tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-189509922024-03-10T06:00:32.223-04:00The Schooley FilesRandom Musings about Life, the Universe, and Everything.Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.comBlogger264125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-3770343247615318812024-03-10T06:00:00.050-04:002024-03-10T06:00:00.137-04:00The Chosen 2:4 — The Perfect Opportunity<span class="s2">As of this episode of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen,</span></i><span class="s2">
Jesus has gathered together 10 of his eventual 12 Apostles: Thaddaeus,
Little James, Simon, Andrew, Big James, John, Thomas, Matthew, Philip,
and Nathanael. This leaves only Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot to
be accounted for. (This, of course, in addition to the women: Mary
Magdalene, Ramah, and occasionally Jesus’ mother Mary.) In this episode,
we see the introduction of Simon the Zealot, and an interesting
hypothetical tie-in with one of Jesus’ most well-known miracles, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A2-17&version=ESV">the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda</a>.</span><p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcDOThUsGNJ5yVseRifjNenaDVNEuB2VVzuomtfvJ4GCH9rpM3y_8UHVDk2uF4ZPnbT7HUFLFi4w3147IgTJG0l497WkV0RTV2LCFPDiotH9V4g4qNK3YoLQXSi4nU0_nv-aqvz413P7lbNsNK6o6W2S6SpjUnoAXUwyfKcN011-Yan_1445y/s1286/The%20Perfect%20Opportunity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1170" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcDOThUsGNJ5yVseRifjNenaDVNEuB2VVzuomtfvJ4GCH9rpM3y_8UHVDk2uF4ZPnbT7HUFLFi4w3147IgTJG0l497WkV0RTV2LCFPDiotH9V4g4qNK3YoLQXSi4nU0_nv-aqvz413P7lbNsNK6o6W2S6SpjUnoAXUwyfKcN011-Yan_1445y/s320/The%20Perfect%20Opportunity.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p class="ps4"><span class="s2">I’ve always thought of Jesus’ inclusion
of both Simon the Zealot and Matthew the former tax collector as
<br />particularly significant: Jesus was not only bringing together a wide
variety of people, but people of opposing backgrounds and convictions,
likely to clash violently in any circumstance other than following him. </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
does an excellent job at depicting who the <a href="https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15185-zealots">Zealots</a> were, why someone
might have been drawn to them, and what could be wrong with taking
revolutionary fervor to such an extreme.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This episode also deals with what may
seem to be an obvious question that Jesus asks of the man at the pool of
Bethesda: “Do you want to be healed?” I mean, of course he wants to be
healed, right? That’s why he’s at the pool. And yet, as we’ll see, our
preconceptions about </span><i><span class="s3">how</span></i><span class="s2"> we think God ought to do things can obscure </span><i><span class="s3">what</span></i><span class="s2">
it is we actually want him to do. Our human penchant for trying to
figure out the ways we want God to act often get in the way of just
letting him meet our needs however he wants to do it.</span></p>
<span><a name='more'></a></span><p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode begins with yet another new
approach: a wordless montage of two children growing up. One falls out
of a tree, his leg never sets right, and he grows up unable to walk. His
mother dies in childbirth, his father remarries, his little brother
loves him and tries to include him, but when they gets older, the
younger brother leaves him to join what looks like a martial arts
training academy. The brother who is lame ends up at a pool that appears
to be built over a hot spring which periodically bubbles up, and when
it does, the people around rush to jump into the water. The brother who
left grows strong and skilled in fighting and blade work, while the lame
brother is repeatedly trampled over and never gets to the pool in time;
we see him aging and growing weary and hopeless in the process.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The brother who left is eventually
identified as Simon son of Zebulon (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2349733/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Alaa Safi</a>), and the group he is with
are called Zealots, a revolutionary movement designated by the
<a href="https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees">Pharisees</a> the “fourth philosophy,” dedicated to expelling all non-Jews
from Jerusalem and freeing Israel from foreign domination. They are
rehearsing an assassination attempt against a Roman magistrate named
Rufus, which will not only dispatch a Roman oppressor but also cast
suspicion on the High Priest <a href="https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3903-caiaphas">Caiaphas</a>, whom the Zealots consider a
fraud. Simon is commissioned to carry out the attempt by his commander
Menachem (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4360199/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Raj Kala</a>), a man who looks like Rasputin and tells him, “Carry
out your orders, Simon of Zebulon, or never return.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The Zealots are being watched by a
Roman, Atticus Aemilius (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1616334/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Elijah Alexander</a>), who turns out to be a
“<a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Cohortes_Urbanae/">cohortes urbanae</a>”—basically a spy for the empire. Atticus understands
the plot that is unfolding and tracks Simon as he enters Jerusalem,
ostensibly for the <a href="https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14103-sukkot-feast-of">Feast of Tabernacles</a> which is about to take place. He
follows Simon’s movements as Simon makes contact with his fellow
Zealots, who share with Simon their intelligence regarding the
magistrate to be assassinated, whose sole dependable habit is to visit a
favorite restaurant at the close of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/what-is-shabbat-jewish-sabbath">Shabbat</a> each week. Atticus has a
covert meeting with Petronius (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9467873/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Eric Osmond</a>), an assistant to the
magistrate, and outlines his plan to impersonate Rufus and kill the
would-be assassin in the attempt. Characterizing the Zealots as “martyrs
with a persecution complex,” Atticus explains that arresting or
torturing them only adds fuel to their fire, so his intent is to beat
them at their own game, “I want to watch his rat pals scurry their way
back to their nest with a story they can't glorify.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile, Jesus’ disciples are setting
up a temporary structure with a thatched roof outside the city in order
to celebrate the feast. They discuss (for Matthew and Mary Magdalene’s
benefit, as <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWatson">stand-ins for the audience</a>) that they are commemorating “how
the children of Israel lived in temporary shelters for 40 years in the
desert.” During the feast itself, Big James asks Jesus about Zechariah
14:16, which is read publicly each year during this celebration and
foretells that Israel’s enemies will eventually participate in this
feast, alongside the Jews. Confusion erupts as the disciples reflect on
the import of what that means—sharing their sacred traditions with
Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“What would have to happen for that to be possible?” James asks.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Something will have to change,” Jesus replies.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After eating, Simon and John warn Jesus
that Shmuel had been seen in the city, preaching and warning about false
prophets. “He means you, Rabbi,” Simon points out.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After feigning surprise, Jesus says,
“That's even better…. I think I'm going to see someone inside the city
walls tomorrow. You may come if you'd like. I enjoy the company.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The next day, Jesus, Simon, John, and
Matthew walk toward the city, and Jesus discloses that the person he is
going to meet is at the <a href="https://melkite.org/faith/sunday-scriptures/mystery-of-the-pool-at-bethesda">pool of Bethesda</a>, sparking surprise and
discussion about the pagan origins of the pool. After having been a
Phoenician shrine, Simon recounts, “the Greeks and Romans turned it into
a place of worship, for a healing cult of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Asclepius">Asclepius</a>.” As they near the
city, Jesus slows as he passes by three men who had been crucified
outside the city walls.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile, the other Simon goes to the
pool where his brother, named Jesse (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1530992/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Dennis Apergis</a>), still sits at the
water’s edge. Realizing that he has been at the pool for 25 years, Jesse
is angry that Simon never visited him before; Simon replies that the
Bethesda pool is the site of a pagan cult and members of his order are
forbidden to go there. “Since when do cults bother you?” Jesse scoffs,
implying that the Zealots themselves are regarded as a cult. Guessing
that Simon is there to commit an assassination, Jesse warns him against
it, but Simon waives off his fears: “I just wanted to say goodbye.
Because I didn't do it right the first time.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesse pulls out the farewell letter his
brother had left behind so many years earlier and begins reading.
“Jesse, when you stand on two feet, I will know the Messiah has come. I
will fight for the freedom of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/zion">Zion</a> in order to see that day,” Simon had
written. “I stand by it,” Simon tells Jesse, before taking his leave.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Afterward, Jesus and his disciples enter
the area where the pool is. Jesus indicates the person he is about to
meet: “The one who’s been here the longest, but doesn’t belong. The sad
one.” Going to Jesse, Jesus asks him pointedly, “Do you want to be
healed?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesse asks Jesus who he is, and if Jesus
will take him to the water. Jesus wordlessly shakes his head. Jesse
begins to protest and explain all the reasons why he has not been able
to get to the water. Jesus rebuffs all the excuses. “This pool, it has
nothing for you. It means nothing, and you know it. But you're still
here. Why?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jessie whimpers, “I don’t know.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Finally, Jesus tells Jesse to take up
his mat and walk, and Jesse gets up, overjoyed. But Shmuel’s fellow
Pharisee Yanni (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2793922/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Wasim No’mani</a>) is nearby and rebukes Jesse for carrying
his bed. He is, however, unable to enforce his judgment, and despite
threatening to report the incident, Jesse leaves, looking for his
brother.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At that moment, Jesse’s brother Simon is
in position with his confederates to carry out the assassination, which
begins to play out in much the same way as the rehearsal that had
happened earlier. Atticus, however, is disguised and on the arm of
Rufus’s wife. The rehearsed diversions occur according to plan, but just
at the crucial moment, when Simon is about to act, he sees his brother
Jesse crossing the road, walking with his mat. Astonished, Simon
releases his hold on the dagger, gets up, and goes after his brother as
Atticus follows, now unable to carry out his own plan of turning the
tables on a would-be assassin. Simon catches up with Jesse, who does a
little dance to show the extent of his healing, and the brothers
embrace.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As the sun sets, Jesus and the three
disciples leave the city, excited at the miracle that has just happened.
Matthew inquires, however, “Waiting 30 more minutes wouldn't have
mattered to that man. Why did you do this on Shabbat?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesus replies, “Sometimes you gotta stir
up the water,” and leaves with a determined look on his face and the
melody of “<a href="https://youtu.be/NbwcMcpy9Bk?si=RhDGOy_Un7CGG4Si">Trouble</a>” in the background.</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The events of “The Perfect Opportunity”
play out against the backdrop of two “cults”: the <a href="https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15185-zealots">Zealots</a>, training in
secret as a terrorist organization (or freedom fighters, if you will) to
carry out assassinations to free Israel from bondage to the Roman
Empire, and the <a href="https://blog.israelbiblicalstudies.com/jewish-studies/bethesda-pool-jerusalem-shrine-asclepius/">Pool of Bethesda</a>, which is now thought by most scholars
to be a site of pagan worship, devoted to a Roman god. The two brothers,
Simon and Jesse, have been drawn by circumstance and temperament toward
two opposing cultish variants on mainstream Judaism: an
ultra-nationalist variant that takes up arms against Israel’s foes,
imitating the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/827/the-maccabean-revolt/">Maccabean revolts</a> that took place two centuries earlier,
and a healing cult that borrows from pagan religions and preys upon the
desperation of people looking for relief from physical distress.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">An aside is necessary in discussing the Bethesda pool in particular, specifically because </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
is <a href="https://youtu.be/SdOYPcwNCio?si=1BkGzVxkHiO28DHr">adopting a particular interpretation</a> that is justified but requires
explanation. There are two issues involved: one is based on insights we
gain from archaeological discoveries, and the other comes out of textual
issues in the Gospel of John.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Many rationalistic scholars doubted the
existence of any such pool until it was <a href="https://melkite.org/faith/sunday-scriptures/mystery-of-the-pool-at-bethesda">discovered in the nineteenth century</a> by archaeologist Conrad Schick. Further excavation led to the
conclusion that this was probably not a Jewish mikvah, or ritual bath,
but rather a <a href="https://blog.israelbiblicalstudies.com/jewish-studies/bethesda-pool-jerusalem-shrine-asclepius/">healing center dedicated to the god Asclepius</a>, similar to
many others across the empire. If so, it would have represented the
ongoing Hellenization and Romanizing influences that the Pharisees,
Essenes, and Zealots were all reacting to in different ways.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">A problem arises, however, because later
manuscripts and old English translations add the following passage,
forming the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+5%3A3-4&version=ESV">end of verse 3 and all of verse 4</a>:</span></p>
<p class="ps6"><i><span class="s3">… waiting for the moving of the water; </span></i><i><span class="s4">4</span></i><i><span class="s3">for
an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and
stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the
water was healed of whatever disease he had. [ESV footnote]</span></i></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This passage does not stand up to
<a href="https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/was-john-53-removed-from-modern-bibles/">textual critical analysis</a>: the earliest manuscripts lack the entire
passage; manuscripts with the ending of verse three begin appearing in
the fourth century; others without the ending of verse 3 but with verse 4
date from the fifth century; and manuscripts with the entire passage do
not appear until the ninth century.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The best manuscript reading is the one
that most reasonably explains the existence of all the others. In this
case, the shortest and oldest reading is likely original. John must have
assumed that his readers knew what the pool was, but later generations
didn’t, and at least two different scribes evidently added in notes to
explain what the people were doing there, and why the water would be
stirred up (which gets referred to in v. 7). One of the scribes
attributed the stirring to an angel, but this explanation is not stated
or implied by the original text. At any rate, these notes got copied
into the text by later scribes who were copying that copy, and
eventually found their way into early English translations. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So it is very likely that the scribe got it wrong and the attitude shown by Jesus and others exhibited in </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
is the correct understanding of the passage in John. God does not heal
by a cruel lottery system. Jesus had to help Jesse to stop clinging to a
pagan superstition so that he would trust Jesus for his healing.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But the healing has the added effect of
pulling Jesse’s brother Simon out of an opposing sort of cult, an
ultra-nationalist band dedicated to using violence to wrest control of
Israel from the hands of its pagan occupiers. </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
identifies the Zealots with a group known as the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sicarii">Sicarii</a> and portrays
its Pharisees as calling them the “fourth philosophy.” (It’s worth
noting that historians are divided regarding how much these groups
actually overlapped. The phrase “fourth philosophy” comes <a href="https://earlyjewishwritings.com/text/josephus/ant18.html">from Josephus</a>;
we do not know whether such a term was in common usage at the time.)
While Sadducees largely sought to cooperate with the Romans, the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes">other three groups</a> described by Josephus chose various ways of opposing them.
The Pharisees focused on religious resistance, using the Law and
rabbinic tradition to mark separation from Greek and Roman influences.
The Essenes went further, retreating into monastic communities and
eschewing contact with the outside world as much as possible. The
<a href="https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/15185-zealots">Zealots</a> were not satisfied with either religious or physical withdrawal
from the subjugation of Rome, choosing instead to oppose it by violent </span><span class="s2">means.</span><a href="#note1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So we can see how the Zealots would have
considered all other groups compromisers and cowards, while the other
groups would have considered them dangerous radicals. Simon, in this
episode, is motivated by anger at the brutal Roman occupation, but also
by the conviction that forcing the Romans out of the Holy Land is a
necessary precondition for the Messiah to come. He has a convoluted hope
that bringing about the freedom of Israel will usher in the Messiah,
who then will heal his brother. But this hope culminates in his
willingness to commit murder. Additionally, he is threatened with
expulsion or worse if he does not carry the plan out, so there really
seems to be no turning back for him.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Except that Jesus will turn everything
on its head by healing Jesse. Both brothers think that there is a
precondition for them to achieve what they are longing for: Simon, to
expel the Romans from the land, and Jesse, to get to the water in time.
Both of them find their task insurmountable—Simon, to be sure, has not
yet been tested to the point of despair that Jesse has, but we know what
Simon doesn’t: that his plan is about to be foiled by the Romans. With
Jesus’ intervention, Jesse doesn’t need to get to the pool and Simon
doesn’t need to carry out the murder. Both of them have been looking in
the wrong place to attain their goal. Jesus steps in, stirs up the water
(so to speak), and simply gives them what they desperately crave.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But it doesn’t come quite as easy as all
that. Jesus’ interchange with Jesse is revealing of our penchant for
sticking with a direction even when it has proven fruitless. Jesus keeps
asking Jesse if he wants to be healed; Jesse is bent on getting help to
the pool and explaining all the obstacles and reasons why he hasn’t
been able to get there himself. He’s stuck in his misery even when being
offered a way out of it. Jesus points out that Jesse </span><i><span class="s3">already knows </span></i><span class="s2">that
there is nothing in the pool for him, and asks him why he is still
there, still fixated on it. Jesse doesn’t have an answer. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesse is so like us. To abandon our
plans means to admit that we have been wrong for as long as we were
pursuing those plans. The longer we’ve been at it, the more resistant we
are to change. We confuse means for ends, and miss opportunities by
stubbornly sticking to a path that has already proven fruitless.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But Jesse, in the end, does receive his
healing. Simon, by seeing what he had once described as proof of the
messiah, is deterred from his own plans, never knowing that in so doing
he has been spared his life. Both of them have been wrenched from their
own plans and offered a new life. But that involved abandoning the old
one that they had long been pursuing. It always does.</span></p>
<hr />
<p class="p2"><a id="note1">[1]</a>
The Zealots were instrumental in conducting <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-great-revolt-66-70-ce">the war against Roman occupation</a> beginning in AD 67, which led to the siege of Jerusalem and
the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. The movement was crushed in the
wake of that war, with its leaders being taken to Rome, tortured, and
killed. The end result for the Jewish people as a whole was the loss of
their homeland and their dispersal throughout the Empire.</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-44170988341220042272024-02-22T06:00:00.002-05:002024-02-29T17:06:58.784-05:00Reaction - The Chosen Season 4 Episodes 4-6<p> Last weekend I had the opportunity to see The Chosen, Season 4 Episodes 4-6 in the theater. As with Episodes 1-3, I want to offer a mostly spoiler-free reaction, trying to limit my responses to what can be inferred from the trailer and a basic knowledge of the Gospels.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bn_5uH5kUAU" width="320" youtube-src-id="Bn_5uH5kUAU"></iframe></div><br /><p>Also as before, you can find my <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/search/label/The%20Chosen">review and analysis series here</a>. </p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>There are a number of things we see in the trailer:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Jesus' disciples in a state of grief, and Jesus himself looking anguished<br /></li><li>People celebrating, singing with instruments</li><li>Lazarus seeming to be in pain, as Jesus' voice-over intones, "Many things pass away."</li><li>Jesus and Gaius in a room together, conversing</li><li>Jesus asking Martha ("Martha, Martha,") to come and sit beside him</li><li>Judas discussing feelings of anger and frustration with his old business partner, but also affirming Jesus as the Messiah<br /></li><li>Pharisees discussing a strategy involving Jesus, and that blood on one's hands is not necessarily wrong</li><li>Jesus discussing with his mother the incomprehension of people to his message, both among the religious leaders and his own followers</li><li>Jesus and the disciples (pointedly, Judas) walking with Roman soldiers and carrying armor, as Jesus' voice-over says, "They take offense when I show humility and deference to the powers of this world."<br /></li><li>Jesus' mother Mary telling him, "They're only human," and Jesus pointing to himself: "Also human."</li><li>Pharisees throwing a stone in the Temple grounds</li></ul><p> One can reasonably infer that there will be scenes involving Mary, Martha, and Lazarus; at the very least, the passage in Luke 10:38-42, where Jesus specifically says, "Martha, Martha." Lazarus' death could also be in view. The end of Season Three seemed to indicate that Gaius would be the Roman official whose servant or son was healed without Jesus even going to his home (Luke 7:2-10; John 4:46-54), so this could be taking place. There is rising tension with the Pharisees and possibly a more overt conspiracy to kill Jesus. Jesus also has rising frustration with the inability of his disciples to understand his teachings, and with their short-sighted and earthly goals and aspirations. We can also see Judas starting down the path toward betrayal, while still affirming absolute belief in Jesus as Messiah.</p><p>My impressions are mixed, honestly. The acting and cinematography are superb, as always—really, getting better over time. The writing is still very good as well, but I am beginning to have quibbles that I can't ignore.</p><p>While the first three episodes each felt very self-contained, and the first two in particular seemed to be wrapping up plot lines from Season Three, Episodes 4-6 came across on a first viewing as being more muddy and intertwined. This is understandable; Season One had <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">four separate plot lines</a> all playing out over the course of the season, and many people found the various stories difficult to follow. But the best of the episodes also had a specific event that unified it, even if there were also separate plot lines also taking place. Maybe on repeated viewings I will recognize the unity of each episode; but my experience in the theater is a bit more blurred.</p><p>The actual problem I am having, however, relates to how much the show is now actually tracking the events we see in the Gospels. I'm sure that most of the fan base is thrilled that so many of the stories are identifiable, and it was inevitable that it would become this way, given the nature of the series. It's not that I have a problem with knowing the stories from the Bible; it's more that the way they are staged seems very different from how I would have imagined them. And not, to my mind, always in a positive way.<br /></p><p>I don't want to get into specifics, but I am noticing in particular that events that I would have imagined taking place in private–where the story itself appears to be something that wouldn't have happened in public–are taking place out in the open, with background actors walking around and doing things, seemingly oblivious to what is going on. I might simply be wrong about how I had envisioned these scenes in the past, or maybe there's a case to be made that it doesn't matter. But it's hard not to get the feeling that now that <i>The Chosen</i> has a budget for background actors, they're just doing it because they can. (In fairness, some incidents in the early seasons seemed to be conveniently located "on the road," but really in a field in the middle of nowhere, where other people might have been expected to be walking by, but aren't.)</p><p>In some cases, it seems that Jesus and his band of followers should have attracted some attention when they seemingly don't. Even in the Temple complex, where Jesus specifically goes to preach a sermon, it's basically Jesus' own disciples who are paying attention to him, except for a couple of Pharisees, who later gather some more. In one shot, there are more who are listening, but one would have expected a significant crowd to be gathering, and there just isn't.</p><p>Another issue is that as we begin to see more identifiable Bible stories play out on screen, I'm getting a sense (admittedly subjective) that we're kind of ticking off boxes. "Did that one... did that one... did that one...." It's not that these stories aren't developed or prepared for; it's just that when they actually do happen, there doesn't seem to be a lot of thought put into exactly when and how they happen. Comparing some of these stories to, for example, the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html">miraculous catch of fish</a>, or the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-15-wedding-gift.html">wedding at Cana</a>, or the feeding of the 5000, it sometimes feels that we're getting a story out of the way, as opposed to really exploring what it may have been like. Obviously it's very difficult for me to defend this position without bringing up details, so we'll have to leave it here for now.</p><p>In some cases, the American Evangelical influence is too apparent. There is one particular story in which Jesus clearly commends one person and gently rebukes another. Much contemporary preaching tends to see these two people as equally valuable personality types. Here, the additional dialogue that <i>The Chosen</i> inserts (and which I usually applaud) seems to me to do exactly that--there's too much effort put into assuaging the feelings of the person the biblical Jesus rebukes, and even a mild swipe against the person that the biblical Jesus commends. And there's not enough developed in the backstory to explain why each person does what they do. Which is a shame, because that's ordinarily what <i>The Chosen</i> does so well.</p><p>But my quibbles aside, I really do like the overall direction of where the series is going. The aftermath of the Big Event that happened in Episode 3 is handled with wonderful finesse and honesty; everyone responds in a way that seems genuine and real, and the development of one particular disciple is hard to watch but necessary for where he will be later on. The rising tension with the Pharisees is portrayed believably, as is the internal politics involved (and the distress on Shmuel's face in the preview accurately depicts his growing disillusionment with the cynicism of it all). And Jesus' frustration with his disciples' misplaced ambitions and with their incomprehension at his Passion predictions is all convincing and moving.</p><p>At the end of Episode 6, it's easy to see where we're going in the immediate future. But <i>The Chosen</i> allows the disciples to be where they are in that moment, to not know what Jesus is about to do. This is <i>The Chosen</i> at its best. Letting us re-experience the events described in the gospels as though we didn't know what was going to happen next. Letting us view them with fresh eyes, and giving us greater understanding.<br /></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-4526348263870065192024-02-18T06:00:00.028-05:002024-02-18T06:00:00.298-05:00The Chosen 2:3 — Matthew 4:24<p><span class="s2"><br />Just as in Season One, the third episode of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen’s</span></i><span class="s2">
Season Two is an uncharacteristic aside from the narrative arc of the
season as a whole. While in Season One, the third episode focused
intensely on Jesus, who had only been seen briefly in the first two
episodes, in Season Two, the third episode focuses on the disciples
while their Master is otherwise occupied. It addresses one of those
questions one almost never thinks to ask, but once asked, seems obvious
and compelling: what were the disciples doing when “off camera” in the
biblical narrative?</span></p>
<p class="ps4"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6M6dM5fsixzO75qeUjHyWUMo9lVlesrRDRTyVwFuARitlguGAtEw4CAF30WDay7Z1Jyv4lw0T_cLdPSlF1TRqwM_jgVbuvdo_1niV5Zh3FQWOCN6k6O0Ok9gWbV-nfsxLk0Qw7JaOm6onlg2jboBoicfl5qGGLRbkY-jL4JGJV543EDCaGVlz/s1886/Matt%204-24%20campfire.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1886" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6M6dM5fsixzO75qeUjHyWUMo9lVlesrRDRTyVwFuARitlguGAtEw4CAF30WDay7Z1Jyv4lw0T_cLdPSlF1TRqwM_jgVbuvdo_1niV5Zh3FQWOCN6k6O0Ok9gWbV-nfsxLk0Qw7JaOm6onlg2jboBoicfl5qGGLRbkY-jL4JGJV543EDCaGVlz/s320/Matt%204-24%20campfire.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="s2">The title of the chapter is a scripture reference, short enough that we can quote it in full:</span><p></p>
<p class="ps5"><i><span class="s3">So his fame spread throughout all
Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various
diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures,
and paralytics, and he healed them.</span></i></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This is the kind of summary account that
it is very easy to quickly read past without thinking through what it
actually entailed. “Yep, Jesus healed and delivered all kinds of people.
Must have been wonderful. I wish I could have been there to see it.”
And then we move on to the next story.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">What this episode deals with is the
logistical nightmare of such a scene—all these people all trying to get
Jesus’ attention at once, what the disciples had to do to accommodate
all the crowds, and what it was like for them, from all different
backgrounds, just getting to know one another, trying to figure out what
it all meant.</span></p>
<span><a name='more'></a></span><p class="ps6"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode famously opens with a 13 1/2
minute one-shot take where the roving camera covers several events and
conversations in real time over a range of locations without a camera
edit. The technique has been used famously in Alfred Hitchcock’s </span><i><span class="s3"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040746/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Rope</a>,</span></i><span class="s2"> in </span><i><span class="s3"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2562232/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Birdman</a>,</span></i><span class="s2"> and in </span><i><span class="s3"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8579674/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">1917</a>,</span></i><span class="s2">
where entire movies are made to appear as though they were shot in one
take. In this episode, the take is long enough to be impressive without
becoming so long that it distracts from the story being told. It
actually works thematically with the episode: the viewer becomes a
roving “fly on the wall”—or rather, fly in the wind—as we see long lines
of people coming to see Jesus, the disciples trying to manage the
crowd, and the conversations taking place back at the disciples’ camp.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">It begins with Matthew getting a passage
from Philip to memorize. Philip gives him Psalm 139:8, “If I ascend to
heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” and
Matthew is immediately full of questions, taking the passage too
literally and wondering if it applies to others, since David speaks only
of himself. Philip explains that the verse indicates God’s continuing
presence with us—not only in heaven or in Sheol, but everywhere in
between.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The two men walk along a line of people
waiting to see Jesus, and Matthew tries to interview people who are
leaving regarding what Jesus has done for them, but they are mostly too
overjoyed to be of much specific information. Back in camp, Matthew
shares the passage he has been given with Mary Magdalene and Ramah, who
had previously asked him for help in learning the scriptures.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile Thaddaeus and Little James are
called to take their turn in managing the crowd, informed that over
fifty people were currently in line. Big James discusses having to deal
physically with a man who was “rushing the line,” and Philip replies
that the man he is referring to had been waiting since the previous
night for his wife to be healed.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">A group clusters together, talking about
the good and bad aspects of Jesus’ growing fame. Big James asks the
group what they would have thought if someone had told them that they
would be following the Messiah. Ramah would have thought she was
disqualified because she was a girl; Thomas is worried about not having
any military training. James discusses fantasies of fighting the Romans,
and observes that they could continue doing what they are doing for
years and “never get to the fighting part.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Mary Magdalene says she had no
expectations, and wonders why they are expecting a warrior. Thomas
refers to a <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=zechariah+14%3A1-4&version=ESV">prophecy of Zechariah</a>, but Philip warns against expecting
that prophecy to be fulfilled in their lifetimes. John and James point
out that the Rabbis teach that Messiah won’t come until the nation is
holy, which is why they think Jesus couldn’t be the one. Mary responds,
“I don’t think he’s waiting for us to be holy. I think he’s here because
we can’t be holy without him.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Little James comes back and gets Big
James to help with crowd control. Little James and Thomas sit down to
continue a game they had been playing, and James expresses annoyance
because people seem to be flocking to Jesus only because they are being
healed by him. This provokes Thomas to ask about James’s evident
“malady,” which causes him to walk with a limp. James calls it “</span><span class="s2">a form of paralysis</span><a href="#fn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a><span class="s2">,” admitting that he hasn’t asked for healing. “I’m just afraid that if I mention it to him, he’ll change his mind about me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesus’ mother Mary comes to visit the
camp and is introduced to the new disciples, including Matthew. She
notices his fine clothing and asks about his occupation; Mary Magdalene
jumps in, identifying him as a new student Jesus had called. When told
that Jesus has been healing people all day, Mother Mary tells the group,
“He has always been a worker. He gets that from his father… both of
them, I suppose.” She leaves to help prepare food for them all, and the
one-shot sequence gives way to a montage of disciples getting prepared
for the night, and eating around the campfire.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Relaxing after the meal, Simon asks
Andrew to “do one of your meaningless question games.” Andrew asks the
group, “What would you do for unlimited money?” which leads to a
discussion of the value of money relative to other things. Asked by John
whether love is better than unlimited money, Simon responds,
“Absolutely, but you’ll never be so lucky to find someone like Eden, so,
take the money.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When Mary asks whether Thomas was
happier when he had some money, before following Jesus, John suggests
that they ask Matthew. Andrew is a bit uncomfortable, but Matthew
answers that he feels “better now,” and the conversation moves on. The
group becomes more introspective, and Mary Magdalene asks Mother Mary
how she felt at Jesus’ birth, and when she knew who he was. Mary
expresses the astonishment she felt that Jesus was a helpless baby who
needed her, a teenager from Nazareth. “He doesn't need me anymore,” she
observes. “I'm excited to see everything he does for our people, and I'm
proud of him. But as a mom, it makes me a little sad sometimes.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After Mother Mary leaves to take care of
dishes, Thomas observes that he didn’t know Jesus had lost his father,
telling the others that he had also lost his. Mary discusses having lost
her father as a little girl, and that as she grew to understand it, she
became angry, tried to leave behind her Jewish heritage, and that after
“worse things happened,” she has forgotten much of what she knew. Big
James encourages her: “So now you can catch up.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">They begin discussing how none of them
had gone very far in Midrash school, and share various points of view
about observing Jewish Law. Ramah, Andrew, and Big James discuss being
natural rule followers, while Thomas and Thaddaeus share experiences of
violating kosher laws. Thomas describes growing to love being Jewish and
following the Law.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Simon begins pointedly addressing
Matthew: “What about you? Has it been difficult for you, all this time,
following Jewish Law?” Matthew shifts uncomfortably and Mary Magdalene
looks upset as Simon presses on: “What was more painful for you:
escaping Roman persecution by working for them, or escaping your guilt
with all the money?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When Matthew says he doesn’t know how
Simon wants him to respond, Andrew pipes up: “An apology. Simon’s not
wrong.” But Simon begins to stand up, telling Matthew not to bother. “I
won’t forgive it anyway.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">John challenges Simon about what gives
him the authority to choose whether to forgive or not, and pointing out
how Simon nearly betrayed him and his brother to the Romans. Simon
argues that Matthew pushed him into doing things out of desperation that
he would never have done otherwise. Thomas begins to pile on as well,
and Mother Mary comes back, visibly distressed by the argument, but
Simon finishes with a tirade about what it’s like to be Jewish and
suffer for hundreds of years under foreign rule and occupation. “You
betrayed that, and you spit on it! I can't forgive it! I'll never
forgive it!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">By this point everyone is jumping to
their feet and it appears that things are going to come to blows, when
they notice Jesus shuffling slowly back to camp, exhausted, passing them
all with a weak “Good night,” and proceeding straight on to his tent.
