Because new years day was a Sunday I was able to watch the live stream of episode 4 of the Chosen instead of waiting for 12:45AM when I get home from were. Several thoughts: Spoilers below so if you don’t read it before you watch it, feel free to hit more.
The eight minute black and white mostly silent introduction showing the apostles out two by two was one of the most poinent scenes of the season and my favorite so far. I would have liked for it to be longer as I wanted more but it certainly worked as is.
Biggest moments for me: James the Lesser healing a cripple and the irony of Judas driving out a demon from someone possessed.
I’ll wager you could have done a full episode on each pair if you wanted to.
I have a system of daily bible reading that includes one chapter of the old testament a day. it was just two months ago that I was reading all those long Levitical laws on washing and purity.
While I think those chapters are important because to me they indicate a proof of God (after all how many stone or bronze age people understood the value of washing to avoid germs, there’s a reason why the Jews are the only ancient culture still alive and intact.) I really got how long it must be for people listening to those laws. If they were tedious to read how much more tedious must they to be read aloud to you.
That’s what makes the “why are you fidgeting?” even funnier..
I hate to admit it but when I saw the whole cistern business all I could think of was this classic moment from Monty Python.
40 years later it’s just as funny as when it was first made.
The scenes with the apostles arguing amongst themselves, Simon (Peter) clashing with this wife and Jesus over his home and Eden frustrated and the uproars and costs of discipleship are a good reminder that following Christ does not guarantee that all will always be well, that things will be easy or even that follows of Christ will agree on how things are done.
None of them are the saints they will eventually be, they are the men and women figuring out the path to get there, with all the bends twists and turns involved in the process.
One of the things that those who hate Christianity often do is hit us over the head for not being perfect. It’s amazing how fast such folks suddenly adopt the standards of Christianity the moment that any Christian fails to meet them. This scene is a critical tool for any Christian who has to deal with this.
When I first told my pastor about this show two years ago we had an interesting talk about it. I know he’s watched season 1 and I don’t know if he ever finished season two or has watched any of this season but he said something that stuck to me. Just about all the protestant Jesus movies always leave out the “Bread of Life” discourses (John 6:25-70) as they tend to be inconvenient when you are trying to make an argument against the Eucharist.
I figured this might be difficult given the nature of the series (over 60 hours long if they do all 7 seasons) plus a devout Catholic playing Jesus but I’ve kept my eyes open for things that might be alarm bells for Catholics.
That’s why I was SO excited when the woman with the hemorrhage gave her name as Veronica.
If they establish Veronica as the woman at the well they will almost certainly include Veronica wiping the face of Jesus during the way of the Cross. This is the sixth station of the cross which every Catholic would know but many protestant would have no clue of the significance here.
I suspect that while this is providing reassurance to Catholic fans like me it will generate some pushback from some protestant fans, but for now as far as I’m concerned it’s a great sign.
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