Reaction - The Chosen Season 4 Episodes 4-6

 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.

Also as before, you can find my review and analysis series here. 

The Chosen 2:3 — Matthew 4:24

Just as in Season One, the third episode of The Chosen’s 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?

The title of the chapter is a scripture reference, short enough that we can quote it in full:

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.

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.

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.

The Chosen 2:2 – I Saw You

Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, often relates a story of how he directed The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, 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.

 

He tells that story partly to explain how The Chosen 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.

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.

Reaction - The Chosen Season 4 Episodes 1-3

Last Sunday I got my chance to see The Chosen 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.

 

 

Aside—if you came here looking for another installment of my review and analysis series, 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.

The Chosen 2:1 – Thunder

The Chosen Season One ended 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 Apostles, as well as building up to the climactic point of delivering his Sermon on the Mount.

 

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 Samaritan town of Sychar. 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.

 

The Chosen 1:8 – I Am He

The second half of Season One portrays Jesus beginning his public ministry. From the wedding in Cana, 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 healing of the paralytic, to the open invitation of Matthew to become a disciple, and the private, but potentially explosive, invitation of Nicodemus, 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.

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 The Chosen 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.

The Chosen 1:7 – Invitations

As the first season of The Chosen 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 healing of the paralytic, 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.

The Chosen 1:6 – Indescribable Compassion

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 miraculous catch of fish that he witnessed, as is Nicodemus by Mary’s transformation, 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.

The Chosen 1:5 – The Wedding Gift

As The Chosen 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.

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 John chapter 3. 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 wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine.

The Chosen 1:4 – The Rock on Which It Is Built

As a crowd-funded independent project, The Chosen 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 Episode 1 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 The Chosen 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.

The Chosen 1:3 – Jesus Loves the Little Children

 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 “bottle episode,” 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.

The Chosen 1:2 – Shabbat

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, “I Have Called You by Name.” 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 (sabbath) observance, first in the time of Solomon, 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.

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.

We already saw in the first episode how fishing on Shabbat is considered a very serious violation (serious enough that Rabbi Jason Sobel, a messianic Jewish consultant for the series, thinks that it simply would never have happened) 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.

The Chosen 1:1 – I Have Called You by Name

I’ve heard that many people have started The Chosen 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, The Chosen 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.

This episode requires a significant recap prior to delving into analysis; feel free to jump forward to the next break if you’re already fully familiar with the plot details.

Reflecting on The Chosen: A Review and Interpretation Series

I’m going to embark on a review series on The Chosen. For anyone who happens across this page and doesn’t know what The Chosen is—I don’t know why you would; this website has been defunct for a while—The Chosen is an independently produced series on the life of Jesus and his disciples, specifically from the disciples’ point of view.* 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.

Loved by Strangers: A Testimony Done Right

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."

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. 

Facebook Pie

     (Apologies to Don McLean)

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how
Facebook would make me smile
And I hoped I could find a way
That I could make somebody's day
And maybe they'd be happy for a while

But then the site would make me shiver
With every meme it would deliver
Sad news on my laptop
I always hoped it would stop

I don't know when I felt the need
To get a handle on my feed
Seems like it went all to seed
The day that Facebook died

So why, why Mr. Zuckerburg, why?
I'd like to fix it 'cause I miss it but I'm just a small fry
And monetization is what makes it all fly
Maybe this'll be the day Facebook dies
This'll be the day Facebook dies

The Purpose of Marriage

The following post is excerpted from the chapter, "The Purpose of Marriage," in my book, Marriage, Family, and the Image of God.

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.

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.

But the important issue is not what we think marriage is all about. Rather, it’s what does God think marriage is all about? Why did he create marriage? What is it for? How is it supposed to function in our lives?

New Analysis of Building a Discipling Culture

Little did I know back in 2013, when I wrote a brief review of Building a Discipling Culture 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.

I have written, both in a newsletter and in another post, 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 Building a Discipling Culture, 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 this link.

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

• refutes Breen's insistence on a new "discipling language"; 
• 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, to participating over an extended period of time and starting their own huddles); and
• challenges the exegesis by which Breen claims biblical basis for the principles BADC advocates, especially Breen's use of "Covenant" and "Kingdom" as the key concepts for interpreting scripture as a whole.

If you have concerns about 3DM, or even if you are a 3DM advocate and wonder what the problem is, I invite you to download this commentary.

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.

Once again, many thanks to Mr. Irwin for his dedicated work on this commentary.

Santa Claus and Schrödinger's Cat

One 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?"

At last, quantum physics gives us the answer.

Many are familiar with the thought experiment known as "Schrödinger's cat," as well as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and the so-called "observer effect." 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 Copenhagen interpretation 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.

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.

Until now, no one has thought to apply this logic to the behavior of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Parenthood: Prepare for Chaos

The following post is excerpted from the chapter, "Prepare for Chaos," in my book, Marriage, Family, and the Image of God.

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 [insert behavior that the person has just observed and is particularly irritated by at the moment].”

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….

Three Young Boys and a Library

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.

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.

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.