The Chosen

Dear Daughters,

Several years ago a friend of mine posted a new TV series called The Chosen.  Again and again I would see his posts, commenting on how much he enjoyed it and encouraging others to watch.  I remember thinking to myself, I’ve seen several Jesus/Bible movies and have never been impressed with them.  Most of the characters looked like Americans, Jesus was always white and handsome, the plot lines seemed anemic and the dialogue stilted.  The Jesus in the movies never seemed real to me; he seemed other-worldly, not at all connected to his humanity.

So I never looked into it – until a month ago.  Recently, because another friend of mine was so enthusiastic about how she loved the series and had watched some episodes several times, I finally decided to give Season 1, Episode 1 a try.  It was titled

I Have Called You By Name. 

Completely different from any movie I’ve ever seen about Jesus, it opens with Mary Magdalene as a little girl, then as an adult wrestling with her demons.  It shows the every-day oppression of living under the Roman occupation, the hierarchy of the Jewish religious system, and the day to day grind of being a fisherman. 

As with any good movie, I had a lot of questions and wonderings about different scenes so of course I had to watch it again.  But the most amazing thing for me is the character of Jesus and how his humanity is portrayed – how he loves people in the red quarter, how he carves toys for the little children, how he celebrates with joy and dancing at the wedding feast of his friends.  The honesty and vulnerability of Jesus is refreshing.  He is not intimidated by the religious folk, the poor, the cynical or the Romans. 

On the other hand, the disciples are depicted as the self-centered, hard-to-get-along-with people they were.  Seeing the backstories of the characters helped me to see them as actual human beings who were deeply flawed, argumentative and obviously misunderstanding the entire mission of Jesus.  The apparent animosity between Peter the fisherman and Matthew who ruthlessly collected his taxes, was shown for what it was.  And yet, Jesus called them both to follow Him.  There were spats among the disciples – who was the greatest of them and arguments about how the whole traveling troupe should be managed.  There were biases toward classes of people and speculation about ideologies, mistrust of each other and definite opinions about life in general.  Peter, the guy who seemed the most opinionated of all, constantly gave Jesus helpful hints about how the ministry should be run.

I had never thought about Jesus continually traveling, setting up camp each night, preparing food, walking miles of dusty roads and constantly facing multitudes of people seeking healing, facing intense criticism from the religious folk and being entirely misinterpreted day after day by everyone around Him.

The official statement about the series: 

The Chosen is based on the true stories of the gospels of Jesus Christ.  Some locations and timelines have been combined or condensed.  Backstories and some characters and dialogue have been added.  However, all Biblical and Historical context and any artistic imagination are designed to support the truth and intention of the Scriptures.  The original names, locations and phrases have been transliterated into English for anything spoken.

The Chosen gets two thumbs up from me, and a huge thank you to my persistent friends for challenging me to watch the show.

Love, Mom