.
It's called The Way. It helps participants focus on how Jesus is the way to heaven.
If you join the challenge, you'll embark on a spiritual journey with some of America's most convicted Jesus followers. Powerful stories, prayer, you grow in your ability to sacrifice.
That's what Lent is. It's a sacrifice.
And taking thought-provoking sermons and true stories of faith in action, which are amazing. This year is going to be the best Lent ever.
Thousands of people praying together all over the world, and you can be part of it through Hallow, which, by the way, is in use in my house and a nightly topic of conversation. So you can sign up at Hallow.com slash Tucker when you join.
Check out thousands of guided prayers, meditations, music, and everything. There is a ton on Hallow, all designed to help you find peace and closeness to God.
Download the Hallow app and jump onto the Lent Pray 40 challenge right now. Tucker says it best.
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So how do you observe it?

Well, I start typically by going to mass, getting ashes, which I have not yet done. And then fasting on, well, especially Ash Wednesday.
But typically, and it's not an obligation, but I like to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. Sometimes it's nothing but maybe water.
Sometimes it's just no meat. Fridays in Lent, especially, no meat.
Fish, soups, broths are even okay. It's like fasting from the flesh.
You're denying the flesh. You're denying yourself.
It's about denial, you know? And it recalls Christ's 40 days in the desert prior to the start of his ministry when he denied himself everything, food, water, the temptations that he was faced with in the desert, he held steadfast and came out ready to basically start his ministry. And the practice of fasting is, spiritually speaking, is super powerful.
I mean, if there's obstacles or challenges that you're experiencing in your life that just don't seem to be resolved through traditional prayer, you know, Jesus himself was confronted by the disciples at one point. I think they were trying to cast out these demons in their community, and it wasn't working, and they had been given the power to do that.
And he comes up on them, and they basically said, we tried everything. We tried, you know, cast them out in your name and everything.
It didn't work. Why didn't it work? And he said, paraphrasing, some demons can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.

And so that's,

that there's an extra,

it's like an extra superpower level that you get given

when you commit to denying yourself

the things that the body needs

with the intention

that you are offering something up to God.

Have you experienced that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've,

there have been decisions that

in my life that

Thank you. Have you experienced that? Yeah.
Yeah. I've, there have been decisions that in my life that I'd really been, or not even people.
I'll go, I'll go even more personal. People that I prayed for that were, were sick, were in like a comatose state and through prayer and fasting, remarkably on a particular day that I did this, I came out of it.
And they, for like weeks, just unresponsive. Really? Yeah.
Yeah. It's, it's a game changer fasting yeah in fact in fact so to tie it to to to part of the reason why i'm here today it's um on fridays in this prayer challenge on hallow mark walberg and chris pratt handle the fasting portion of the challenge.
So you go through this challenge seven days a week and on Fridays, which is the day we typically fast from meat,

they get into the spirituality and the psychology of fasting, but the potent spirituality

of denial and what that means. And it's super powerful, man.
It affects change like few things

Thank you. of denial and what that means.
And it's super powerful, man. It affects change like few things do.
Really? Yeah. Yeah.
And that's like a true fast, not eat. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, it's something that I would pray about. Like if, for some people, having just bread and water is extremely difficult.
Or even just like a bowl of soup or water or like, you know, there's the church, the Catholic Church has sort of suggested guides. So it's essentially one meal and partial meals, not a full second meal, I believe is one meal a day.
But if that's too easy for you, and you're like, well, that's not, I don't feel like I'm sacrificing anything by just one meal. Like I want to go no food at all, or maybe just some water or a couple of pieces of bread, you know, bread and water, then that becomes your fasting.
So I think it depends, but it's always something that I take to in prayer first. Lord, how do you want me to approach this fast? How can I deny myself? What do you need from me in this fast? And how can I serve you better through this fast? It's funny.
Fasting is the one piece of religious observance that is pretty much disappeared in public conversations about religious observance i mean fasting sounds like a medieval practice well especially here in the west you go to the middle east it's like what are you talking about of course i'm fasting there's a full month yeah we're at right now yeah no food or water or tobacco or sex during the day, period. Wow.
No water. But there, you know, it's considered like a celebration.
Yeah. As you know.
But, well, I also find like even the Middle Eastern Christians, like the Orthodox, the Coptic Orthodox, they um they're much more

call Middle Eastern Christians, like the Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, they're much more culturally rigorous when it comes to fasting. Not just meat, but no dairy.
And same thing with Muslims, no dairy, no meat, no dairy, no oils. There's a number of different levels, but the same thing with the Christians and my family.
Like, wow, we don't do, like Catholics don't do the no dairy thing, but yeah, you're right. I mean, here in the West, it's- It does make you wonder if- You say you're fasting, people say, why? Then you got to explain, you know? It's foreign.
I mean, it's all over the New Testament references to fasting. And as you just said, it's not simply Christianity.
It was just a feature of religious observance from the beginning of time. And it's gone.
And in the mainstream, it's gone. So you wonder, is there a connection between eating and spiritual awareness? Clearly there is.
Is there a connection between overeating and spiritual dullness? Maybe there is. And if you wake up and everyone's fat, which is true, including me from time to time, so I'm not judging.
There's like a spiritual component there.