Everyone is shocked into silence, conscious of the pettiness of their
argument in light of their Master’s having served people without a break
all day.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The only one who knows what to do is
Mother Mary, who runs to his aid, washing his feet, his hands, and his
forehead. “What would I do without you, </span><span class="s2">Ima</span><a href="#fn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a><span class="s2">?” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Get some sleep,” she urges.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Okay. I’m so tired,” he agrees. He
kneels down in his tent and begins praying the evening prayers as his
disciples look on and the show silently goes to credits.</span></p>
<p class="ps6"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This episode is divisive among the
Chosen fan base—many dislike it because the arguing among the disciples
puts them off, and because it doesn’t depict a specific biblical
episode. By contrast, it’s probably my favorite episode of the series to
this point. It depicts the disciples with gritty reality, refusing to
sweep under the rug the normal conflicts that would have arisen from
bringing together people of such disparate backgrounds—especially
Matthew. There’s a reason why Jesus was especially faulted for
associating with tax collectors in particular. They were traitors,
collaborators with the imperial occupiers, betraying their own people
for money. The show had been so successful in portraying Matthew in a
sympathetic light that Simon’s aggression seemed over-the-top to many
viewers, and Dallas had to tell viewers himself on a livestream that Simon wasn’t
factually wrong.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">I love the episode as well because it
gives such an opportunity to flesh out the backstories of various
characters, getting a deeper insight into their conflicts and points of
view. It’s interesting to me that both Simon and Little James have
expressed concern that Jesus might change his mind about them. We see
the aggressiveness of James and John regarding the crowd, living up to
the “<a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/02/the-chosen-21-thunder.html">Sons of Thunder</a>” nickname they had been given by Jesus. We learn
more about what led Mary Magdalene down a self-destructive path when she
was young, and her wistful hope of being able to “catch up”—even as she
often expresses the most insight into what Jesus is all about and what
He is doing. Jesus’ mother Mary shows a heart of service and humility,
and expresses a nostalgic yearning for Jesus to need her as he once
did—a yearning that finds an unexpected opportunity at the end of the
episode.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We also see the disciples experiencing
difficulty in moving from their expectations of who they thought the
Messiah would be to their experiences of what Jesus is actually doing in
his ministry. Most of the men want to get on with fighting the Romans,
but Philip, who has followed John, has his doubts. Mary Magdelene has
fewer expectations and is more looking toward what Jesus is actually
doing. Andrew seems to have a form of “imposter syndrome,” feeling as
though he’s trying to emulate the heroes of the Jewish people’s past. “I
have to do something great, but I know I'm not great.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We also see the theme of guilt and
forgiveness woven through the episode, although without resolution.
Andrew feels guilty for wanting things he feels he shouldn’t, and then
says he’d feel too guilty ever to violate kosher dietary laws. Simon
responds that he feels guilty about everything: “Right after you were
born, you said sorry to Ima for causing her pain.” But then Simon begins
accusing the person he really considers to be guilty, and while Andrew
thinks Matthew should apologize, Simon waives aside even that solution.
For Simon, there is no forgiveness to be offered to someone so far
beyond the pale as Matthew, a stance he maintains even when challenged
by John.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The long, slow buildup toward the
climactic conflict is masterful. At first it’s very subtle: in
one conversation, several people are discussing their expectation that
Messiah will overthrow the Roman occupation; in a totally separate
conversation, Mother Mary notes Matthew’s fine clothing and wonders at
his occupation. Issues peculiar to Jewish life are brought up around the
campfire, as is what someone would do for unlimited money. The fact
that Matthew has had money in the past is pointed out, but is quickly
deflected; Thomas having had money is mentioned as well. The fact and
difficulty of the Roman occupation is discussed, wondering why God has
allowed it, but also expecting it to be alleviated since the Messiah is
here now. All this finally leads to Simon’s attack on Matthew, which
itself begins as mild needling although it transforms into a hostile
assault. All the ingredients have been swirling around throughout the
episode; only near the end do they combine and focus.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And then we have Jesus’ return to camp,
putting into perspective all the pettiness of the disciples’ arguments.
I’m sure that some viewers have questioned whether Jesus would be
physically tired out from doing divine healing, but we have in the
gospels many instances of Jesus withdrawing to solitary places in order
to escape the press of the crowds. I think his physical weariness, after
having met the needs of so many people from dawn past dusk, is
perfectly understandable, even if we assume that the healings themselves
didn’t actually expend any physical energy. Jesus’ worn-out return
shames everyone around the campfire; he neither upbraids them for their
behavior nor even betrays any awareness of what has been going on, but
none of them have a single word to say. The silence is powerful.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As much as I like this episode, there is
an element I do have to question. Jesus’ mother Mary quite casually
mentions “both” of Jesus’ fathers among a group of disciples, including
Matthew, whom she has just met. The assumption seems to be that the
virgin birth and the incarnation are fully understood and common
knowledge among all of Jesus’ followers at this point in his ministry.
It seems to me that such a developed understanding this early is
extremely unlikely, especially among a group of people still under the
impression that Jesus will be a military leader who will expel the Roman
overlords by force. With only two gospels mentioning Jesus’ birth at
all—with very different details—it’s much more likely that Mary
“treasured up all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51) much longer,
only revealing them much later. This is how “The Messengers”—the Chosen
2021 Christmas special—actually portrays it. Such a developed
understanding of Jesus’ origin this early in the game seems to undercut
the significance of the later declaration by Simon Peter that Jesus is
“the Christ, the son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), which Jesus
says that the Father had specially revealed to him. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">I wouldn’t make an issue of this except
for the fact that this “two fathers” motif surfaces on a number of
occasions throughout the series, and the overall impression I get is
that the writers want to make sure we know that they are affirming the
virgin birth. In a private conversation between Jesus and Mary, I
understand it, but such an offhand reference in a more public setting
seems out of place.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But this is a minor quibble. I have to
say again: I love this episode, as I would love a deep conversation with
dear friends around a campfire. After watching it, I feel that I know
the characters so much better. I feel their humanity, their expectations
and fears and hopes and flaws. And I share their shame when Jesus comes
on the scene and silently reminds us of what is really important. I
know that some people don’t really like the “extrabiblical” stuff. But I
know the Bible stories. The backstage insights that </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
offers, the fictional backstories that are all too relatable, are what
are really valuable to me. We know that Jesus chose disciples from
widely divergent backgrounds; we know that they argued over <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+9%3A33-34%3B+Luke+9%3A46%2C+22%3A24&version=ESV">who was the greatest.</a> Certainly the issues were different in such a different
culture, and yet, there is nothing new under the sun, and human nature
is what it is. Maybe we have more in common with the disciples than we
might have thought.</span></p>
<hr />
<p class="p2"><a>[1]</a> The actor, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1391406/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Jordan Walker Ross</a>, was born with cerebral palsy and scoliosis.</p>
<p class="p2"><a id="fn2"></a><a>[2]</a> Pronounced and often spelled “Eema,” but a better transliteration is “Ima.”</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-51931086786977760712024-02-11T06:00:00.005-05:002024-02-14T16:59:06.163-05:00The Chosen 2:2 – I Saw You<p><span class="s2"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420817/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Dallas Jenkins</a>, the creator of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen,</span></i><span class="s2"> often relates a story of how he directed </span><i><span class="s3"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4902904/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">The Resurrection of Gavin Stone</a>,</span></i><span class="s2">
which ended up being a box office flop. Formerly viewed as a promising
young director, Jenkins found himself out of favor in Hollywood and
wondering if he would have a future as a filmmaker at all. He describes
the experience as one of the lowest points of his life.</span></p><p><span class="s2"> </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="s2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmP7LyVr__AzgptC5uBarDo1Ffxjhu3OP5M9GOo8kRKNM-XEPL41nL6y8iAG7fcCDayOPhJHjuZk6Yw2MnxC_Dye_opMmAtb0uEe9mwOVbYWwqi639WacsvYkkAeEMcYfD9aX1bgRaA2w5brObnK8C5v1UTZkZ4pZWMJw7YfQ0KKrIfBeshajB/s740/I%20Saw%20You.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="740" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmP7LyVr__AzgptC5uBarDo1Ffxjhu3OP5M9GOo8kRKNM-XEPL41nL6y8iAG7fcCDayOPhJHjuZk6Yw2MnxC_Dye_opMmAtb0uEe9mwOVbYWwqi639WacsvYkkAeEMcYfD9aX1bgRaA2w5brObnK8C5v1UTZkZ4pZWMJw7YfQ0KKrIfBeshajB/s320/I%20Saw%20You.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="s2">He tells that story partly to explain how </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
was originally born like a phoenix out of the ashes of his earlier
aspirations, but also to explain how a lot of that experience went into
his portrayal of Nathanael, who, along with Philip, are two future
apostles introduced in this episode.</span><p></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As always, the imagined backstories of
these characters fleshes out what we see in the biblical text. The
essentials of the two disciples’ introduction to Jesus is found in John
1:43-51. But as readers of scripture, we’re left with a lot of detail to
fill in. Why does Philip seem to follow Jesus so readily? Why does
Jesus’ mere mention of Nathanael being under a fig tree bring forth such
a response of faith? These are questions that “I Saw You” explores.</span></p>
<span><a name='more'></a></span><p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode opens with Nathanael, whom
we’ve only seen in the previous episode’s flashforward cold open,
arguing with a foreman on a construction project. Nathanael, the
architect, is arguing for sea water to be used to set concrete properly;
the foreman, Leontes, (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1677807/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Brad Schmidt</a>) is arguing that it will take too
long and will be too expensive. Nathanael is blunt, asking if the
resistance is because he is Jewish and calling Leontes incompetent. Just
when Nathanael insists that if everyone would do things his way, it
would work out, the construction collapses with people under it.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“You’re ruined, do you hear me?” Leontes yells at Nathanael. “It’s over!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Later, Nathanael walks into a bar,
distraught. When the bartender (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5476009/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Noah Kershisnik</a>) asks if someone died,
Nathanael begins telling a story of an architect who wanted to build
majestic synagogues to the glory of God.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Still later, we see Nathanael walking in
the wilderness toward a large tree. He sits down, pulls his drawings
out of his pack, and lifts them up toward the heavens. He prays the
<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-shema">Shema,</a> and as he sets fire to the plans, he begins to quote <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+102&version=ESV">Psalm 102</a>:
“Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your
ear to me.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When there is no response, he cries out,
“Do you see me?” He tears his clothes and sprinkles a fist full of
ashes and dust on his head. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile, Thomas, Simon, James, and
John are all out gathering wood and see an unfamiliar, solitary person
in the distance. Suspicious of who it might be, they ask, “What do you
want?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“For the Romans to go away. For a pretty
wife someday. I ate a fattened goose once. I'd love that again,” is
what they hear from the traveler who turns out to be Philip (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4847770/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Yoshi Barrigas</a>), a disciple of John the Baptizer and friend of Andrew.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Philip meets other disciples of Jesus
back at their camp, and recognizes the tension between Matthew and
Simon. He takes Matthew back to where he had found damp wood, in order
to help him learn how to dry it. As they talk, Matthew reveals that he
had previously been a tax collector, and Philip doesn’t react
negatively, but when Matthew tells Philip that his father had disowned
him, Philip takes that in stride as well. Matthew is confused, so Philip
tries to explain: “Everybody in your old life is playing a different
game than you now…. Do you get it?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Finally, Matthew breaks in frustration.
“No! Everyone speaks in riddles.” He draws a circle in the dirt. “Here's
a circle. It represents everything in the world and all the people that
have ever been.” Then he stabs at a point well outside the circle. “And
that's me. That's how I feel.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Philip responds with compassion, and
later, while teaching Matthew how to strip bark from the damp wood, he
asks Matthew if it was difficult to leave his wealthy, comfortable life
behind. Matthew responds that it wasn’t, although it should have been,
and reveals that he feels unworthy of his calling. “I just don't know
what He sees in me. He's a religious teacher, and I know very little
about religion.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“From what I understand,” Philip
reassures him, “Jesus doesn't love everything about religion. Matthew,
what you think you know, it doesn't matter. Only that Jesus chose you.
That's where your confidence comes from now.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Back at the camp after nightfall, Philip
meets Jesus at the campfire. Jesus recognizes him by sight, having seen
Philip when he had been baptized by John. Each says he has a short
message for the other, which they deliver simultaneously:</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Follow me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“I will.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As they begin to talk, Jesus affirms that he and the disciples had come from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Samaria-historical-region-Palestine">Samaria</a> and were headed toward <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aram_(region)">Syria</a>. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“You and John are really cut from the
same cloth,” Philip says. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you each
have a death wish.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“I wouldn't exactly call it a wish,” Jesus responds, without elaborating further.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The next day, Philip lets Simon know
that Matthew prepped the wood to dry, and suggests that Simon should
thank him. Simon later finds Matthew talking with Thaddaeus and writing
in his book, and reacts. “That's not a good idea…. We have enemies.
There are people trying to trap Jesus in his words. They could twist
something he said to defame him.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“They will find it easier to twist
something he is reported to have said than if it's confirmed in
writing,” Matthew answers back. When Simon throws back in his face that
he once used that book to spy on Simon for the Romans, Matthew responds
with a line Philip had suggested. “People out there want to define all
of us by our pasts. But we do things differently because of him.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Still angry, but not knowing how else to
respond, Simon reasserts “It’s a bad idea,” and stalks off. He later
talks to Jesus privately while the group is on their journey to Syria,
and is surprised that Jesus knows and approves of Matthew writing down
what he does. Simon also tries to suggest a hierarchy of authority among
the disciples, with himself at the top. Jesus suggests that some sort
of structure would be necessary in the future, but for the present, he
cautions Simon to slow down and recognize that everyone in the group has
been chosen for a purpose and has important things to contribute.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Matthew, meanwhile, is approached by
Mary Magdalene and Ramah to copy some passages in <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-written-law-torah">Torah</a> that they could
study. Mary is planning to teaching Ramah to read, and both of them want
to study the scriptures so they can recite it as the men who went to
Torah school can. Matthew agrees, and also mentions that Philip and
Thaddaeus are kind to him. “I'm sorry they're the exception, Matthew,”
Mary says with concern.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">In <a href="https://www.bibleplaces.com/caesarea-philippi-banias/">Caesarea</a>, Philip comes to Nathanael’s
house. Worried when Nathanael doesn’t answer his call, Philip climbs in
through a window and asks Nathanael, in bed, whether he is sick. After
Nathanael explains what has happened, Philip tries to cheer him up. He
begins talking about Jesus. “He’s the one. Jesus of Nazareth, son of
Joseph.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nathanael starts laughing. “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Nazareth-Israel">Nazareth</a>?!
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” He describes it as a
negligible, poor, backwater town.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Just … come and see,” Philip urges. “I promise, you will not regret it. And if you do, I'll refund your misery.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When they find Jesus in town, he appears
to know Nathanael already, calling him “the truth teller.” He discusses
how Israel began with Jacob, a deceiver. “But one of the great thing
about you is you are a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nathanael protests. “How do you know me?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“I have known you long before Philip
called you to come and see…. When you were in your lowest moment, and
you were alone. I did not turn my face from you. I saw you under the fig
tree.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Knowing that Jesus had seen this
intensely private moment, Nathanael instantly believes and calls Jesus
the Son of God, king of Israel.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After Andrew and Simon interrupt to tell
Jesus that his fame is spreading and people are gathering to seek
healing, Jesus asks Nathanael, “You wanted to help build something that
would cause prayer and songs, something to bring souls closer to God,
yes? Can you start tomorrow?”</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Since the text of the Gospels is
intentionally focused almost exclusively on Jesus himself, many of the
disciples are barely names in the text. Apart from a few incidents in
the gospel of John, we know practically nothing about Philip, and even
less about Nathanael (most likely the same as the Bartholomew who
appears in the lists of apostles in the Synoptic Gospels and Acts).
Philip seems to have followed Jesus readily—at least there is no
incident related that elaborates on his calling. All we know is that he
was from <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bethsaida-2">Bethsaida</a>, where Andrew and Simon were also from, and that
Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptizer. By the time he reaches
out to Nathanael, he is describing Jesus as the one “whom Moses in the
Law and also the prophets wrote,” so clearly Jesus as a fulfillment of
the Hebrew scriptures is the way that he looked at Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
takes this bare-bones portrayal and crafts a character who stands out
from the others by having already been a long-time disciple of John.
Where the rest of the disciples are quite relatably human in their
clashes, rivalries, and shortsightedness, Philip seems on another plane,
like a hippie in the midst of working-class Joes. He has the leadership
capacity of Simon, but isn’t actively pursuing it as Simon is. He
recognizes Matthew as a fellow outsider and actively works to befriend
him. He’s neither appalled at Matthew’s having been a tax collector nor
condemning of Matthew’s father disowning him for it. He describes
ordinary people as “sleepers,” but tells Matthew, “we're different,
we're awake.” When Matthew gets frustrated by such esoteric talk, Philip
has the humility to recognize the problem and apologize: “I don't mean
to sound like an oracle here. It's a force of habit. Spend all your time
with a rogue preacher in the wilderness and you get to be a little
obtuse.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">With Philip, we get a glimpse into the
future, an idea of what the process of discipleship may do to the other
disciples. Philip is well accustomed to the hardships of nomadic life
that the other disciples are trying to get used to. He’s further along
in his understanding and more disconnected with the outside world. He’s
also more open to the circuitous path that the Messiah might take:
unlike James, John, and Simon, who want to plan out a strategy for
building a movement leading to independence from Rome, Philip knows that
the leader leads where he chooses and all the disciple can do is follow
and learn.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But even Philip can be surprised. When
he meets Jesus, he puts into the mouth of John the Baptizer his own
surprise that Jesus could call a Pharisee a friend. His experience with
John has prepared him for ways in which Jesus is similar to John, but it
actually puts him at a disadvantage in situations when Jesus will be
different from John. Nonetheless, Jesus acknowledges that Philip will be
“the most experienced of all my followers.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nathanael is yet another unique
character. Imagined as an architect who wanted to build great synagogues
to God’s glory (synagogues that are described like cathedrals; I wonder
if there ever were such grand synagogues at the time), Nathanael is
also blunt and stubborn. So much of his self-image is tied into his
advancing career that losing it feels like a death knell for him. He
doesn’t seem to have family or other interests; in his loss, he first
wanders alone into a bar and then out to a solitary tree in the middle
of nowhere.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">He sits, broken, under the tree, crying
out to a God who is all-too silent, offering his architectural plans to
that God and then burning them, pleading for the Lord not to hide his
face, to answer him speedily, but there is nothing. Anyone who has gone
through a deep loss can relate to this; all the more when what has been
lost was intended for good, to glorify God, in the first place. Surely
this is something God should have supported and rewarded! And yet it all
fell apart. And even the romantic pathos of it all has to come to an
end. Eventually there is nothing for Nathanael to do except to get up
and walk away.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As we are getting to know these two
characters, the ones we already know, and their relationships, are
developing. Simon, who protested Matthew being called as a disciple,
still feels resentful and is irritated at every practical inability that
illustrates Matthew’s privileged former life. Of course he doesn’t know
how to find dry wood! Why would he ever have needed to? And then, to
see Matthew writing Jesus’ words into the little book he had previously
used to spy for the Romans—it’s all too much. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But we also see Matthew, finally able to
share with someone the disconnection he feels with everyone else, the
unworthiness he feels as a disciple. In an odd way, he agrees with
Simon: he doesn’t belong, he has nothing useful to offer, and he has no
idea why Jesus called him. He desperately needs what Philip tells him:
that being chosen is enough, and what he thinks he knows or doesn’t know
has nothing to do with it.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Matthew mentions to Mary Magdalene and
Ramah that Philip and Thaddaeus are kind to him, and Mary is disquieted,
picking up on the implication that the others are not. The three of
them share a common handicap: that none of them had the benefit of being
schooled in the Hebrew scriptures, but Matthew can get scriptures from
Philip to copy down and share with Mary, who is going to teach Ramah to
read. We can see them banding together, willing to help one another,
working on overcoming their obstacles.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When Philip seeks out Nathanael, he has
no idea that Nathanael’s world has just caved in. He kindly and
patiently listens to Nathanael’s story before revealing why he came, but
we see his excitement as he tells Nathanael about Jesus. And Nathanael
proceeds to illustrate how, no matter how much we think we’ve been
humbled and come to the end of ourselves, we still bring ourselves along
for the ride in the aftermath. Low as he is, Nathanael scorns the idea
of the Messiah coming from Nazareth, calling it almost blasphemy. All
the jokes about Nazareth in the series have led to this moment (and been
inspired by <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1%3A43-51&version=ESV">this passage in John</a>): Nazareth is some miserable little
podunk town easily dismissed, like a modern slum or Appalachian hamlet.
No matter how low we are, there’s always someone else we can find to
scorn.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But Philip doesn’t bother challenging
the stereotype. He just answers, “Come and see,” gently pointing out
that Nathanael’s “telling it like it is” can be an excuse for being
mean, and that he really has nothing to lose. So Nathanael comes.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And Jesus meets him. As always, Jesus
knows exactly what each person needs. He begins by addressing the
positive side of Nathanael’s blunt honesty: that although descended from
a deceiver, in him there is no deceit. Jesus continues to address
Nathanael as someone who already knows him, and specifically citing the
incident under the fig tree.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And here we have a plausible reason for Nathanael’s astonishment in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+1%3A43-51&version=ESV">John 1</a>. In </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen’s</span></i><span class="s2">
retelling, Nathanael didn’t just happen to be sitting under a fig tree.
Jesus was calling out an incident so private and personal that no one
could have known about it without supernatural knowledge. When Jesus
says, “I did not turn my face from you,” he is calling back Nathanael’s
recitation of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+102&version=ESV">Psalm 102</a>: “Do not hide your face from me.” He echoes
Nathanael’s conversation with the bartender, reminding him, “I know you
like to be clear.” And then Jesus takes the very ambition that Nathanael
had, the one he had called “hubris” and thought had brought him to
ruin, and offers it back to Nathanael in a new form.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We’ve seen this same pattern in so many of the characters of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen,</span></i><span class="s2">
although perhaps not in quite so obvious a form. Mary Magdalene, Simon,
Photina, the paralytic, in some ways Matthew and Nicodemus. How many of
them had circumstances tear from them what they thought their life
would look like, only to have Jesus come in and offer it back to them in
some new form? Isn’t that often the way it is with us? Having to lose
everything before being able to change, and then finding it again, in a
new and different and better form?</span></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-34026858418088468122024-02-07T06:00:00.290-05:002024-02-09T18:38:18.626-05:00Reaction - The Chosen Season 4 Episodes 1-3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Last Sunday I got my chance to see <i>The Chosen</i> Season 4 Episodes 1-3. I want to give my reactions, but I’ll try to avoid any spoilers, so I’m going to restrict my comments to what can reasonably be inferred from the trailer, by anyone familiar with the Gospels. Nonetheless, if you really don’t want to be spoiled at all, you may want to stop reading at the break below.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sepQGPzT7Kw" width="320" youtube-src-id="sepQGPzT7Kw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>Aside—if you came here looking for another installment of my <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/search/label/The%20Chosen">review and analysis series</a>, I’m having to cut back my frequency on those. I’ll try to keep posting one a week, but two a week I can’t manage. If you are reading those, I very much appreciate it.</i></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, as everyone has been saying, Wow! The ending of episode three is as powerful as everyone is saying. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Beyond that, from the trailer we can see several things happening:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Significant and personal interactions between Jesus and Simon, and Jesus and Matthew, both by firelight, and Simon walking away from Matthew during the daylight</li><li>The disciples walking toward a brightly colored shrine at the base of a rocky cliff, as Jesus speaks of “dark places”<br /></li><li>An angry exchange between Jesus and Pharisees at the entrance of a synagogue, with a large crowd looking on<br /></li><li>An ornate party with a woman dancing as entertainment</li><li>A gathering of Pharisees being addressed authoritatively by an older man and Shmuel in attendance, looking distraught</li><li>Atticus warning Quintus to prevent revolution from breaking out in Capernaum, and Quintus angrily making his way through a crowd of people</li><li>Several quick shots of familiar faces such as Joanna, Gaius, Thomas, Ramah, and John the Baptizer, as well as others who are unfamiliar</li><li>A man telling the Pharisees, “I was blind; now I see.”</li></ul><p> So—first impressions:</p><p>The episodes were divided up—as in, you’ll see the opening credits three times—rather than being edited together as one movie, which is different from what we saw when Season Three opened in theaters. This made sense, as each episode was very self-contained, although I’ll admit I could have done without viewing the entire opening three times.</p><p>I don’t think you have to read too much into the trailer to recognize that the party with the woman dancing is Herod’s birthday party (Mark 6:21-26, Matthew 14:6-9). I thought it was an interesting take on Salome’s dance that she was not erotically enticing King Herod, as she is in <i><a href="https://youtu.be/b66NQbxGYV4?si=k7Cb8lUlfGx27UbH">King of Kings</a></i> or <a href="https://youtu.be/ovEVwUPf2bY?si=fChZag46rX6FvzI_"><i>Jesus of Nazareth</i></a>. Rather, the performance is symbolic and acrobatic, and Salome is modestly clothed in a loosely fitting bodysuit. This accords with the scripture's ascribing Herod’s motivation for complying with Salome’s request as “his oaths and his guests,” rather than simple drunken lust. The whole incident is handled with all the subtlety and complexity we have learned to expect from <i>The Chosen</i>. It is also very interesting and works very well that, as is hinted at in another clip that Dallas has released, what takes place at the party is the result of an intentional plot, not a spur-of-the-moment impulse.</p><p>The scenes between Jesus, Simon, and Matthew are significant, and bring to a head storylines that have been developing throughout the entire series. I want to say more, but can’t now. The sequence is very moving, though. Related to this is an increasing theme of conflict and awareness of status and position among the disciples which we see recurring in the gospels themselves (e.g., Mark 9:34; Matthew 20:21; Luke 9:46, 22:24).</p><p>Shmuel has certainly been affected by his prayer with Jesus; nonetheless, he is still a Pharisee on a trajectory toward prominence, as Nicodemus recognized back in Season One. One wonders exactly where that will all lead. As conflict with the Pharisees escalates, several characters’ attitudes toward Jesus will become polarized—it is becoming less possible to remain neutral or under cover regarding him.</p><p>The shrine at the base of the cliff figures prominently; earlier promotional videos have already identified this place as “the gates of hell,” a phrase Jesus employs in Matthew 16:18. Is this connected? I really shouldn’t say.... What I will say is that there is a very interesting juxtaposition of scenes involving the gates of hell and the gathering of prominent Pharisees. Very interesting indeed.<br /></p><p>A scene between Simon Z and Judas foreshadows some developments to come. Actually, I found it a little overly obvious in its foreshadowing and its symbolism, but it does begin to explain some motivations for events to come. Speaking of Simon Z, there’s a good joke that comes in involving his name.</p><p>As the trailer implies, we do see the healing of the man born blind from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%209&version=ESV">John chapter 9</a>. The incident contributes to a lot of other things building up in the episode.<br /></p><p>Although the first two episodes were each powerful in their own way, I also felt that they were a little overly involved in wrapping up loose ends from the previous season. (I felt that way about the first couple of episodes in Season Three as well, but it wasn’t a problem when I saw how the whole season developed.) It’s the third episode, I think, that really begins to cast forward the plot lines that will propel the rest of the season. Significant things happen involving heretofore major and minor characters.</p><p>And the ending that everyone is talking about—or, as here, trying very hard not to talk about. It is as heartbreaking as everyone is saying. I will say this: I was not as surprised as some might have been by it. When something like this happens in a different show, one that is entirely fictional, it is often because external events have forced the writers to go in a certain direction. One might imagine the same thing here, but I think that that is emphatically <i>not</i> the case. I think what happened was planned all the way back in Season Two, and is a necessary part of a particular character’s development.</p><p>I can’t say more. If you know, you know.</p><p>I highly recommend checking these episodes out in theaters if at all possible, not only because viewing them on the big screen is a wonderful, immersive experience, but because it helps to fund future seasons. You can find out where <i>The Chosen</i> is showing in theaters <a href="https://www.thechosenriseup.com/">here</a>. You can directly contribute to funding future seasons at the <a href="https://www.comeandseefoundation.org">Come and See Foundation</a>.<br /></p></div><p></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-69610428564689017962024-02-04T06:00:00.009-05:002024-02-04T06:00:00.150-05:00The Chosen 2:1 – Thunder<p class="ps4"><i><span class="s2">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s3">
Season One <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-18-i-am-he.html">ended</a> with Jesus having gathered several disciples and
publicly revealing himself as Messiah to Photina, the woman at the well,
with clear direction that she should tell others about him. Season Two
will largely be occupied by Jesus gathering the rest of the Twelve, whom
he will call his <a href="https://www.theopedia.com/apostle">Apostles</a>, as well as building up to the climactic
point of delivering his Sermon on the Mount.</span></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s3"> </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="s3"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSfsewgVMQNrWLMs-hyulH8YvWahdEbJpjU9Uev2rQCMD3-0wq5nAVZ-D8raoXeA_Jr9tml3PSIfSgBWOiy2ILL6qGE1xUiOytxgqtS3rro_KtrnUsdYxtdEjv_-b5oqNp_bU4Iu2WB8PLaClcRfNlibq_NkwwvpKbMdftBs-wRxV0iduOOHg/s2028/Sons%20of%20Thunder.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1007" data-original-width="2028" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqSfsewgVMQNrWLMs-hyulH8YvWahdEbJpjU9Uev2rQCMD3-0wq5nAVZ-D8raoXeA_Jr9tml3PSIfSgBWOiy2ILL6qGE1xUiOytxgqtS3rro_KtrnUsdYxtdEjv_-b5oqNp_bU4Iu2WB8PLaClcRfNlibq_NkwwvpKbMdftBs-wRxV0iduOOHg/s320/Sons%20of%20Thunder.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="s3">The first episode of the season,
“Thunder,” does not telegraph all of this, though. We see the aftermath
of Jesus meeting with Photina and his ministry in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samaritan">Samaritan</a> town of
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Sychar">Sychar</a>. It quickly becomes clear that Jesus will not conduct his
ministry in a manner that any of his current disciples expect. The
process of discipleship does not merely involve gaining new information,
but learning a new way of looking at things entirely, and it’s not
always easy.</span><p></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s3"> </span></p>
<span><a name='more'></a></span>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">One of the aspects of a great series is
that it doesn’t let itself fall into familiar ruts, but rather finds
ways to explore new territory. Many of the episodes in Season One opened
with scenes from the past: sometimes a past event in the life of a
significant character, but more often a scene from Israel’s history that
helps elucidate the action in the narrative present of the show—at this
point, AD 26, the first year of Jesus’ ministry.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">This episode begins differently, with a
scene from the future. The disciples, noticeably older, are being
interviewed regarding when and how they met Jesus. We see most of the
ones we’ve already met, sharing stories that were portrayed or discussed
in the previous season. Little James says that he misses Jesus, so we
can tell that it is a significant period of time after the Crucifixion.
An unfamiliar face whom we will eventually discover is Nathanael (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5838022/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Austin Reed Alleman</a>) says that Philip (whom we have not yet met) “just said
‘Come and see,’ and I did.” Mary Magdelene says that she met Jesus in a
tavern. “He set His hand on mine. Which isn't what it sounds like. Maybe
leave that part out, people will get confused”—a clear allusion to
theories such as those popularized in <a href="https://danbrown.com/the-davinci-code/">The Da Vinci Code</a>.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">The series of interviews ends with Mary,
the mother of Jesus, who says, “I can hardly remember a time when I
didn’t know him.” It becomes clear that the one conducting the
interviews is John, the son of Zebedee, and that the occasion for all
the disciples being in one place is the martyrdom of his brother James
(Acts 12:1-3). There is a storm outside, and we hear a crack of thunder.
John says, “I can’t believe how much he put up with.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">There is a reason that this episode is entitled, “Thunder.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">After the opening credits, we see Big
James (now played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5201551/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Abe Martell</a>) and his brother John plowing a field
by their own labor, without the benefit of farm animals. They’ve been
charged with doing this by Jesus without being told whom it is for, and
while the work is difficult, they both are happy to have a reason to
avoid dealing with Samaritans.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">The rest of the disciples are already in
Sychar, discussing how to reach the people, and when Andrew looks for
Jesus, Jesus is gone. They go to look for him, and the populace is very
interested and helpful—some have heard him teach, and some have heard
Photina tell them about him—but no one has seen him. Matthew was left
behind in case Jesus returned, so he is the one to greet Thomas, who has
traveled with Ramah and her father Kafni (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10989561/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Hassan Johan Nazari-Robati</a>)
to meet Jesus there. After a bit of awkwardness, since Matthew hadn’t
met any of them, Mary Magdalene arrives and smooths the situation out.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">While everyone was looking for him, it
turns out that Jesus was fixing the axle of a wagon for one of the
townspeople, who suggests that Jesus could stay and set up a shop. Jesus
wistfully mulls over the suggestion, but the next time we see him, he
is in a town square, teaching the people the parable of the lost sheep
(Matthew 18:12–14; Luke 15:3–7), and Photina’s husband Neriah is
listening from an overlooking balcony.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">When Jesus does come back to where they
are staying, he meets Kafni, who has made it clear to Thomas and Ramah
that he thinks that the two of them abandoning their careers to follow
Jesus is foolishness. He’s worried about Ramah, thinking she will end up
in poverty. He has no immediate opportunity to address his concerns
with Jesus, though, because Jesus notes that it’s late, both of them are
tired, and promises to talk in the morning.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">However, in the morning, we see the
disciples out in the marketplace, on an errand to buy food to host a
banquet. James and John have been entrusted with the plans, and the
others resent having to take instructions from them. Jesus also seems to
be missing, and Kafni’s irritation almost reaches the breaking point
when Jesus returns, and they walk outside to talk privately.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Kafni expresses appreciation for what
Jesus did for Thomas and Ramah. He’s not quite willing to accept that a
miracle took place, but does acknowledge that Jesus “kept the reputation
of my business, and of my daughter and Thomas, from suffering.” Because
he feels indebted to Jesus in this way, he is allowing Ramah to follow
Jesus, against his wishes. When Jesus thanks him for his honesty, he
tearfully replies, “I cannot give you my belief or my devotion, so I'm
afraid my honesty is all I have left to give, after giving up my
daughter.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Kafni speaks with Thomas before
beginning his journey home. “This is foolishness,” he says, “and I won't
pretend it isn't. I will see you next when you ask for my daughter's
hand.” Thomas tries to deny such intentions, but Kafni cuts him off,
making clear that he is not sure he is willing to allow Thomas to marry
Ramah.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Near evening, Jesus and his disciples
look over the field that James and John had plowed and planted. They
approach a solitary house and meet the owner, Melech (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3111083/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Nikhil Prakash</a>), a
lame man hobbling on a crutch, who had seen his field earlier. He is
suspicious, wondering what Jesus wants from him in return. “I don't have
any money. I can't make a donation to your ministry. Can't even feed my
family.” Jesus responds that that’s what they are there for: to bring
food and share a meal with his family.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">As they eat over a fire, Jesus begins
pressing Melech regarding the source of his injury. Finally, Melech
tells him: pressed by need in a drought, he and a friend waylaid a
traveling Jew, beating him and stealing everything he had. Melech had
fallen off of the man’s horse while trying to bring it to a Roman
outpost where he thought he could sell it. “So, now you know what you've
done. The kind of man you've helped.... I could be a murderer.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Jesus reassures Melech, “He didn't die.
