3:16 Unplugged

So Easter has come and gone for another year. Lauren and I hung close to home since she was on call, so we missed out on the big ham dinner with the family. But as we ate our own holiday feast of pork chops and potatoes (What is it about Easter that makes us revel in eating food that Jews can’t touch? Are we trying to say, “We’re saved by the blood of the lamb so we can be as non-kosher as we want to now”?) we popped in a video that I try to watch at least once a year, usually right around this time. It’s called “Saint John in Exile” and it is a video recording of a one-man stage show performed during the 1980’s. The star of the show, Dean Jones plays the apostle John (writer of the Gospel of John, not to be confused with John the Baptist) in his old age, imprisoned on the island of Patmos. Over the course of ninety minutes, speaking directly to the audience, John proceeds to tell the story of Jesus, his crucifixion and his resurrection from his own (John’s own) point of view. What unfolds ends up being the most personal, most compelling, most strike-directly-to-your-heart account of the Gospel of Christ I have ever experienced.

The show begins with John dictating a letter to one of the local churches of Ephesus only to be interrupted by a Roman guard who he has apparently been locked in an ongoing battle of words with. And right away you can see that John isn’t your typical soft-spoken, dewy-eyed saint who preaches Jesus with calm faith and a gentle heart. He alternates between shouting at the guard for his lack of compassion and “accidentally” leaving illegal scrolls containing the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke on the floor, which the guard conveniently discovers and confiscates. “There’s more than one way to get a pagan to read The Word,” John laughs after he is once again alone with the audience. Taking a few creative liberties with scriptural dialogue, Jones as John then begins to tell how he met and began to follow Jesus. “From the first moment I saw him I said, ‘He needs a friend,’ and I felt that I could be that friend.” John speaks of miracles, of feeding the multitudes and realizing the Lord’s personal message in it for him: “Little could be much in Jesus’ hands.”

All this preamble does it’s job of drawing you into the story and letting you identify with each character – all just regular men like you and me who somehow found themselves drawn into events and circumstances they couldn’t understand yet tried to embrace with everything they had. But it’s when Jones begins the narrative of the Passion – alternating seamlessly between portraying not only John, but Jesus, Peter, the Romans, people in the mob and Satan himself – that the story truly begins to grip you. It starts with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem with all the people shouting praises of “Hosana” the traditional greeting for victorious kings. “If Jesus wanted the people to make him king,” says John, “all he had to do was say so…” and the religious leaders knew it. Goosebumps break across your skin with the gravity of that statement as you immediately understand how this moment would set off a chain reaction of the events to come. John tells of the haunting experience in Gethsemane and the saddened look on Jesus’ face when, in his moment of greatest personal torment, he, John had fallen asleep. John recounts Peter’s anguish at the realization that he had denied ever knowing Jesus, even though he’d swore that he would die for him, and even though Jesus himself had told him that this would happen. Free of props, makeup, sound effects, theme music or any special effect other than stage lighting, Jones depicts the horror of the crucifixion with far more truth and gut-wrenching realism than anything Mel Gibson ever drummed up. “It… is… finished,” Jones as John as Jesus gulps out hanging from an invisible cross before exhaling a long and wheezing terminal breath, and for a good fifteen seconds the theater remains dead silent. The first act ends with John weeping for himself and the other apostles, because unlike the Romans who Jesus had forgiven, claiming “They know not what they do,” John understands that he and the disciples were different… “WE KNEW WHAT WE DID!” he cries, horrified and ashamed of how they, despite the miracles they’d seen, despite all the time they’d spent together, had abandoned Jesus, denied him, let him down in his final hours. And finally John weeps for Jesus, remembering his final moments of suffering when it seemed like even he, their Lord, had lost faith as he cried out, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” John collapses in a heap on the floor and the lights fade.

Act Two opens with a bit of humor involving locusts and wild honey and the impression that Peter, for as great and holy a man as he would become, was also a loveable but loudmouthed bumbling idiot who couldn’t walk and sing at the same time without falling into irrigation ditches. John then conveys the alternating feelings of grief, wonder, disbelief, hope, fear and ecstasy as he and the other disciples realize that not only has Jesus risen, but that he has come back to them just as he said he would. If their faith had been shaken by the crucifixion it was restored and solidified by his return, such to the point that they went out and preached his message wherever they went, earning for their troubles execution of every horrible means, which John recounts one by one over a choir of voices singing “Glory… Glory…”. As the second act winds down, a scroll is delivered to John at Patmos, saying that the Roman persecution of Christians has ended. John is free to go. He hastens to make preparations to leave until the Roman guard from Act One asks him to stay on Patmos and assist him with his own Christian teachings. “Lord, why do you answer my dearest prayers at the worst possible times?” John shouts to the audience’s laughter. The story ends on an inspirational note, with John relaying Jesus’ overriding message to us… so simple yet so profound: “Love one another.”

The story is not a new one. The message is not a new one. And yet this show manages to infuse both with such life, such character, such personality that few works of drama or literature have ever been able to achieve. The writing is intelligent, witty and moving. John’s monologue is never preachy, never judgmental, and yet the message is never sacrificed or watered down. And never do you feel like you’re simply hearing the same old tired lines a thousand preachers and televangelists have said and regurgitated for years. Dean Jones acts the part – all the parts – with such absolute Truth that you never doubt for a minute that he is feeling every instant of joy, pain, sorrow and rapture. He shows impeccable comedic timing, amazing dramatic choices, and you immediately accept the transitions whenever he goes back and forth between various personalities. I don’t say this lightly or cavalierly, but this is, hands down, the greatest dramatic performance I have ever seen played out by any actor on TV, film or stage EVER. Ever. Everybody should see this video if only for the artistic merit that permeates the entire production. But beyond that, people should see it for its message. It’s not a message of condemnation but of inspiration, of hope, of love. We see the passage from John 3:16 thrown around all the time these days: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life.” The words lose their meaning after a while when every kook with a placard holds them up inside football stadiums or outside abortion clinics. But when you watch “Saint John in Exile” the true gravity, the true sincerity, the true Truth of these words becomes so plain and simple – stripped of politics, stripped of religion, stripped of hypocrites who would pervert the message. “Love each other as I have loved you.” Though we always try to make it more difficult, it really is that simple. He loved us. Share that love with others so the world might know that you are His.

I highly encourage anybody to find and purchase this video. Or if shelling out $25 bucks for the DVD of a twenty-year-old play isn’t your idea of a good expense, check out a local library or church. One of them is bound to have a copy to lend. However it has to be, find a way to see this show and experience the gospel told in this way. I guarantee it will be a moving experience that will stick with you for a long time.