Or am I like,

it's a crazy suggestion.

One of the seven deadly sins is gluttony.

Yeah.

It doesn't have to be food, but it can be.

Like, how are you being gluttonous

in your life?

Are you hoarding

things? Is it food?

Is it just not

putting any kind of boundaries on your satiety like just like you know what and and and i think it's it's something that can can fuel other sort of um leeches into to breaking that spiritual connection to the divine I mean, there's no doubt. One of the most striking things about having grown up and living in the modern West is realizing things later in life that are glaringly obvious.
And you think to yourself, how did I not notice that? Of course, gluttony is bad. Greed is bad.
Worshipping money is bad. These are all, violence is bad.
These are all the things that I've

realized in the last couple of years that never occurred to me.

Not one time. Well, then you see movies.

I mean, here's the power of entertainment.

You see a movie like Wall Street.

You got Michael Douglas, who was a superstar

at that time, the height of his career. Greed is good.

I mean, isn't that the phrase from that movie?

Yeah, but the funny thing is, I'm old enough to remember

when that came out, which I think was in the late 80s.

And it was used, it became political immediately, and it was like, this is what the Reagan era is like. And they're all greedy and whatever.
And so, of course, you know, I was not a liberal. So I was like, oh, shut up.
But I do think that was, it's been almost 40 years. That was the last time I remember anybody in the United States saying greed was bad.
That was the last time. Have you ever heard anybody say that?

Maybe some like far out wacko protester

or something,

but no one you'd ever meet.

I really don't have ever heard anybody

say greed is bad since then.

Have you?

No, no.

It's, I mean, it's, yeah.

But it's everywhere too.

Yeah.

It's everywhere,

which is maybe why you don't hear it.

Eating every day so you get fat. Also bad.
Again, not judging. I've been greedy and I've been a glutton.
So like, I'm not, again, not judging, but it's bad. Like, why not say, I don't know.
Sorry, I'm just coming to these very obvious conclusions. Well, I mean, I think luckily we have, I mean, that's what repentance is for.
Yeah., in the Christian life. It's, you know, becoming aware of your faults and the way that you've hurt people or hurt yourself even.
Yes. And if the body is truly a temple of the Lord, a reflection of the creation and of the creator, God, and you're hurting yourself, then it's like it's an affront to God, which is why things like gluttony are sinful.
Because it's- But it also dulls you. It's like a bong head or three beers or something.
It keeps you from experiencing anything beyond yourself, kind of. Yeah.
Yeah. You're now creating a wall around the ability to be connected to from the divine.

You know, it's like you're walling yourself off from God in a way.

It puts cheesecloth over your hole.

That's right.

You know what I mean?

I love that you used food as a reference.

No, I'm just thinking of like something that kind of dulls the camera and makes the edges softer and you sort of don't fully perceive what's happening. I mean, you eat two Big Macs, you know, you're not as aware of anything.
Oh my gosh. It's like, talk about comatose.
It's a head injury, right? Yeah, 100%. And so fasting is the opposite.
You're hyper aware. aware that's right and your mind is just like you you you sense everything interesting it's and the longer you do it it starts to you know i once i tried i know people who have done like 40 day water fasts i don't like with electrolytes and stuff that's not you know whether it still sounds dangerous, but I don't know how.
I tried it for a week, one Lent. I got through four days of it and I'm like, this isn't going to work.
Your body starts to do stuff that you have no control over. I can't imagine.
And it's like, I think we're dying, so let's just get rid of everything. I'm like, whoa, whoa,'m at work i this isn't i'm on a i'm on a set this doesn't work i can't keep running to the so i said lord please forgive me i can't continue this if i'm going to work for the rest of the week because i just i unless you make it stop it's not stopping so i gotta i didn't know my but there's a truth last winter who was coming off a three-week fast.
He's not stopping. So I got a little TMI, but there's a truth.

Last winter who was coming off a three-week fast,

he's a very spiritual man.

And I happened to be at his house

when he broke his fast

and the first course was soup.

And he had one thing in his mouth

for three weeks other than water.

That's it.

Three weeks, 21 days.