Somebody came along and helped him.” Asked why Jesus would leave the
adulation of the crowds in town to come to him, Jesus responds that “the
shepherd leaves the 99 on the mountain to search for the one that went
astray.” Melech still can’t believe that Jesus would come to restore a
person like him, but Simon pipes up and responds, “He would.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Back in town, Jesus and the disciples
accept an invitation to stay in the home of Neriah and Photina, who seem
to be reconciled. Neriah tells Jesus, “You have certainly livened
things up around here. You have me in a good mood just to fit in.” When
he warns them that one of the rooms is haunted, Jesus eagerly responds,
“Ooooh, I'll take that one.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">In the morning, Melech wakes up and
finds that his leg has been healed. Jesus wakes up with a knowing smile
and lets James and John know what has happened. “You don't even have to
be there to perform miracles!” John says. Jesus responds that one day,
they will be given authority to do the same things, or even greater.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">After having breakfast with the
disciples, Jesus goes out for a walk, waiving aside concerns for his
protection. The disciples begin arguing over what to do next, James and
John having made a detailed plan for Jesus’ ministry. They vote on
whether to adopt the plan, but some abstain. “It doesn't matter what I
think he should do, or what you think,” Mary observes.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Although outvoted, James and John go out
looking for Jesus to try to sell him on the plan, but almost
immediately after having found him, they are insulted and spit upon by a
group of Samaritans, and Jesus has to physically restrain them from
retaliating. They are incensed that Jesus would not allow them to defend
his honor, and want to command fire to come down and incinerate the
Samaritans. “We shouldn't have come here in the first place. They don't
deserve you!” they insist. Jesus has to rebuke them harshly, telling
them that the message they are bringing is the real and lasting work
they are to do here. “And you're going to get in the way of that,
because a few people, from a region you don't like, were mean to you?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Crestfallen, James and John apologize,
and Jesus reassures them, needling them playfully. “You two are like a
storm on the sea…. Thunder exploding out of your chests, at every turn….
That's what I'm going to call you from now on—James and John, the Sons
of Thunder.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">At this point, the rest of the disciples
catch up with Jesus, James, and John, along with the priest of the
local synagogue (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2140412/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk">Luiz Laffey</a>) who invites Jesus to give a reading of the
scriptures. Jesus accepts, and when asked to choose from among the five
books of Moses, Jesus asks for John to be brought in. He asks John what
passage he should choose, ribbing him one more time by suggesting
familiar stories of wrath and judgment. John, repentant, suggests the
story of creation. “I like that,” Jesus responds. “And it is a favorite
memory.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">As Jesus begins to read the words of
Genesis to the assembled congregation (which includes both Melech and
Neriah), the scene cuts back and forth from that scene to the one many
years later, where the older John pens the introduction to his gospel,
in clear homage to the creation narrative. He looks out the window, into
the storm, and thoughtfully remembers.</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">This episode is woven together like a
tapestry; all of its aspects intertwine and inform one another. If one
were to choose a foundational theme, it would be that Jesus’ agenda is
not at all the same as that of his disciples. If they had had their way,
they wouldn’t even be here in Samaria, among people they despise and
who despise them in return. The disciples want to follow a conventional
path: make connections with wealthy and important people; make contact
and form coalitions with various groups; raise Jesus’ prestige and
status, grow his following geometrically, become a force to be reckoned
with in the power politics of the time. It is not far different from the
methods and tactics of most influential movements.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Jesus is far different, not only in
terms of the groups he is reaching out to, but even in his methods and
daily practices. To the consternation of his disciples, he can suddenly
be gone for hours at a time, seemingly unproductive and at risk of
physical harm. He tacitly resists everyone’s attempts to impose a plan
on him without asserting an alternative plan of his own. Even when
reaching out to those deemed unworthy by Jewish standards, he walks away
from the success he is enjoying to reach out to a small, solitary
family and a man smitten with guilt and shame.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">The central event of the episode is the
night meeting with Melech, who shares the story of the Good Samaritan
from the robbers’ point of view. As viewers, we are invited to empathize
with a character in the story whom we might ordinarily dismiss as a
stock Bad Guy. He indicates the poverty that drove him to commit
robbery, but doesn’t avoid responsibility on that account. He is haunted
by the thought that he might be a murderer, and more than his field
being plowed and planted or enjoying an unexpected dinner with guests,
he is moved by the reassurance that the man did not die, that he had
been helped.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">I must admit: I had a different response
to this scene when I first saw it than that of most people I’ve seen
discuss it online. Maybe it’s because I’ve thought of the Good Samaritan
as a parable, rather than something that really happened, but I’m not
sure how quickly in the scene I recognized that that was what was being
described. And when Jesus reassured Melech that the man had been rescued
and had not died, I did not simply assume that somehow Jesus knew this
because he is divine and knows everything. It seemed to me that Jesus
was the man himself—that at some point prior to his public ministry, he
had been waylaid by robbers, helped by a Samaritan man, and then went
back to bless his own attacker and to reassure him that he had not died
from the robbery.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">Now, I am probably wrong here. It’s
likely not what the writers intended. But there is something attractive
to me about looking at the story in this way. Because as C. S. Lewis
points out, the truly remarkable thing about Jesus’ ministry is that he
claimed to forgive sins—not sins committed specifically against him, but
all sins. “<a href="https://jeffersonvillepresbyterian.org/liar-lunatic-son-god/">He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences.</a>” And so whether
he was actually the man who had been robbed or not, it seems to me that
his mercy on that man is as great as if he really had been.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">And so when we see the radical nature of
Jesus’ forgiveness as portrayed in this episode, the rest of the plot
lines fall into place. Jesus will receive Ramah as a disciple, even if
her father doesn’t understand, and yet he will also treat Kafni with
respect and gentleness: “I ask a lot of those who follow Me, but I ask
little of those who do not.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">He will respond to insults and abuse
without retaliation, in a way that James and John cannot understand in
the honor-shame society they live in, and he will challenge his own
disciples on their prejudice and judgmentalism. Casual prejudice of the
Jews against the Samaritans is portrayed as typical, rooted in objective
historical grievances, and especially strong in James and John, but the
tenor of the whole episode rebukes that prejudice. Ideas of worthiness,
on either an individual or a group level, go out the window in the
light of radical forgiveness. At one point, Jesus unloads on the
brothers: “You're so much better? You're more worthy? Well, let me tell
you something, you're not. That's the whole point! It's why I'm here.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">And this is why, even in little things,
Jesus is unpredictable. Mary gets it, understanding that the plans of
the disciples are irrelevant to the will of the Master. So does
Thaddaeus. When John shouts, “I'm not okay arguing about where we're
going every day,” he simply responds, “So don't argue.” But most of the
disciples, without meaning to, are trying to exert their own will on the
one they are supposed to be following and learning from. Jesus,
meanwhile, gets his instructions from his daily time spent alone with
the Father and doesn’t worry much about anyone else’s agenda.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s3">And this is what the flash-forward
portrays in the lives of the older disciples. They’ve not just aged,
they’ve matured. They still are who they are—Matthew is meticulous;
Simon calls the Baptizer, “Creepy John.” But they have been changed by
the influence of spending time with Jesus. This is particularly true of
John, preparing to write his gospel, thinking back to his thunderous
younger self, and recognizing that the Light that came into the world
had been there from the Beginning.</span></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-73017904972172271222024-01-31T06:00:00.002-05:002024-01-31T21:17:05.697-05:00The Chosen 1:8 – I Am He<p><span class="s2"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="s2">The second half of Season One portrays
Jesus beginning his public ministry. From the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-15-wedding-gift.html">wedding in Cana</a>, where
Jesus’ mother has to talk him into doing a “public miracle” (at least,
one that is sure to become public), to the very public <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-16-indescribable-compassion.html">healing of the paralytic</a>, to the open <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-17-invitations.html">invitation of Matthew</a> to become a disciple, and
the private, but potentially explosive, <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-17-invitations.html">invitation of Nicodemus</a>, Jesus
has been progressively revealing his ministry to the world. Still, as
far as anyone on the outside knows, he is merely a traveling rabbi, one
who works miracles, perhaps even a prophet. There are, of course,
disciples of John the Baptizer like Andrew who heard John proclaim Jesus
as the “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” and Jesus
has tacitly affirmed to his disciples that he is the Messiah, but he has
not yet publicly revealed himself as such. He is inching ever closer,
however, and as he does, his disciples are both excited and
worried—excited because it’s through this public ministry that they
expect all their hopes to be realized, but worried because it comes with
opposition and potential danger from both the Jewish religious leaders
and the Roman authorities.</span><p></p>
<p class="ps4"></p><div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvndL9OGIim7mkekADYjuOqFmfzFAy69W1e5Of9INvbQ2cLNJzPT9f3r3uoCkr_dhmmDRLPocprFAI5HxmvzjfNO621uRDcIvIhjUruzPRyk_FmOnJVVzePC4puNMW9UhycWYQjGKXVowCX6Idwk-Rvj-UiWO0WnZTKf3Ufb7t8vfCmveuMWX/s1386/Photina.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="707" data-original-width="1386" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvndL9OGIim7mkekADYjuOqFmfzFAy69W1e5Of9INvbQ2cLNJzPT9f3r3uoCkr_dhmmDRLPocprFAI5HxmvzjfNO621uRDcIvIhjUruzPRyk_FmOnJVVzePC4puNMW9UhycWYQjGKXVowCX6Idwk-Rvj-UiWO0WnZTKf3Ufb7t8vfCmveuMWX/s320/Photina.webp" width="320" /></a></div><span class="s2">This episode marks the point at which
Jesus clearly reveals himself as the Messiah, and invites the person
he’s speaking with to tell others. As we might expect by this point, the
person he reveals himself to seems an unlikely candidate in a number of
ways. Jesus continues to subvert ordinary notions of status and
worthiness. And as </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
so frequently does, we are presented with a fully fleshed-out picture
of what the life of the “woman at the well” may have been like, why she
may have been so reluctant to receive Jesus’ message, and why she was so
overjoyed when she finally did receive it.<span></span></span><p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We are introduced to the woman (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6369495/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Vanessa DeSilvio</a>) here named “Photina,” according to early church tradition,
filling up water jars at Jacob’s well, alone in the hot midday sun. The
well itself we saw being dug two millenia prior in the opening of the
episode, a scene in which Jacob (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3266685/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Amato D'Apolito</a>) tells his Canaanite
visitor Yassib (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0530771/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Adetokumboh M'Cormack</a>) that his family did not choose
their god, but rather, “He chose us.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Photina brings the water back, and then
enters a home of an old, sick, embittered man named Neriah (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2087049/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Maz Siam</a>).
We quickly learn that Photina is married to Neriah but not living with
him, and while he suggests the possibility of her coming back to live
with him, she has instead brought him a <a href="https://www.betyosseflasvegas.org/jewish-divorce-get/">bill of divorcement</a>, made out in
his name and requiring only his signature, asking him to release her.
He refuses to do so, however, and throws the bill into the fire. “You’re
my property, Photina, and I don't part lightly with my possessions.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Later, Photina tries to buy food in the
marketplace, and a merchant rebuffs her, saying, “We don't serve your
kind here.” She’s shunned by everyone, which is why she can’t go to the
well with the other women in the morning.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">In Matthew’s house, we see the disciples
at a banquet, along with Mary’s old friends Barnaby, Shula, and Rivka
(<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3866116/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Nene Nwoko</a>). As they chat happily, Yussif and another Pharisee come to
the door but refuse to enter, asking, “Why does your master eat with tax
collectors and sinners?” The Pharisees’ conception of righteousness
consists in separation from things and people whom they consider sinful,
and so they cannot understand a rabbi, let alone a prophet, who freely
mixes with that class of people. When Jesus answers, “It's not the
healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Mark 2;17 and parallels),
Yussif completely misses the point and insists that Jesus’ companions
are so wicked that he cannot even speak what they have done.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At this point, Gaius appears, asks if
there is a problem, and intimidates the Pharisees into leaving. He
speaks for a moment with Matthew, and in contrast with the Pharisees,
regards everyone there </span><i><span class="s3">other than</span></i><span class="s2">
the tax collectors as the “dregs of Capernaum.” While he doesn’t want
to say so, Gaius is grateful to Matthew for having created the
circumstances for his promotion, and Matthew asks a favor of him in
return.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We don’t see the request, but Gaius
later goes to visit Matthew’s parents, tells them that Matthew has left
tax collecting to follow Jesus, and gives them the key to Matthew’s
house. While Gaius is bewildered at Matthew’s choice, his parents are
overjoyed, and although Gaius cannot admit that he has any affection for
Matthew, he does warn Matthew’s parents to contact him personally if
they received any word of his whereabouts, implying that he would try to
protect Matthew in the event of an official Roman inquiry about Jesus.
“I know some people that were mildly fond of your son,” he adds.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Later, Jesus comes to Simon’s house,
greeting Eden and telling her that he recognizes the sacrifices she will
be making as the wife of one of his disciples. “You have a role to play
in all of this,” he says. “I see you.” He then enters the room where
Eden’s mother Dasha (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0535714/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Leticia Magaña</a>) is lying deathly ill. Jesus sits
down next to her, takes her by the hand, and says, “Leave her.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Suddenly Dasha bolts upright in bed,
looks at Jesus, and says, “Who are you?” Upon finding that she has a
guest in her house, she jumps out of bed, saying, “No one move. I'll be
right back with some drinks.” (see Mark 1:31 and Matthew 8:15 if this
seems unrealistic.)</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile, Nicodemus and his wife are
discussing a farewell banquet they are about to attend before leaving
Capernaum for Jerusalem. Zohara expresses great pride in him, and tries
to focus his attention and sense of loyalty to his home and family. She
is eager to get back to her prestigious life, but Nicodemus is torn.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Later, in the synagogue, Nicodemus says
goodbye to the rabbis who had greeted him with such warmth and honor
when he arrived in the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">first episode</a>. Shmuel’s conversation with
Nicodemus descends from deferential pleasantries to accusations that
Nicodemus had tacitly endorsed Jesus’ claim to be God. They part as
antagonists, Nicodemus telling Shmuel, “You have learned nothing from
me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As the disciples prepare to leave for
their trip and meet with Jesus at a well on the outskirts of town,
Nicodemus watches from a distance, looking around the corner of a
building. Although all the disciples are there, Jesus pointedly calls
out, “Is there anyone else?” and Simon finds a bag of gold coins on the
ground. “A friend of mine left that for us,” Jesus says sadly. “You came
so close.” As the group leaves, we see Nicodemus around the corner,
weeping with agonized sobs.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">On the trip, the group of disciples are
surprised when Jesus insists on going through <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Samaria-historical-region-Palestine">Samaria</a> rather than taking
the longer but safer route through the <a href="https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5035-decapolis-the">Decapolis</a> on the other side of
the Jordan River. When they get to the field where Jacob’s well is,
Jesus sends them all to town to get food while he sits at the well,
waiting for Photina to come.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The conversation between Jesus and
Photina unfolds essentially as it does in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+4&version=ESV">fourth chapter of John</a>,
but with additions to the dialogue which make the conversation flow more
naturally. Photina is sullen, resentful, and irritated at this strange
man who, calmly and without being offended, keeps probing her about her
situation. When she recognizes Jesus to be a prophet, she lashes out,
assuming he is there to preach at her and condemn her.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But he does not condemn her, and as he tells her that the </span><i><span class="s3">place</span></i><span class="s2">
of worship will soon be irrelevant—it will only matter that God is
worshiped in spirit and in truth—we can see that Photina wants to
believe, but it seems too good to be true. She is holding out for “when
Messiah comes and sorts this mess out, including me.” Jesus tells her
straight out that he is the Messiah she is looking for, but she ignores
this claim, taking her water jars and beginning to leave.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">She is halted in her tracks, though,
when Jesus begins listing off the names of her husbands and the
circumstances of her failing marriages. “Why are you doing this?” she
cries.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">He responds, “I have not revealed myself to the public as the Messiah. You are the first. It would be good if you believed me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So it turns out that Jesus was there
specifically to meet her, for the very purpose of revealing himself as
Messiah to her, so that she will tell others. She doubts herself as an
emissary: “I am rejected by others,” but Jesus reaffirms, “I know, but
not by the Messiah.” Finally she melts, and with joy she runs off
without her water jugs, telling Jesus’ disciples as they return, “This
man told me everything I've done! Oh, he must be the <a href="https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-does-christ-mean">Christ</a>!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Simon realizes with excitement that
Jesus has revealed himself to her and allowed her to tell others,
meaning that he’s finally set to begin his public ministry, and as the
disciples begin to walk toward the city, the song “<a href="https://youtu.be/NbwcMcpy9Bk?si=QEex5rVBzjdonUnt">Trouble</a>” begins
playing and closes out the episode and the season.</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This final episode of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
Season One wraps up the beginning phase of Jesus’ ministry, as he
chooses his first disciples and begins to reveal publicly who he is and
why he has come, and also indicates the direction of the next phase. Of
the four main plotlines we started with—Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Simon
and Andrew, and Matthew—all but that of Nicodemus have come to
resolution. Mary has been <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">delivered from her demons</a> and is following
Jesus, and Simon and Andrew have been <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html">relieved of their tax debt</a> and are
following Jesus as well. Matthew, after having seen miracles and
questioning the direction of his life, <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-17-invitations.html">responded immediately to Jesus’ call</a> to become a disciple, and so is now following Jesus as well. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The one person whose response we hadn’t
yet seen was Nicodemus. Up to now, Nicodemus has been exploring, trying
to understand what had happened to Mary. In his <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-17-invitations.html">night meeting with Jesus</a>, he welcomed Jesus’ message, and in falling to his knees and
quoting “kiss the Son” from <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+2&version=ESV">Psalm 2</a>, he implied recognition that Jesus
was the Son of God. But when invited to follow Jesus, he faltered. With
this episode, we see confirmed what is evident in the gospels: that
Nicodemus did not become an overt follower of Jesus after his meeting in
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+3&version=ESV">John 3</a>. In one of the most memorable images of the series, Nicodemus
sobs in gut-wrenching agony as Jesus calls out, “Is there anyone else?”
and then sadly leaves with the group. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0042805/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Erick Avari</a>’s portrayal of the
conflict within Nicodemus is unutterably moving.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The way this conflict is played out has
caused controversy along theological lines: some have argued that in the
Gospels, every person whom Jesus called to follow him did in fact do so
(which is true) and that portraying Jesus as inviting someone who
rejects the invitation undermines the <a href="https://heidelbergseminary.org/2019/11/the-doctrine-of-irresistible-grace-5-scriptural-proofs/">doctrine of irresistible grace</a>.
But that position overinterprets the plot line, and illustrates the
problem with trying to make a dramatic portrayal check every theological
box. Jesus’ call to follow is a call to present-day discipleship, not
ultimate salvation—in the next season, Jesus will also call Judas
Iscariot—and Nicodemus’ very anguish in failing to follow Jesus in the
short term foreshadows scriptural indications that Nicodemus will, in
fact, become a true believer over time (John 7:50, 19:39). When Jesus
mournfully intones, “You came so close,” he is not necessarily
suggesting that he tried to save Nicodemus but Nicodemus wouldn’t
respond (</span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23%3A37%3B+Luke+13%3A34&version=ESV" target="_blank"><span class="s4">although the biblical Jesus is quite capable of saying something very similar</span></a><span class="s2">). Nicodemus’s present state—agonized but
unwilling to act—does not necessarily reflect his future condition.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">With the first set of storylines thus
resolved, “I Am He” shows Jesus finally proclaiming himself openly as
Messiah, but in unexpected fashion. This public proclamation happens
when Jesus is alone with one other person, whom no one would have
imagined to be a suitable herald of the Messiah, least of all herself.
Photina checks all the boxes of someone </span><i><span class="s3">unsuitable</span></i><span class="s2">
for witness: a woman, a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samaritan">Samaritan</a>, bearing a checkered past, despised
by all. She can’t go to the well in the morning with the other women;
merchants in the marketplace—hardly the spiritually elite of the
community!—will not even look at her.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As is often the case, </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen’s</span></i><span class="s2">
representation of dialogue is completely accurate to the feel of the
biblical story, unlike so many portrayals that are stilted, unnatural,
and ultimately superficial. <span class="Scrivener-converted-space"> </span>Photina
is jaded and sarcastic. She just wants to go to the well in peace and
to be left alone. At the pivotal moment, where Jesus tells her that she
has had five husbands and is now living with a man who is not her
husband, the line, “I perceive that you are a prophet,” is frequently
played straight—the woman believes Jesus is a prophet and is inspired to
start a theological discussion with him about where worship should take
place. My intermediate Greek professor suggested that, to the contrary,
the biblical dialogue is full of irony—“Oh, so you’ve heard about me
around town, eh, </span><i><span class="s3">prophet?</span></i><span class="s2">” </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
wisely stakes out an ambiguous middle reading: Photina lets out an
unnerved laugh and then launches into a tirade about holy men whose
condemnation has prevented her from changing her life. Hardened people
don’t turn on a dime, and </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen’s</span></i><span class="s2"> writing reflects that.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">What does arrest Photina is Jesus
beginning to list off her husbands by name and describe their
characteristics. These lines are extrabiblical, but they do make sense
of the woman’s later claim that the man had told her everything she ever
did (John 4:29), which, in the biblical narrative, he actually hadn’t.
This is an important point to understand in biblical interpretation:
quotation marks didn’t exist in ancient Greek, and neither did the
expectation of word-for-word precision in recounting a conversation.
Real people talk in incomplete and not-perfectly-grammatical sentences,
interrupt one another, and recapitulate their own and other people’s
points. In the Biblical accounts we have </span><i><span class="s3">summaries</span></i><span class="s2">
of conversations, not word for word transcripts, which is why everyone
seems to speak in formal paragraphs. Although recognizing this fact may
threaten some people’s rigid idea of <a href="https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/what-does-inerrancy-mean/">inerrancy</a>, it’s the only way to
reconcile different gospel accounts: compare, for example, Matthew
19:3-9 with Mark 10:2-9, noting particularly who says what and in what
order.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So Jesus lists off Photina’s husbands,
and more to the point, her private feelings about her former husbands.
This was not information he could have obtained through gossip. And even
then, Photina resists. We feel her conflict, but it’s different that
what was experienced by Nicodemus. In his case, he was convinced that
Jesus was really the Messiah, but his status and obligations kept him
from following through, whereas Photina has nothing to lose but her
shame and sense of unworthiness. The man who has spent his life studying
scripture and pursuing righteousness fails to follow, while the woman
who has spent a lifetime trying to escape judgment and condemnation ends
up leaping, laughing, and proclaiming Jesus as the Christ.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so Jesus’ choice of Photina ends up
not so puzzling after all. She is largely immune from the fear of
rejection that most of us experience. She is emblematic of the kind of
person Jesus is trying to reach; as he had told Yussif at Matthew’s
house, “It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick… I have not
come to call the righteous, but sinners.” She can testify by both words
and demeanor, as Mary Magdalene also could, of Jesus’ transforming
power.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so we wrap up Season One and point
the direction for Season Two: more public ministry, more conflict, more
calling of disciples, more radical transformations. Too bad the fans had
to wait for another year and a half to see more.</span></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-27698655945851489652024-01-28T06:00:00.001-05:002024-01-28T06:00:00.235-05:00The Chosen 1:7 – Invitations<p><span class="s2"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="s2">As the first season of </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2"><span class="s2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-QKsYW2oHQs1U2aj1qoZx0X3WrPdmyI8l4HpIL2_ByQef9NAE-lIEsgI1-dm-byNeXbaltOOlGgspIljInOFWg7vebp1D_1BDF7QIlE1OHa-m_KKye-CucurTdl6ieqg6BDrtO3b6jC8ekrO77B_4DiICG5TLFF_p8Q8eMQ35IHkE81o6XMFn/s1277/Jesus%20and%20Nicodemus.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1277" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-QKsYW2oHQs1U2aj1qoZx0X3WrPdmyI8l4HpIL2_ByQef9NAE-lIEsgI1-dm-byNeXbaltOOlGgspIljInOFWg7vebp1D_1BDF7QIlE1OHa-m_KKye-CucurTdl6ieqg6BDrtO3b6jC8ekrO77B_4DiICG5TLFF_p8Q8eMQ35IHkE81o6XMFn/s320/Jesus%20and%20Nicodemus.webp" width="320" /></a></span>
nears its end, the separate storylines begin to interconnect. The four
main plots have largely developed in two sets of two: Matthew’s story is
intertwined with that of Simon and Andrew, and Mary Magdalene’s story
is connected with that of Nicodemus. Although all of the main characters
were finally brought together in the crowd scene of the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-16-indescribable-compassion.html">healing of the paralytic</a>, Nicodemus has never actually met Matthew at all. Nonetheless,
this episode, “Invitations,” draws unexpected parallels between the
outcast tax collector and the distinguished Pharisee. We have already
seen how both of their worldviews—the pragmatic secular and the
traditional religious—have been shaken by seeing evidence of Jesus’
miracle-working power, but this unexpected similarity is about to become
much more clearly delineated.</span><p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="ps4"><br /></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Early on in the episode, we see one
surface commonality between Matthew and Nicodemus: the fact that both
live in relative opulence compared with the majority of the Jewish
people. Matthew, in his home, chooses from among several nice garments
and pairs of sandals, and Nicodemus and his wife are in their living
quarters in Capernaum when Quintus barges in, whistles at seeing the
luxury in which they live and says, “We really will have to discuss the
people's tithing.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Other similarities are not so obvious,
but are still teased out by the dialogue. Matthew, meeting Gaius outside
his home, discusses why he helped Quintus with resolving Simon’s tax
debt: “When you realize that nobody else in the world cares what happens
to you, you think only about yourself.” Meanwhile, Nicodemus’s wife,
Zohara, articulates the priorities they used to share: a grandson has
been born, and she assumes that they will immediately leave to attend
his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_milah" target="">bris</a>, at least partially in order to satisfy social expectations.
When he protests that his research has not been completed, she scoffs,
“There is nothing in Capernaum but demoniacs and insolent school boys.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Quintus’s purpose in coming to see
Nicodemus is to question him about Jesus—whether he is a threat to the
order that both Rome and the religious leaders prize. “Preachers have a
habit of becoming politicians,” he says. Nicodemus talks Quintus into
allowing him to meet with Jesus privately, but when Quintus insists on
knowing when and where the meeting will take place, Nicodemus redirects
the conversation rather than agreeing. Once Quintus leaves, Zohara
accuses him: “You sympathize with this preacher.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Matthew later pays his mother an
uncharacteristic visit: struggling with the miracle he has seen and
cannot make sense of, he has no one else in his world that he can turn
to. The Romans have no answers and he is alienated from his own people.
But as Matthew tries to ask, “Do you think that impossible things can
happen? That overturn the laws of nature?” the conversation continually
gets sidetracked into Matthew’s decision to work for the Romans by
exacting taxes on his own people. Matthew can’t understand: “Rome will
continue to collect taxes no matter what. I'm skilled with numbers—” but
all his mother hears is him trying to justify himself. Finally, in
frustration and without any answers, Matthew leaves.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At the campsite where the disciples have
been staying, Jesus talks with John about leaving and moving on. John
is worried about Jesus’ safety, in the aftermath of the healing of the
paralytic, but Jesus sees moving as simply doing the Father’s will,
spreading the message of salvation. When asked how much firewood to
prepare, Jesus says that extra should be left “for the next weary
traveler,” a charge to hospitality that becomes another recurring motif
throughout the series.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Mary Magdalene approaches Jesus
apologetically, feeling that she had cut short his teaching by leading
the paralytic and his friends up to the roof, and nervous about
broaching the subject of Nicodemus’s wish to meet with him. “He
seemed ... earnest. He wasn't offended to learn that someone else had
succeeded where he had failed.... There was a hunger in his eyes, not
fear.” Jesus agrees, and waives off Mary’s concern that she might have
put him in danger.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Simon shares that concern, and when
Jesus is at his house, argues that the meeting could be a trap.
“Nicodemus cooperates with Rome. <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">They're the ones who sent him to Mary
when she was possessed</a> in the Red Quarter.” Jesus dismisses Simon’s
anxieties, noting that Mary “has known some of the worst kinds of men in
this world, and she finds him earnest. You should trust her instincts,
and mine.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When Jesus steps away, Simon tries to
get Eden to quiet her mother, who is loudly coughing in the next room.
“I just don't want our burdens to become his, okay?” Simon explains.
Eden recognizes and addresses Simon’s deeper fear: “He's made up his
mind about you. He's not going to kick you out of the group.”
Nonetheless, when Simon offers to go along with Jesus to his meeting to
stand guard, Jesus tells him to “stay here with your wife, and your
mother-in-law,” confirming Simon’s worries that he is being eased out of
the group because of his family’s needs.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When Nicodemus meets with Jesus at
night, his nervousness also contrasts with Jesus’ calm assurance. Jesus
thanks him for trying to help Mary, and when Nicodemus scoffs at his own
failure, Jesus points out, “If you had not been there that day, would
you be on this roof tonight?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The conversation begins to proceed as it does in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+3&version=ESV">John chapter 3</a>, but the dialogue is expanded and filled in to <span class="Scrivener-converted-space"> </span>make
the conversation more natural and Nicodemus’s confusion more relatable.
When Jesus points out, “A teacher of Israel, and yet you do not
understand these things,” the learned older man shows humility, meekly
responding, “I’m trying, Rabbi.” They both remark on how these teachings
will not go over in the synagogue, with the teachers of the Law. “I
believe your words,” Nicodemus affirms. “I just fear You may not have a
chance to speak many more of them before you are silenced.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesus responds that he has more to do
than teach, and when asked how, he refers explicitly to an incident in
Numbers 21:4-9, which had been dramatized in the opening of the episode.
Moses (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0767445/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Stelio Savante</a>) discusses with Joshua (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7588934/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Advait Ghuge</a>) why he is
forging a bronze serpent. God had sent fiery serpents as a punishment
because the people complained about their provision in the desert, and
Moses insists that this is how God wants to deliver the people. “Moses
lifted the bronze serpent in the desert, and people only needed to look
at it” Jesus reminds Nicodemus. “So will the Son of Man be lifted up, so
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nicodemus is finally beginning to get
it. “So this has nothing to do with Rome? It's all about ... sin.” And
at this point, Jesus invites Nicodemus to follow him, along with his
other disciples. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“But I can't,” Nicodemus responds. “I have a position in the Sanhedrin.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“You have family,” Jesus acknowledges,
“You are getting advanced in years. I understand, but the invitation is
still open.” Nicodemus is overwhelmed with astonishment and sinks to his
knees before Jesus, quoting Psalm 2:12, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you perish in the way.” Jesus finishes the reference, “Blessed are
all who take refuge in him.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After that invitation, we see another at
Matthew’s tax booth. Jesus and his entourage begin to pass by, and then
Jesus turns around and calls Matthew by name. “Matthew, son of
Alphaeus.... Follow me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Matthew is bewildered at first, and
Simon immediately begins to protest. Mary Magdalene is the only one to
understand, and her face expresses excitement and anticipation. As soon
as Matthew understands that the call is genuine, he leaves his tax
booth, astonishing Gaius. “Have you lost your mind?” he asks. “You have
money. Quintus protects you. No Jew lives as good as you. You're going
to throw it all away?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Yes,” Matthew responds. With that, he joins Jesus, who tells him, “We have a celebration to prepare for ... a dinner party.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“I’m not welcome at dinner parties,” Matthew tells Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Well, that's not going to be a problem tonight,” Jesus responds. “You're the host.”</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This episode, as the title indicates,
focuses on invitations, specifically Jesus’ invitation to both Nicodemus
and Matthew to join him. Each is an unlikely candidate, for opposite but
parallel reasons. Each lives in luxury, in stark contrast with most of
their fellow Jews, and that luxury is paid for by the taxes and tithes
of the poorer people around them. Both of them collaborate with
Rome—Matthew does so in an obvious way, but Nicodemus tacitly does as
well. As Quintus says to him, “You and I want the same thing. We want
rules followed, we want order.” Matthew seems disqualified to follow the
Jewish messiah by choosing a treasonous career path; Nicodemus seems
overqualified, as a member of the Sanhedrin, to follow an itinerant
preacher. Matthew’s attitude is self-centered and pragmatic: taxes will
be collected anyway; why not use that system to make a good living?
