Chris Tomlin’s best songs have one thing in common: All of them draw inspiration from the Bible.
“Any kind of songs that have had any kind of lasting effect … they’ve all come from Scriptures,” the 52-year-old award-winning Christian artist told Our Sunday Visitor. “They’ve all come from something I’ve read and it just jumps off the page and I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to find a way to sing that.'”
His latest song, which will debut in a new movie called “The Last Supper,” is no exception.
“It’s called ‘No Greater Love.’ I had written it after John 15,” Tomlin said, citing John 15:13, which reads, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
His new song will play during the rolling credits of “The Last Supper.” Tomlin serves as executive producer for the film that hits theaters on March 14. The two-hour movie, rated PG-13, centers around the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his apostles before his suffering and death on the cross. It promises to bring to life “the ultimate act of love and sacrifice as seen through the eyes of those who walked alongside Jesus.”
“You start understanding these guys and putting yourself there,” Tomlin said of Jesus’ disciples. “These guys were friends, they were brothers … And they’re in awe just like we would be.”
Tomlin spoke with Our Sunday Visitor about his involvement with the film, his passion for his faith and music, and a trip to the Holy Land that presented him with a picture of heaven. “The Last Supper” marks his first theatrical film. He brings with him his experience as a wildly successful Christian artist, boasting 21 number one radio singles, 30 top ten hits (the most of any Christian artist) and over 7 billion streams. He has sold over 12 million albums and has received recognition in the music world, including a Grammy award, three Billboard Music Awards and 30 Dove Awards.
‘No Greater Love’
Tomlin revealed that his entrance into filmmaking began with music. He initially met with “The Last Supper” filmmakers to discuss music. That changed when he saw a screening of the film.
“It really grabbed me because I thought it was so biblically accurate, the word of God just coming to life,” he said. “I thought, I’d love to get behind this in a greater way.”
He still had a role in the music: When the filmmakers asked Tomlin if he had any songs that would fit with the movie, Tomlin immediately thought of “No Greater Love.”
“I’d written this song just recently and I had not played (it) for anybody,” he said. “You would think I had just watched the movie then wrote the song because it’s just right — but I had written the song long before I’d seen the movie.”
He said he wrote it during a retreat at Ernest Hemingway’s home in Idaho, where he gathered with country music songwriter friends.
“One of the guys said, ‘I’ve just been really thinking about that verse, no greater love than this, than a man laying down his life for his friends,'” Tomlin remembered. “And the song just started happening.”
“These lyrics started coming around the sacrifice of Jesus,” he added. “That the world will never know, we’ll never see again, that kind of love.”
A spiritual encounter
In a press release for the film, Tomlin compared a spiritual encounter he had in the Holy Land to his spiritual encounter with “The Last Supper.”
“I have always said that worship is more about seeing than singing and years ago, I was leading worship in Israel and that understanding was deeply reinforced,” he says in the press release. “While standing in the place and seeing where Jesus gave His life, I was profoundly moved, reflecting on His final moments on Earth.”
Tomlin remembered his trip to the Holy Land a few years ago while speaking with Our Sunday Visitor.
“Being in Israel, everything goes from black-and-white to color,” he said. “That’s what this film does.”
While there, he experienced what he called a picture of heaven. He remembered being at the site of the crucifixion, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and seeing the stone where Jesus’ body was laid after coming down from the cross.
“I was watching this line of people, and the line was forever,” he said of being at the holy site. “It was every kind of person, every nationality, every language, every culture … all dressed differently, all looked differently, rich, poor, the whole thing.”
“I was thinking every day, this place is lined up with people all over this earth, all different kinds of people,” he added. “Jesus came for the world, and you see the whole world there, gathered.”
A musical inspiration
Throughout his decades-long career in music, Tomlin says the heart of his work has remained the same.
“It’s been to see people, to help people connect with God … help people have a voice to worship him,” Tomlin said.
He called it his life’s privilege to write songs that, in a sense, go beyond him.
“I count it the greatest privilege to stand there night after night on tour for these audiences and sing these songs and worship with people,” he said. “There’s nothing like the sound of the people of God singing the praises of God in the presence of God.”
“It’s the greatest sound on the Earth,” he added. “Because it’s your heart, your soul, singing to a living God.”
He revealed that the Bible, which inspires his music and drew him to “The Last Supper,” plays a central role in his faith life.
“It’s meant everything to me,” he said of Scripture, adding at another point that “it is God’s word to us.”
He grew up studying the Bible, he said, and reads it every day.
“It’s amazing … when you put that in you, when you put that in your heart, how much it comes out in moments,” he said. “And I love that this movie really is right on it — it just brings it to life.”