And he puts the spoon in the soup

and he holds it. He's talking and he holds it in front of his mouth.'s making a point and I'm watching as everyone's looking at it and then he puts it down and then he does it again and he's making this point and then he puts it down again and I thought it's like you're like eat the soup that's self control yeah so as you're well at that point I would think you almost don't want to break it.
You're like, how long can I go? That's totally right. How far can I go with this? So funny though.
People go like, you know, climb, you know, pay to climb Everest or, you know what I mean? Or go, you know, participate in some radical sport or, and they take these crazy risks and they push themselves to, you know, past obvious boundaries. And I'm not, Chris, I admire that.
It's great. But no one ever thinks to just like not eat for a week and see what happens.
Yeah. That is a pretty bold thing to do.
And maybe worth trying. I think everybody should try fasting if they've never fasted.
Everybody should try fasting. I mean, you know, if you've got medical conditions, I'm not doctor but but but i think discern it pray about it and like it i've only found it helpful and i think it just even if it's just like for a day like see what denial denying yourself food what does that do for your mind for your spirit you know i mean if i don't know if you don't have a sense of spirituality it might not mean anything it might just be like a challenge like i wonder if i can do it you know but i think the point is not to do it for the sake of doing it i think to do it for the sake of of depriving yourself and offering up the pain and the discomfort and for some people the suffering that that might cause.
Yes. Taking that pain and suffering and discomfort through the fast and offering it towards an intention, a sick person, the decision to move to a new home, problems that a child is having in school, any kind of obstacles or challenges that seem insurmountable, fast.
Fast about it. Pray and fast about it.
And see what the Lord can do with that. And with your heart, because then what you're doing is you're opening up your heart.
You know, it's not about, well, if I do this exactly X, Y, and Z, I mean, that Jesus's whole thing, issue with the Pharisees, you know, you cleanse the outside of a cup, but then you, you, you, the stuff that's already inside you is just, is rotten. Your thoughts and your heart is rotten.
So it doesn't matter that you wash your hands

before you eat this and you eat that. Like he was calling out the Pharisees at one point for being so specific and attentive to the law.
But meanwhile, he could see in their hearts that they just had malice and they had evil and they weren't doing the right thing for the priests of the time what they should have been doing.

The same thing.

It's like fasting for just just to see if you can get through it doesn't really serve anyone other than your own ego that's right but offering up the pain and that comes with the fasting the denial that comes with fasting the hunger pains that then gets applied in a spiritual way that that that then assigns spiritual rewards to you by by offering that for someone that's right and it's it's by the way just for in point of fact i know because i've done a lot of fasting actually and i love it um but it's not what's been the biggest thing that you've you've seen it's not an effective weight loss at all in fact i was talking to a friend who's muslim who said i always get fat during ramadan you know because the second the sun goes down you know you're pounding a dozen dates and yeah going crazy with the hummus um which is awesome but i don't think i'm not don't ever go to me for medical advice, of course. But I don't think going to fasting to lose weight is like effective at all.
But I do think, I think this way, it's like if they're pushing on you weed, Xanax, and endless bread baskets, maybe there's an agenda, which is to make you duller and less aware of what's going on around you. And I think...
Sicker. And of course, sicker.
That's exactly right. But I must say, I'd rather be dead than dull.
You know what I mean? It's like, sick is bad, but unaware is worse. Yeah.
In my opinion. Yeah.
There are a lot of really enlightened sick people out there, actually. You know, joyful sick people.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
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You love a good deal? Get in your bag and get to DeeDee's Discounts. Okay, so you said you made reference to Jesus's exchanges with the Pharisees.
I'm reading Matthew right now. I'm really struck this time by the intensity of his rage at the Pharisees.
He's pretty gentle with everybody else, including the Roman officer, the occupying army, pagan, worshiping the stars or whatever. Yeah.
Jesus is really kind to him. Pharisees, I mean, it is just, Matthew goes on for like five pages and he's mad.
Yeah. What do you make of that? Well, I think you have to ask yourself, well, why is he mad?

Yeah.

And what is he mad about?

And who are the Pharisees to him? And I think it goes back to what I was referencing in that. Here you have people that are supposed to be models of God's law and rule and grace.
The Pharisees, the priests, the people that look up to for spiritual advice and wisdom and guidance. And because Jesus can read souls and know what's in their hearts, he sees they're probably the worst of them.
And he knows that they have ill will towards him and they don't have the interests of the people in their hearts because they're so enraptured by the letters of the law. As he said, you're so concerned about the letter of the law that you, that you're not even considered about the heart of the law, which is, you know, God's mercy and justice.
And, and how are these people, how are you treating these people? I mean, the fact that they would go every year on Passover, the poorest of the poor trying to bring their offerings and sacrifices that through extortion were getting charged 500%, probably more than what they should have.

I don't know the exact numbers,

but the point was that they were being extorted

every step of the way by their own leaders,

these Pharisees.

And that for him was the straw

that broke the camel's back.

And the next day he's clearing the temple. Flipping the tables over.
Flipping tables, whipping, using a whip to clear money changer stands and just outraged. God's righteous anger.
Yeah, it's not the gentle Jesus at all. No, no, excuse me.
No, it's not. It's, um, it's, it's the fury of the Lord really come to visit them.
Uh, it's not, you know, fire from heaven, but it's fire on earth in this man's eyes. And, and, uh, also, you know, the precursor to what sets him up for the crucifixion.
I mean, I think on some level, he knows, number one, he has to make an impression. And he is vindicated through his actions because of who they are, who the Pharisees truly are deep down inside.