Nicodemus’s attitude, prior to seeing Mary’s deliverance, was
self-righteous and haughty: the people’s sin prevents Messiah from
coming; a lifetime of willful sin leads to a kind of demonic possession
that even an exorcism cannot break. So both Nicodemus and Matthew have
perspectives and positions that would seem to preclude them becoming a
follower of Jesus.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But both have also had their worldviews
shaken by witnessing undeniable miracles: <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">Mary’s restoration</a>, <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html">Simon’s catch of fish</a>, the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-16-indescribable-compassion.html">paralytic’s healing</a>. For Nicodemus, Jesus does not
fit into the religious hierarchy and expectations that have developed
over centuries. The Pharisees have developed specific ideas of who and
what the Messiah should be, and we see from Shmuel and the other
Pharisees how threatening a different sort of Messiah is to them. But
Nicodemus has experienced firsthand the powerlessness of his religious
rituals by comparison to the power Jesus has displayed in cleansing
Mary, and so he is more intrigued than frightened. For Matthew, Jesus’
miracles threaten his rationalistic <span class="Scrivener-converted-space"> </span>approach
to life. Being employed in Roman service makes practical sense as long
as the current situation does not change—as long as the God of the
Israelites does not make an appearance on the scene. Matthew has made a
calculated exchange, trading his Jewish heritage for wealth and security
among the ruling class. Despite being despised by both groups, he has
made a comfortable life for himself. But in the presence of the
miraculous, he recognizes that he may have allied himself with the wrong
camp.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The crumbling of both Nicodemus and
Matthew’s self-confidence contrasts with Jesus’ calm assurance.
Throughout this episode, Jesus is surrounded by people who are anxious,
mostly about his safety. John wants to break camp and move because he is
worried about backlash after the healing of the paralytic, while Jesus
wants to do so in order to spread his message further, and is happy to
take time to provide the next traveler with firewood. Mary is concerned
about having interrupted Jesus’ teaching and is afraid that setting up a
meeting with Nicodemus may endanger him. Simon is also apprehensive
about the meeting, and he is uneasy about his position among Jesus’
disciples, given that Jesus keeps sidelining him to take care of his
family. Nicodemus’s demeanor around Jesus when they do meet is at first
timid and uneasy, contrasting with Jesus’ serene authority. Both of them
discuss how unwelcome Jesus’ teaching would be among the religious
authorities, and Jesus points out that the potential for scandal is the
very reason Nicodemus has requested a meeting at night.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The meeting itself, which dramatizes
<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+3&version=ESV">John chapter 3</a>, is portrayed on a rooftop during a peaceful night, with
James and John listening in, John scribbling down notes. The dialogue
and performances lend a sense of immediacy: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745751/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Jonathan Roumie</a>’s Jesus
seems spontaneously to come up with the image of wind to describe
salvation, and the confusion of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0042805/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Erick Avari</a>’s Nicodemus gives way to
wonder as the conversation progresses. Jesus describes a kingdom that is
invisible until one has been born again, born of water and the Spirit,
and explains that he is not merely spreading a message, but will be
doing something mysterious that has something to do with Moses lifting
up a bronze serpent in the wilderness. The turning point is when
Nicodemus understands that Jesus’ message isn’t about Rome at all, but
rather about delivering the people from sin.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And it’s when Nicodemus recognizes that
he was right when he said that only God could have healed Mary, and that
he was sitting across from that healer himself, that Jesus amazes him
once again by inviting Nicodemus to follow him. Nicodemus immediately
begins to backpedal: he has a position in the Sanhedrin, he has family,
he is getting old. Jesus himself points out some of the reasons this
seems to make no natural sense. But still he invites Nicodemus to come,
an invitation Nicodemus can only respond to by sinking to his knees and
quoting the end of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+2&version=ESV">Psalm 2</a>. He is acknowledging Jesus as the son of God.
But whether he will follow through on the invitation is left to another
episode.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We do see, though, how Matthew will
respond to a similar invitation. Unlike Nicodemus, Matthew has no
explanation, no preparation for this call. No one is expecting Jesus to
do it, least of all Matthew. But when he realizes that Jesus really is
inviting him on purpose, unlike Nicodemus, he responds immediately.
Gaius tells him what he has to lose—money, protection, luxury—but
Matthew leaves it all with no hesitation. While it may seem tempting,
with our modern sensibilities, to say, “Of course the religious bigwig
fails to follow, but the despised tax collector responds at once,” it’s
also worth noting that Nicodemus has people other than himself to
consider, while Matthew has only himself. One gathers that wealth and
prestige mean far more to Zohara than they do to Nicodemus, once he has
begun his spiritual journey, but she, and his family, are considerations
that he cannot easily shrug off. Matthew has no such concerns. He is
not disappointing anyone by leaving his position, and he has no one
depending on him. He simply has an easier decision.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so we may use these invitations as a
means of reflecting on our own invitation by Jesus. What are we doing
with Jesus’ invitation of us? To what degree are we responding? What
might be getting in the way of each of us following him fully and
completely? What do we even think “following” him entails? For Nicodemus
and Matthew, the call to follow means leaving one’s vocation and
enduring actual physical hardship. For most of us, it does not entail
this, but have we made it so easy that responding to the call means
almost nothing at all? It’s worth pondering what it really means when
Jesus looks at each one of us, calls us by name, and says, “Follow me.”</span></p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-39731189850695724912024-01-24T06:00:00.001-05:002024-01-24T06:00:00.136-05:00The Chosen 1:6 – Indescribable Compassion<p><span class="s2"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="s2"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFP4ubWrug8hZfEFEc0aEz2RYf11r2mGm2HYDzYNYm7ttaeXy_Not_tlArMsXpyKH1xMGTHfjyeOFvv7uy34Fj8Rs_qlFURYd_GbzXcddHdxS118jsh4e9qKRZ1LFTLfrB7iWlpBx19WetgeKzdTp7IffkcoQqJ9L56W7nLB7x9OSfTOuKosd7/s1488/Indescribable%20Compassion%20(2019).png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="1488" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFP4ubWrug8hZfEFEc0aEz2RYf11r2mGm2HYDzYNYm7ttaeXy_Not_tlArMsXpyKH1xMGTHfjyeOFvv7uy34Fj8Rs_qlFURYd_GbzXcddHdxS118jsh4e9qKRZ1LFTLfrB7iWlpBx19WetgeKzdTp7IffkcoQqJ9L56W7nLB7x9OSfTOuKosd7/s320/Indescribable%20Compassion%20(2019).png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span class="s2">The point at which any complex story
becomes really exciting is when plot threads that have been cast out in
different directions begin to turn and coalesce again. I love
“Indescribable Compassion” largely because so many different storylines
come together at the episode’s climactic point. So far, Simon, Andrew,
and Mary Magdalene have begun following Jesus, but don’t really know
what that’s going to look like yet. Matthew is mystified by the
<a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html">miraculous catch of fish that he witnessed</a>, as is Nicodemus by <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">Mary’s transformation</a>, and both are trying to figure out who the mysterious man
at the heart of these miracles is. All of these people, and more, will
come together in one pivotal scene that will define who they are and in
what direction they are going.</span><p></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><div class="div1">
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode opens with a scene in a
marketplace, as people are lined up to sell items to a dealer in used
goods. A man (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5034134/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Stephen Hailo</a>) tries to sell a set of tools, but the
merchant does not recognize him and implies that he thinks that the
tools are stolen. The man’s clothing falls away from his arm, revealing a
leprous sore, and the merchant jumps up and shouts at him to leave. The
man takes the 20 denarii he was offered and leaves, saying that the
tools were the last thing he had.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">We later see that same man in a much
more disheveled state, obviously a leper and an outcast, approaching
Jesus and asking for help. He says that he knows what Jesus can do from
reports he has heard of <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-15-wedding-gift.html">water being turned into wine at the wedding in Cana</a>. “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean,” he says, and
Jesus, rebuffing the warnings of his disciples, reaches out and heals
him. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“Do not say anything to anyone,” Jesus
charges him, astonishing the man, who responds, “You do not seek your
own honor?” Jesus reiterates that the man should only go to show himself
to the priest, and then calls for an extra tunic to replace the rags
that the man had been wearing. The disciples abruptly go from trying to
threaten and chase away the leper to offering him their own tunics, and
Jesus has to say, “Just one of you… That’s enough.” The healing is,
however, witnessed by Tamar (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4074219/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Amber Shana Williams</a>), an </span><span class="s2">Ethiopian Egyptian woman</span><a href="#fn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a><span class="s2"> whom Jesus had met along the road.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As Gaius and Matthew bring to Quintus
the proceeds from the catch of fish that paid Simon and Andrew’s tax
debt, Matthew is troubled and concerned about the seemingly impossible
event that he has just witnessed. Quintus is pleased by the revenue and
dismisses Matthew’s concerns, assuming that Matthew has been tricked. “I
saw no ruse or deception at the seashore, Dominus,” Matthew insists, to
which Quintus replies, “Because you have no guile.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Unsatisfied, Matthew again seeks out
Simon and Andrew, asking about “the man on the shore who made the fish
appear.” Simon, fearing that Matthew will provoke Roman interference
with Jesus, reacts angrily and threatens him. Matthew cannot let it go,
though: “They don’t believe what I saw, but I do. I need to know: was I
deceived?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nicodemus, meanwhile, is giving an
account of his interview with John the Baptizer before the local
rabbinic court, concluding that “he presents no material threat to Herod
or to the public peace.” Nicodemus argues that John is just an
attention-seeker, and that trying to suppress his message only ends up
giving him a pedestal. It comes out that Shmuel is the one who turned
John in to the authorities, having been offended at John’s attacks
against the Pharisees. “He called us a brood of vipers!” he says, and
takes the posture that he is the only one willing to stand for
righteousness: “I will not turn a blind eye to his sins, even when all
others do.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The rabbinic court concludes that
Shmuel’s actions have “inflated the importance of a trivial outlier and
drawn undue attention to our sect by Rome.” Moreover, as a student of
Nicodemus, Shmuel is instructed to “defer to your teacher on all matters
of polity and practice.” Although accepting the ruling, Shmuel clearly
displeased.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Later, speaking in private, Nicodemus
asks Shmuel why he faults John for quoting the words of Isaiah. Shmuel
responds that John is appropriating scripture in a heretical manner, “by
taking a spiritual description of God in heaven and applying it to
John's physical successor on earth.” They begin to debate whether God
could possibly take a human form, Shmuel citing various scriptures to
demonstrate that doing so would be impossible, and Nicodemus pressing
Shmuel on whether his interpretation of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-written-law-torah">Torah</a>—the Jewish Law—has become a
box limiting the freedom of God to do what he wills. Nicodemus points
out that the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100439970">Samaritans</a> have only accepted the books of Moses as
authoritative. “Think of all they have missed: the psalms of David, the
stories of Ruth and Boaz, Esther and Mordecai. I don't want to live in
some bleak past where God cannot do anything new, do you?” Shmuel argues
that the rabbi’s role is to uphold God’s law as given; Nicodemus
responds that they can do both that and also remain open “to the
startling and the unexpected.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Their conversation gets cut off as word
comes to them of a crowd gathering on the east side to see a man
preaching, and as local religious leaders, they promise to investigate.
Simultaneously, Gaius grows concerned that the marketplace is
uncharacteristically empty, and is informed that “a mob in the east
slums” has gathered. He tells Matthew to go home, but Matthew instead
follows on his own.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The crowd developing is, of course,
coming to see Jesus, who was visiting James and John’s parents Zebedee
and Salome (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3560022/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Nina Leon</a>), along with some of his disciples. Salome begins
asking Jesus questions, and soon </span><span class="s3"><a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-12-shabbat.html" target="">Barnaby and Shula</a></span><span class="s2"> arrive, followed by others who had heard
about the miracle at Cana. Tamar, the Egyptian woman who had seen the
leper get healed, arrives with friends carrying a cot with a paralyzed
man (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6063044/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Noé de la Garza</a>) lying on it. They can’t get through the crowd,
though, and ask Mary Magdalene for help. Mary is conflicted: “I don’t
want to interrupt the Teacher by causing a scene.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The paralytic responds, “What if you
were me?” and Tamar adds, “Wouldn’t you want your friends to make a
scene?” Mary understands better than they think she does, telling the
paralytic “I was you once.” Finally Tamar suggests, “What about the
roof?”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Gaius and his soldiers arrive, and Simon
and Andrew try to pacify him, promising to control the crowd
themselves. Matthew arrives soon after, being spit at by people in the
crowd but invited to the roof of a house across the street by Joshua and
Abigail, two children whom Jesus had previously befriended. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nicodemus, Shmuel, and other Pharisees
also arrive and begin trying to work their way through the crowd. Shmuel
is offended that the people won’t step aside for dignitaries such as
them but then notices Mary Magdalene in her right mind, recognizing that
she is “truly restored.” Nicodemus also pauses, wondering why Mary
should be here.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At this point, Jesus is interrupted by
Tamar, calling to him from the skylight above. “My friend has been
paralyzed since childhood. He has no hope but You.” Her friends begin
tearing apart the skylight frame and lowering the paralytic.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Shmuel, by this point at the window,
calls in to Jesus, “You: by whose authority do you teach?” Jesus,
ignoring him, looks up to Tamar. “Your faith is beautiful,” he tells
her, before saying to the paralytic, “Son, take heart, your sins are
forgiven,” at which point the paralytic begins crying. Only then does
Jesus address Shmuel, speaking aloud Shmuel’s own thoughts: “‘Who is
this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’
Right?” Just as in the scripture, Jesus turns back to the paralytic and
tells him to “Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The paralytic moves his feet, stands up,
and begins to walk, to the astonishment of Shmuel and the delight of
the crowd. As Jesus looks up at a crying Tamar, Shmuel calls out, “Roman
guards! A threat to the public peace!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Chaos ensues, and the paralytic walks in
slow motion past Nicodemus, who, filled with wonder, immediately finds
Mary Magdalene. Mary responds to him, “You asked me before if I knew his
name. Now everyone knows his name. And I fear for his safety.” He begs
Mary to arrange a meeting with Jesus, at night, in secret. At first
protesting that “I follow Him, not the other way around,” Mary finally
agrees to try.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">While the Romans attempt to enter
Zebedee’s home, Jesus and his disciples file out the back way, and as
Matthew climbs down the ladder, the children on the rooftop above him
ask Matthew, “Are you lost?” He answers simply, “Yes, I am.” He tries to
follow where Jesus went, still both curious and abashed, and Jesus
turns and looks directly at him, before wordlessly turning back and
continuing on.</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">I can’t tell you how much I love this
episode, mostly because of how it brings together and defines all the
different responses to Jesus that have been developing throughout the
series to this point. Jesus is going to be a divisive figure, not
because division is his purpose, but because the exact same words and
actions on his part will provoke different responses from different
people. A miracle that intrigues and provokes curiosity in some will be
dismissed as a trick or means of gain by another. Words of warning that
could provoke repentance are taken as insults. Acts of mercy that
delight and awe some will be judged as inexcusable violations of
religious law for others.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">This episode develops from the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-15-wedding-gift.html">previous episode’s</a> central theme: Jesus’ ministry is beginning to go public.
Faith gives birth to faith as word of Jesus’ miracles spreads. The leper
comes to Jesus, believing he can be healed, because his sister was a
servant at the wedding in Cana. Tamar brings the paralytic to Jesus
because she saw the leper healed. The thought process is, “If Jesus can
do this, why not that?” People gather at Zebedee’s house because they’ve
heard of Jesus and want to understand more about his parables.
Nicodemus is intrigued at possibilities he never would have considered
before. Matthew is compelled to find an explanation of the inexplicable
event he has seen. The more people find out, the more they want to know.
</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But the same dynamic happens in the
other direction. Quintus views Matthew as an easily deceived “rube,” and
sees the sudden tax windfall only in terms of how it will benefit him.
He wonders aloud if he can pressure Simon to “do it again.” His only
concern is enhancing his status with Rome, especially in the presence of
his childhood rival <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herod-king-of-Judaea">Herod</a>. Shmuel sees John the Baptizer and Jesus as
threats—rogue preachers threatening the rabbinic system and its careful
interpretation of Torah. Convinced that he is simply standing up for
truth and righteousness, Shmuel reveals that he is actually motivated by
pride and status, offended at every insult or lack of deference to his
own dignity as a Pharisee. He does not hesitate to enlist the Romans,
even though they are pagans and oppressors of his own people, to arrest
John and to stop Jesus. Shades of things to come.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Which explains why Jesus has a peculiar
habit of asking people like the leper not to tell others about him. Both
the leper and Nicodemus, when he first met the transformed Mary, are
astonished that Jesus performs miracles but does not seek honor or
credit for doing so. While being self-effacing may be considered a
positive trait in modern times, it was not in the <a href="https://www.knowledgeworkx.com/post/discovering-the-honor-shame-cultural-paradigm">honor/shame-based society</a> depicted in the New Testament. Promoting and defending one’s
honor would have been considered not only good but mandatory.
However, Jesus as portrayed in </span><i><span class="s4">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
is challenging the surrounding cultural understanding of honor, and he
is also aware that not all reactions to his work will be positive: in
fact, they will eventually lead to the Cross.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Just as in the previous episode,
everything leads to the climactic point. When the crowd gathers,
practically everyone comes: Jesus’ disciples, curiosity seekers, <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-13-jesus-loves-little.html" target="">the children Jesus had befriended in the beginning</a>, <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-12-shabbat.html" target="">Mary’s friends who met him at the Shabbat dinner,</a> Nicodemus, Shmuel, and other Pharisees, Gaius
and other Roman soldiers, Matthew. All, whether they know him or not,
are seeking him out. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0367977/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Dan Haseltine</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12139888/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Matthew S. Nelson</a>’s background
score, featuring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3977778/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="">Ruby Amanfu</a>’s wonderful wordless vocal, builds tension
in the scene, as we cut from one person to another, everyone seeking
something. Tamar wants to get her friend access to Jesus; Mary wants to
help but doesn’t want to interrupt the teaching; the Romans want to
quell a disturbance; Matthew wants to find out who caused Simon suddenly
to catch fish; Simon and Jesus’ other disciples want both to promote
Jesus to the people and to protect him from harm; Shmuel and the other
Pharisees want to control rogue religious teachers; and Nicodemus wants
to find out who delivered Mary from demons and what surprises God may
have in store.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Everything comes to a head in the
interchange between Jesus and Shmuel, with the paralytic at Jesus’ feet
and Tamar looking down from above. Tamar is convinced that Jesus can
heal; Shmuel is concerned with the authority Jesus is claiming. Jesus
responds to the faith, not the accusation, but he first addresses the
greatest need—forgiveness from sin—before the healing. He does so
knowing that he is exposing himself to the charge of blasphemy. Jesus
addresses whether claiming to forgive is easier than claiming to heal.
“It’s easy to say anything, no?” Shmuel’s eyes grow wide at Jesus
claiming the messianic title, “Son of Man,” but then Jesus heals the man
before his eyes. The miracle provokes tears from the paralytic and from
Tamar, and cheers from the crowd outside, wonder from Nicodemus and
Matthew, but an impotent and frustrated shout from Shmuel, enlisting the
Roman soldiers to aid him in his fight against the newcomer who would
undermine his religious authority. This is the paradox: that a miracle
done in front of a hard heart will only make it harder.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But it will soften those whose hearts
are open. “They’re jealous—they’re afraid,” Nicodemus tells Mary when
she points out that his friends tried to have Jesus arrested. “But I’m
not, I promise.” Matthew not only recognizes and believes the miracle he
has seen, but also understands that it has implications for him—that
God doing miracles on behalf of his people means that Matthew’s life of
luxury, gained by collaborating with Rome, is meaningless and empty.</span></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So many points of view. So many reactions. So much set in motion. We are beginning to see the implications of Jesus going public. Why it was dangerous. And why it was necessary. <br /></span></p>
<hr />
<p class="p2"><a id="fn1"></a><a>[1]</a> Tamar states that she “grew up in Egypt” but that her “father was from Ethiopia.”</p>
</div>
Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-21070499379033828972024-01-21T06:00:00.057-05:002024-01-21T07:06:41.415-05:00The Chosen 1:5 – The Wedding Gift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrkhlr_mSMNe5Sa0RmE47ifyR6f1oSMuh0qdR1qh4DgOm1sGEPiRWX2yODnTrK6S9gYuym0Mfu1WA0QC7Gs3Dgzo52cCy1021TUZph5_Kg5CGvCdjs4UvqyRCk09rWajqGfH3zX-mRdMnfPYr_6YZiyyMQOedPdNk2f7XKfs0MTDmECsqQotG/s1170/The%20Wedding%20Gift%20table%20scene.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1170" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrkhlr_mSMNe5Sa0RmE47ifyR6f1oSMuh0qdR1qh4DgOm1sGEPiRWX2yODnTrK6S9gYuym0Mfu1WA0QC7Gs3Dgzo52cCy1021TUZph5_Kg5CGvCdjs4UvqyRCk09rWajqGfH3zX-mRdMnfPYr_6YZiyyMQOedPdNk2f7XKfs0MTDmECsqQotG/s320/The%20Wedding%20Gift%20table%20scene.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="s2">As </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
enters the second half of its first season, four main plotlines have
been established: Simon and Andrew have both become disciples of Jesus,
after the miraculous catch of fish. The catch was witnessed by Mary
Magdalene, who is following Jesus constantly at this point, and by
Matthew, who was spying on Simon for Quintus and recognizes that a
miracle has happened, even if his logical mind can’t comprehend it.
Nicodemus, meanwhile, is interviewing John the Baptizer, who is being
held in Roman custody, in order to find out who might have accomplished
Mary Magdalene’s deliverance.</span><div class="div1">
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So at this point, we viewers want to see
how Mary, Simon, and Andrew’s discipleship progresses, how Matthew
becomes a follower of Jesus, and how Nicodemus resolves his quest and
ends up meeting with Jesus as we see recorded in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john+3&version=ESV" target="_blank">John chapter 3</a>. This
all needs to be presented in the context of Jesus’ early ministry, and
certain events that happen during this time period need to be shown. The
first of these is the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%202&version=ESV" target="_blank">wedding at Cana</a>, where Jesus turned water into
wine.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2"> </span></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode opens in A.D. 8. Mary is
searching frantically for Jesus in the streets of Jerusalem, and is met
by Joseph (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5648211/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Raj Bond</a>) and a twelve-year-old Jesus (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10320342/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Shayan Naveed Fazli</a>),
who seems mystified: “Why is everyone so upset?” When asked why he
wasn’t with his father, he responds, “I was,” and Joseph points up over
the nearby buildings to the top of the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-second-temple" target="_blank">Temple</a> beyond.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“It was incredible, Mary. You should have seen him. He was teaching when I found him,” Joseph tells Mary.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Mary understands, but falters. “It’s too
early for all ... this.” She seems to know where Jesus’ unique
ministry is ultimately headed, and isn’t ready for it.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">In response, Jesus asks her, “If not
now, when?” a phrase attributed to <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hillel/" target="_blank">Rabbi Hillel</a>, one of the two
preeminent leaders who defined the Jewish rabbinic tradition</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“If not now, when?” is indeed the question that defines this episode.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">After the opening credits, we find
ourselves in AD 26, the “present” of the main narrative. In a town
called <a href="https://www.bibleplaces.com/cana/" target="_blank">Cana</a>, a woman is excitedly preparing decorations when she is
greeted warmly by Jesus’ mother Mary. The woman, Dinah (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4029408/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Leslie Steele</a>)
and her husband Rafi (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2013677/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Oliver Rayon</a>) are celebrating their son Ashur’s
marriage to his bride Sarah. Dinah and Rafi are clearly doing the best
they can for the celebration, but it’s also evident that they don’t have
the financial means to do what is socially expected. Dinah cannot
afford to hire help to decorate—something that surprises even Mary—and
the <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-huppah-or-wedding-canopy/" target="_blank">chuppah</a> that she has obtained is crooked. Nevertheless, her cheerful
joy in the event is marred only when she is confronted by Sarah’s
mother Helah (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2348651/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Karina Dominguez</a>), who is serving as an advance scout for
her husband Abner (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2047055/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Matthew Jayson Cwern</a>) to make sure everything is up
to their standards. Formally polite, Helah condescends to Dinah,
emphasizing Dinah</span><span class="s2">’</span><span class="s2">s position as a social inferior.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As the wedding preparations are going
on, Jesus’ disciples are gathering. Simon first goes to Eden, who is
treading out grapes in a winepress. Although still angry at Simon’s
deception and his violation of Shabbat, she listens as Simon tells her
about his fruitless night of fishing and the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html" target="_blank">miraculous catch of fish</a> at
Jesus’ command. Simon is excited but worried as he tells Eden that
Jesus has called him, and that he intends to leave fishing to become a
disciple.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Eden joyfully interrupts him. “Oh, why
would I be upset? ... This is the man that I married .... You
couldn't make this up. Of course he chose you.” Although Simon is
anxious about providing for Eden and afraid that she will feel abandoned
as he travels, she waives aside all concerns. “Someone finally sees in
you what I've always seen .... How could I feel abandoned? I feel
saved!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Having received Eden’s blessing, Simon
sets off with his brother Andrew to meet Jesus’ other disciples:
Thaddaeus, Little James, Mary Magdalene, John son of Zebedee, and
his brother James <span class="Scrivener-converted-space"> </span>(now
played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6768715/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Kian Kavousi</a>). The group all begin traveling to Cana, and
Simon immediately begins discussing with Jesus ways to maximize the
impact, thinking that wealthy and influential people may be there. Jesus
responds, “The most important and powerful person I know will be there .... My mother.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">In another scene, we are introduced to a
young man and woman loading a wagon with food and jars of wine. Thomas
(<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6162840/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Joey Vahedi</a>) is discussing with Ramah (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4251460/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Yasmine Al-Bustami</a>) how many
jars of wine they should be bringing to a wedding feast they are
evidently catering. The family has only paid for three, but Thomas wants
to bring a fourth at his own expense, in case one gets damaged in
transit; Ramah is more practical, pointing out that doing so would erase
Thomas’s profit margin.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The two arrive in Cana (all three jars
of wine intact) and are greeted by Rafi and Dinah. Thomas introduces
Ramah as the “finest, most beautiful vintner in all of Galilee,” and
confirms the details of the agreement, including the estimated count of
40 guests, which Dinah confirms in a hesitating manner. Thomas discloses
that the jar of wine to be served last is of a lesser vintage, and Rafi
smiles and agrees: “It’s the oldest trick in the book.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At this point, Jesus and his disciples
arrive, and Jesus embraces his mother and introduces the disciples. In a
montage, we see Thomas getting things ready while the wedding guests
are dancing and celebrating. Suddenly, Ramah bursts in to where Thomas
is working: “Am I going mad, or has 40 been the magic number all along?”
Thomas dismisses her concern, knowing that hosts usually underestimate
the number of guests, until Ramah tells him, “The last count was 80.”
Fearful of humiliation, Thomas and Ramah discuss strategies for slowing
down the wine consumption and instruct the servants to go slow on
refills.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">As afternoon fades into evening, the
festivities continue, the people unaware of the looming disaster. Jesus’
disciples sit around a table, getting to know one another and
discussing what a future of following Jesus will look like. Simon and
Andrew expect to be watching and imitating him, as they did with their
father in learning to fish; Mary seems to have the most insight: “We
will watch him ... and watch and watch and watch ... forever, I
think.” Little James tells the others that Thaddaeus introduced him to
Jesus, and Thaddaeus discusses meeting Jesus while they were working together as
stonemasons, but in front of Mary, he is reluctant to reveal that they
were actually building a latrine, until she brushes aside his concerns:
“I have seen and heard things that would turn your blood to ice.” The
group begins wondering why Jesus has performed miracles like delivering
Mary from possession and causing the great catch of fish, but seems
reluctant to do others. Simon suggests that these
were private miracles, but he had not yet gone public with his ministry,
saying, “My time has not yet come.” </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">In a seemingly unrelated plotline,
Nicodemus interviews John the Baptizer in prison. After an exchange of
mutual animosity, they finally settle into a discussion of what
Nicodemus came there for: Mary’s deliverance and who accomplished it.
John becomes very excited, saying, “It has begun! ... If He's healing
in secret now, the public signs cannot be far off.” When Nicodemus
presses John on who the person is, however, John answers cryptically,
quoting Proverbs 30:4, to the effect that the healer is the son of God
himself. Nicodemus rebukes John for blasphemy, insisting that God has no
son except the nation of Israel. John ends the discussion, telling
Nicodemus, “He is here to awaken the earth, but some will not want to
waken. They're in love with the dark. I wonder which one you'll be.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Back at the wedding, Dinah confronts
Thomas, knowing that something is wrong. Jesus’ mother subsequently
comes to Jesus in a panic: “They’ve run out of wine.” After sending his
disciples away, Jesus asks Mary, “Why are you telling me this? ... My
time has not yet come.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">She responds, quoting his words from
long ago, “If not now, when?” Jesus does not verbally respond, but Mary
understands and tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesus enters a room where Thomas is
staring at empty wine and water jars. When Jesus tells them to fill the
jars up with water, Thomas scoffs, “We are in a crisis, and I was let to
believe that you have a solution?” but Ramah instructs the servants to
do what Jesus said. Thomas maintains, “From the directions you have
provided, I see no logical solution to the problem.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“It’s going to be like that sometimes, Thomas,” Jesus replies.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Meanwhile, the guests, particularly
Abner, are beginning to realize that wine has not been served for some
time. Rafi and Dinah are trying to stall and make excuses when Mary
assures them that the next round would be coming very soon.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Alone at the table with Thaddaeus, Mary
Magdalene asks him about being a stone mason. Thaddaeus discusses the
irreversability of stonework. “Once you make that first cut into the
stone, it can't be undone. It sets in motion a series of choices. What
used to be a shapeless block of limestone or granite begins its long
journey of transformation, and it will never be the same.” As Thaddaeus
speaks, we see Jesus, alone in the room, looking at the jars of water.
“I am ready, Father,” he says aloud, dipping his hands into the jar and
bringing them out, dripping with red wine.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">When the wine is served to the master of
the banquet (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9011398/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Phil Mendoza</a>), he halts the proceedings, announcing that
while it is typical for cheaper wine to be served later in the feast,
the present hosts have chosen this moment, far into the feast, “to serve
the best wine I have ever tasted!” He commends the bride and groom for
an “unnecessary but honorable gesture,” and Abner points to Ashur as if
to say, “You got me!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Stunned at the miracle, Thomas asks
Ramah, “Who is he?” and tells her he’s been invited to join Jesus,
adding that Jesus wants them both to meet him in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Samaria-historical-region-Palestine" target="_blank">Samaria</a> in twelve days.
“I don’t know what to think,” Thomas says.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“So don’t,” Ramah replies. “Maybe for once in your life, don’t think.”</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2"> The gospel of John describes Jesus
turning water into wine as “the first of his signs” (John 2:11), which
poses a bit of a problem for </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen.</span></i><span class="s2"> As a fledgling crowdfunded show, </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
had to hook an audience with its first set of four episodes or it would
simply die. It’s hard to imagine a more powerful introductory narrative
arc than the one <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420817/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Dallas Jenkins</a> and the writers came up with, beginning
with the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">deliverance of Mary Magdalene</a> and ending with the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-14-rock-on-which-it-is-built.html">miraculous catch of fish and the call of Simon Peter</a>. Considering also the
intertwining storylines of Nicodemus and Matthew, it’s difficult to see
where the wedding at Cana could have fit in, especially when John goes
on to say, “And his disciples believed in him,” indicating that Jesus
already has disciples by this point.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So if </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
decided to include the wedding of Cana, it was going to have to find a
rationale for this miracle not being the first. In a sense, of course,
this is not really a problem at all: the very first episode begins with a
disclaimer which includes, “Some locations and time lines have been
combined or condensed.” It’s a show that’s making decisions for artistic
and dramatic reasons, not a documentary tasked with making a case for a
perfect chronology of Jesus’ life. Moreover, John’s use of the word
“sign” does not completely preclude the possibility of other miracles
having happened earlier; it’s just most often been interpreted that </span><span class="s2">way.</span><a id="fnlink1"></a><a href="#fn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a><span class="s2"> The way that </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
decided to handle the issue was to make a distinction between “private”
and “public” miracles. The earlier miracles were regarded as private,
while the miracle at Cana amounted to Jesus “going public.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">I’m rather divided on how I feel about this solution. In general, I’m unconcerned about </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
taking dramatic license, as long as it’s not flagrantly misrepresenting
the character of Jesus or the scriptural text. So I don’t care that
turning water into wine is not the first miracle portrayed in the show.
