As I’ve noted here before, every Easter my wife and I try to rewatch Mel Gibson’s brilliant film about Jesus Christ, The Passion.
This year we will be watching The Chosen, an interesting series about the life of Jesus Christ and the backstories of him and his disciples.
This ambitious and reverent series was made with individual donations rather than a Hollywood studio and most of the actors were previously unknown. Although the series does not have the high production values of The Passion or Franco Zefferi’s TV series Jesus of Nazareth (another favorite of mine), it is still well worth watching.
One can watch the series free on Youtube.com or via Paramount on cable TV.
Watch the Show Dedicated to Christ | The Chosen TV (vidangel.com)
James Merrick offers his take on the series at the National Catholic Register.
It all began with a box office bomb and a Christmas short. That’s what led Dallas Jenkins, a Bible-believing evangelical, to create The Chosen — a projected eight-season TV series on Jesus Christ. Though the first season was released a year ago, word is just now getting out, thanks in part to a “pay it forward” campaign making the show available on YouTube..
Although his father is famous for fictionalizing the fundamentalist interpretation of Revelation in the bestselling Left Behind series, Jenkins isn’t uncomfortable reimagining the Gospels and doesn’t give us a rigid reading. Still, he sincerely intends The Chosen to be faithful to Scripture. The result is what the show’s Catholic consultant, Holy Cross Father Davis Guffey, described as an Ignatian meditation on the Gospels.
Jesus Is the Eternal Lord
The Chosen gives us a soundly biblical Jesus in a
profoundly biblical world. He’s cast not as an esoteric sage, self-help guru,
hippy commune leader or political activist, but as the Lord who knows and
possesses us utterly.
This comes out powerfully in the first episode. It opens on a roughly 5-year-old St. Mary Magdalene interrupting her sickly father praying. He playfully points to the “big new star” and asks if the bright light woke her. She says she’s scared. “What do we do when we are scared,” he asks. “We say the words,” she replies, ready to recite Isaiah 43:1:
Thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.’
Mary’s father repeats the
phrase “you are mine” as she turns to gaze at the star.
She then wakes up to a
real-life nightmare 20 years later. She is a demon-possessed prostitute who
goes by “Lilith.” By the end of the episode, she comes close to jumping into
the sea, only to drown herself in drink instead. Just when she is about to end
her life, Jesus appears. As the demons shudder insider her, he calls her by her
name, cleverly bringing out that detail from the later Resurrection scene. He
then exorcises the demons by pronouncing the same prophecy her father taught
her. When he asserts “you are mine,” it’s clear he is more a king who
repossesses her than a therapist sorting out her personal baggage.
Thankfully, this scene isn’t at all romantic, even if full of love. Rather, Jesus has such command over the human soul because he is the Creator God.
You can read the rest of the review via the below link:
You can also read my column on The Passion via the below link:
Paul Davis On Crime: A Look Back At Mel Gibson's 'The Passion Of Christ'
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