But also that this will then continue the chain of events that have been set into motion that will put him on the cross so that he can redeem mankind.

Seems like all of his anger is reserved for hypocrites.

They get singled out repeatedly.

He seems to really hate that. Yeah.
And the people in charge, the powerful. That's my read.
I mean, I'm the opposite of the theology. I mean, I think, I think, you know, with power, you know, there's greed, there's hurting people at, you know, at someone else's expense.
Yes. There's taking advantage.
When you have all of these forces that try to, I think, take control over a society and a people through power, through influence. And there's nothing that those people can do.
I mean, it's the definition of injustice. And God is about justice.
Blessed are those who thirst for righteousness, who thirst for justice um it's it's it was it was the thing that one it was one of the things that was most important to him that people experience you know to have justice and feel human and be seen and be and be not discounted because of their status because of their you know financial uh you know situation because of who they were who what family they were born into or what what what what what cased for lack of a better term that they were born into you know um so i i think it was it was something that he it was a last stand for him basically in in when he cleared the temple. All the preaching and the teaching didn't have enough of an effect on the Pharisees for them to change what they were doing.

No, it didn't.

So, I think he had to show, don't tell.

He had to show and not tell.

So, when you're reading your scripts, when you're preparing, you're basically reading the gospel. Yeah.
Gospel plus, I'll say. It's, you know, because as a TV show, it's not always, you know, the scriptures as they are, don't always give us the full picture of a conversation.
They definitely don't character of a person so we have to through you know uh biblical uh these a group of biblical scholars that and advisors that help us uh and and give insight into the things that we're writing uh we we have to craft these plausible, hopefully authentic backstories that create believable characters that could have existed in the first century that augment the world that the gospels give us a glimpse into. So a lot of it is scripture, yes, but then there is some creative license taken just to be able to make a good TV show.
Because at the end of the day, this isn't the Bible. We're not saying this is the Bible.
We have a TV show, first and foremost, that is based on the Gospels and hopefully is compelling enough for you to really get hooked into it and binge it just like you would binge any other TV show. And then start asking yourself, well, what did Jesus really say? Did he say these things? Is this character really like this? Let me, I want to explore.
And then if you can get people to read the Bible and

then want to have a relationship or even explore what it means to have faith, if you've never had faith, or even be curious about Christ. I mean, inevitably, that is the relationship in a person's life that will change their life irrevocably, I mean forever.

So if we can create an entertaining story that is based on the truth of the gospels

and who Jesus and the disciples were, maybe it'll introduce people to Christ

and in a way that the audience is introduced to him.

And maybe they'll want to follow him too. How did it change your life, the gospel? I think the more I read the gospels, the more I discover.
The Bible is alive. It's the living word, right? They say the Bible is alive.
And so at any given time, you can read a passage from scriptures, from the gospels, even from the Old Testament, the letters of Paul, the Acts, that somehow will apply to your own life, especially when you're struggling with something. You know, if I'm struggling with something, I just can't figure it out.
I just don't, I have no ideas about where to go to resolve it. Inevitably, the answer is somewhere in the book.

And it's a matter of sitting down with it and reading it.

And I mean, it's remarkable the amount of times

like I've had something in front of me

that I just didn't know how to deal with it.

And then I would flip to a random page and it's, the answer is right there. It's right there.
So I stopped being surprised about it. I just like, of course, that's, this is, yeah.
And I take notes. Sincere Christians never seem surprised by anything.
I've noticed that.

It's amazing.

It is amazing. And I've met those people where, and we kind of talked a little bit about this at one point, where the craziest things are happening that they kind of already had an intuition was going to happen.
Like, I don't even know what's a good example. There have been so many times where it's like somebody wanted to try to get rid of their house or something like that, try to sell their house.
And they had a certain amount of time. It's just an example.
They had a week to get out of their house for somebody to buy their house. And somebody just comes knocking on the door and says, hey, you got a beautiful house.
You're not selling this by chance, are you? And they're like, well, as a matter of fact, I am. And it just so happens that they're like, Lord, just let us find somebody that wants this house.
Like we didn't even put it on the market yet. And then somebody knocks on their door like an hour later or, you know, like, I mean, crazy, crazy stories.
And they're like, yeah, I just, God just did it'm like but how what you you don't seem phased and yes and that to me even it's just i totally agree remarkable and to flip it over they they never seem shocked by how screwed up the world is i'm shocked every single day like i can't believe they're committing abortion outside the dnc or i can't believe this, that. The other thing, I'm always like, I can't believe the persecution of Christians.
Why would you persecute Christians? Like, they've never mugged anybody. You know, like the nice, even if you think their religion's silly, they're like the most peaceful people in the world.
Their religion commands them to be. Why are we hating on them and, you know, banning their apps in Europe or whatever we're doing, putting them in jail for praying? But sincere Christians are like, well, yeah.
I mean, what did you think was going to happen? Do you know what I mean? Yeah, because he kind of, Jesus kind of set it up that way. Kind of did.
He kind of told us 2,000 years ago, you know, you'll be hated because of me, persecuted because of me. Like he lays it all out 2,000 years ago.
But just know it's okay. I overcame the world.
You're good. Just remember that you're good when things hit the fan.
Just remember that. Well, I still find it infuriating.
Sure. Sorry, I'm good person no it's a natural response there's a lot of persecution of christians and i'm really bothered by it yeah your family at least on one side is um arab christian awful lot of arab christians get killed in a bunch of different countries all the time yeah and no one says a word about it no notice this i do yeah i do a lot uh christian persecution is something really close to my heart in fact i just executive produced um an animated short film called the 21 which uh came out uh towards the end of february on the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of the 21 martyrs in Libya and who were all, well, 20 of them were Coptic Christians from Egypt.
One of them was non-Christian initially from Ghana and they just rounded up all these guys. The ISIS came and rounded them up and tried to force them to deny their faith.
They're just migrant workers. They went off to work for a few weeks to try to make some money.
And they got rounded up, just captured. And ISIS was like, yeah, deny your faith, and we'll let you go.