But on its own terms, it’s rather difficult to understand how the
miracle at Cana is more “public” than Simon’s catch of fish, when
Simon’s catch is witnessed by several people including Matthew, who
isn’t even a disciple yet, while the actual turning of water into wine
is depicted as occurring when Jesus is alone, and only a few people at
the wedding even knew that anything had happened. Presumably, the
servants began to spread the word of what had happened, but still, it
wasn’t really “public.” And this public-private distinction seems to
have percolated into </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen’s</span></i><span class="s2">
fandom, as though this is actually the explanation for why the wedding
at Cana really wasn’t the first miracle, when in fact it was just an
ad-hoc rationalization to explain a chronology problem in the </span><span class="s2">show</span><a id="fnlink2"></a><a href="#fn2"><sup>[2]</sup></a><span class="s2">.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Nonetheless, this episode makes great
use of this idea of a public-private distinction, in that it depicts a
conscious decision of Jesus to set in motion a series of events that
will culminate in his crucifixion. Once Jesus becomes publicly known, he
will inevitably draw widespread attention as well as conflict with the
existing religious and political leaders. This begins a motif that will
become thematic: Jesus is conscious that everything he does is leading
to the Cross, and therefore he has a bittersweet perspective that is
only shared by his mother.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">“</span><span class="s2">The Wedding Gift</span><span class="s2">”</span><span class="s2"> also highlights the significance of status and wealth in the world portrayed by </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">.
While sermons often make a point of explaining that running out of wine
would have been embarrassing to the hosts, we viewers see here
portrayed the struggle of Rafi and Dinah, trying to put on the best
marriage ceremony they can muster, but without the means to do so. We
feel their struggle to measure up to the expectations of the wealthy and
disdainful Abner and Helah, and feel for them as they are about to be
humiliated by the wine running out. It’s not only them: Thomas and Ramah
panic at how the failure will affect their professional reputations.
Even Jesus’ disciples are not immune to such considerations of status:
Simon is looking for wealthy and influential people to get Jesus’
ministry off the ground, and when Jesus responds that his mother is the
most important and powerful person he knows—implying a completely
different set of values regarding what is important—Andrew pipes up from
the background: “Isn’t your mother from Nazareth?” Mary herself
explains, pantomiming a pregnant belly, why she and Joseph didn’t have a
public wedding. Themes of wealth, status, honor and shame weave
throughout the episode, helping us understand the fabric of the society
and raising the stakes for the crisis which running out of wine
represents.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so the entire episode builds to the
moment of the miracle itself. Simon, now that he has been called and has
Eden’s blessing, is eager to see Jesus’ ministry get going. John the
Baptizer is ecstatic that private healings are happening, believing that
public signs will soon follow. Thomas’s worries that something will go
wrong at the feast—especially something that will embarrass Ramah—are
vindicated. Rafi and Dinah are on the edge of being socially disgraced
in front of the already-dubious Abner and Helah. And Jesus is being
pushed by his frantic mother into taking a step that will lead to a
tragic outcome.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And yet he knows that this outcome is
also his Father’s will, is the reason that he came to earth at all, and
is the necessary means of redeeming humanity and being glorified with
the Father again. So as Thaddaeus describes the irreversible nature of
working with stone, Jesus makes that first chisel cut into his own
earthly life, dipping into the jar and pulling out wine, dripping like
blood from his hands.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So we are left like Thomas and Ramah,
reflecting on who Jesus is and what we are to do with that information.
Like cautious, logical Thomas, we have been asked to join Jesus, even
though it seems not to make rational sense. Sometimes it’s going to be
like that.</span></p>
<hr />
<p class="p2"><a id="fn1"></a><a>[1]</a>
It’s instructive to note that John 4:54 describes the healing of a
Roman official’s son as “the second sign that Jesus did when he had come
from Judea to Galilee,” despite the fact that in John 2:23, 3:2, and
4:45, multiple “signs” are already being referred to. This has been explained by the healing being the second sign <i><span class="s5">in Galilee,</span></i> despite there having been other miracles in Judea.</p>
<p class="p2"><a id="fn2"></a><a>[2]</a>
To my knowledge, no Bible scholar ever suggested such a public-private
distinction, at least relating to the wedding at Cana. There is a
phenomenon, most prominent in the gospel of Mark, where Jesus tells
people in various circumstances not to tell others (e.g., Mark 1:44 and
8:30), something that <i><span class="s5">The Chosen</span></i> also depicts.</p>
</div>
Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-1518914889326430422024-01-17T06:00:00.029-05:002024-01-17T06:00:00.137-05:00The Chosen 1:4 – The Rock on Which It Is Built<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26bFmbjWQtYmVQRxmG8XEiSswIYN-OzELRs04LwK1bEQaUP3xPDUyLmb8zgSRZfRpaJH0oMLJyaDi9U_Zi7zPaCqM6kokv_d5torpQmP9r1ZJsA8IOj15ln9Ylo534GqXFch1WV6CvI7rcs4hNGYi5cclI-FSlvGNoTIjb802W9BL107XhTCV/s300/Simon%20Fishing.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg26bFmbjWQtYmVQRxmG8XEiSswIYN-OzELRs04LwK1bEQaUP3xPDUyLmb8zgSRZfRpaJH0oMLJyaDi9U_Zi7zPaCqM6kokv_d5torpQmP9r1ZJsA8IOj15ln9Ylo534GqXFch1WV6CvI7rcs4hNGYi5cclI-FSlvGNoTIjb802W9BL107XhTCV/s1600/Simon%20Fishing.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><span class="s2">As a crowd-funded independent project, </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
grew in fits and starts. The original funding was only sufficient for
four episodes, and therefore episode four had to land on a climactic
point. “The Rock On Which It Is Built” does not disappoint. In this
episode, we return to the main plotlines, and just as <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html" target="_blank">Episode 1</a> brought
Mary Magdalene from demonic possession and suicidal ideation to
deliverance, this episode brings Simon Peter from desperation and
willingness to betray his countrymen to restoration and a call to a
higher purpose. The process of getting there, though, is not at all
easy, and </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
does something here that it does often and well: take a simple miracle
story in the Gospels and invest it with emotional meaning and impact.</span>
<span><a name='more'></a></span>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2"> </span></p><p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode begins with Simon on a boat
with several Roman soldiers at night, searching for merchant fishermen
working on Shabbat (<a href="https://www.theopedia.com/sabbath" target="_blank">the sabbath day</a>). As we discovered in Episodes 1 and
2, since work was prohibited on Shabbat, Jewish fishermen were not
reporting their work on that day, and the Romans were interested because
they weren’t receiving taxes on those </span><span class="s2">catches.</span><a href="#fn1"><sup>[1]</sup></a><span class="s2">
Simon had made a deal with the Roman Praetor Quintus to lead the Romans
to others doing the fishing in return for his own tax debt being
erased.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">However, before leading the Romans to
any fishing boats, Simon notices a fishing buoy with the Hebrew letter
<i><a href="https://ancient-hebrew.org/ancient-alphabet/zayin.htm" target="_blank">zayin</a></i> on it, indicating that the fishing boat nearby belonged to
Zebedee (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1753818/?ref_=tt_cl_t_10" target="_blank">Nick Shakoour</a>), the father of his close friends James and John, who were most
likely on the boat themselves. Rather than turning them over to the
Romans, Simon gives wrong directions, contriving to run the Roman boat
aground on a sandbar. Disbelieving Simon’s protests that it was an
accident in the fog, the commanding officer threatens Simon and cuts his
ear with his sword, foreshadowing <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+18%3A10&version=ESV" target="_blank">Simon cutting the ear of the High Priest’s servant</a> when Judas betrayed Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
Here, Simon is nearly the betrayer himself, a point emphasized by the
next scene, where he confesses to Zebedee, James (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10343553/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t36" target="_blank">Shayan Sobhian</a>), and John (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5079783/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t8" target="_blank">George H. Xanthis</a>) what had
happened, both warning them that the Romans were on the lookout for
Shabbat fishing and hoping to be given credit for not having gone
through with the betrayal. “Don’t thank him,” Zebedee snaps to his son
John. “He chose to deal with Rome.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Back home, Simon finds out that his wife
Eden’s sick mother has come to stay with them. Frightened at taking on
more responsibility just as everything is coming unraveled, Simon
confesses to Eden that they are on the verge of losing everything, to
which Eden responds, “Where is your faith?</span><span class="s4"> ...</span><span class="s2"> Maybe God can get your attention now.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Just as Simon has come to the end of
himself and is preparing to go out fishing in desperation, an excited
Andrew comes to him with the news that John the Baptizer (i.e., John the
Baptist) has pointed out the Messiah. “It’s happened! We’re safe,” he
exults.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Simon brushes him off. “Forgive me if I’m not jumping out of my sandals because Creepy John pointed at someone.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">By this point, Quintus has met with
Matthew again, tasking him with spying on Simon and reporting back what
he sees, since Quintus isn’t sure whether Simon’s failure was purposeful
or an accident. Matthew isn’t sure that he can successfully infiltrate
his countrymen’s informal spaces, protesting that “everyone hates tax
collectors. They’re worse than the Romans.” Quintus waves aside
Matthew’s concerns, handing him a blank book and asking him to write
down everything, unknowingly providing the impetus for Matthew to begin
taking notes on what would eventually be his Gospel.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So after Simon and Andrew’s
conversation, they each see Matthew comically slinking around and
writing down notes. Eventually Matthew comes out into the open, knowing
that he has already been spotted. Simon is annoyed at being spied on but
amused at Matthew’s ineptitude: “You’re a little</span><span class="s4"> ...</span><span class="s2"> off, aren’t you?” he asks.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Matthew tells Simon that he should turn
himself in, letting him know that he only has until sunup. “Quintus is
convinced you’ve double-crossed him,” he states, pointing out that Simon
can’t catch enough fish overnight to make good on his debt, but Simon
retorts, “If I'm going down, it will be doing what God built me to do.”
It would seem that Simon is at least trying to follow Eden’s advice and
trust God in the only way he knows how.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Out on the water, Simon fishes alone
overnight, getting increasingly frustrated at his failure to catch
anything, and venting his feelings aloud to God. He recites the history
of Israel, in which God repeatedly rescues his people, only to allow
them again to be enslaved, conquered, or oppressed, first by Egypt, then
by Babylon, and finally by Rome. “This is the God I've served so
faithfully my entire life” he shouts bitterly into the darkness, “You're
the God I'm supposed to thank. You know, if I didn't know any better,
I'd say you enjoy yanking us around like goats and can't decide whether
we're chosen or not!”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">At this point, Andrew, James, John, and
Zebedee come by on another boat and offer to help, showing their loyalty
despite Simon’s previous near-betrayal. Their combined efforts over the
course of the rest of the night still yield no fish at all, and as
morning dawns, they give up and row toward shore, where someone is
addressing a group of people sitting and listening. Andrew recognizes
Jesus, but Simon rebuffs his excitement: “No time for this, Andrew.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">However, Jesus asks to stand on the boat
to teach. Simon, exhausted and dejected, tries to politely decline, but
Andrew accepts and begs Simon to trust him. Jesus shares a final
parable with the crowd, which we now see includes Thaddeus, Little
James, and Mary Magdalene. Matthew is also watching the scene from a
distance.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Jesus dismisses the crowd, and then asks
Simon to put the net down for a catch, a little farther out. While
Simon protests, Jesus just looks at him, and so in a gesture of
resignation, Simon casts the net and shrugs, as if to say, “Fine, I’ll
humor you, for all the good it will do.” Jesus smiles back, and just
then, the boat lurches.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The net is full of fish, and Simon and
Andrew call out for help as they struggle to haul it in. Jesus laughs
delightedly as James and John come running through the waves to help
(the boat isn’t really very far off shore, probably for filming
considerations). It takes all four of them to haul the fish into the
boat, filling it up. Matthew looks on in disbelief, while Jesus,
tearful, looks up to the Father in gratitude.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Simon doesn’t need Andrew’s “I told
you!” He wades to shore, falling down before Jesus, crying “Depart from
me; I am a sinful man,” such a contrast from his own declarations during
the night of how faithful he had been and how faithless God had seemed.
But rather than rebuking Simon, Jesus simply says, “Lift up your head,
fisherman. </span>...<span class="s2"> Follow me.”</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">The episode ends with a teaser from
another plotline that was only briefly touched upon in the episode.
Shmuel has been complaining to Nicodemus about John the Baptizer’s
rhetoric against the Pharisees: “He called all of us snakes!” Later,
Nicodemus had been informed that the Romans have taken John into
custody, and decided to go and speak to him himself. Finally, Nicodemus
enters the prison and meets John the Baptizer (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3568215/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">David Amito</a>) face to
face. “Are you the one they call the Baptizer?” he asks. “I have
questions for you about miracles.” John looks with eagerness out of the
shadows just as the episode ends.</span></p>
<p class="ps5"><br /></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">What gives this episode its power is how
it focuses almost relentlessly on the pressure being experienced by
Simon, leading to his desperate attempt to fish all night. This is one
of the things that </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
does so well: invest stories that are simple miracles in Scripture with
emotional significance. Simon tells Jesus in the gospel account that he
had been fishing all night (Luke 5:5), but this strikes most of us with
all the force of, “Nope, fish weren’t biting today.” Contemporary
readers are likely to have experienced fishing, if at all, merely as a
recreational activity. Even when considering that Simon was a
professional fisherman and therefore depended on fishing for his
livelihood, most of us still have no idea whether a night without
catching anything was a serious problem or merely a periodic
occupational hazard. </span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So when we read about the miraculous
catch of fish, we recognize it to be a miracle, one of Jesus’ nature
miracles, but once the story has become familiar, it ceases to amaze.
This can be a problem for those of us who insist on the historicity of
miracles in scripture: we can be so focused on defending the factual
truth of the miracle that we lose our sense of wonder at it. By
investing Simon with a desperate need to get this catch, a catch
impossible by human standards even on a good night, we feel the relief
that comes when Jesus actually does the miracle, a relief that helps us
to recapture the wonder.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">Although we have no reason to believe
that the backstory we’re shown is accurate, it does conform to a pattern
we often see in scripture. The Old Testament Joseph gets sold into
slavery and then wrongfully imprisoned before God raises him to the
second-highest position in Egypt. Moses finds himself exiled from Egypt
for forty years before coming back to deliver his people. David is
hunted down by Saul for years after having been anointed by Samuel to be
king. Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den overnight before being let
out and triumphing over his enemies. We have no way of knowing whether
Simon really had such a desperate need for the miraculous catch of fish,
but it does fit God’s usual pattern of allowing his people to walk
though seemingly impossible situations before the deliverance comes. And
it does make sense of something we do know—that Simon’s response to the
miracle was to collapse in front of Jesus, begging Jesus to leave
because Simon recognized that he was a sinful man.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">So </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
gives us its portrayal of Simon, one among many Jewish people under the
oppression of the Roman government. Probably through his own
foolishness and irresponsibility, he is in worse straits than most of
his countrymen, in danger of losing his livelihood to his tax burden. He
compromises the Law of God and his people’s traditions by fishing on
Shabbat, only to find himself unable to catch enough fish, due to the
presence of a merchant fleet overfishing the area. He has a chance
meeting with the Roman Praetor, giving him what he hopes to be a way
out, at the cost of betraying some of his own people. But they’re the
very merchant seamen who are preventing him from catching enough fish to
deal with his debt himself, so he can rationalize it. Until he realizes
he’s not about to betray some anonymous merchants, but his friend
Zebedee and his family.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">He recoils from doing that, but as his
plan becomes known, no one understands. He is condemned by Zebedee,
James and John, by his brother Andrew, and by his wife Eden, who puts
her finger on the real problem: Simon is doing anything and everything
he can do to get himself out of the jam he is in, instead of relying on
God to deliver him.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And yet it’s hard to blame him. He feels
not only the danger he himself is in, but also his responsibility for
his wife. Who among us—and especially men with families—do not feel the
pressure to do absolutely everything we can think of, when we think that
inaction will harm those whom we love, for whom we feel responsible?
Especially when we feel that it’s our own actions that have put them in
danger in the first place? Who among us hasn’t had the thought that it’s
well and good for someone </span><i><span class="s3">else</span></i><span class="s2"> to counsel simply trusting God, but that the responsibility is on us to </span><i><span class="s3">do</span></i><span class="s2"> something, anything?</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so Simon does the only thing he
knows to do: go fishing. And even here, his efforts are not only
insufficient; they are completely useless. As he tells his brother and
friends when they come to help him, he’s spending his last night as a
free man out fishing, and for what? Nothing! He literally has nothing to
show for his efforts. It’s hard to blame him even when he comes unglued
and screams at God in frustration. Both the writing and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6051304/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_Shahar%2520Isaac" target="_blank">Shahar Isaac</a>’s
performance draw the viewer in: we feel Simon’s helpless anguish and
hopelessness. At some point in our lives, we’ve been there.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And it’s only at this point that we can
really appreciate the magnitude of Jesus’ miracle. The interchange
between <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745751/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Jonathan Roumie</a>’s Jesus and Shahar Isaac’s Simon is
perfect—exactly the way I’ve imagined it and not at all the way I’ve
seen it portrayed in the past. Simon isn’t following Jesus’ direction
because he has such perfect faith; he’s just too worn out to fight.
Jesus gives his direction and then doesn’t try to persuade or cajole.
Simon obeys and then looks back as though to say, “There, I did it. You
happy now?” And then the boat lurches.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
works on two levels at once. The first and most obvious level is the
“What if?” level: what if Mary Magdalene had been a victim of being
orphaned and then suffering sexual assault, and that’s the reason why
she ended up being possessed by demons? What if Matthew were on the
autism spectrum, and that’s why he ended up becoming a tax collector?
What if Simon was deep in tax debt, and the miracle of the fish rescued
him from it, and that’s why he was so overcome by the miracle? It’s
putting ourselves into the first-century characters’ shoes and imagining
what it may have been like to be them.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">But the flip side of this level is the “How does it relate to us?” level. </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
is developing a cast of characters and situations that may or may not
be realistic to their first-century counterparts but are certainly
relatable to us in our world. We have no reason to believe that Matthew
actually was autistic, but he is a perfect stand in, not only for
viewers who are on the spectrum themselves, but for those who find
themselves as outsiders, different, excluded. Mary Magdalene stands in
for women who have been abused or who have a “past.” Simon stands in for
the impetuous, strong-willed man who can handle anything—until he
can’t. Even Jesus is human, with relatable emotions and a sense of
humor, so unlike, for example, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0694293/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_Robert%2520Powell" target="_blank">Robert Powell</a>’s impassive mystic
portrayal in </span><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075520/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_Jesus%2520of%2520Nazareth" target="_blank"><i><span class="s3">Jesus of Nazareth</span></i></a><span class="s2">. </span><i><span class="s3">The Chosen</span></i><span class="s2">
will continue to develop characters and situations that speak to us in
the modern world just as much as they portray what things might have
been like in the first century.</span></p>
<p class="ps4"><span class="s2">And so, for every person who has been in
a hopeless situation, having no idea how they are going to get out of
it and angry at God for His apparent silence and inaction, for all of us
who can relate to Simon’s frustration and despair—this episode is for
us. </span></p>
<hr />
<p class="p2"><a id="fn1"></a><a>[1]</a> To be clear here, this is a fictional plotline developed by <i><span class="s5">The Chosen</span></i>
itself: there is no evidence that such fishing on Shabbat ever happened
at all, and aside from the personal piety of individual people, such
obvious violation of Shabbat was so socially unacceptable among Jewish
people that it is highly unlikely to have occurred.</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-41731355029170203172024-01-14T06:00:00.021-05:002024-01-14T06:00:00.247-05:00The Chosen 1:3 – Jesus Loves the Little Children<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kEwwdtg6kAnFo2I9rkKO1s6VyztP1iDvh8F5Ok_VElyuyPJgs9fwx219AoWUIoDjUzXYScop4g89tA6sD7_IA6aYqxA2-WfIVNvNSbxL2oBudJr32WYZIuiLmxr8RIgGfKdWWd6I-MU-UiZbv5S1up_pTY2lQxj0ap06yVPhDL2ZmlXsQ65I/s640/images282129.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8kEwwdtg6kAnFo2I9rkKO1s6VyztP1iDvh8F5Ok_VElyuyPJgs9fwx219AoWUIoDjUzXYScop4g89tA6sD7_IA6aYqxA2-WfIVNvNSbxL2oBudJr32WYZIuiLmxr8RIgGfKdWWd6I-MU-UiZbv5S1up_pTY2lQxj0ap06yVPhDL2ZmlXsQ65I/s320/images282129.webp" width="320" /></a>After two episodes where Jesus himself plays only a minor, but pivotal, role, we finally have one that focuses strongly on Jesus himself. “Jesus Loves the Little Children” is what is known in the trade as a “<a href="https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-bottle-episode-meaning/" target="_blank">bottle episode</a>,” one that is set primarily in one location and has a limited number of main cast members. It sits apart from the primary action of the season and functions as an aside where a particular character can be developed. In this episode, the main plotlines involving Mary Magdalene, Simon and Andrew, Matthew, and Nicodemus all take a brief hiatus while we get some deeper insight into Jesus himself.</p><p></p><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><p>Most of the episode is set at a campsite on the outskirts of Capernaum, where Jesus is temporarily living. We see him at night by a campfire, praying with some degree of distress, asking the Father to “speak through me.”</p><p>In the morning his campsite is found by a little girl whom we later find out is named Abigail (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10506596/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_1_q_Reina%2520Ozbay" target="_blank">Reina Ozbay</a>). She is curious, but runs away when Jesus comes back from the woods. The next day she comes back with a friend named Joshua (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4207199/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_4_nm_4_q_Noah%2520Cottrell" target="_blank">Noah Cottrell</a>) whom she tells all about the man she saw. She asks Joshua if he has a sword, just in case. “I don’t think he’ll kill us, and he seemed nice,” she says. They hide behind a rock as Jesus prays before a meal, and Jesus indicates that he knows that they are there and invites them to come out.</p><p>Abigail asks Jesus rapid-fire questions which he answers simply and without annoyance as Joshua stands a little way off, still wary of this strange man. “How do you make money?” Abigail asks, over Joshua’s protests.</p><p>“For now I build things and trade them for my food and clothing,” Jesus responds, explaining, “Wealthy people love decorations and toys for their children.”</p><p>“My family isn’t wealthy” Abigail says.</p><p>Jesus reassures her, “Many times that’s better.”</p><p>After eating some food that Jesus offered them, Abigail abruptly says, “Bye!” and the two children run off as Jesus chuckles. Through these interactions, we begin to develop a picture of Jesus that is kind, forthright, unoffended by curiosity, and solitary but not reclusive or standoffish.</p><p>The next morning, the children come back with several friends, waking Jesus up. He invites them to help him as he makes things with wood, and they continue to ask him questions. “Are you dangerous?”</p><p>“Maybe to some,” Jesus replies, “But no, not to you. And I won’t harm anyone.” Asked if he has a house, Jesus says, “My Father provides all I need.”</p><p>“Is your father rich?” Abigail asks.</p><p>Jesus laughs, “That is a question for another time,” a response that Jesus will give to his disciples on a number of occasions later on in the series. Jesus is portrayed as honest and open, but judicious in what he chooses to share.</p><p>At one point, Jesus asks the children if they know the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-shema" target="_blank">Shema</a>, the central Jewish confession of faith, from Deuteronomy and Numbers. As the children recite, Jesus listens intently, mouthing some of the words, and looking emotional as they finish. Some have suggested that <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745751/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Jonathan Roumie</a> portrays Jesus as distressed at the perfunctory way in which the children recite, but what he actually says in response is “Beautiful. Very good,” and to me, Jesus seems to be touched and pleased that these little children are reciting words of truth from over a thousand years earlier, even if they can’t comprehend their full meaning.</p><p>As the children walk home, they speculate on who this mysterious stranger might be, foreshadowing the question Jesus will eventually put to his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” </p><p>“Maybe he’s a prophet,” the smallest girl suggests. </p><p>“No, there’s no new prophets,” an older boy responds, “Rabbi Josiah said so,” indicating the blinders that prevent the Jewish leaders from recognizing the Messiah whom their scriptures point to. The children wonder aloud if he might be a murderer, in hiding and on the run. “No, he’s a good man,” Abigail insists.</p><p>“I like him ... I’m just saying, maybe he’s a criminal.”</p><p>The growing relationship between Jesus and the children is conveyed by a montage in which we see Jesus, alternately alone and with the children, bandaging his arm from a cut he had incurred, telling the children stories in a very demonstrative way, and teaching them what we now call the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+6%3A9-13&version=ESV" target="_blank">Lord’s Prayer</a>. As Jesus continues to teach the children, he gets closer to revealing who he really is. “Do not expect Messiah to arrive in Jerusalem on a tall horse dispensing justice,” he states, in the process of explaining why “an eye for an eye” is not an excuse for individual retribution. “The Lord loves justice. But maybe it is not ours to handle.” When asked why he is here, he says that “the answer is for all of you,” and then begins quoting Isaiah 61, just as he later will in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18). He tells the children that “I hope my next students ask the same questions that you do, and that they will listen to the answers.”</p><p>This time, when the children walk home, they do so in thoughtful silence.</p><p>The final two scenes of the episode show us Jesus, completing a project by firelight and then writing on a wooden board, and then Abigail, coming back to Jesus’ campsite the next day, only to find his tent gone, with nothing but a pile of wood (for the next weary traveler) and some wooden crafts with a sign written in Hebrew lettering.</p><p>Abigail approaches to find that the crafts are a doll house and that the sign addresses her by name. “This is for you. I did not come only for the wealthy,” Jesus has written. She begins playing with her doll in the doll house as the credits begin to roll.</p><p><br /><br />This episode appears to cover the time period just prior to and immediately after the <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">first episode of the series</a>: about two-thirds of the way in, Jesus tells the children that on the previous day he had stayed in town to help a woman who was in distress and needed his help, clearly referring to <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html" target="_blank">Mary Magdalene</a>.</p><p>While the episode doesn’t advance the main plotlines of the season as a whole, it does give us insight into Jesus’ character. He is alone and traveling; he has little money and supports himself by trading handcrafted items for his necessities. He cares deeply about people who are unimportant in the larger society, and welcomes them, listening to them and teaching them.</p><p>He demonstrates his divinity, assessing his handcrafted work and saying, “It is good,” echoing the divine assessment of each act of creation in Genesis 1. He also shows his humanity, laboriously starting a fire by hand and dressing a wound he has incurred. He indicates knowledge of being the Messiah, echoing Isaiah 61, although he does not explicitly claim messiahship just yet. He delights in the children’s recitation of the Shema and teaches them (before any of his more well-known disciples) the Lord’s Prayer.</p><p>This episode, more than most, leaves itself open to the criticism that it not only embellishes upon Scripture but positively departs from it. Although we know of Jesus’ compassion toward children (e.g. Luke 18:15-17), the scriptures do not record any instances of Jesus having ongoing and personal interactions with children in the way that this episode portrays, much less teaching them the Lord’s Prayer and coming very close to revealing himself to them as Messiah. Once again, we must remember that <i>The Chosen</i> is not attempting to reconstruct what actually happened, but is rather speculating on what may have happened, given certain circumstances that are plausible for the time period and culture in which the series is set, but are also relevant to the viewers’ lives and milieux. </p><p>Some have also found fault with the portrayal of Jesus as cutting and then bandaging himself, arguing that a divine Jesus would never make a physical error resulting in his own injury, and would have been able to heal himself instantly in any event. But this view neglects the limitations the divine Word imposed upon himself in becoming human (Philippians 2:7). Jesus did not merely look human; he actually became one of us, including all of our limitations, apart from inherent sinfulness.</p><p>So here we see Jesus, just on the cusp of the formal ministry related to us in the gospels, knowing that he is the Messiah, with all the love and character we see in his formal ministry. At two points in the story he is alone, praying to the Father, and already he is anguished in doing so: he seems to be eager for the Father to use him and speak through him, but as we will see in future episodes, he also knows very well where this mission is going to lead.</p><p>And yet, his final act in this episode is to bless a little girl with a gift her family would never have been able to afford. Throughout the episode, his focus is on the children who have happened upon his solitary campground. He recognizes and celebrates their simple faith and shares with them things that he will later share with his disciples. It’s a charming, sweet episode that reveals the Jesus who will be such a central figure in the rest of the series.</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-1412766138114714402024-01-10T06:00:00.036-05:002024-01-10T07:58:34.827-05:00The Chosen 1:2 – Shabbat<p>Episode 2, “Shabbat,” does not have a strong episode arc; none of the stories
have a conclusive resolution, as did Mary’s story in the first episode, “<a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">I Have Called You by Name</a>.” For the most part, each of the four main plotlines
continues to build, and we get more insight into each of the characters. But
the episode is bookended by a Shabbat (<a href="https://www.theopedia.com/sabbath" target="_blank">sabbath</a>) observance, first in the time
of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/king-solomon" target="_blank">Solomon</a>, and then nearly a millennium later in the time of Jesus. We see
the long history and tradition of the Jewish people, the Shabbat observances
punctuating the weekly routine of an entire people down through the
centuries.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQu-ZFvHEFpJzczRuqCIAgfYfACCObaxE4rYa5qr_g3eCb0T7uC_GIBe-IXztiKd499HE3RUbyw_rZrX6kPE2K5RCZjTmk_biKvr9Ya44ULMUeKmEEIeiFGfUmfImltL8Gztb-DpPWK7RruiJdCqfsPuF5-3yNyZz20oDp820_4u_csiA_mTzc/s3840/Nic%20and%20Mary%201-2.webp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQu-ZFvHEFpJzczRuqCIAgfYfACCObaxE4rYa5qr_g3eCb0T7uC_GIBe-IXztiKd499HE3RUbyw_rZrX6kPE2K5RCZjTmk_biKvr9Ya44ULMUeKmEEIeiFGfUmfImltL8Gztb-DpPWK7RruiJdCqfsPuF5-3yNyZz20oDp820_4u_csiA_mTzc/s320/Nic%20and%20Mary%201-2.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>This concern for meticulous observance of Shabbat not only
provides structure and a unified theme for this episode, but also sets the
stage for a central point of controversy throughout Jesus’ ministry, and thus
the series. Jesus is frequently perceived as profaning Shabbat by performing
miracles such as healing on that day, and is confronted numerous times in
Scripture by the Pharisees on this point (e.g., Mark 2:24, 3:2; Luke 13:4; John
5:16). What this episode does, among other things, is portray how important
the Shabbat observance is to this people.</p><p>We already saw in the first
episode how fishing on Shabbat is considered a very serious violation (serious
enough that
<a href="https://www.fusionglobal.org/about-us/" target="_blank">Rabbi Jason Sobel</a>, a messianic Jewish consultant for the series, thinks that it simply would
<a href="https://watch.thechosen.tv/episode/biblical-roundtable-season-1-episode-2" target="_blank">never have happened</a>) which then provides a motivating force behind Simon’s
plot line. In this episode, we see how the same issue continues to develop
with Simon, how Mary’s transformation is portrayed through Shabbat, what the
sabbath observance has become for Nicodemus’s social circle, and how it
illustrates Matthew’s alienation from his people.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p> </p><p>Early in the
episode we see Mary, working in a hairdresser’s salon, now peaceful and happy,
clearly different from her former tortured self. She is unsure of what she is
doing, so it is evident that she is in the process of learning a trade, but
she is working with other women who seem to know her well and display
significant camaraderie. While going on an errand, she is noticed by Rabbi
Yussif (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6704577/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Ivan Jasso</a>), one of Rabbi Shmuel’s assistants, who recognizes her as
the woman Nicodemus had tried to help. He sees that she is clearly
transformed.</p><p>Yussif reports this evidence of a miracle back to judges of
the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-sanhedrin" target="_blank">Sanhedrin</a>, the Jewish religious ruling council. In response, Shmuel
excitedly interrupts Nicodemus’s study to bring him to the judge. Everyone
assumes that Nicodemus’s ministry had a delayed reaction and that the
deliverance was accomplished through him—everyone except Nicodemus himself,
who knows better than anyone how ineffective his
efforts had seemed to be, and can hardly believe that whatever has happened is
real or will last. More than anything, he is intrigued at an apparent success
in a situation he had viewed as a lost cause.</p><p>Nicodemus finds Mary in the
marketplace, as she has left the hairdressers early to prepare for Shabbat,
for the first time in a long time. She doesn’t recognize him and views him
with distrust at first, hastily covering her hair when she realizes that he is
a Pharisee. When he affirms her transformation, she has to tell him that what
happened had nothing to do with what he did; instead, it was someone else. “I
don’t know his name, and even if I did, I could not tell you. His time for men
to know has not yet come,” she tells Nicodemus.</p><p>“He performs miracles and
seeks no credit?” Nicodemus asks, incredulously.</p><p>“I don’t understand it
myself,” Mary responds. “But here is what I can tell you: I was one way, and
now I am completely different. And the thing that happened in between was him.
