THE CHOSEN | JONATHAN ROUMIE: A Deeper Look at the Humanity and Righteous Anger of Jesus

The Chosen: Last Supper leads its huge, global audience through the final, most intense phase of Jesus’ earthly ministry. With time running out, the tension between Jesus and the religious authorities escalates, and His disciples struggle to grasp the full meaning of His mission.

Star cast member, Jonathan Roumie, who has had the honor of portraying Jesus Christ for four seasons now, knew the depth and power of the pivotal Holy Week timeframe will make this the biggest season of the series ever, “I think we’re at the point where Jesus is out of time in our story. And He knows that, basically, the whole reason He came to earth is days away,” Roumie explains. “For as much as He’s been trying to warn and inform His disciples and prepare His followers, He’s learning that not everything is quite clear to them.” This fifth season brings into sharper focus more aspects of Jesus’ humanity than have been explored in the previous four seasons of The Chosen.

Jesus’ Righteous Anger in the Temple

One of the most striking and climactic moments of the season is Jesus’ dramatic entrance into the temple with a whip. This is not merely an outburst of frustration, but a deliberate and forceful act of righteous indignation.

“Jesus made a whip out of cords,” Roumie clarifies. “He didn’t buy it on first-century eBay. He made a whip out of cords,” referring to the intentionality behind Jesus’ actions. This was not an impulsive display of anger, but a carefully considered response to the corruption that had infiltrated the sacred space. The temple, meant to be a house of prayer and worship, had been turned into a marketplace where greed, exploitation and financial extortion overshadowed true devotion to God.

The scenes about the temple powerfully capture this pivotal moment, showing Jesus walking into the temple courts, where money changers and merchants had set up shop, profiting from those who came to make sacrificial offerings. Historical context reveals that these merchants often took advantage of worshippers, overcharging for animals required for sacrifice and manipulating exchange rates for currency, making temple worship a burden rather than an act of reverence.

“It’s very clear that it’s about the mockery that His priests have made of the temple,” Roumie says. “People were using the temple for extortion, basically.” This exploitation was not a small issue—it was an offense against the very purpose of the temple, a place that was meant for communion with God but had instead become a den of thieves. Jesus, fully aware of His divine authority, takes decisive action to restore holiness and reverence to His Father’s house.

The portrayal in The Chosen leans into the weight of the moment, allowing audiences to feel the tension as Jesus flips over tables, scattering coins and driving out the money changers with the whip He fashioned. The physicality of the scene drives home the tangible reality of Christ’s righteous anger—not sinful wrath, but a measured and necessary correction.

“I think Jesus, through the eyes and lens of God, basically hit His limit, and He couldn’t take any more, and He needed to, quite literally, clean house,” Roumie explains. The phrase “clean house” speaks to the deeper significance of this event—it was not just about driving out corruption but also about reclaiming the temple’s sanctity. Jesus was not only making a physical statement but also fulfilling prophetic Scripture, declaring that the presence of God could not coexist with greed, hypocrisy and dishonesty.

This moment is one of the most intense and confrontational depictions of Jesus in the series, showing a side of Him that is often overlooked. While Jesus is most commonly portrayed as gentle, compassionate, patient, even docile in some portrayals over the decades, this scene reminds viewers that He is also a figure of justice—one who stands against wrongdoing and defends the purity of worship.

Roumie’s masterful performance captures this balance, ensuring that the scene does not depict Jesus as out of control but rather as acting with divine conviction. This moment, both in Scripture and on screen, offers a powerful reminder that true faith cannot be compromised for personal gain and that God’s presence demands holiness, not commerce.

The Weight of the Last Supper

The Last Supper is the centerpiece of Season 5, carrying profound spiritual weight.

“It’s the establishment of the New Covenant,” Roumie states. “It’s using the context of the previous covenant to set up the New Covenant, the eternal covenant that Jesus has with His people through the Eucharist.” As a Catholic, Roumie notes the significance of the Eucharist, calling it “the source and summit of the Christian life.”