Don't deny it, we'll kill you.

Like, oh, well, we're not going to do that, so.

And they tortured them for months,

and even the guy from Ghana, ISIS said to him, like, you can go.

You're not, you're okay. You're not Christian.
You're not one of these guys. And he's like, no, no, no.
Their God is my God. And so they say he converted and he died with them.
And so six years ago, this producer friend of mine named Mark Rogers, he was in Egypt and he saw, he knew about the story and he saw the image of one of these martyrs who had like a lazy eye and it reminded him of the image, which actually is on this little medallion of Christ, the pantocrat or like, you know, basically it's that figure of Christ that it's got two both sides of his face have uh one one side of him represents the divinity of christ one side represents the humanity of christ and in one of the sides oh his eye and one side is kind of drooped and it reminded him of of this image of christ and and he got this idea to create this animated short film about the martyrs and their story. And it turned out to be stunning.
21film.com, if people want to see it, it's an extraordinary short film. Beautiful, beautiful, That implements Coptic iconography into the animation.
It was actually on the Oscar shortlist. It didn't get nominated, but it found its way onto this shortlist of 15 selections.
And then they whittle it down to the top five. It had no marketing, it had no advertisement, nothing.
But somehow I think enough people saw this like no this is amazing and

it tells their story and and the um the mystical nature of their experience and of actually the their their captors what they experienced with these you know while they had these guys in captivity and like the divinely mystical experiences

that they had.

Are captures?

Yeah, yeah, are represented in the short film.

In fact, if you haven't seen,

I'll send you a link,

but it's gorgeous.

And at the end of the day,

what people walk away with

is that these guys had the opportunity

to say, no, no, I'm not Christian, and then live. But none of them did it.
They went to their graves, literally. And they were just random migrant workers? Migrant workers.
Not evangelists, just people? Christian migrant workers, poor migrant workers, I think construction or farming or something, and they wouldn't deny their faith. And so I got a chance to screen this film for the first time with the families of the martyrs 10 years later, which was a...
Words fail me because it was such an overwhelmingly powerful experience to be there with them and kind of have them sort of reliving this experience.

But when you talk to them, full of joy, full of joy, and they, more than one of them, thanked their captors because they feel, and as Christians we believe this, that because they died for their faith, they got a straight shot right to the divine, right to God. They're like, we thank them because they sent them right to heaven.
So the Coptic church saints and then very recently the catholic church it's first time it's happened catholic church also considered them saints because they died for the faith in the way that they die yeah it's so inspirational it's unbelievable and so uh right now i'm trying to get the film out to for more people to see and get it out there so people are aware that these stories exist. This is a reality for people, for Christians in the Middle East.
This is a reality, you know, that their lives are on the line for their beliefs. That's for sure.
Time for another True Life Alp story. I got a call from a friend of mine yesterday, honestly, true story, who said his girlfriend had just broken up with him over Alp.
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You must learn a lot from playing this role. I have.
Yeah, I've learned how much I have to learn. it's just i don't know how often we think of jesus as fully a man though as you pointed out he was yeah what's that like trying to get inside the head of jesus well um i don't think i can ever do it successfully like completely i can the only thing that I, I mean, I can't do it successfully at all.
The only thing that I can do, believing Jesus was fully God and fully man, but sinless in his humanity, the only thing that I can relate to is the humanity part. And my own flawed humanity at that, deeply flawed, deeply, deeply flawed humanity.
But luckily, I don't have to rely on me. I don't rely on me.
I rely on him. And so my job is to simply show up, come with an open heart.
I do a lot of praying and fasting before every season. I pray before every scene and then do the best that I can to simply be, for lack of a better term, a mirror of the divine.
So I'm like, I just show up and I'm like, I'm just trying to mirror the divine, reading the words that I have, being a vessel for which the Holy Spirit can use me to reach the truth of the gospel to the people that watch this show. And if it goes beyond entertainment for some people, awesome.
I mean, between the show and between the Hallow app, the amount of feedback and changed

lives

that have occurred.