So yes, I will know him for the rest of my life.”</p><p>And so we see the first
personal testimony of a transformed life in the series. Mary doesn’t know or
understand much about what has happened to her; she doesn’t even know Jesus’
name. All she knows is that he made the difference.</p><p>While this is
happening, Matthew meets with Quintus. He is too focused on his obsessions to
be afraid of the Praetor, despite the warnings of his guard Gaius. Quintus
assures Matthew that he has indeed forgiven Simon and Andrew’s tax debt in
exchange for Simon giving information on Shabbat fishing. Rather than simply
taking his answer and leaving, Matthew persists, telling Quintus that he
thinks Simon is unreliable. Acknowledging that Simon has so far not provided
the information he promised, Quintus suggests that he may have further use for
Matthew’s “keen powers of observation.” A significant subtext of the scene is
that Quintus is both amused and intrigued that Matthew, due to his social
awkwardness, displays none of the obsequious deference that Quintus sees in
most people, and therefore Quintus feels he can trust Matthew to tell him the
truth in a way he can’t trust most other people.</p><p>Meanwhile, Simon is seen
at the bar, buying drinks for and playing up to the merchant fishermen that he
is intending to betray to Quintus. Back at a table, his brother Andrew argues
with him about the morality of what he is intending. Simon insists that he
doesn’t like what he is going to do, but that those other men are not
family—Simon sees it as a choice between family and loyalty to countrymen, and
he’s choosing to save his family. Later, at the water’s edge, Simon and Andrew
continue their discussion. “I keep waiting for you to tell me this is all part
of a plan to double-cross Rome,” Andrew pleads, but Simon feels he has no
alternative.</p><p>Back at home the next day, Simon’s wife Eden confronts him
on his worry and deceptiveness, and he has to let her know that he is going to
have to work on Shabbat, during the night after the Shabbat meal. Eden relents
in her questioning, allowing Simon to do what he feels he has to do, but
implying that this must be the last time. “I don’t have the strength for it
twice,” she tells him.</p><p>As the day approaches sundown, all the characters
prepare for their various Shabbat dinners. In online discussions, others have
focused on how different the Shabbat meals are, and that’s a valid point, but
I see the similarities, the ways in which all these characters, no matter how
different in social and religious standing, all share this common observance
that unites them as a people.</p><p>Nicodemus and his wife Zohara arrive at
their elegant Shabbat meal as visiting dignitaries. While Zohara is seeking to
use the occasion to enhance her husband’s status and importance, Nicodemus
questions the flattery he receives and wonders aloud whether the religious
hierarchy of which he is a part is now “suppressing our worship” as foreign
overlords once did.</p><p>At the opposite extreme, Matthew goes to his family’s
house, but only looks in the window, taking his meal with his dog in the alley
outside. Simon, Andrew, and Eden share a humble but tense Shabbat observance,
with Simon kissing his wife’s cheek as he leaves, despite her displeasure.</p><p>But
the best Shabbat observance is at Mary’s house. She welcomes two friends,
Barnaby (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576537/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Aalok Mehta</a>) a wisecracking lame man, and Shula (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3369069/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_Anne%2520Beyer" target="_blank">Anne Beyer</a>), his
blind friend. Soon after, two unexpected visitors arrive—Thaddaeus (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4544348/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_3_q_Giavani%2520Cairo" target="_blank">Giavani Cairo</a>) and James (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1391406/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_Jordan%2520Walker%2520Ross" target="_blank">Jordan Walker Ross</a>, later to be distinguished as “Little
James” by contrast with “Big James,” one of the sons of Zebedee). Mary invites
them in, as custom dictates she must, without knowing that they are disciples
of Jesus. As Mary apologizes all over herself for not knowing exactly how to
do everything, Jesus himself arrives, and Mary is so astonished that she
forgets to invite him in and he has to ask.</p><p>Jesus identifies himself by
name, telling everyone he is “from Nazareth,” provoking Barnaby to joke,
“Apparently something good can come from Nazareth!” While everyone else is
horrified that Jesus might be offended, Jesus just gives Barnaby a wink. He
invites Mary to read the Shabbat scriptures, and her words become a voiceover
to visuals of all the Shabbat meals going on at the same time—her own meal,
Nicodemus’s grand feast, Matthew’s solitary exile, and Simon’s family.
Undercutting the sentimental montage, the episode ends with Simon leaving and
then standing at the water’s edge, looking out for merchant fishermen, with
Roman soldiers approaching to join him.</p><p> </p><p>The similarities and
differences of the various Shabbat meals, the ways in which each major
character is “in” or “out” of the Jewish tradition, provide the thematic
structure of the episode. Nicodemus is the most “in” while questioning the
legitimacy of the whole religious hierarchy, while Matthew, despite being rich
and protected by the Romans, is the most “out” and dares not enter even his
own family’s home. Simon, as a result of being “in” as a Jew and therefore
taxed and oppressed by the Romans, feels it necessary to go “out” and join the
Romans in order to save his family. And Mary, up to now very much “out,” finds
herself uncomfortably “in,” hosting the meal in her own home. But it is her
humble meal that Jesus chooses to join and bless with his
presence, making this gathering arguably the most “in” of the entire episode,
despite the fact that no one else knows about it—no one else seems to know
anything about Jesus yet at all.</p><p>We see in this episode the traditions
that form both the strength and the weakness of the cultural milieu that Jesus
entered: the customs and rituals that bound a people together in worship of
the one God, but yet created the cultural grid that excluded the Messiah they
pointed to. The people of God have adapted both to the oppression of foreign
rule and to waiting for their deliverer, the Messiah, to come; what they are
not prepared for is the actual coming of that Messiah, especially if he is not
the deliverer from foreign rule that they are expecting and hoping for.</p><p>The
whole episode raises the question of how our religious observances can both
assist and impede our unity with one another and our following of God’s
leading. Do we become so enamored of the elegant trappings and status of our
observances that they exclude the thing we are supposed to observe? Does our
means of inclusion end up excluding some? Do we get so caught up in the
minutia of how we observe that we end up forgetting the One that the
observance is supposed to be aimed at? And do we rush through the formalities
of the observance, only to get on to what we consider to be really
important—things that may, in fact, be completely opposed to what the
observance was all about?</p><p>In other words, all worship of God requires
means—a space, a community, an event in which we can participate. These things
are beautiful, taken for what they are supposed to be. But they can also
become a distraction from the reality they are supposed to point to. The
episode “Shabbat” is, for me, both a commemoration of the beauty of what
worship of God can be, and a cautionary tale of what it can develop into.
Let’s always conduct our worship in such a way that if Jesus knocked on our
door, we could happily invite him in to share it with us. </p>
Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-16529590245452165362024-01-07T06:00:00.069-05:002024-01-07T06:00:00.194-05:00The Chosen 1:1 – I Have Called You by Name<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBLloza5CNbFoj-u5Vyoldzi7FTbNGkwlJps6HWLoIbwBELCRBuBiy5jUe4LdtrZD9bUarCNToJp0fNP7SY0sWHH2F6pmMY0of1rexElGpldVp8UATfvJLYChg2dF1AqRqdb3G88QIxpBBABRsBYMqievw-BwsFn22Hvn2PEGvsB0DlYjV5WY/s650/mary-magdalene-the-chosen-ep1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt=""Lilith" being called Mary by Jesus" border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="650" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCBLloza5CNbFoj-u5Vyoldzi7FTbNGkwlJps6HWLoIbwBELCRBuBiy5jUe4LdtrZD9bUarCNToJp0fNP7SY0sWHH2F6pmMY0of1rexElGpldVp8UATfvJLYChg2dF1AqRqdb3G88QIxpBBABRsBYMqievw-BwsFn22Hvn2PEGvsB0DlYjV5WY/w320-h180/mary-magdalene-the-chosen-ep1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I’ve heard that many people have started <i>The Chosen</i> but quit after an episode or two because they couldn’t keep track of what was going on. In some cases, this might be because they were expecting straightforward Bible stories that they already knew, which is not what you get in this show, but like many other bingeworthy shows, <i>The Chosen</i> has many well-developed characters and complicated, interrelated storylines, and the first few episodes set up a lot of situations that will pay off later. There are four different plot lines that are being initiated, only one of which comes to a meaningful resolution in this episode.</p><p><i>This episode requires a significant recap prior to delving into analysis; feel free to <a href="#analysis">jump forward</a> to the next break if you’re already fully familiar with the plot details.</i></p><p><i><span></span></i></p><a name='more'></a><br /><p>The first plot line focuses on a woman (played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3355902/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Elizabeth Tabish</a>) who is plagued by demons and identified as “Lilith” throughout most of the episode. In the opening scene, captioned “<a href="https://greekreporter.com/2023/10/15/ancient-magdala-unearthed-israel/" target="_blank">Magdala</a> 2 BC,” she is being taught by her father to combat fear by using “the words” from the prophet Isaiah:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">But now thus says the Lord,<br />he who created you, O Jacob,<br /> he who formed you, O Israel:<br />“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;<br /> I have called you by name, you are mine. (Isaiah 43:1)<br /></p><p>Lilith seems to go into demonic fits in which she lashes out—a man is seen running from her apartment with blood streaming from his neck, calling for help and saying “She tried to kill me!” She looks at her hands, which are covered in blood, and infers what must have happened—she has no memory of the event.</p><p>The second storyline centers on Nicodemus (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0042805/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_erick%2520" target="_blank">Erick Avari</a>), a prominent Rabbi and <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pharisees-sadducees-and-essenes">Pharisee</a> of the Jewish ruling council, the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-sanhedrin" target="_blank">Sanhedrin</a>. He is traveling to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Capernaum" target="_blank">Capernaum</a> when he is stopped by Quintus (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2743770/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t29" target="_blank">Brandon Potter</a>), the Roman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/praetor" target="_blank">Praetor</a> (governor) of Capernaum. Quintus believes that fishing is going on during Shabbat (the <a href="https://www.theopedia.com/sabbath" target="_blank">Sabbath</a> day), which, since this is against Jewish law, is being covered up, and therefore no taxes are being paid on the catches. Quintus doesn’t care about Shabbat, but he wants the tax revenue; meanwhile, Nicodemus doesn’t want to aid the Romans in taxation, but he does take Shabbat seriously, so he agrees to push the local synagogue ruler, Shmuel (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3459555/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_Shaan%2520Sharma" target="_blank">Shaan Sharma</a>) to crack down on this chronic violation.</p><p>In the course of pursuing this matter, however, Nicodemus is summoned by the Romans again to deal with the demon-possessed woman, Lilith, in the “Red Quarter.” He goes under protest, and enters Lilith’s apartment, burning a mixture of herbs and sulfur, trying to take authority over the demons using names of angels, patriarchs, and Adonai (“the Lord” in Hebrew, the word normally replaced in speech for the unspoken name of God), and trying to call the names of the demons themselves. It seems to be a ritualized speech and for a moment appears to work, until Lilith sits up from behind her overturned bed to say in what sounds like multiple simultaneous voices, “We are not afraid of you. You have no power here, teacher.”</p><p>Nicodemus flees in terror, later sharing the event and his misgivings to his wife Zohara (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0201075/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_2_q_Janis%2520Dardaris" target="_blank">Janis Dardaris</a>), who rebuffs his doubts, saying that he should never have been there in the first place: “Leave exorcism to the exorcists,” she says. “You spoke the words; the demons did not respond.” Nicodemus seems mollified and, addressing the people afterward, says that when some people live a whole life of sinfulness, they can be so bound by demons that only God himself could deliver them.</p><p>The third plot line revolves around a tax collector named Matthew (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4407460/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_Paras%2520Patel" target="_blank">Paras Patel</a>) who appears to have what we would call <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/what-is-obsessive-compulsive-disorder" target="_blank">obsessive-compulsive disorder</a> (in later episodes this is augmented by evidence that he is on the <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/autism/what-is-autism-spectrum-disorder" target="_blank">autistic spectrum</a>). He lives alone in a fine house with expensive clothes, but has to hide in a cart to get to his tax booth to avoid harassment and possible violence from his fellow Jews, who consider him a traitor, as he is taxing them on behalf of their Roman occupiers.</p><p>The fourth storyline involves a man named Simon (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6051304/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_Shahar%2520Isaac" target="_blank">Shahar Isaac</a>), who is introduced in a street fight being bet on by onlookers. It becomes apparent that Simon is fighting his brother-in-law, trying to look defeated while his brother Andrew (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5154700/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_noah%2520james" target="_blank">Noah James</a>) rakes in bets against him. When Simon is about to turn the tables, he is sucker-punched by another brother-in-law and loses.</p><p>Simon and Andrew’s conversation after the fight reveals that they are deep in tax debt, and that gambling to try to get the money is only making the problem worse. Andrew is worried that they will lose their fishing boat, and thereby their livelihood. Simon lets him know that he is planning to fish on Shabbat, a suggestion from which Andrew recoils. Later, Simon sees his wife Eden (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7299297/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_Lara%2520Silva" target="_blank">Lara Silva</a>), and it’s clear that he’s trying to keep their financial worries from her and hide the fact that he is planning to fish on Shabbat. She recognizes that something is wrong, but can’t get any information from Simon other than his attempts to reassure her that he has everything under control.</p><p>As Simon and Andrew approach Matthew’s tax booth, Simon intimates that he has a plan to take care of the tax debt, and Andrew mocks him: “Wow! Get the papyrus! Simon met a guy!” But when Matthew tells Andrew that he only has enough to cover about half of his tax penalty—never mind the original debt—Andrew feels ruined and hopeless. At this point, Simon steps in and tells Matthew that he has made an arrangement with Quintus. Matthew questions this and insists he will verify with Quintus, but lets them go. Later, we see him with his Roman <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/centurion-Roman-military-officer" target="_blank">centurion</a> guard Gaius (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0938570/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_1_q_Kirk%2520B.%2520R.%2520Woller" target="_blank">Kirk B. R. Woller</a>) on their way to talk to Quintus, and while Matthew is fixated on the task, Gaius worries about bothering Quintus with this issue.</p><p>The plot line with Lilith finds resolution in this episode. After Nicodemus’s failed attempt at exorcism, she thinks back to events that have traumatized her: losing her father to illness and being raped by a Roman soldier. Distraught, she pulls the head off the doll to reveal a small scroll of paper, which she pulls out and from which she tries to read the words from Isaiah through tears. She ends up ripping up the paper in frustration.</p><p>She goes into a bar and is warmly greeted by Sol (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629634/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_lance%2520e%2520nichols" target="_blank">Lance E. Nichols</a>), the proprietor, who tries to give her some fish broth to restore her strength, but his efforts to comfort her are rebuffed: “I am in hell,” she says. She leaves, intending to commit suicide by throwing herself off of a cliff, but is distracted by a dove, which she follows back to the bar.</p><p>She insists on alcohol, but when she is about to reach for the cup, a hand falls on hers, along with a voice saying, “That’s not for you.” She looks up to see, not a man who had been hitting on her a moment before, but Jesus (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0745751/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_Jonathan%2520Roumie" target="_blank">Jonathan Roumie</a>). She begins to feel a demonic attack coming on, and tells Jesus to leave her alone. She runs out of the bar, but Jesus stops her in her tracks, calling out “Mary! Mary of Magdala.”</p><p>Yes. “Lilith” is actually Mary Magdalene. As she turns back toward Jesus, he begins to quote the same words from Isaiah that she had learned as a child. At the same time, the wordless voices in the background music change from minor to major key. He draws near to her, finishing the quote with “You are mine!” Jesus takes Mary’s head in his hands, and she collapses, crying, into his chest.<br /><br /> </p><p><a id="analysis">This episode</a> launches the four main narrative arcs of the season: Mary Magdalene’s redemption and early life in Christ, Nicodemus’s journey from respected Jewish leader to seeker after Jesus, Matthew’s conversion from tax collector to disciple of Jesus, and Simon (Peter)’s call and subsequent development toward leadership in the growing band of disciples.</p><p>What ties all of these stories together is that none of the four know anything about Jesus throughout most of the episode. They are all Jews living under Roman occupation, a harsh fact that the episode does not shy away from. Each is dealing with the occupation in a different way. Mary has been the most damaged, having been raped by a Roman soldier and now plagued by demonic possession. Simon and Andrew are working-class men just trying to live their lives and deal with Roman taxation. Nicodemus is struggling to maintain the illusion of status and honor in the religious community, trying to maintain independence from the Romans but constantly being drawn back into serving their interests. Matthew has been co-opted almost completely into the Roman order, but has to deal with ostracism by his people (and, as we will soon find out, his own family). He benefits materially from his collaboration, but loses all meaningful social contact with his own people. As <i>The Chosen</i> presents it, he has made this deal because he is on the autistic spectrum and is therefore already cut off socially from others. But this doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand the price he is paying.</p><p>Mary’s story, intertwined with that of Nicodemus, is the one most completely realized in the episode. They form polar opposites on the religious spectrum, the religious bigwig and the demon-possessed outcast. Mary Magdalene in popular consciousness has been portrayed as a redeemed prostitute, largely because of an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene#Erroneous_portrayal_of_Mary_Magdalene_as_a_prostitute" target="_blank">Easter sermon by Pope Gregory I</a> in AD 591 in which he conflated Mary Magdalene with both Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus feet in John 12:3, and with the unnamed “sinful woman” in Luke 7:36-50 who anointed Jesus’ feet on a separate occasion.</p><p>Show creator Dallas Jenkins has argued that <i>The Chosen</i> never portrays Mary as a prostitute, but in that case, it’s hard to know what the bleeding man running from her apartment was doing there in the first place. On the other hand, even if the show does suggest a sordid past, it views Mary sympathetically—a victim of rape, her father’s death, and the symptoms of her possession—not at all a stereotypical Mae West type. <i>The Chosen</i> does a great job in fleshing out the biblical witness with church tradition and popular portrayals; in the case of Mary, the show portrays clearly what we know from scripture (that she had been delivered from seven demons) and everything else is hinted at.</p><p>So rather than a floozy who has repented and been redeemed by Jesus, Mary is portrayed as a woman who has been hurt repeatedly, first by the death of her father, then by the violation of one or more Roman soldiers, and finally to an existence in the Red Quarter (that the Pharisees only deign to visit on compulsion), eking out an existence God knows how. She was raised by a devout believer but hasn’t had that guidance since she was very young. She tries to recite scripture to ward off the demons who plague her, but with little success. We as viewers are not invited to decide whether her problems are psychological or spiritual, but rather to see the opportunism of the demonic world in taking advantage of psychological suffering. Mary is a woman plagued by demons because she has (as we would say two millenia later) been psychologically and physically traumatized.</p><p>Nicodemus, on the other hand, has wealth, status, prestige, and dignity; apart from the Roman occupation, he’s on the top of the Jewish world. He begins with all the confidence that his status confers; even in pursuing the issue that the Roman Praetor wants him to pursue, he righteously condemns lowly, sinful fishermen and all those who consume their ill-gotten catch: “what goes into the body of a man defiles him” and “the Messiah will not come until this wickedness is purged from our midst,” both statements that will be contradicted by the appearance and teaching of Jesus.</p><p>But Nicodemus, for all his pomp and self-righteousness, is at least honest enough to question: he is troubled by his failure to cast the demons out of “Lilith,” in contrast to his wife’s cavalier dismissal of the event. Doubting and questioning to her is merely blasphemy; her husband, whatever his private misgivings, must at the very least maintain his certainty in public! Although Nicodemus seems to accept her advice provisionally, we will later find out that he is more shaken and more honest than he seems at the moment.</p><p>But at this point, Jesus comes not to the religious leader but to the suicidal, demon-possessed woman who has ripped up scripture and thrown it over the same cliff she intended to throw herself off of—the character in this episode who seems in many ways the most removed from God. She is not seeking him; she is actively running away from him, but he finds her nonetheless and calls her by name. She is caught, helpless, rescued despite herself, hearing the centuries-old words of Isaiah that her father had taught her as a child, spoken by a man who shouldn’t have known her and shouldn’t have known what those words meant to her.</p><p>This is going to be the message of <i>The Chosen</i>, a recovery of the message of the New Testament itself: Jesus’ pursuit of the most unlikely, the most unworthy, the most unexpected people to be his disciples. Everyone’s expectations of the Messiah and of his entourage are going to be subverted. Every fault and failure we as viewers can identify with are going to be represented in Jesus’ disciples: the broken, the morally corrupt, those who sold out for money, the impulsive, the self-righteous, the skeptics—all these and more like them will be among his chosen. Because the kingdom he is going to build is what my old professor, <a href="https://www.gordonconwell.edu/faculty/senior/dr-richard-lints/" target="_blank">Richard Lints</a>, called an “ironic kingdom”; one that doesn’t make sense in any human way: militarily, religiously, academically, morally.</p><p>Because only in this way can we relate. The stories of these chosen people will be painfully relatable. If he can choose them, he can choose us. If they managed somehow to do his will, so can we. Rather than plaster saints, we have mirrors to look at. People like us. Not the choosers. The chosen.</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-43953044717917526842024-01-03T06:00:00.052-05:002024-01-09T14:36:50.644-05:00Reflecting on The Chosen: A Review and Interpretation Series<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQLOKzl4c8EmTaCv-TdNeIIFdNNKpdVXca3UObTrWSArUg7I0U9Gf3kX9IyQ9XWPUFk6l9LwY6T61Caa2luJrp3TtcXkatEDKFYf7tENcnvwEgNd-tUGnMmpAjtC5B8MXrwbxbHk3iEcyUI0vzHF_4nCa46WrGfPj10tG9gf6oy5ozfUJ6CUU/s2048/Jesus%20The%20Chosen.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQLOKzl4c8EmTaCv-TdNeIIFdNNKpdVXca3UObTrWSArUg7I0U9Gf3kX9IyQ9XWPUFk6l9LwY6T61Caa2luJrp3TtcXkatEDKFYf7tENcnvwEgNd-tUGnMmpAjtC5B8MXrwbxbHk3iEcyUI0vzHF_4nCa46WrGfPj10tG9gf6oy5ozfUJ6CUU/s320/Jesus%20The%20Chosen.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>I’m going to embark on a review series on <i><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9471404/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_The%2520Chosen" target="_blank">The Chosen.</a></i> For anyone who happens across this page and doesn’t know what <i>The Chosen</i> is—I don’t know why you would; this website has been defunct for a while—<i>The Chosen</i> is an independently produced series on the life of Jesus and his disciples, specifically from the disciples’ point of view.<a href="#footnote1">*</a> It portrays a number of passages in scripture, but its primary purpose is not just to retell Bible stories. It fleshes out Jesus’ disciples, and his opponents, with imagined backstories, to transform the narratives from simple morality tales to more gripping drama. We become invested in the stories of Mary Magdalene, Simon Peter, Nicodemus; we care about them as people, rather than seeing them as names without further information.<p></p><a name='more'></a><p>The point is not for these backstories to be accurate, since we have little reliable information about most of these characters. The point is for them to be relatable. While <i>The Chosen</i> is formally set within first-century Israel, and clear efforts have been made to represent accurately the social, political, religious, and cultural context of the Roman-occupied land of ancient Israel, the human stories are meant to be applicable to present-day issues and problems.</p><p><i>The Chosen</i> is a bit of a “what if” drama; a place where we could imagine what it would have been like to be with Jesus as one of his first disciples. But it also takes the “what if” in the opposite direction—what if Jesus in the flesh were calling us, right here, right now? What would our struggles be like; what unexpected directions would opposition come from? And then we think—other than the “in the flesh” part, isn’t that actually our situation, right here, right now?</p><p>Although I'm a big fan of <i>The Chosen,</i> I'm not a completely uncritical one. I'm an evangelical Christian, as is <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420817/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk" target="_blank">Dallas Jenkins</a>, the showrunner and creative force behind the project, so I'm in sympathy with what he's doing. Although the project got its initial distribution through <a href="https://www.angel.com/" target="_blank">Angel Studios</a>, whose founders are members of the LDS church, and some of the filming has taken place on a film set in Utah which was built for LDS productions, I don't find rumors of Mormon influence credible. The stories themselves reveal the gospels themselves, viewed through a distinctly Christian and mostly Evangelical lens. Nonetheless, there are a few aspects of the writing that I would have done differently. I have a New Testament studies background that informs my view of the accuracy of the series and the theology implied by it. I have an undergraduate degree in English literature and some community theatre experience which informs my view of the storytelling and drama involved. Most things I think work very well; a few I have quibbles with.</p><p>In short, I find <i>The Chosen</i> inspiring, but not inspired. I think it is what it claims to be and only what it claims to be: a television show based on the gospels, but not restricting itself to only the material in the Gospels. It's historical drama; a bit like Tolstoy's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Peace" target="_blank">War and Peace</a></i> vis-a-vis Napoleon's invasion into Russia in 1812. Some of the characters are made up; some are composites; and some are real figures who go through both historically verifiable and completely imaginary events.</p><p>So if you're interested in this perspective, come along for the ride. Feel free to comment and join in the conversation. My <a href="https://www.schooleyfiles.com/2024/01/the-chosen-11-i-have-called-you-by-name.html">review of the first episode</a> will drop this coming Sunday. God bless.</p><p><br /><a id="footnote1">*</a>If you're unfamiliar, <i>The Chosen</i> is available to watch for free on <a href="https://watch.thechosen.tv/#carousels" target="_blank">its own app</a> and on the <a href="https://www.angel.com/watch/the-chosen?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAx_GqBhBQEiwAlDNAZiQqQZojitGh4YdJFRjbFOb6xqseG0A3ec8X_ePIYDSwRCo6V8ffdxoCEPIQAvD_BwE">Angel Studios</a> app, both available in the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-chosen/id6443956656">Apple Store</a> and the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.comeandsee.thechosen" target="_blank">Google Play</a> store; early seasons are also currently available on <a href="https://www.netflix.com/watch/81622759?source=35" target="_blank">Netflix</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjBpInnvtaCAxVjjokEHVGjAX4Qg4YDegQIMRBA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fvideo%2Fdetail%2Famzn1.dv.gti.1726e287-b2bc-4e1b-bf13-e12a46f7351c%3Fautoplay%3D0%26ref_%3Datv_cf_strg_wb&usg=AOvVaw2pBXUKzUHoT5h4Bt0cK31_&opi=89978449" target="_blank">Amazon Prime</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjBpInnvtaCAxVjjokEHVGjAX4Qg4YDegQIMRAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.peacocktv.com%2Fwatch%2Fasset%2Ftv%2Fthe-chosen%2F6891447005985777112&usg=AOvVaw3gT3Us2CN5bQ2PVjGmVGjc&opi=89978449" target="_blank">Peacock</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjBpInnvtaCAxVjjokEHVGjAX4Qg4YDegQIMRAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftubitv.com%2Fseries%2F300007679%2Fthe-chosen%3Fstart%3Dtrue%26tracking%3Dgoogle-feed%26utm_source%3Dgoogle-feed&usg=AOvVaw3NE4Cciqn-ArusaaV6bBXT&opi=89978449">Tubi</a>, and other streaming services.</p>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-42579410288807501242022-07-08T12:33:00.000-04:002022-07-08T12:33:36.080-04:00Loved by Strangers: A Testimony Done Right<p>In
evangelicalism, we have a bit of a weird tradition. I've heard special speakers in church and read books that follow this pattern. Someone will share a
testimony, the story of God's grace in their life, which goes into gory
detail about their sinful and messed-up life prior to their encounter
with Jesus, with greater and greater drama up to and through their
conversion, and then pretty much finish up with, "And then I lived
happily ever after."</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdByqaBnuYsAaBlsWqRbRJ8ZDAMJbAiSYz7UlB-EuehxBCPhRiisdCc2MkQtYLbFSTuI099w3eEy9BKz5yKbJqsafe6SW8ZdhRwU9zaSiZq0d01tlnzkHfyQT5mROngBSsqVxBZ1ly5dn_YMlB_sxNXwSxc_D99pVfcUZ3kMtsVECfublug/s2560/E-book%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdByqaBnuYsAaBlsWqRbRJ8ZDAMJbAiSYz7UlB-EuehxBCPhRiisdCc2MkQtYLbFSTuI099w3eEy9BKz5yKbJqsafe6SW8ZdhRwU9zaSiZq0d01tlnzkHfyQT5mROngBSsqVxBZ1ly5dn_YMlB_sxNXwSxc_D99pVfcUZ3kMtsVECfublug/w200-h320/E-book%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a>This pattern has long seemed weird to me. It gives the strong impression that the most
interesting and compelling part of anyone's life is the BC—Before
Christ—part. It's hard not to get the idea that the listeners or readers are getting a vicarious thrill out of hearing the down-and-dirty parts of someone's life, and then get to feel okay about it as long as the message is that sin doesn't pay and Jesus can redeem everyone. It can also make someone like me, who never had a "past" in the way people talk about that, feel like they have a second-class testimony. <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">It also whitewashes what the post-conversion Christian life is really like. Those of us
who are Christians know that it's not a "happily ever after"
story. There are a lot of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. Our conversion is only the beginning of a process where God
is continually healing, restoring, shaping, and working through us.</p><p style="text-align: left;">My wife Cecile's new memoir, <i>Loved by Strangers,</i> is a better kind of testimony. She candidly discusses her early life without Jesus, <span>from childhood abuse, drug use, and
glamour, to divorce, alcohol abuse, and the loss of everything. She sadly doesn't have a "boring testimony" like I do. And God has been using people with a checkered past for a very long time (see the Apostle Paul, St. Augustine, or John Newton) to demonstrate his transformative power. I'm also convinced that God uses these life experiences to embolden and empower the people who have had them. So the stories of sin, loss, and brokenness are relevant. </span><span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>But Cecile also describes how </span><span>God's grace brought her to salvation, sobriety, love and
remarriage, growth, the peaks and valleys of the Christian walk, and
ministry to others. It was remarkable, in the process of writing this book, how we could see the threads of things that had once been wounds and weaknesses be healed, sometimes through new experiences that transformed their meaning, and sometimes when events forced Cecile to confront and overcome previous fears and scars. It wasn't a conversion experience where everything got magically fixed all at once; it has been a process spanning years and decades. God's always still working through all of us.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>At the same time that all this healing is occurring, <i>Loved by Strangers</i> also shows Cecile come full circle and use the experiences she has had to contribute to ministry to others. It turns out that nothing we go through is wasted; nothing is pointless; and very few things are simply for ourselves and no one else. Sometimes we can't listen to others, no matter how "right" their answers are, until we know that they've gone through something similar to what we've gone through. God has used Cecile's testimony, as well as the empathy she's developed for people in the grip of sin or enduring its consequences, to touch other people's lives in a way that many people, including me, never could.<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>All along the way, </span><span>her inspiring story offers hope that, no matter
where your personal journey has brought you, you can regain joy and
purpose through the mercy and power of Jesus.</span><span></span></p> <span class="a-text-italic">Loved by Strangers is published by Risen Lord Press and is available on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Loved-Strangers-Cecile-Schooley/dp/B0B4BVJMFM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=XDVIQWYYXTYZ&keywords=loved+by+strangers+cecile+schooley&qid=1657134287&sprefix=loved+by+strangers%2Caps%2C335&sr=8-1">Amazon in paperback</a> or for <a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B0B52B49LC&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_SVMCCHVAX9T84ZJER3TA">Kindle</a>, in the <a href="https://books.apple.com/us/book/loved-by-strangers/id6443022291?at=1010l9S2&uo=4&mt=11">Apple bookstore</a>, <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loved-by-strangers-cecile-schooley/1141693499?ean=2940166591296">Barnes & Noble</a>, and <a href="https://books2read.com/u/bw1kPy">other online booksellers</a>. </span>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-49537660393735185572019-08-12T12:50:00.001-04:002019-08-12T12:50:16.227-04:00Facebook Pie (Apologies to Don McLean)<br /><br />A long, long time ago<br />I can still remember how <br />Facebook would make me smile<br />And I hoped I could find a way<br />That I could make somebody's day<br />And maybe they'd be happy for a while<br /><br />But then the site would make me shiver<br />With every meme it would deliver<br />Sad news on my laptop<br />I always hoped it would stop<br /><br />I don't know when I felt the need<br />To get a handle on my feed<br />Seems like it went all to seed<br />The day that Facebook died<br /><br />
So why, why Mr. Zuckerburg, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />This'll be the day Facebook dies<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Did you write the Book of Face<br />And did you take over from MySpace?<br />You got a massive market share<br />Of online traffic in the Cloud<br />I'll bet you must have felt so proud<br />As we all looked for friends who were out there<br /><br />And as we would reconnect<br />Your algorithms would inspect<br />The traffic we'd all drive<br />Oh, we all made Facebook thrive<br /><br />We shared our stories and our jokes<br />With our old friends and some random folks<br />It was before the world got woke<br />The day that Facebook died<br />We started singing<br /><br />Why, why Mr. Zuckerburg, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />This'll be the day Facebook dies<br /><br />Now, for ten years we've been sinking fast<br />I guess it was too good to last<br />But that's not how it used to be<br />When we started playing silly games<br />Whose object was to collect more names<br />I guess we never thought we'd see<br /><br />That while we all had looked away<br />Politics had come to stay<br />As people shared their memes<br />We formed opposing teams<br /><br />And instead of finding common ground<br />We argued talking points around<br />And round and round and round<br />The day that Facebook died<br />And we were singing<br /><br />Why, why Mr. Zuckerburg, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />This'll be the day Facebook dies<br /><br />Helter skelter in the online swelter<br />We all looked everywhere for shelter<br />And sometimes took a break offline<br />But then we would never know<br />If something happened to our Uncle Joe<br />We're expected to check our feeds all the time<br /><br />So then we'd begin again<br />Despite ourselves we'd get sucked in<br />The algorithm strikes<br />And we're right back in the fights<br /><br />And as advertising filled our feeds<br />Creating artificial needs<br />We couldn't cut through all the weeds<br />The day that Facebook died<br />So we were singing<br /><br />Why, why Mr. Zuckerburg, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />This'll be the day Facebook dies<br /><br />So Mark be nimble, Mark be quick<br />Mark hired engineers to trick<br />Us into clicking more and more<br />But human nature played its part<br />The darkness was in the human heart<br />We don't even know what we're doing it for<br /><br />And when elections take center stage<br />My hands are clenched in fists of rage<br />I watch my friends all fight<br />And as day turns into night<br /><br />We all think the other guy got owned<br />But ugliness is all we've shown<br />I wonder if we all had known<br />We would have let Facebook die<br />But we keep singing<br /><br />Why, why Facebook users, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />This'll be the day Facebook dies<br /><br />I met a girl who sang the blues<br />And I asked her for some happy news<br />She just smiled and turned away<br />I turned my trusty laptop on<br />To see if the magic was all gone<br />If the promise had been finally betrayed<br /><br />And on the screen the people screamed<br />The memes would mock, a few still dreamed<br />But too many words were spoken<br />Our dialogue was broken<br /><br />And the things that I admire best<br />Peace and kindness, thoughtfulness<br />Have all collapsed in malicious jest<br />The day that Facebook died<br />And I'm still singing<br /><br />Why, why Facebook users, why?<br />I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry<br />And monetization is what makes it all fly<br />Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies<br />Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-86701085757643739372018-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:002018-01-09T06:00:44.371-05:00The Purpose of Marriage<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><i>The following post is excerpted from the chapter, "The Purpose of Marriage," in my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God.</a></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">At some point, all the practical questions
about marriage find their basis in the central question of what marriage is
supposed to be all about. One might think that we should begin with that
question, but in reality none of us do. Ask most couples when they’re about to
get married, and they will tell you that they’re getting married because “We’re
in love.” Doubtless at the time, that is true. Ask a couple on the verge of
divorce why they got married in the first place, and sometimes they’ll say the
same thing, and say that later on they fell out of love. If they’re being
sincerely reflective, though, they’ll acknowledge ulterior motives. She wanted
to get out of her parents’ house and couldn’t afford to be on her own. He
wanted sex, and for religious or other reasons didn’t want simply to sleep
around. She wanted the security of a committed relationship. He was afraid he
was going to lose her if he didn’t lock in the relationship with a ring. She
hadn’t had a lot of guys interested in her, and felt that this was the best she
could do. He had been scared to death of marriage, until he ended up being more
scared of ending up alone. She wanted children and didn’t want to raise them
alone. There are a multitude of reasons. Feel free to swap the pronoun genders
around: none of these reasons are specific to men or to women in particular.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So which is true? The romantic version at
the time, or the jaded version from years later? Most likely, both are. People
are complex beings, and we all have ulterior motives, whether we think we do or
not. It doesn’t make the love we feel at the time any less real.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But the important issue is not what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> think marriage is all about. Rather,
it’s what does <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God</i> think marriage is
all about? Why did he create marriage? What is it for? How is it supposed to
function in our lives?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<h3>
Back to the Beginning</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The only way to answer that question is to
do what Jesus did when the Pharisees asked him their question about divorce.
