Jonathan Roumie as Jesus
For the past several Sunday afternoons, Patty and I have been watching The Chosen, a crowd-funded TV series on the life and ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The actors and writers are largely new faces, to an American audience; but the quality of the episodes is spectacular.
I’m taking home two lessons from this series:
*What Jesus did, and what He taught, were incredibly dangerous–to Him and to His disciples. Everything leads to the Cross. It’s not an easy thing to contemplate.
*Coming from anyone but the Son of God Himself, Jesus’ words would have been crazy-talk bordering on blasphemy. He had to do miracles: His works were the proof that everything he said was true. Remember Gamaliel’s warning to his colleagues in the Temple: he mentioned several false messiahs who’d come to bad ends because their teachings were not true. If Jesus were just another false messiah, then they should just leave Him alone because nothing would come of it. But if Jesus really did come from God, then to oppose Him would have been to go against God.
The acting, the sets, the writing–everything here is quality. By and large, it’s faithful to the Bible. Here and there the writers have had to speculate, to fill holes in the narrative. The producers urge the audience to be guided by the Gospel.
We’re watching The Chosen on YouTube. I can’t help wondering if this TV series is part of an overall revival. God knows we need one.