The stories

that we get

about people that

were

atheists all their life

and somebody gave them the show

and all of a sudden something tweaked in their heart, and they're like, why do I feel this way about this guy? I want to know this guy. Or people who haven't been to church in 30 years.
Lapsed Catholics, like I haven't been to church in 30 years. I started going back to church.
Went to my first confession in 30 years. Went to my first confession in 15 years.
Like I've heard all of these things. I even went, I was in confession once myself and I, a guy came out of the confessional one.
He recognized me. He me he's like oh yeah and so he starts talking to me and then he starts starts to tell me what he was telling the priest in the confession I said no no no no no no no you see anything interesting you keep it in there I wouldn't let him get that far no I said that's not for my ears save it for the confessor so it's I'm not Catholic but I've always thought that confession is the coolest thing they do it's a gift man it's a lifesaver of course when it became psychotherapy and you put like an atheist with bad judgment on the couch across from you I don't think we lost something do you know what i mean yeah yeah but the human need to connect to unburden yourself you know what's wrong by the way most people know yeah you don't need to be a christian to know what's wrong everyone knows you inside you you know when you're doing something wrong yeah and to say it out loud to articulate it in words yeah um is to rid yourself of it to some extent i think and yeah and then and then for for the sacramental part of it that's that's where the healing comes in that's where the spiritual healing comes in so it's like it's like if you're a cheesecloth full of holes right and you go into confession and you receive the sacrament of reconciliation from the priest.
Now the priest, you know, we believe he's been given divine authority that has a pot, maybe a not visible, but a tangible physical, metaphysical effect on the casing of your soul. And it's like mending the little holes.
Every confession is like you're closing up those holes and restoring that connection with God in a way that is essentially repairing your soul. That's what the sacramental part of confession is for us, which is hugely comforting and also physically tangible.
For me, I feel just chemically slightly different after every confession that I go through in a way that's like, okay, I can breathe a little easier. I believe that completely.
I've never experienced it, but I believe that. It's like nothing else.
What's it like for you to be recognized on the street for playing Jesus? I know just from having dinner with you last night and telling people you were coming here, there's a lot of intensity. Like, I've been on television for 30 years.
I've never experienced anything like what you experienced, for example, in my house last night. People are very intense when they see you.
It's bound up in their feelings for you, but also their feelings for Jesus. What's that like? I give God all the credit.

I give Jesus the credit.

And, you know, like I'm, like our buddy Russell Brand,

like I was once his stand-in, I feel like I'm Jesus' stand-in.

Jesus is the star and I'm his stand-in.

You were Russell Brand's stand-in.

I was Russell Brand's stand-in.

Looking at you, I'm not that surprised.

If I was casting a stand-in for Russell Brand, I think it would be you. Not too bad.
It's alright. We had a good time with him.
He's alright. He's a good mate.
He's a good guy. He's a good man.
I love that man. I love him so much.
I totally agree. But I mean, without getting too personal, it's going to affect your life.
Yeah, yeah. Like maybe not all positive.
Like what's Whole Foods like for you? Depends on what part of town. No, I was going to say that's probably not too many people watching the shows on Whole Foods, but like a normal non-atheist grocery store.
No, but I mean, let's take Whole Foods. So in some parts of the country, you know, I got to go in with a hood and glasses.
And in other parts, especially the coastal cities like New York and LA, it's just another day. So it can be...
They mistake you for a bike messenger, but in Michigan they know. That's very appropriate.

Yeah, that's very appropriate.

It can be interesting.

I think because of who I'm playing and because there is this oftentimes this front-loaded relationship that they already have with Jesus, and then I become the stand-in, like the face of that relationship that they now, when they read the Bible, I've been told this, my face pops into their mind as they're hearing scriptures or they're seeing. I mean, even for myself when when i'm at mass and the priest is reading the gospel and he's talking about peter i'm i'm thinking of shahar isaac who plays peter in our show and i'm like okay yeah i can't get him out of my head and uh yeah but okay i love shahar and he's great as p.
And so, yeah, it's just, you try,

even as an artist, like you still suffer that.

You can't quite make the separation.

Yeah, because you now have this relationship

with these people and these characters.

And so to be the face of what is often

the most important relationship in a person's life,

I mean, even beyond their family, It's like God first and then family and then everything else. To be the face of that for people, I don't often, I try not to think about that.
Yeah, it's more than being a sidekick on Seinfeld. Yeah.
Yeah, and I think God's given me the gift and the grace of kind of being somewhat blinded to the magnitude of it and the weight of it. That's good.
Sometimes I can feel it. Most of the time I think I'm shielded from it.
Because I think if I was aware of exactly what that implication was, even for a single person, it would crush me. Yes, self-awareness is a burden.
I would not recommend it at all.