Jesus went back to the beginning in Genesis. So what does Genesis actually say?</span></div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="BlockQuote">
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our
likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the
sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures
that move along the ground.”</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
<br /></div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
So God created mankind in his own image,</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
in the image of God he created them;</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
male and female he created them.</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
<br /></div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and
increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea
and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the
ground.”</div>
<div class="BlockCite" style="text-align: right;">
(Genesis 1:26-28)</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So the most significant aspect of God’s
creation of humanity in this account is that we were created in God’s image.
The chief purpose of humanity is for us to reflect God’s image, to be at least
in some sense like him. How exactly we are to be like God has long been a
matter of debate. Various theologians have associated the image of God with
various aspects of human existence. Medieval theologians associated it with
human rationality, by contrast with the animal kingdom. Others associated it
with spirituality. Some, looking at the present passage, took God’s image as
being dominion over the rest of the created order. Karl Barth took a novel but
very biblical approach and located the image of God in the male-female
relationship. As a Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit are in a perfectly unified and loving relationship with one another. The
creation of human beings as male and female, with the capacity for love and
unity, is intended to emulate that relationship. The command to “be fruitful
and increase in number” is obviously related to that sexual relationship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Marriage and sexuality are not specifically
the only things that being in God’s image is all about. Trying to locate God’s
image as an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">aspect</i> of humanity is a
wrongheaded approach. We don’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have</i>
God’s image; we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> God’s image. All
aspects of who we are were intended to emulate who God is. But the capacity to
enter into the marriage relationship is a significant part of that image, a
part frequently neglected because we’re looking for something either more
spiritual or more individual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So at least one of the purposes of the
marriage relationship is to provide a context in which human beings can reflect
God’s image, in the expression of mutual love and in the development of
oneness. As we share life together, as we share our bodies in the sexual
relationship, as we make decisions based on submission of our self-centered desires
and viewpoints, as we raise children together, we emulate God—we act out a
reflection of who God is, a reflection that the world can see and in which we
ourselves find a greater understanding of God and our relationship to him.
God’s image finds expression in how we conduct our marriages. The more godly
the manner in which we conduct our marriages, the more faithfully we reflect
his image.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The next relevant section is in Genesis 2:</span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> God
said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Now the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>
God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the
sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever
the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names
to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> God caused the man to fall into a
deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then
closed up the place with flesh. Then the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>
God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her
to the man. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="BlockQuote">
The man said,</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
“This is now bone of my bones</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and flesh of my
flesh;</div>
<div class="BlockQuote">
she shall be called ‘woman,’</div>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for she was taken
out of man.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is
united to his wife, and they become one flesh. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="BlockQuote">
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.</div>
<div class="BlockCite" style="text-align: right;">
(vv. 18-25)</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Genesis 2 fleshes out the poetic and
abstract account in Genesis 1. What we see in Genesis 2 is that none of the
other animals that God had created were suitable to Adam as a companion. God
could have made Adam and one of the other animals similar enough, or he could
simply have created Eve from the dust as he had created Adam. Adam and Eve
could simply have been created at the same time for one another. It’s clearly
intentional that Adam be introduced with <i>aloneness</i> as a problem. God's solution was to take from his rib, or his side, material with which to fashion a
companion. The imagery is unmistakable: Eve is being taken physically out of
Adam, in order to be reunited physically to him. One becoming two becoming one
again—the imagery could only more clearly reflect the triune Godhead if there
were another person involved. But then, the potential for a third person to be
created from that union completes the picture. Genesis explicitly unites the
Adam and Eve story with marriage, and the innocent nudity of the couple
illustrates the purity of the relationship, a purity that will be marred as a
result of sin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
Reflecting God’s Image Practically</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So marriage is one of the ways in which we emulate
God’s image. But how does that work itself out in practical terms? How <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> we reflect God’s image in our
marriages?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
good place to start would be with the self-sacrificing, self-emptying love that
God has for his creation, and that the members of the Trinity have for one
another. The Father glorifies the Son, the Son does the will of the Father, the
Father and the Son send the Spirit, the Spirit bears witness to the Father and
to the Son. God creates a universe and a world and populates it with
image-bearers that he knows will rebel. Then, not because of any necessity
imposed upon him, but rather simply in accordance with his own nature and
character, God provides a way of salvation, one that involves him becoming one
of us, one that costs him humiliation and painful death. He knew exactly what
would happen when he created us, and he did it anyway. It was all inherent from
the beginning. In creation was the cross.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of course, no one in a marriage
relationship can possibly approximate the self-giving love of God. We are the
image of God, but we are only an image. Nonetheless, the more we show
self-sacrificial love toward one another, the more we are true and undistorted
images of what God’s love is.</span><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is what really lies behind the
commands to submit to one another in love, for wives to submit to their
husbands and for husbands to love their wives. We tend to think of the Bible as
a list of more or less arbitrary commands, things that God wants us to do
simply because God wants us to do them. We look at sin as isolated, individual
acts that cross very specific lines or violate very specific commands. We don't want to recognize that the central desires of all our hearts, apart from the
redeeming mercy of God, are sinful to the core. We fail to recognize the
centrality of the two commands Jesus identified as being the foundation of all
the Law and the Prophets: the commands to love God with all our heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. All the human problems that exist—economic problems,
political problems, social problems, war—they all stem from our total refusal
to love our neighbors as ourselves, to say nothing of our refusal to love God.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">That is why I have said that selfishness is
the main thing that destroys marriages: it is, in fact, the main thing that
destroys all human relationships and destroys our relationship with God. We
want what we want, not what God wants. We want what pleases ourselves, not what
pleases our spouses. All too often, even when we’re trying to please our spouses,
we’re doing so with ulterior motives, so that we will get something out of it.
We don’t want to please someone else for their own sake—we want to please
someone else so that the other person will like us, or will be attracted to us,
or will do the same thing for us in return, or will feel that they are indebted
to us, or will simply treat us with gratitude.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But God came to this earth in the form of
Jesus and died for us, not for any benefit that he could get from us, but
simply out of love. There is nothing that we could give God that he didn’t
already have in the perfectly loving relationship that exists in the Trinity.
If we are to reflect God in our marriages, we have to act out that
self-sacrificial love toward one another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To do so, however, involves overcoming
fear. A fear that is, unfortunately, all-too-well grounded in what we know of
other people: the fear of being taken advantage of. The fear that my sacrifices
won’t be reciprocated, the fear that my husband or my wife will take my love
and my sacrifice and my kindness and my forgiveness and my submission to him or
to her, and I won’t get anything in return. And in truth, that is exactly how
abusive and codependent relationships work. So there’s something real to fear.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
But t<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">he majority of us are not in relationships
that are truly abusive. Most of us struggle simply with laying down our own
lives daily and sacrificing our selfish desires for the good of another. Being
kind when we don’t feel very kind. Working at a job we don’t like in order to
take care of a family. Doing the housework that gets created by everyone in the
house but nobody wants to do. Being there emotionally for a spouse who’s tired,
stressed out, hurting, and needy. Giving the back rub, not always getting it.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">We all tend to think that we do these
things; in fact, that we do more than our fair share. But “fair share” is
exactly the attitude we need to let go of. The members of the Trinity don’t
glare at one another, demanding that each serves the others exactly the same
amount. No, the Father glorifies the Son and sends the Spirit, the Son honors
the Father and sends the Spirit, the Spirit honors and glorifies the Father and
the Son. They all do it joyfully, willingly. Any thought of “how much is too
much” is immediately ridiculous when applied to the Godhead. And that is
exactly the sort of self-giving service that God wants us to engage in, that reflects
and honors him. If we think we’re doing our duty and no more, it’s almost certain
that we are doing much less than God wants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“But it’s so hard!” we inevitably respond. An
old story says that a great artist was asked if it was difficult to paint a
picture. He responded that no, it’s not really hard—it’s either easy or
impossible. The same is true of living out any aspect of the Christian life. In
our flesh, our sinful nature, it’s impossible, because it’s precisely in our
flesh that the struggle lies. It’s the flesh that wants what it wants, no
matter how it affects the next person. But a struggle against the flesh is a
struggle we cannot accomplish by the flesh—that is, by our own natural
willpower—and the harder the struggle seems, the more clear it is that trying
to conquer the flesh by the flesh is exactly what we are doing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The answer to
our need to be more Christlike, especially in our marriages, does not lie in us
trying harder. It lies in us focusing more on the great kindness and mercy that
God has given us through Jesus. The more I think of myself as basically a good
person, a good husband, a good Christian, the more easily I can look down on
others and be more demanding, especially in my marriage. The more I recognize
myself to be a recipient of God’s mercy, grace, kindness, and favor, the more
easily I can pass these things along to the woman I’ve pledged to love for a
lifetime. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This is the difference between God-honoring
love and flawed human love. Flawed human love is love seeking for a payoff,
seeking for validation or gratitude or love in return, and the truth is that
all of us are afflicted with that to some degree. As C. S. Lewis wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Great Divorce,</i> much of what we
experience as love is actually the desire to be loved. But with Godly love, the
payoff has already come. We don’t give in order to get, we give because we have
already gotten. Our love flows out of the love we have already received. We
demonstrate love because we have already had the greatest demonstration of love
given to us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When we find it difficult to show love,
especially to our spouses, it doesn’t mean that we need to try harder or do
things inauthentically because we know we should do them. It means that we need
to reconnect with the source of all love. It means that we need to remember the
goodness and kindness and mercy and favor that God has shown to us, and be
filled with gratitude at his amazing love for us. When we’ve recharged
and filled up with the wonder of his goodness, then it becomes a lot easier,
even natural, to serve others, especially our spouses, in love. It just flows
out of us.</span></div>
Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-31170816460051458042018-01-07T07:35:00.001-05:002024-01-30T21:17:35.311-05:00New Analysis of Building a Discipling Culture<p><i>Update: it appears that the links below to a critique of </i>Building a Discipling Culture<i> and 3DM by Michael Irwin no longer work, and I don't have a way of finding out if the text is still available. To my knowledge, it was never published except as a Google doc. I leave the post here in case anything may be gleaned by what was written here, as well as to leave the comments up.</i><br /></p><p>Little did I know back in 2013, when I wrote <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2013/11/mike-breen-and-building-discipling.html">a brief review of <i>Building a Discipling Culture</i></a> by Mike Breen, that it would spark such a response. I could describe it here, but if you don't already know what I'm talking about, just go to the link above and check out the comment section. I have been grateful that that post has served as a meeting place for so many people who have been adversely affected by their churches adopting 3DM principles.<br />
<br />
I have written, both in a newsletter and <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/well-researched-3dm-warning.html">in another post,</a> that I haven't written anything else on the subject largely because I have little else to say. However, I have had profitable correspondences with others who do have a lot to say. One of these is Michael Irwin, who has written an excellent, detailed commentary on <i>Building a Discipling Culture, </i>describing the weaknesses and dangers, as he sees them, of Breen's approach. It is my honor and pleasure to make his commentary available to anyone who would like to read it. You may download it by clicking <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/schooleyfiles.com/test/pdfs/Review%20of%20BADC%20%28Final%20PDF%20Version%29.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1">this link</a>.<br />
<br />
While the work is entirely Mr. Irwin's, he has kindly given me the opportunity to review earlier drafts of this work, and cited some comments I made in our correspondence. I concur wholeheartedly with his assessment. He correctly<br />
</p><ul>
<li>refutes Breen's insistence on a new "discipling language"; </li>
<li>points out the problematic nature of populating "huddles" with "persons of peace" who are unlikely to challenge the content of what they are receiving (and are required to commit, before they know what they are into<b>,</b> to participating over an extended period of time and starting their own huddles); and</li>
<li>challenges the exegesis by which Breen claims biblical basis for the principles <i>BADC </i>advocates, especially Breen's use of "Covenant" and "Kingdom" as the key concepts for interpreting scripture as a whole.</li>
</ul>
If you have concerns about 3DM, or even if you are a 3DM advocate and wonder what the problem is, I invite you to <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/schooleyfiles.com/test/pdfs/Review%20of%20BADC%20%28Final%20PDF%20Version%29.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1">download this commentary</a>.<br />
<br />
In addition, once the comments on my brief commentary exceeded 300, the limits of my Blogger platform began to be apparent, and it is now difficult to access the more recent comments. Therefore, I invite everyone who would like to continue the conversation to migrate over here.<br />
<br />
Once again, many thanks to Mr. Irwin for his dedicated work on this commentary.<br />
<br />Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-19401488653438613462017-12-22T19:30:00.000-05:002018-01-07T07:30:20.705-05:00Santa Claus and Schrödinger's CatOne of the frequent arguments against the existence of Santa Claus is the question, "How could he possibly make it to every home throughout the whole world in one night?"<br />
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At last, quantum physics gives us the answer.<br />
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Many are familiar with the thought experiment known as "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat">Schrödinger's cat</a>," as well as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle">Heisenberg's uncertainty principle</a> and the so-called "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)">observer effect</a>." German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg demonstrated in 1927 that both the speed and position of an elementary particle could not be determined at the same time. Related to this was the observer effect, in which observation of a phenomenon necessarily changes that phenomenon. Based on these developments, the so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation">Copenhagen interpretation</a> of quantum phenomena was based on probability: one could not predict the position of a particular quantum particle at a particular time; the best one could do would be to predict the probability of it being in a certain region. Prior to being measured, the particle could not be said to be in any definite position; measuring where the particle is causes a phenomenon known as "wave function collapse," causing the particle to occupy a specific position.<br />
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In response to this interpretation, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger devised his famous cat experiment in 1935. He imagined a closed and opaque box containing a cat (alive when placed in the box), a vial of gaseous poison, and a triggering mechanism which breaks open the vial when a single radioactive atom decays. The decay of an individual atom cannot be predicted--only the half-life, during which half of the atoms in a given sample will have decayed, can be known. For that reason, one cannot know exactly when the mechanism is triggered, and therefore when the gas is released, and therefore whether the cat is alive or dead. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, the cat in the box is both alive and dead simultaneously until someone opens the box to find out.<br />
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Until now, no one has thought to apply this logic to the behavior of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.<br />
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Prior explanations of Santa's ability to deliver all the world's presents on one night are unconvincing. Suggestions that Christmas Eve lies very close to the winter solstice, and therefore on one of the longest nights of the year, hardly even do the question justice, particularly since in the southern hemisphere, it is actually near the summer solstice and therefore one of the shortest nights. The problem is mitigated somewhat, but hardly solved, when it is observed that the rotation of the earth allows for a full twenty-four hours to get the job done. Suggestions by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Danican">E. von Däniken</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_A._Tsoukalos">G. Tsoukalos</a> that the answers can be found by appealing to aliens merely deflect from, rather than solve, the problem.<br />
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It has been hypothesized, although without evidence, that Santa's sleigh-and-reindeer transport system travels at or near light speed, thus covering immense distances in an extremely short time. However, the infrequent witnesses to Santa's Christmas Eve activity do not generally accord with the near-instantaneous blur that such immense speeds would produce. For example, the testimony of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visit_from_St._Nicholas">C. C. Moore</a> in 1823 appears to contradict such near-light-speed travel. Moore attests to watching the approach and departure of Santa's sleigh,<a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2017/12/santa-claus-and-schrodingers-cat.html#note1" name="text1">[1]</a> as well as giving a detailed account of Santa's mode of entry and exit into a personal abode and his activities while inside. While the "right jolly old elf" <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2017/12/santa-claus-and-schrodingers-cat.html#note2" name="text2">[2]</a> appears to conduct himself in a rather "lively and quick" manner, his actions do take up enough time for Moore to examine his appearance, report his various actions, and depict how he responded to amusing stimuli.<br />
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Let's assume that the entire visit depicted by Moore lasted a total of three minutes, and that travel between homes is nearly instantaneous and therefore negligible. This only allows Santa to visit a mere 480 homes during the twenty-four hour period. Even a minute per visit allows for fewer than 1500 visits. The mathematics, combined with what witness testimony we do have, make it clear that mere velocity cannot solve the problem.<br />
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The quantum solution I propose is an entirely different approach. It hinges on the fact that Santa's route is entirely unknown, and therefore, whose house he is visiting at any particular time is unknown. It is, in fact, equally probable that Santa could be at any home on the darkened side of the earth's globe throughout Christmas Eve. Just as Schrödinger's cat is thought to be potentially both alive and dead until it is observed, <i>Santa is potentially at all houses until he is observed.</i> As long as no one sees him, Santa can accomplish visits to all the houses in the world during the time it would take for him to make a single visit. He does them all at once, as he is potentially at all houses at the same time. The problem of how Santa visits all the houses in one night is not solved by speed, but by <i>simultaneity.</i> Only when Santa is observed does his wave function collapse, and he finds himself present at only a single house.<br />
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This explains several aspects of the Santa mythos, particularly the insistence that children be sleeping, or at any rate leave the Christmas tree and the relevant area unobserved, throughout the night, often with the admonition, "or else Santa won't come." Santa can't be potentially at all houses simultaneously unless he is unobserved. It also explains why attempted observation almost always ends in failure--Santa remains unseen--because when Santa's wave function collapses and his position is actualized in one location, the chances are highly against that position being in the home of the attempted observer (1 in <i>x</i>, where <i>x</i> is the number of homes occupying the darkened side of the earth at that moment). Mr. Moore's observation in 1823, far from being typical, was actually an astonishingly fortunate occurrence (although lower population density made such a sighting far more probable then than it would be today). While rare, Moore's observations are not unique: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis">Professor Lewis</a> reports on a sighting of "Father Christmas" in the transdimensional land of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narnia_(world)">Narnia</a>. That region's indeterminate relationship with the observable physical universe, with fluctuating and undependable connections to certain locations in the United Kingdom, also lends credence to a quantum interpretation of the data. Santa can not only be potentially at any location in the present earth, but also potentially at any location in any possible world.<br />
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I propose that we term this proposed solution to the "all the world in one night" problem the Quantum Elf Hypothesis.<br />
_______________<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2017/12/santa-claus-and-schrodingers-cat.html#text1" name="note1">[1]</a> Moore calls him "St. Nicholas" or "St. Nick." While Santa has been known by many names (e.g., Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Sinterklaas), Moore seems to have had him unaccountably confused with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas">third-century bishop</a> who punched out Arius at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.<br />
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<a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2017/12/santa-claus-and-schrodingers-cat.html#text2" name="note2">[2]</a> I propose that Santa is, in fact, an elf, and that the mythological class of elves are a type of quantum beings. Moore's specimen appears unrelated to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien">Professor Tolkien</a>'s elven race, although the proposed quantum phenomena suggest a certain affinity to Tolkien's Istari, or "wizards." Additionally, a certain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Bombadil">T. Bombadil</a>, described by Tolkien as being of uncertain species or origin, seems to have a tantalizingly similar psychological profile to that described by Moore. Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-86290962245865733652015-09-23T08:55:00.000-04:002015-09-23T09:11:30.928-04:00Parenthood: Prepare for Chaos<i>The following post is excerpted from the chapter, "Prepare for Chaos," in my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God.</a></i><br />
<br />
We all know them. The people who make statements that begin with, “When I have kids….” Like, “When I have kids, they’re going to be well-behaved.” Or, “When I have kids, I’m not going to allow them to make a mess of the house.” Or, “When I have kids, they’re never going to <i>[insert behavior that the person has just observed and is particularly irritated by at the moment]</i>.”<br />
<br />
Best not to get bent out of shape about statements like that. Best just to nod and smile and wait for the day when they find out….<br />
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<h2>Three Young Boys and a Library</h2><br />
I have a personal library that contains several shelves of books, developed while going to school to study English literature and theology. Yes, this all happened before you could get a whole library onto a tablet.<br />
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I used to like organizing my books. Fiction arranged alphabetically by author’s name and then by book title. Nonfiction arranged by category. It’s not that I’m an organizational nut. Far from it. Ask my parents about my room when I was a kid. But I liked being able to find specific books pretty easily, and I liked how it looked. Publishers often give books from a single author a similar cover and spine, so putting them together makes it look like they fit. It’s not so random.<br />
<br />
So along came Daniel, my firstborn, and although having a baby changes your life immediately—because suddenly you’re responsible for this new life who can’t do anything for himself yet, and he’s crying and waking you up in the middle of the night—your life is changed, but your baby is still contained: contained to a crib, a car seat, a stroller. You, as parents, are still more or less in control. For the moment.<br />
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And then came my twins, David and Michael, and the next few years are a blur. You think that one infant is difficult, waking you up in the middle of the night, crying at random times because he needs to be fed, or changed, or he just feels cranky. But then make that two infants tag-teaming you, one waking up just as you’ve gotten the other one down to sleep, or both of them being needy at the same time for different things. It’s hard. Add to that a two-year-old, who is no longer contained, but is running around exploring and playing and infinitely curious about everything in the house.<br />
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And then the infants start growing and toddling around and being curious too. Daddy’s working a lot of the time and Mommy’s got her hands more than full and the boys are exploring their world, and it turns out that part of their world is shelf upon shelf of variously-colored rectangular thingies. What are these? Daddy seems to like them. He’ll take one out and open it up and play with it for a long time. What are these things? The first one just has black marks inside. So does the second one. But the pictures on the outside are pretty. Let’s take more out!<br />
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So I come home, and half my books are scattered all over the floor. Cecile will deny it to this day, but I swear she thought it was funny.<br />
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So I got the books together and scolded the boys, to the extent that it’s fair to scold small children who are just doing what children do. I arranged them back on their shelves in the correct order. And so we’re good, until a few days later when it happened again. And then again. And I didn’t always have time to rearrange the books, so they’d go on the shelf in some random order, and I’d make a mental note to get them organized again. And I did, too, a few times. But the books kept coming down and I kept putting them back up (“What a fun game!” my boys must have thought) and little by little I lost control of the organization. And then we moved a couple of times, so they’re all packed up in boxes and then reshelved when they’re unpacked and there’s way too much to do to worry about exactly where each one goes, especially when you’re losing hope that the effort you put into organization will last more than a week.<br />
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The boys are now all over 18, they’ve long since stopped playing with my books in that way, we’ve lived in one place for five years now, but my books are still a disordered mishmash. They’ve beaten me.<br />
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<h2>Choosing Between People and Order</h2><br />
I know that right now, reading this, there are some people who do not have children yet and are thinking to themselves, “I’d never let my children behave like that! When I have children, I’ll make sure they behave! When I have children, they’re going to know not to play with the grownup things! When I have children, we’re going to have order in this house and they’re going to learn to appreciate that!”<br />
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Yeah, good luck with that.<br />
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I don’t mind so much the single people and young couples who feel that way. No, the people who worry me are those who already have children and are actually trying to raise them that way. The parents who don’t allow their children any leeway, who are regimented and controlling, whose children exhibit all the discipline and order of the Von Trapp children obeying their father’s whistle. They are perfect in public, always neat, clean, and polite, and never give their parents any cause for embarrassment. These are the dangerous ones, the ones who are going to break out and break hard when they leave home—which will probably be as soon as they possibly can.<br />
<br />
Because the only way to produce that picture-perfect family is to use a lot of discipline to rein in the natural curiosity and energy and impulsiveness and lack of experience that is childhood. Discipline is not the problem, in and of itself. It’s necessary to guide children and to protect them from the weightier consequences of their actions as they get older.<br />
<br />
But the kind of discipline and the focus on picture-perfect order that I’m talking about sends <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Bad%20discipline%20tells%20children:%20You%20are%20less%20important%20than%20my%20need%20for%20order%20and%20for%20the%20approval%20of%20other%20adults.%20http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/09/parenthood-prepare-for-chaos.html" title="tweet this!">a very damaging message to children: You are less important than my need for order and for the approval of other adults. (tweet this)</a> Children can’t help feeling this way when they are continually checked and stopped and reined in and scolded for not being miniature adults. They aren’t miniature adults; they don’t have the experience. They’re being forced into a plastic, phony role that sooner or later they will resent and need to rebel against. Their entire life experience tells them that they are not valued for who they are by the people whose opinion matters the most. <br />
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No one wants to do that to their children. But some people are so focused on order and on how their children <i>appear to others</i> that they unintentionally squelch who their children <i>are.</i> Sometimes parents want their children to be just like themselves, or want their children to be completely different from themselves in a particular way. Sometimes parents have made significant mistakes that they don’t want their children to repeat, and so any tendency in that direction results in the parents overreacting.<br />
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Even worse than unrealistic parental expectations, though, is parental embarrassment. In essence, this is the same problem moved up a level: rather than parents imposing their own expectations, they are imposing the expectations that are coming—or that they believe are coming—from the people around them. This can create hypocritical standards, when things that are disregarded at home suddenly become grounds for punishment when they occur in public. Some parents, recognizing the hypocrisy of having different standards at home and in public, impose inauthentic standards all of the time, creating rules not based on scripture or on what the parents personally believe to be wrong, but rather based on the expectations of other people with whom the parents do not even agree. They are punishing their children based on other people’s convictions, not their own.<br />
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<h2>Fathers, Don't Exasperate Your Children</h2><br />
It is for this reason that Paul writes, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) and “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged” (Colossians 3:21).<br />
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In his own culture, what Paul had to say to those in a culturally subordinate position was unobjectionable and actually mild. However, the fact that <i>any</i> responsibilities were required of the culturally dominant person was a radical departure from the norm. So in the immediate context of the two passages, children being required to obey their parents would have been thought to be simply normal. But the fact that fathers—or parents: the Greek word could mean either, but in the culture of the day, fathers ruled the household—the fact that fathers were being called upon not to exasperate or embitter their children would have been astonishing.<br />
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This warning against exasperating and embittering one’s children indicates that these things can and do occur, and that we may be doing them without meaning to. How do we exasperate and embitter our children? Often, I think, it’s by doing exactly the things that were being discussed above: making the rules that we have for our children more important than our children themselves. Making rules not primarily for the benefit of our children, but for our own convenience and to secure the approval of others in our social circle. Making our children feel devalued because they know that our rules and discipline come not out of concern for them but out of selfish motivations.<br />
<br />
In parenting, we tend to view things as a choice between discipline and indulgence. Instead, <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=We%20should%20look%20at%20the%20difference%20between%20discipline%20motivated%20by%20love%20and%20discipline%20motivated%20by%20selfishness.%20http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/09/parenthood-prepare-for-chaos.html" title="tweet this!">we should look at the difference between discipline motivated by love and discipline motivated by selfishness (tweet this)</a>. Are our rules and their enforcement intentionally grounded in concern for our children’s safety and development, or is it grounded in us wanting to impose our will on our children and wanting to gain the favor of other adults?<br />
<br />
Sometimes these two motivations will coincide. As my children grew old enough to understand the difference between books and toys, I made it clear to them that pulling books down and leaving them all over the place was unacceptable. I don’t want them going into a library and destroying the place, leaving it to some hapless librarian to have to reshelve everything. There are valid issues that engender social disapproval of parents: when children are allowed to act selfishly and without regard to consequences, they don’t develop a recognition of when they are failing to love their neighbors as themselves. They can go through life carelessly offending other people, and then wondering why they are disliked. So teaching children to clean up after themselves not only serves to support our own desire for order, but also gives them skills they will need for their own lives in the future, and helps them to treat others with respect.<br />
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But the two motivations—concern for our children and concern for how we are viewed by others—sometimes don’t coincide. This comes out most strongly when we want to impose an order that our children aren’t developmentally ready to deal with yet, or when we want to punish them for behavior simply because it embarrasses us with other people. Our children know when we are disciplining them for selfish or inauthentic reasons. It makes them learn the wrong lessons, learn to hide behavior rather than to change it, and to evade and escape our influence whenever possible.<br />
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This tendency toward being overly strict, toward exasperating and embittering our children, is more common in religious circles than in the world at large. This may be the case because in religious circles we tend to derive our value more from law than from grace. Rather than frankly presenting ourselves to each other and to the world as forgiven people, we always seem to want to present ourselves as moral people, good people. We see our children as a reflection of ourselves, and to be fair, this is a human response to the fact that others do, in fact, judge us based on the behavior of our children. We want to be thought of as moral and respectable, so we punish our children when they don’t showcase us in a positive light. We are all too worried about how moral we appear, rather than about how deeply in God’s grace we reside.<br />
<br />
Children are messy. They come out of the womb bloody, and no involved parent has escaped being pooped on, peed on, and vomited on. Children are incredibly curious about everything around them. They want to touch, smell, taste everything—this is why everything goes into a baby’s mouth. They will do and say absolutely anything at any time. They intrude upon the order we want to impose, they bring chaos wherever they go. And Jesus said that whoever comes into the Kingdom must come like one of these. They’re authentic. They’re real. They don’t have a carefully cultivated illusion of order and respectability that they have to maintain.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the chaos they bring into our lives is God trying to tell us something.<br />
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<i>To know more about my family's story, and for more of my perspective on biblical marriage and family, check out my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God </a>.</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG"><img alt="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRX4tet_ShgZF3Mmpe1cBVSvXLMM3cZ_9Oe_SJ7Q0xTUDaDnNxicfoCNPLZNGT8aMVdOUbJ6BzdLStd9AjWj-F-RL5wCoot_PkiDHy7Il863cLbbNh84QP7KXtCKV3AvS4qaxo/s1600/MFIG+Cover.jpg" title="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" width="133" /></a></div>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-60545537185512907822015-09-14T06:00:00.000-04:002015-09-14T06:00:04.684-04:00The Archie Bunker Effect; or, The Main Mistake Christians Make when Engaging with the WorldI grew up watching <i>All in the Family.</i> (Yes, I'm that old.) <br />
<br />
<i>All in the Family</i> was an American sitcom that aired in the 1970s. It revolved around the Bunker family: Archie, the loudmouthed, bigoted father; Edith, his dimwitted but goodhearted wife; Gloria, his married daughter; and Michael, Gloria's opinionated, liberal husband. Michael and Gloria lived with Archie and Edith because Michael was in college and unemployed. In the close quarters, Archie and Michael frequently squared off regarding controversial political and social topics.<br />
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That was the point of the show. <i>All in the Family</i> was the liberal Norman Lear's vehicle for propagating his views. While Michael was mocked as "Meathead" by Archie, he was actually the mouthpiece for Lear's progressive social and political views. The staging and the dialogue were brilliant. Archie would usually "win" his arguments, but only because he was so stubborn that he would come up with ridiculous rationalizations that no one but he could possibly find convincing. Michael would give up in frustration over Archie's obtuseness, only to fight again another day.<br />