In preparing for the scenes, he had the company’s spiritual director present on set. “I had a lot of spiritual firepower behind me,” he says. “I had a lot of people praying for me. I needed to be in the right spiritual mental and physical space, to transmit the essence and importance and the weight of that moment in human history.”

Emotional Connection to Jesus’ Journey

Throughout filming, Roumie remained in deep prayer.

“I am deeply devoted in prayer right up to the filming of those scenes,” he says. “And then throughout the filming, in between takes, I’m on my knees most of the time, just praying that the Lord allows me to inhabit a sort of a windowpane of His being—that people are able to see through me to Him.”

Moments like the Garden of Gethsemane scene required him to immerse himself in Jesus’ emotional turmoil. “Every scene that I go into, especially with the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, and other key moments, I pray that I can reflect the brightness of who He is and what He’s done for humanity.”

Jesus’ Relationships with His Disciples

The season deepens Jesus’ interactions with Mary Magdalene, Judas and John the Beloved. Roumie explains, “Mary Magdalene’s journey has been central from the start, we know how she figures into the Passion and the Resurrection Scripturally, and the weight and responsibility and authority that He gave her as a woman at a time when women didn’t hold authority. We consider her the apostle to the apostles.”

The relationship between Jesus and Judas also unfolds with due complexity. “Judas had a place among the 12—until he didn’t,” Roumie says. “We explore what that dynamic might have looked like before His (Jesus’) betrayal.”

John the Beloved’s closeness to Jesus also plays a key role. “John was the only male disciple at the foot of the cross. As far as we know, he’s the only one who’s named. And why is that? What sets that up?” These are the questions The Chosen seeks to answer in Season 5.

Increased Production Value and Miraculous Moments

The series has reached a worldwide audience, translated into at least 50 languages.

“There is no shortage of testimonies I get from people all over the world,” Roumie shares. “Even in my most recent travels, I had people in the Middle East that recognized me and were really, really moved by the series.” He sees The Chosen as the most significant work of his life. “This isn’t just another role—it’s a calling. If this series can lead even one person to Christ, it has done its job.”

Each season of The Chosen has grown in scope and quality. “By the grace of God, we’re able to level up the production value,” Roumie notes. “It’s bigger than Season 4. It’s more action-packed and emotionally driven.”

The use of visual effects has also expanded. “We’re now able to afford visual effects in a way that we weren’t in the first few seasons,” he says. “Season 3, we started to get a little bit more money where we could be like, ‘OK, let’s walk on water.’ And it’s like, ‘We can do that? Oh, I guess we can do that.’”

Some of the show’s most visually stunning moments have been marked by divine intervention.

“There have been miracles throughout every phase of the filming of this series that just defy logic,” Roumie reflects. “The show is better than all of us individually. What God has done with The Chosen is greater than any individual contribution.”

A Season Like No Other: The Chosen’s Most Powerful Chapter Yet

As anticipation builds for its theatrical release on Friday, Mar. 28, Roumie looks back at the journey with awe and deep gratitude.

“None of this is to my credit, it’s all to His credit, and without Him and without His influence on my life, and the grace that He’s shown me in allowing me to turn to Him in a way that that I’d never turned to Him before.” For Roumie and the entire cast and crew, the process of bringing The Chosen to life has been more than just acting—it has been a spiritual mission, one that continues to impact audiences in profound ways.

With its emotionally gripping storytelling, visually stunning production and deeply spiritual resonance, The Chosen: Last Supper promises to be the most powerful chapter yet. Every moment is carefully crafted to immerse viewers in the weight of Jesus’ final days before the cross, delivering a portrayal that is as heartbreaking as it is breathtaking. “I think a lot of people are going to be kind of shocked, because it’s such a passionate display of God’s longing for the righteousness of His people,” Roumie concludes.