I don't have any, so it's never bothered

me, but I know people who

are highly self-aware, and they're like in agony

all day. Yeah.
I mean,

other things, like I

have a lot of that in other areas, but when

it comes to playing this character,

I'm glad I don't have much. Smart.

No, so that is a blessing.

Yeah. What is Hallow?

And how'd you

hook up with it? Hallow is the world's largest and for my money, the greatest prayer and meditation app a person can ever find. Like ever.
There are thousands and thousands of ways,

prayers and challenges and meditations that people can use in their daily life

to the point of automation.

They just set it up and you get reminders

where you can just connect with God

in the most creative ways.

For me, it has been a way to keep me completely focused on God when I'm in the middle of life. It's an opportunity for me to access my faith in a consistent way and to get through life's biggest challenges.
I mean, there's so many prayers on this app that I use daily, like daily. And, you know, for instance, there's a prayer called the Surrender Noa.
Novena just is, it's a Latin word, just means nine days. So it's a, it's a prayer you say for nine days.
And this, this particular prayer has been so valuable to so many people. Basically, it's, it's very simple, but you repeat it like 10 times and there there's all in the app, like it walks you through it.
But the essence of it is this prayer where you simply say, Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.
Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.
And you repeat that like 10 times. And the number of people that have experienced profound grace and just ease of their burden, the lightness of the weight in their life, It's been, I mean, I've never heard of a prayer that's had such a profound effect.

Like the rosary is another one.

So there was this couple.

They were trying to have their first baby.

They had a miscarriage.

They were in a pretty severe state. Crisis, depression, everything that comes with that.
They see an ad for Hallow. They download the app.
They start praying. Specifically, they start praying the surrender prayer that I was telling you about, the surrender novena and the rosary.
And they were Catholic as well. So they're familiar with them.
So they prayed the rosary, super powerful weapon. And the surrender novena.
And they get pregnant again. And their relationship is really growing together in faith and in God.
It's the strongest that it's ever been. Five months in, they lose the baby.

And they're holding their past son who had passed away.

And the words that come to mind for this woman is the surrender prayer.

Oh, Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything.
It's the first words that come to our mind. And they told us, they said that if they hadn't gotten into this consistent routine of communicating with God through prayer, if their faith hadn't been strengthened, that second miscarriage would have destroyed their marriage.
But it didn't. And they kept going.
A year later, they had a healthy baby boy. And the first words that came out of her mouth that time was the prayer from Numbers.
Lord bless you and keep you. Lord shine his face upon you.
Be gracious to you. The Lord look kindly upon you and give you peace.
I think the son's name was Jack, I think. And so the power of having that relationship the power of prayer the power of being in a constant dialogue with god it's what we were made for we were designed to worship we were designed

for that relationship it's in our dna and the more we try to ignore it or squash it or bury it or

ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist or that it's not there or replace it with something else

Thank you. and the more we try to ignore it or squash it or bury it or ignore it or pretend it doesn't exist or that it's not there or replace it with something else, the more we just run in circles.
The more we try to fill that hole with something else, with some other vice, some other endeavor, some other righteous indignation of something, some other effort that will never substitute, never replace our need for God. It'll never replace it.
and so for me it's

it's

like playing Jesus in the Chosen

it's like playing Jesus in The Chosen. It's one of the most important things that I've ever done artistically.
All of this for me feels like an apostolate. It feels like I'm a media apostle.
I feel like that's what I was sent here to do. Like at this time and place to kind of be a part of this, what I see is this growing movement in film and television, in the culture that is truly counterculture to the current culture.
That's for sure. And to be a part of the ushering in of this opportunity of expression

that supersedes the previous iterations of what this looked like

because it's so attentive to quality. Like The Chosen aims to be a great TV show first.
And because of that, the fact that the people making it are really invested in the subject matter make it that much more powerful and then from a very myopically human level and then God sees that and he takes it and he multiplies it he's he multiplies the magnitude of it the the the efficacy of it is then energized and multiplied globally. But even just reaching one person and changing one person's life, Dallas will tell you this as well, it's worth it just for one person.
All the discomfort or whatever I may or may not feel in the world as people approach me wanting to take a selfie in the gym or in the supermarket when I'm clearly trying to like get in and out. I mean, all of that discomfort for me personally, and I've been through worse, you know, like I've been through real discomfort that it's nothing, something, but it's relative, you know what I'm saying? So all of it's worth it.
Because one person decided to go get baptized. And now they have a whole new life.
They have a whole new, they have a spiritual awakening. It's amazing to me how successful it's been.
And it's amazing to me the reaction to it. Banned in China.
Yeah. It's not calling for the overthrow of the CCP.
It's not calling for the... Hallowap is banned in China.
Hallowap is banned in China. It's also effectively banned in Europe, in effect, because Mark Zuckerberg's company, Meta, has shut down all advertising for religious-oriented, faith-based advertising.
Yeah. So it can't operate in Europe.
Yeah, that was a tough one. They had just launched in Polish and Italian and German and all these languages, and now people can't know about the app because they've banned it.
But why is that a threat? I mean, it just does tell you everything, right? I mean, it's like, it's like understanding things in reverse.

