After years spent speaking the words of Christ, the Catholic actor has reached the end of an extraordinary chapter -- and this time, there is no script.
For years, Jonathan Roumie has had the unusual task of finding the words, gestures, and expressions with which to portray Jesus. Now, as filming on the final season of The Chosen comes to an end, the actor has admitted that words are proving a little harder to find.
“My friends ... the hour has finally come,” Roumie wrote in an emotional message shared with his followers, turning, fittingly, to Scripture.
Quoting St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, the Catholic actor chose words that seem especially fitting at the end of such a significant chapter:
“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
In true Roumie style, he went on to thank those who have supported and prayed for him, The Chosen, his cast and crew and his team “all these years,” before signing off with a promise: “Stay tuned. More to come, when I find the words. With love, Jonathan.”
And perhaps Roumie is right to take his time finding those words. For years, at some of the biggest moments of his career, he has had the words of Christ to guide him, along with the enormous responsibility of trying to do justice to them. Now he has reached a defining moment of his own, and suddenly there is no script.
So after spending so long speaking words that have endured for 2,000 years, finding his own to describe what those years have meant may understandably take a little time.
When an ending finally arrives
There is something very human in that pause. We can know perfectly well that an ending is coming and even spend years working towards it, yet the reality can still catch us off guard. Finishing something important means leaving behind the difficult days as well as the wonderful ones, the routines we occasionally complained about, the people we grew used to seeing and a version of ourselves that belonged to that particular chapter.
And endings aren't always neatly sad or happy. There can be relief alongside sadness, pride mixed with uncertainty, and enormous gratitude for an experience we're nevertheless ready to leave behind. Sometimes it takes reaching the other side before we understand quite how much something has filled our lives.
For Roumie, that ending must have another dimension too. The Chosen hasn't simply occupied years of his working life; playing Jesus has brought his profession into unusually close contact with his faith. Roumie has also given a lovely indication of how seriously he has approached that relationship in a prayer we've previously shared, which he says before filming:
“Let people see Your face and not mine. Let them hear Your words and not mine.”
It's an extraordinary, humble prayer for an actor, whose job depends rather heavily on being seen and heard. But it also reveals something important about the way Roumie has understood the role. However recognizable his own face became around the world, he was trying to make it point beyond himself.
That must make leaving the role particularly complex. For years, the routine of going to work has included putting on the robes, stepping in front of the camera and trying to let Jonathan Roumie recede so that viewers might see Christ. Now that routine has ended, and whatever comes next, that particular meeting of his work and his faith has reached its conclusion.
Perhaps “when I find the words” is therefore enough for now. Some endings need to be lived for a little while before they can be explained.
Viewers still have their goodbye to come
There is a curious gap now between Roumie and the millions of people who have followed him as Jesus: he has reached the end, while his audience still has so much of the story left to see.
Season 6 of The Chosen, which follows Jesus' final day and Crucifixion, does not premiere until November 15, while the seventh and final season will take audiences through the Resurrection. So while Roumie has left the role behind, viewers have yet to see some of the most demanding and significant scenes he filmed..
And that makes the opening of his message particularly meaningful. “My friends ... the hour has finally come,” he wrote, echoing words associated with Christ's approaching Passion and also used to introduce Season 6. This time, though, Roumie was speaking about an ending of his own.
For the audience, the final chapters are still to come. For the man who has already lived and filmed them, the hour really has arrived.