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Michael was also an agnostic. Functionally, he was an atheist, but he didn't make the mistake of actually trying to prove the non-existence of God. Instead, he simply doubted the validity of any sort of evidence for a supreme being and refused to allow the relevance of God to any discussion. By contrast, Archie represented popular religiosity. Not a churchgoer himself, he nonetheless claimed a belief in God when it served his purposes. His wife Edith was much more of an actual Christian, but was almost as unintelligent as Archie accused her of being. She was usually an apologist for him as well, although her unaffected truthfulness often resulted in unintentional zingers against Archie's positions.<br />
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So here in a popular television show we had a social caricature being played out: the advocate for God, in power but older and on his way out, spewing bigoted, incoherent, ridiculous tirades, pitted against the youthful agnostic, still dependent but in the ascendency, articulating seemingly reasoned positions that were never heeded. The Christian is the old-fashioned racist, the agnostic is the vibrant rational thinker.<br />
<br />
I got the message. I grew up never wanting to be Archie Bunker.<br />
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I never lost my faith, but I didn't want to say much about it either. The problem was that Michael always seemed to have it all figured out. I always thought that anyone who disagreed with me would have all the answers, and I would be reduced to blathering incoherence.<br />
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(Incidentally, the whole issue was inverted in the 80s sitcom <i>Family Ties.</i> There, however, in the battle between the young conservative and his erstwhile-hippy parents, the issue of God was neatly laid aside. This may help to explain the development of conservatism in the last few decades.)<br />
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I think I felt this way until an honors English seminar in college. The professor entitled the seminar, "What can one hope for," and we read everything from Ezekiel and Revelation to Dostoevsky, Camus, and Kafka. It was fascinating.<br />
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Since it was a discussion class, it ended up getting polarized between two older guys, articulating an athiestic viewpoint and quoting Nietzsche all the time, and me, the reluctant representative of a Christian viewpoint.<br />
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I felt that they were mopping the floor with me. They had read more than I had, and they had answers to everything I brought up. I felt foolish and inadequate. And at one point, I decided I had to read some Nietzsche for myself. I had to figure out whether I believed what I believed because that's what Mommy and Daddy had told me, or whether I believed that it was really true.<br />
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I think I was trembling as I went through the stacks at my university library. I didn't know if this was the step that was going to destroy my faith. But if my faith couldn't stand up to questions, then it wasn't much of a faith, was it? So I opened the books and began to read.<br />
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And there was nothing there. I had expected serious intellectual arguments with overwhelming logic. Instead, there was nothing but mockery. It all amounted to, <i>See, terrible things happen. Where's your God NOW??? HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!</i> I came out of the experience with my faith strengthened, not broken.<br />
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Later on, I had an internship with another student in that class, a woman named Grace, and we developed a friendship. At one point, I told her how inadequate I felt in the class. She was astonished. "We never felt that way," she said, speaking of herself and a few others she knew in the class. "We always thought he came off arrogant and rude, and we thought you had some pretty interesting things to say." She told me that she knew that my main opponent (whose name I have long since forgotten) spent his evenings crying into his beer at a local bar. She told me that, although she hadn't become a Christian based on the experience, she had a much more positive view of Christianity than she had had previously.<br />
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A light breeze would have knocked me over.<br />
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That experience taught me a lot, and it has stayed with me for many years. Christian, the people who disagree with you don't have it all together. They don't know everything. It doesn't matter how polished or relentlessly logical or superior they seem: in the end, they're just people. And you don't have to win an argument to persuade people; most of the time, you don't even have to argue. You may not persuade the person who is confronting you (although it's possible that something you say will stick and have an effect at some point in the future). Your demeanor will have an effect on those who see you, far more than whatever points you think you are making or not making.<br />
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Don't succumb to the Archie Bunker effect. You're not him. Your faith is not foolish. Your critics don't have all the answers. And God will still touch people through you.Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-43345623916962437662015-07-15T22:59:00.000-04:002018-01-07T07:51:44.875-05:00Well-Researched 3DM WarningAbout a year and a half ago, I published a <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2013/11/mike-breen-and-building-discipling.html">book review on Mike Breen's book, <i>Building a Discipling Culture.</i></a> This was in response to my own experience in a church that was adopting the 3DM discipleship strategy, and the flaws I saw in the exegesis and methodology I found in the book.<br />
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The book review lay dormant and, as I thought, forgotten for five months, when I began getting comments that turned out to be related to the struggles of North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota. Comments began to pour in, and at the present time, there are 400 comments on that post, far more than on any other post on this blog--despite the fact that Blogger has problems dealing with more than 200 comments (go down to the bottom and click on where it says "Loading..." to access the more recent comments). In order to foster discussion, I've attempted to play the part of more-or-less impartial moderator (although I clearly have my own opinion). People on both sides have gotten angry at me, so I guess I've done my job reasonably well. :-)<br />
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It should be clear at this point that I have chosen not to capitalize on the success of that post by making this an "anti-3DM" blog. I have different interests, and my hope is that some people who find this blog by searching for things related to 3DM will be interested in some of the other things I am interested in.<br />
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But I have to break my silence. <a href="http://bobhighlands.com/">Bob Highlands</a> from <a href="http://sonrisechurch.com/">Sonrise Church</a> has done extensive research into 3DM and has an excellent series of posts on his website documenting aspects 3DM. The series of three posts can be accessed <a href="http://bobhighlands.com/3dm-warning/">from this page.</a> In my opinion, the best of the three posts is <a href="http://bobhighlands.com/3dm-warning-part-two/">the second one</a>, in which Bob breaks down the main exegetical and doctrinal issues besetting 3DM. Bob writes from the doctrinal position of the Church of God, Anderson, Indiana, but most of his arguments can be appreciated from any evangelical position. Incidentally, Bob quotes me at one point, and I fully support and agree with his use of that quote.<br />
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Check out Bob's well-researched piece, and thanks to all the commenters who played a part in aiding Bob in that research.<br />
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<b>Note (January 7, 2018): I've posted a link to an excellent in-depth commentary on <i>Building a Discipling Culture</i> at <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2018/01/new-analysis-of-building-discipling.html">http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2018/01/new-analysis-of-building-discipling.html</a>. I also invite any discussion of 3DM to migrate over to the comments section of that post.</b><br />
<br />Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-51633238577730026242015-07-03T06:35:00.000-04:002016-01-09T17:14:03.034-05:00Christian Married Sexuality (part 2)<i>The following post is adapted from the chapter, "Sexuality," from my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God. </a></i><br />
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<i>Check out <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/christian-married-sexuality-part-1.html">Part 1</a> of this series by clicking <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/christian-married-sexuality-part-1.html">here.</a> </i><br />
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Sex and the Christian Marriage</h3>
The <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/christian-married-sexuality-part-1.html">previous post</a> of course leads to the question: what is healthy sexuality in marriage? A favorite text that seems to address this topic is Hebrews 13:4, which reads in the King James Version, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” This looks like an endorsement of marriage itself and of married sexuality (take <i>that,</i> Jerome!), and I recall having heard a number of sermons that focused on this endorsement as an affirmation of the goodness and rightness of married sex. Not only that, but it was pretty much interpreted to mean that anything goes within the marriage relationship. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXhkRB18tM_cBkXtKtk-uIe9rxC4g0eT2tr_czPQPh6lwqiLp5-91e8oe2MPwK3Mz7cqF_khu0U-uX_ytKEG-UOifXHFxxar89TcMHU7x2F87tM6M0KXaKQkMhtJyKTATGquL/s1600/Christian-Sex-300x199.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Married couple in bed" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXXhkRB18tM_cBkXtKtk-uIe9rxC4g0eT2tr_czPQPh6lwqiLp5-91e8oe2MPwK3Mz7cqF_khu0U-uX_ytKEG-UOifXHFxxar89TcMHU7x2F87tM6M0KXaKQkMhtJyKTATGquL/s1600/Christian-Sex-300x199.jpg" title="" /></a>Nonetheless, contextual indicators lead most modern translations and commentators to take the passage as an imperative: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (NIV). While this is doubtless the correct translation, it reopens the question of what keeps the marriage bed pure. Is an undefiled marriage bed one in which sexuality is restricted only to procreation? Is it one in which only the missionary position is used? Is there stuff that’s allowable and stuff that isn’t for a married couple?<br />
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Those looking for specific techniques and detailed strategies will have to go to other writers. However, the immediate context seems to spell out the intent of the author of Hebrews: what would defile the marriage bed is adultery and sexual immorality. That is to say, it wasn’t anything happening between the married partners, but rather when one of the partners committed infidelity of some sort. The kinds of things that defile the marriage bed are the same kinds of things that eventually lead to permissible divorce and remarriage, according to Jesus. <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=When%20Hebrews%20says%20that%20the%20marriage%20bed%20should%20be%20kept%20pure,%20it%20means%20to%20keep%20other%20people%20out%20of%20it.%20http://ow.ly/OexjJ%20via%20@keschooley" title="tweet this!">When the author of Hebrews says that the “marriage bed [should be] kept pure,” he essentially means to keep other people out of it. (tweet this)</a><br />
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<a name='more'></a>So as long as sexuality remains restricted just to the married couple, is it truly “anything goes” in marriage? Well, the Bible doesn’t give much more specific advice, but the commands to love one another and to submit to one another would seem to come into play. Married sex is sometimes rhapsodized about in terms of being a wonderful expression of married love, and it certainly can be that, but it can be other things too, for good and for not so good. Sometimes when the world has taken its toll, sex is a way of feeling better, feeling validated, feeling secure. Sometimes it’s a release of pent-up emotions. Sometimes it’s a way of expressing pride in the spouse’s accomplishment. Sometimes it’s the pure physical enjoyment. And sometimes it’s giving all these things to the other person because they need it, even if we’re not really in the mood. In other words, it can be an expression of lots of different types and aspects of love, or of need for love, even when a grand declaration of one’s love for one’s spouse is not really in view.<br />
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But then sex can also be something that wouldn’t serve as much of an expression of love in any event. Sex can be a means of dominating or even demeaning the other person, of using that person for one’s own pleasure without regard for that person’s feelings or needs. It can be a means of manipulation, withheld or parceled out as a means of obtaining something else that one wants. It can be cruel and thoughtless and selfish. It can be rude and demanding and petulant and unkind. <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Selfishness%20and%20unkindness%20in%20bed%20is%20not%20made%20any%20better%20by%20the%20presence%20of%20a%20marriage%20certificate.%20via%20@keschooley%20http://ow.ly/OexjJ" title="tweet this!">None of this is made any better by the presence of a marriage certificate. (tweet this)</a><br />
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We humans—and I daresay, we Christians—have a tendency to want hard-and-fast rules. We want to have it spelled out that this technique is okay and that one is sinful, this practice is approved and that one is not. The truth is that what matters is less the specific act than it is the motive behind the act, the willingness to serve and honor and bless the other person more than just satisfying one’s own desire or curiosity. Is it “anything goes”? I suppose anything goes that the spouse can enter into joyfully and without being demeaned and degraded. <br />
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And that might mean that there are some activities that really are beyond the pale. It seems to me that there are certain things that cannot be done with mutual enjoyment by both parties, and it doesn’t really help to have an agreement that says, “I’ll get mine this time and next time you can get yours.” If something is degrading to the person you’ve committed yourself to love for a lifetime, should you be getting pleasure from it? And it seems to me that some things are inherently degrading—that the point of them is to be degrading. Once again, specific lists and activities will have to be found elsewhere. But we should understand that the specific act is less the issue than the intent. Do we want sexuality to be a mutual blessing, or do we want it to be a means of dominance? And this can be an issue even with activities that may be offensive to some couples but not to others.<br />
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Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 deal with “disputable matters,” things that different people have different convictions about. These passages are not very often brought up regarding marriage, but with regard to sexuality, they seem very appropriate. The upshot of both passages is that there are issues which are not objectively sinful in God’s eyes, but may be thought of as sinful by a specific believer, possibly based on one’s background. Paul’s advice in such matters is to let each person follow his or her own conscience, and not to judge or look down on another person for having differing convictions. However, there is one caveat: if exercising your own freedom in an area might induce another person to violate their own conscience in that area (sometimes referred to as “causing your brother to stumble,” Rom. 14:20-21; 1 Cor. 8:9-13), then you should forgo your freedom for the sake of that person. <br />
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So, there may be activities among married couples that are disputable—that are not objectively sinful, but may be felt to be sinful by some, who should not engage in them due to issues of conscience. Where this becomes problematic is when the two partners in a marriage relationship have differing convictions about sexuality. What to do then?<br />
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A stereotypical but common example might be most informative. The wife might have grown up in a home where sexuality was extremely repressed. She tends to think that sex is dirty, although she also wants a sexual relationship with her husband. She might be able to make her peace with what she thinks of as “normal” sexual intercourse, but not be at all adventurous in bed. Her husband, meanwhile, might have been influenced by pornography or even by sexual references in pop culture, and might want to try out various things in order to spice up their love life. Don’t let the stereotype throw you—the situation could as easily be reversed with regard to the male and female roles, or the person with more sexual experience or exposure to pornography might be the person who feels guilt over it and therefore is more inhibited in the marriage bed.<br />
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One might think that the right thing to do in this situation is for the person who wants to experiment more to understand his partner’s inhibitions and restrict their sex life to what she feels comfortable with. Doubtless, in the short term, that’s probably what should happen, but over the long term, it once again holds the person who has more freedom hostage to the person who doesn’t. Going back to 1 Corinthians 7, Paul seems to have been responding to people in marriage relationships who wondered if the sexuality in those relationships was sinful and whether they should abstain from sex even within marriage. Many post-apostolic church fathers, for a time, did in fact advocate sexless marriages in which one treated one’s spouse as a sibling. So we can see that allowing the more inhibited person in a marriage to hold all the cards can end up being very destructive, which is why Paul responded that the husband and wife, in some sense, own one another’s bodies, and that they should not abstain from the sexual relationship, except for times devoted to prayer by mutual consent, because such abstinence left them open to sexual temptation.<br />
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Note that Paul doesn’t condemn them for that temptation. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t even talk about the temptation as such; he merely says <i>dia de tas porneias,</i> “because of immorality.” Because there is immorality out there, no matter how spiritual we think we are, we are not immune from it, and husbands and wives therefore need to satisfy one another sexually.<br />
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So there’s a tension between avoiding things that we feel convicted about, or that draw other people into violating their own convictions on the one hand, and needing to satisfy one another’s sexual needs on the other. <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Kindness,%20love,%20and%20a%20lack%20of%20selfishness%20need%20to%20rule%20the%20marriage%20bed.%20via%20@keschooley%20http://ow.ly/OexjJ" title="tweet this!">Kindness, love, and a lack of selfishness need to rule. (tweet this)</a> But one little-discussed aspect of the issue of varying levels of freedom and conviction is that the matters that Paul is discussing are not sinful in and of themselves. The “weak” brother in Romans 14 is the one who is carrying an unnecessary scruple. God’s does not want his children to remain weak in this sense forever, much less to become the kind of legalistic person who uses their perpetual weakness to inhibit forever the freedom of the strong. Carrying this back into the bedroom, this would mean that while the less inhibited person needs to have respect and patience with the one who struggles with more inhibitions, the one who has more inhibitions needs to examine carefully the source of those inhibitions. Are all of my convictions really scriptural? Are there reasons other than moral for the fact that I pull back from certain things? Am I struggling with guilt for a sinful past that has been forgiven? Was I taught convictions on the subject that are not biblical? Are there aspects of my upbringing or previous sexual experiences or influences that are holding me back from the freedom that my spouse wants to enjoy? Am I using my unwillingness as a means of manipulation or control? Does God want me perhaps to be freer than what I am now?<br />
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The goal of all this is not for the more adventurous spouse to have it all their way, either. He or she also needs to ask some questions. Is what I want possible within a mutually loving and satisfying relationship? Am I being selfish in pushing for my desires to be satisfied? Am I actually wanting to subjugate or degrade my spouse?<br />
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The end goal of all of this is to have a sexual relationship within marriage that is mutually satisfying and rewarding for both people, where freedom and enjoyment of the gift God gave us is celebrated, and where dominating and degrading our spouse is out of bounds. And what this will require, in the long run, is for God to purify our sexual desires, making them a means for expressing love, not gratifying self, for enjoying pleasure without guilt, for renouncing manipulation and control. Like everything else in the Christian life, we ultimately find that it’s a work that only God can do. He’s the one who created sex in the beginning, and he’s the only one who can ensure that it is “very good.”<br />
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<i>To know more about Cecile's and my story, and for more of my perspective on biblical marriage and family, check out my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God </a>.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG"><img alt="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRX4tet_ShgZF3Mmpe1cBVSvXLMM3cZ_9Oe_SJ7Q0xTUDaDnNxicfoCNPLZNGT8aMVdOUbJ6BzdLStd9AjWj-F-RL5wCoot_PkiDHy7Il863cLbbNh84QP7KXtCKV3AvS4qaxo/s1600/MFIG+Cover.jpg" title="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" width="133" /></a></div>
Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18950992.post-46619450123500352532015-07-01T06:00:00.000-04:002015-07-05T08:06:43.909-04:00Christian Married Sexuality (part 1)<i>The following post is adapted from the chapter, "Sexuality," from my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God. </a></i><br />
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On the evening when Cecile first came to church with me, a group of us went out afterward to a Big Boy restaurant. Pastor Bill, our College and Career pastor, came out to eat with us—probably to get to know Cecile better and witness to her—and sat down with Cecile, me, and my best friend Dave. He was asking her questions, and I was mostly nervously listening. I didn’t really know this woman all that well, although I knew enough to know she was liable to say anything. I felt that whatever she said would reflect on me, even though it wasn’t as though we were dating or anything.<br />
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After learning about her background, her divorce, and the loss of her children, Pastor Bill asked her, “So have you ever thought about becoming a Christian?”<br />
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“Well, I did for a while, but then I heard that you had to give up sex, so I thought, Forget that!”<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqclgVj6mOkUSLi5Llxsih2iIiZfVUkhlNP4irqScVR6NpKBB2rop_Otzg92BJUzUBkZDrGZdTNONboKWYqAE8r0TcULqMxchA3sJkBga5eGOraVoSBHx-_93n7wy0InedpZQd/s1600/biting+lip.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="picture of nervously biting lip" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqclgVj6mOkUSLi5Llxsih2iIiZfVUkhlNP4irqScVR6NpKBB2rop_Otzg92BJUzUBkZDrGZdTNONboKWYqAE8r0TcULqMxchA3sJkBga5eGOraVoSBHx-_93n7wy0InedpZQd/s320/biting+lip.jpg" title="nervously biting lip" width="320" /></a></div>Dave snorted Coke out of his nose, and I started slinking under the table. Pastor Bill didn’t miss a beat, though. He simply replied, “Well, that is an obstacle for a lot of people. What you have to decide is, what’s more important?”<br />
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Cecile didn’t betray that Pastor Bill was getting to her, but she went home thinking about the conversation, and within a week, she had given her life to Jesus. That was to be the beginning of living celibate for two years before we got married.<br />
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<h3>Church Attitudes</h3><a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=The%20church%20has%20been%20terribly%20muddled%20about%20sexuality%20for%20a%20long,%20long%20time.%20via%20@keschooley%20http://ow.ly/OeCAs" title="tweet this!">The church has been terribly muddled about sexuality for a long, long time. (tweet this)</a> The true story isn’t quite as simple as the one most people imagine, which is that the church has always been puritanically repressed and treated sex as, at best, a necessary evil, up until very recently, when we’ve become much more enlightened and sophisticated. Nonetheless, this imagined history has actual roots that begin with the early church’s reaction to the pagan cultural background from which most Gentile believers had come. Rampant sexuality surrounded the early converts in their pagan culture, and was doubtless for most of them a part of their personal histories. It’s unsurprising that they would have had problems regarding it.<br />
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We read about some of these problems in 1 Corinthians. Corinth was one of the most sexually notorious cities, so much so that “a Corinthian” was a euphemism for a prostitute. Paul has to deal with one group of people in chapter 6, who are continuing to use prostitutes, since they consider that the physical body is meant to engage in the functions it was designed for—“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” they would say. The material world was going to be destroyed anyway, so why bother worrying about what the physical body does? Paul responds to them that the body was meant for the Lord, and not for sexual immorality, that far from being permanently destroyed, the body would be raised just as Jesus had been, and that the body is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:12-20). God is the God of the material world, not just the spiritual.<br />
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But then in the following chapter, Paul has to deal with the opposite issue: another group of people who think that sexual relations should be eschewed even in marriage. Paul’s response is that, no, because of the temptation toward immorality, husbands and wives actually have a duty to fulfill one another’s sexual needs. He goes on to say that those who are unmarried and widows should marry if they “cannot control themselves,” although he personally prefers the freedom for ministry that celibate singleness offers, and counsels believers who are married to unbelievers to remain in the marriage (including the sexual relationship) unless the unbeliever leaves. He discusses different groups of people and situations, but his overall point of view remains constant: sexual indulgence outside marriage is wrong—is actually a sin against one’s own body—but within marriage it is good, especially since it acts as a safeguard against immorality. Those who are unmarried should consider staying unmarried “because of the present crisis” and because it offers undistracted devotion to the Lord—and this is Paul’s personal preference and counsel—but he recognizes that to do so is a gift, and not one that everyone has.<br />
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Like all of Paul’s letters, this is counsel given on a particular occasion to a particular group of people. While it embodies timeless truths, it is expressed in ways that are relevant to the original readers and might be misunderstood when taken out of that cultural context. In writing to both groups, Paul is dealing with people heavily influenced by Greek philosophy: specifically, who assumed that there was a Platonic dualism between matter and spirit, the physical world and the world of ideals. Plato viewed the material world as inherently corrupt and only his theoretical world of Forms as perfect and pristine. Greek converts to Christianity carried this cultural and philosophical baggage with them into their new lives in Christ, and split into two groups: those who believed that the physical world was transient and didn’t matter, and those who believed that the physical world was evil and needed to be suppressed. The libertine group saw sexuality as irrelevant to the spiritual life; the ascetic group saw sexuality as an inherently evil temptation that shouldn’t be indulged. Neither group was right, and Paul responded to each of them on their own terms.<br />
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This was sensible advice given to believers in the midst of a sexually debauched society, and it’s sensible advice to us now (for obvious reasons). But in the days when Christianity began to displace paganism, certain aspects of Paul’s argument were misunderstood and exaggerated.<br />
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The veneration of Jesus’ virgin birth is the beginning point. God chose to incarnate himself into human form by supernaturally impregnating a woman without any human male component. The point of the virgin birth is not that Mary had to be a virgin for Jesus to be incarnated. The point was that only by Jesus being conceived by a woman who had not been sexually active would the miracle be apparent—even to Mary herself.<br />
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But the Christianized Roman Empire was still deeply influenced by the same Greek philosophy that had bedeviled the Corinthian church, and God’s choice of a virgin to carry and give birth to Jesus seemed to indicate a divine preference for virginity above the married state. Viewed in this light, <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Paul%E2%80%99s%20advice%20to%20remain%20unmarried%20was%20personal%20and%20practical,%20not%20a%20divine%20endorsement%20of%20celibacy.%20http://ow.ly/OeCAs%20via%20@keschooley" title="tweet this!">Paul’s advice to the Corinthians, to remain unmarried if they could without falling into immorality, seemed to be a divine and absolute endorsement of celibacy, rather than the personal and practical advice that Paul obviously intends in the passage. (tweet this)</a> Paul’s frequent references to his own state of celibacy and his unusual qualification of passages by phrases like “I, not the Lord,” “I have no command from the Lord,” and “In my judgment” (1 Cor. 7:7-8, 12, 25, 40), make clear that he was giving individual and pragmatic advice.<br />
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But the Church Fathers read Paul’s advice to the Corinthians—to engage in sexual relations within marriage and to consider celibacy for those who were not married yet—as a reluctant permission for sex within marriage. They read him as an advocate for celibacy, not as a practical option, but as a higher and better spiritual state.<br />
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This interpretation of Paul found its climax in the church father Jerome, the translator of the Latin Vulgate, who vociferously defended celibacy in terms that amounted to denigrating marriage. According to Jerome, Paul’s only reason for advocating sexual relations within marriage, or marriage at all, was as a concession to human lust. Jerome wrote:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">Let us turn back to the chief point of the evidence: “It is good,” [Paul] says, “for a man not to touch a woman.” If it is good not to touch a woman, it is bad to touch one: for there is no opposite to goodness but badness. But if it be bad and the evil is pardoned, the reason for the concession is to prevent worse evil. But surely a thing which is only allowed because there may be something worse has only a slight degree of goodness. He would never have added “let each man have his own wife,” unless he had previously used the words “but, because of fornications.” Do away with fornication, and he will not say “let each man have his own wife.” … “But, because of fornications let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.” He did not say, because of fornication let each man marry a wife: otherwise by this excuse he would have thrown the reins to lust, and whenever a man’s wife died, he would have to marry another to prevent fornication, but “have his own wife.” Let him he says have and use his own wife, whom he had before he became a believer, and whom it would have been good not to touch, and, when once he became a follower of Christ, to know only as a sister, not as a wife unless fornication should make it excusable to touch her. <br />
<a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.vi.vi.I.html"><i>(Against Jovinian)</i></a></blockquote><br />
So in other words, Jerome considers married sexuality an evil, only excusable because it is preferable to the evil of outright fornication. He assumes that the believer is only married in the first place because the marriage happened before conversion, and that even within marriage, it would be better for a Christian man to treat his wife “only as a sister, not as a wife.” This view might be considered bizarre in today’s world, but Jerome was not alone in advocating sexless marriage. He simply expressed the logical endpoint of that view of sexuality.<br />
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Jerome was viewed as overly harsh and the church later moderated in its stance, primarily by developing a two-tier version of Christianity in which celibacy was first encouraged and then mandated for the clergy, but in which a high level of sexual ethics was not required of the laity. However, the idea that celibacy is a higher, nobler, more spiritual state, and that sexuality, although allowable within marriage, is somehow lower, baser, and tainted, persisted and continues to persist, even among Protestant churches.<br />
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We still deal with the legacy of this early church development. Although not many people still hold the attitude that sex is a necessary evil for the procreation of children, there remains a curious dichotomy, in which both sex itself and even the desire for it are considered to be sinful, right up until the point at which the minister pronounces “man and wife,” when it suddenly becomes a beautiful and wonderful gift, as long as it is directed 100% toward the marriage partner.<br />
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I think it’s fair to wonder whether it is possible for anyone to make that kind of emotional and psychological leap within the course of one ceremony.<br />
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The truth is that human beings are not sexless creatures. Ever. Especially after puberty. The desire for sex is a part of being human. And I’m convinced that it is not a part of <i>fallen</i> humanity, but rather humanity as God intended it from the beginning. It was God who said that it was not good for the man to be alone; it was God who created a woman as the suitable companion for him. God created us to be sexual beings. “Male and female he created them…. and it was very good.”<br />
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<h3>Biblical Issues</h3>So what, then, are we to make of the passages dealing with lust? That’s the real sticking point. The general attitude of the church can be summed up as a syllogism:<br />
<ol><li>Sex outside of marriage is a sin.</li>
<li>The passages on lust make it clear that the mere desire for illicit sex is in itself sinful.</li>
<li>Therefore, anyone who is unmarried and desires sex is committing sin.</li>
</ol>And with that, we condemn the natural human feelings of, let’s admit it, <i>everyone</i> to a state of sinfulness, something to be repented of, something to feel guilt and shame for. Those who are presently married and have a legitimate sexual outlet once weren’t married and didn’t have one. The most dangerous cases are people who came to faith in Christ as married adults, because if they engaged in sexual sin (by biblical standards, not the church’s) then they associate their sexuality while being single with a life of sin that they’ve come to reject, and then they may come to think that they can prevent their children from having sexual feelings by raising them as Christians. They end up shocked and heartbroken when they find out that their children are not immune from sexual feelings, either.<br />
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This post is about marriage, not singleness, but the problem here is that people bring these attitudes with them into their marriage relationships. <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Singles%20who%20believe%20that%20their%20human%20desires%20are%20inherently%20sinful%20can%27t%20turn%20this%20feeling%20off%20on%20the%20wedding%20night.%20http://ow.ly/OeCAs" title="tweet this!">Young men and women afflicted with the ingrained belief that their natural human desires are inherently sinful are not going to be able to turn this feeling off on the wedding night and suddenly rejoice in the wonderful gift of married sex. (tweet this)</a> This applies, incidentally, to couples whether they have engaged in premarital sex or not. I’m not necessarily talking about naive innocents who have been completely repressed until marriage, as though a simple dose of carnal ecstasy would have been the answer. The issue here is not merely about experience, but about ingrained attitudes.<br />
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But this still leaves open the question of what to do about the passages dealing with lust. The most obvious one, of course, is in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus says in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” So there it is. Lust = adultery. QED.<br />
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Well, it’s not quite so simple. First of all, we get deceived by the fact that the word “lust” is used in English translations. The Greek words <i>epithymeo</i> (verb) and <i>epithymia</i> (noun) refer to desire, not just for sex, but for anything, and are translated as desire or longing in most other contexts. The words do not always have a negative connotation: in many cases the object of desire is a good thing, and the desire itself is positive. For instance, Jesus said regarding his own coming into the world, “For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed (<i>epethymasan</i>) to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:17). He says of the rich man and Lazarus that Lazarus was “longing (<i>epithymon</i>) to eat what fell from the rich man’s table” (Luke 16:21). At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “I have eagerly desired (<i>epithymia epethymasa</i>) to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15). And Paul wrote to Timothy that “Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires (<i>epithymei</i>) a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). Desire itself clearly is not bad. When we change our translation from “desire” to “lust” any time the context indicates that it is sexual in nature, we make desire out to be a separate and inherently evil thing in these cases, something the Greek text does not support.<br />
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It also seems that there is a reason why Jesus makes specific reference to adultery, and not to the more inclusive term, fornication (<i>porneia</i>) in this portion of the Sermon on the Mount. One has to be married for adultery to occur. Could it be that Jesus’ primary target here is not simply to condemn sexual desire in general, but rather to preserve the integrity of the marriage relationship from a husband’s wandering eyes? Certainly what follows in vv. 31 and 32, dealing with divorce, would lend credence to this idea. <br />
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What NIV translates by the single word “lustfully” would be literally rendered, “in order to desire her.” Rather than simply saying that sexual desire is equivalent to adultery—and is therefore inherently sinful—Jesus seems to be saying that a man (presumably married) who is looking at another woman in order to desire her (rather than his wife) has then committed adultery against his wife in his heart. The issue that Jesus is dealing with is marital faithfulness, not sexual desire in and of itself. <a href="http://twitter.com/home/?status=Once%20a%20man%20has%20a%20one-flesh%20bond,%20he%20has%20no%20business%20looking%20outside%20that%20bond%20for%20sexual%20satisfaction.%20http://ow.ly/OeCAs%20/%20@keschooley" title="tweet this!">Once the man has a one-flesh bond, he has no business looking outside that bond for sexual satisfaction—or, for that matter, anything else he might be tempted to desire about her. (tweet this)</a><br />
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By focusing on Jesus’ use of the term “adultery,” and therefore on the marriage relationship, I am not saying that single people are immune, due to a technicality, to sexual sins of thought. 1 Corinthians 6:18 tells us to “flee from sexual immorality” (<i>porneia</i>)—not merely adultery—and Paul advises Timothy to “flee also youthful lusts” (2 Tim. 2:22—although here again it is not necessarily only sexual desire that is in view). These commands are both broader than the narrow limits of adultery and include more than just married people. What I am saying is that if we teach young people to feel guilty about the simple fact that they are sexual beings and desire sex, then we are setting them up for sexual dysfunction within marriage. If they are led to believe that sexual feelings, in and of themselves, are sinful, then they are not going to stop believing that as soon as the wedding ceremony is over.<br />
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<i>Read the second part of this post here: <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/christian-married-sexuality-part-2.html">http://www.schooleyfiles.com/2015/07/christian-married-sexuality-part-2.html</a></i><br />
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<i>To know more about Cecile's and my story, and for more of my perspective on biblical marriage and family, check out my book, <a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG">Marriage, Family, and the Image of God </a>.</i><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.schooleyfiles.com/p/blog-page.html#MFIG"><img alt="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRX4tet_ShgZF3Mmpe1cBVSvXLMM3cZ_9Oe_SJ7Q0xTUDaDnNxicfoCNPLZNGT8aMVdOUbJ6BzdLStd9AjWj-F-RL5wCoot_PkiDHy7Il863cLbbNh84QP7KXtCKV3AvS4qaxo/s1600/MFIG+Cover.jpg" title="Marriage, Family, and the Image of God" width="133" /></a></div>Keith Edwin Schooleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06328169815024415532noreply@blogger.com1