Yeah.

It's like, why would they be upset with that?

That's like the kindest, least threatening,

you know, only want to help people.

Like, why is that bad?

Yeah, I'd be curious to hear the EU's answer for that.

Or Meadow's answer for that.

Yeah, Mark Zuckerberg's answer for that.

And China's answer for that. Likeuckerberg's answer for that um and china's answer for that like what what's wrong with that yeah it tells you a lot but you don't seem shocked by that at all no no you're not i mean when you read of the stories for decades of people smuggling bibles into countries you know underground churches even in our in the story that we cover in the Pray 40 Challenge for Halo, it's the story of this guy, Takashi Nagai.
I mean, he was living in Nagasaki, Japan, right around the time of the Second World War when the bomb was dropped on his town, on Nagasaki. And Japan had just come out of 300 years basically of Christian you know persecution like they had they had gotten rid of any you know they I mean I think in the the late 16th century they were crucifying people.
Oh, yeah.

And then 300 plus years later,

Nagasaki's now the largest Christian hub in all of Japan.

And it wasn't the first target for the bomb.

No.

They tried to drop the bomb somewhere else.

This is all in the story

that people hear about this length.

It's an amazing story. This man's story is amazing.
Takashi Nagai, he's a radiologist, doctor. The first target, they tried to drop the bomb and it was too cloudy.
They couldn't see and they didn't have the conditions appropriate to drop an atomic bomb. So their second was nagasaki oddly enough right above a cathedral and it blew up detonated right over the cathedral and wiped out everything and he survived uh nobody else his family everybody died killed the majority of the christians in nagasaki which was the Japan.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I mean, it killed... I'd love to hear an answer for why.
People are very enthusiastic about that and think it's great. I don't think it's great.
And I think there should be a law that American armaments can't be used to murder Christians abroad. That's pretty simple.
I agree. There is a thing that I wanted to read that he read, that he said right after the bombing, which he had converted from atheism.
He was Shinto and then he was atheist and then he converted to Christianity and Catholicism. And he was influenced by the writings of Blaise Pascal.
So he gave a speech to his community. He was one of the very few survivors in his community and this just goes to show you the resilience and the mindset of of him and what and how having faith can completely change the perspective especially when you're effectively living in hell on earth, which is what Nagasaki was after the dropping of the bomb.
People were walking around asking for water while their skin is melting off, like it's literal hell on earth. He said, I have heard that the atom bomb was destined for another city.
Heavy clouds rendered that target impossible, and the American crew headed for the secondary target, Nagasaki. Then, a mechanical problem arose, and the bomb was dropped further north than planned and burst right above the cathedral.
It was not the American crew, I believe, who chose our suburb. God's providence chose Urakami, the suburb, and carried the bomb right above our homes.
Is there not a profound relationship between the annihilation of Nagasaki and the end of the war? Was not Nagasaki the chosen victim, the lamb without blemish, slain as a whole burnt offering on an altar of sacrifice, atoning for the sins of all the nations during World War II? Happy are those who weep. They shall be comforted.
We must walk the way of reparation, but we can turn our minds' eyes to Jesus, carrying his cross up the hill of Calvary. The Lord has given.
The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Let us be thankful that Nagasaki was chosen for the whole burnt sacrifice. Let us be thankful that through this sacrifice, peace was granted to the world and religious freedom to Japan.
Wow. Is that not a profound perspective? That is not a normal secular perspective, I would say.
No. That's amazing.
That is the power of a relationship with Christ. That's what that does.
So for people who haven't heard it, tell us what you do for Hallow. So I am one of the main voices on Hallllow for prayers so if you want to pray a specific prayer chances are i've recorded it and you can hear me pray it or um for any of the challenges like the the pray 40 challenge i will be guiding people through this challenge telling people about um Takashi Nagai's story.
And I'm also kind of a creative advisor as well and come to them with ideas and work with them on different things that they're doing. And yeah, I love working with them.
They've been such great partners. And I think the reason is that they're believers themselves.
You know, they're doing this. I mean, you had Alex on the show and you heard his story.
I mean, he originally created the app for himself. And, you know, God took that desire and that intention in his heart and then amplified it.
And now it's the largest prayer app in the world. It's a frequent conversation at my house.
I told you yesterday, my wife's very kind, never scolds me for anything. But when she saw my schedule and saw you were coming and that we hadn't invited you for dinner, she actually did bark at me because she's like your biggest fan.
What? What? Pretty detached from my schedule, but yeah. So yes.
Thank God for your wife. Thank God for my wife.
Not the first time I've thought that. Thank you.
It has really been wonderful the last 24 hours to talk to you. And it's been my honor.
Thank you very much. Thanks, Tucker.
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