Willem Dafoe credited as playing...
Jesus
- Jesus: You think God belongs only to you? He doesn't. God is an immortal spirit who belongs to everybody, to the whole world. You think you're special? God is not an Israelite!
- Jesus: If I was a woodcutter, I'd cut. If I was a fire, I'd burn. But I'm a heart and I love. That's the only thing I can do.
- Pontius Pilate: It's one thing to want to change the way people live; but, you want to change how they think, how they feel.
- Jesus: All I'm saying is that change will happen with love, not with killing.
- Pontius Pilate: Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome. It's against the way the world is. And killing or loving, it's all the same. It simply doesn't matter how you want to change things. We don't want them changed.
- Jesus: God loves me. I know he loves me. I want him to stop. I can't take the pain. The voices and the pain. I want him to hate me. I fight him. I make crosses so he'll hate me. I want him to find somebody else.
- Jesus: [is drawing a circle in the earth while he speaks to God] I'm not going to leave this circle, I'm not going to leave until you speak to me. No signs, no pain, just speak to me in human words. Whatever path you want, I'll take. Love, or the axe, or anything else. Now if you want me to stay here and die, I'll do that too, but you have to tell me.
- Jesus: I wish there was another way, but there isn't. I have to die on the cross.
- Judas: I won't let you die.
- Jesus: You don't have a choice. Neither do I. Remember, we're bringing God and man together. They'll never be together unless I die. I'm the sacrifice... Forget everything else, understand that.
- Jerobeam: God took you by the hand and brought you here.
- Jesus: You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to *push* me over! Can't you see what's inside of me? All my sins.
- Jerobeam: We all sin.
- Jesus: Not my sins. I'm a liar. A hypocrite. I'm afraid of everything. I don't ever tell the truth. I don't have the courage. When I see a woman, I blush and look away. I want her; but, I take her, for God, and that makes me proud. And then my pride ruins Magdalene. I don't steal. I don't fight. I don't kill. Not because I don't want to but because I'm afraid. I want to rebel against you, against everything, against God! But, I'm afraid. You want to know who my mother and father are? You want to know who my God is? Fear. You look inside me and that's all you'll find.
- Jerobeam: But the more devils we have inside us the more chance we have to repent.
- Jesus: Lucifer is inside me. He says to me, "You're not the Son of King David. You're not a man. You're the Son of Man. And more, the Son of God. And more than that, God." Do you want to ask me anything else?
- Jesus: You're here to trick me.
- The Cobra/Satan: Trick you? To love and care for a woman, to have a family? This is a trick? Why are you trying to save the world? Aren't your own sins enough for you? What arrogance to think you can save the world. The world doesn't have to be saved: save yourself. Find love
- Jesus: I have love.
- Jesus: [stares at the heavens] Father, will you listen to me? Are you still there? Will you listen to a selfish, unfaithful son? I fought you when you called, I resisted! I thought of no more. I didn't want to be your son! Can you forgive me?
- Peter, Apostle: Don't you have any respect?
- Judas: For him?
- Jesus: [feebly] You don't understand...
- Judas: Understand? Rabbi, you broke my heart. Sometimes I curse the day I ever met you! We held the world in our hands. Remember what you told me? You took me in your arms, do you remember? And you begged me, "Betray me, betray me, I have to be crucified..."
- Jesus: Brothers, my old friends! Listen to me! It's me the prophets preached about. God talked to me in the desert; he gave me a secret and told me to bring it to you. Didn't you hear me coming? I ran here to Nazareth, where I grew up, to bring you the news. The word of God is here now.
- Voice in Crowd: You work miracles. Make a miracle for us. Make us believe in you. Otherwise, go away.
- Jesus: The Messiah doesn't need miracles. He is the miracle. Now he's here. Are you ready for me? I'm here to tear down everything around you, and you know what I'm going to replace it with? Something new: God. The World of God. So take your bread and give it to the poor. What difference does it matter what you own? You have gold and silver? It's going to rot, and that rot is going to eat away your heart. All of you! There will be a flood, and there will be a fire. Everything will be destroyed. But there will be a new ark riding on that fire, and I hold the keys and I open the door, and I decide who goes in and who doesn't. You're my brothers from Nazareth, and you're the first I invite on the ark. Don't wait. Don't waste your life. Come with me.
- Jesus: Judas, my brother, I have something to tell you. I have a terrible secret from God. You know why I came to Jerusalem?
- Judas: Yes. This is where the revolution is going to begin.
- Jesus: Last night, Isaiah came to me. He had a prophecy, I saw it written. It said, "He has borne our faults; he was wounded for our transgressions, yet he opened now his mouth. Despised and rejected by all, he went forward without resisting, like a lamb led to the slaughter."
- Judas: I don't understand.
- Jesus: Judas, I am the lamb. I'm the one who's going to do.
- Judas: Die? You mean you're not the Messiah?
- Jesus: I Am.
- Judas: That can't be. If you're the Messiah, why do you have to die?
- Jesus: Listen, at first, I didn't understand myself...
- Judas: No, *you* listen. Every day, you have a different plan. First it's love, then the ax, and now you have to die. What good could that do?
- Jesus: God only talks to me a little at a time and tells me as much as I need to know.
- Judas: We need you alive!
- Jesus: Now I finally understand! All my life-all my life, I've been followed by voices, by footsteps, by shadows. And do you know what that shadow is? The cross. I have to die on the cross, and I have to die willingly. We have to go back to the temple.
- Judas: And after you die on the cross, what happens then?
- Jesus: I come back to judge the living and the dead.
- Judas: I don't believe you.
- Jesus: You have to.
- Jesus: [Opening lines] The feeling begins. Very tender, very loving. Then the pain starts. Claws slip underneath the skin and tear their way up. Just before they reach my eyes, they dig in. And I remember. First I fasted for three months. I even whipped myself before I went to sleep. At first it worked. Then the pain came back. And the voices. They call me by name. Jesus.
- Jesus: If I could touch every stone, if I could breathe on every branch, they'd get up and follow me. So what's wrong with you?