“The Chosen” is an internet and DVD based television programme about the life and person of Jesus. It would be fair to say it has been “a phenomenon” – probably the greatest audio/visual project about the life and person of Jesus since “Jesus of Nazareth” with Robert Powell in the 1970’s. It’s great strength, it seems to me, is that it gives time and space to develop the background and character of many of the personalities that surround the person of Jesus either by exploring the cultural context, the Old Testament links associated with various scenes of Jesus’ life, or simply a depth to the storyline born out of the need to create artistic and dramatic depth.
This is somewhat different to what say happens on a Sunday morning in the Sermon slot where the focus maybe more on what we can ‘learn’ from the text in terms of its core ‘message.’ Here in “The Chosen” is more about ‘the story’ and letting the story speak through and for itself.
An example of what I mean might be helpful – take Matthew, one of Jesus’ core disciples, who we know was a tax collector. In The Chosen – the authors ask the question: why and how could an educated Jewish young man (clearly Matthew had to be able to read and write to do this important job) how could he end up working for what would be perceived of as ‘the enemy’ (the Romans)? The answer the authors of The Chosen conclude is that he is then portrayed as being someone clearly on the Aspergers/Autistic spectrum – someone fascinated by truth and detail, and accuracy – focused on how things work rather than people or emotions. And this is not such a leap of speculation as you might at first imagine because, if you have spent any time studying Matthew’s great contribution to the life of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew ch5-7), you will see its incredible structure intended to mirror the first five Books of the Old Testament (otherwise known as the Pentateuch or the Law – Genesis to Deuteronomy) which, along Matthew’s equally incredible attention to recalling every detail of Jesus’ sermon, points to someone both deeply knowledgeable about Scripture but also having the ability to memorise and recall every last word and detail that Jesus had then spoken. Why does this matter, because you begin to see not only Matthew, but indeed many of the other characters that surround Jesus as ‘real’ people not a single homogonous group. It also brings to the fore the humanity of Jesus as a sociable, warm, engaging, and charismatic individual – someone pretty much everyone would want to meet and to engage with.
In “The Chosen” Bible Study Series (we are going to be looking at Season 1 in this chapter of The Blog) we will take a deeper look into four such characters, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Matthew, and Simon (who later became known as Peter) and look into their background, their outlook, and their interaction with the person of Jesus. And we will also look at how and why Jesus then calls specifically these people to engage with and call them to follow Him – hence the title of the series “The Chosen,” not ignoring, of course, the other important question and challenge, that He similarly seeks to engage and call each of us.
So, I hope you enjoy looking at the Gospel story from a slightly different angle and in a slightly different way. Some of the story may well be familiar but I would be surprised if we don’t all learn something new as we journey through this “The Chosen” Bible study together.
Matt Thomson