I struggle to enjoy Jesus movies. I respect the value of what they are trying to achieve, but the inescapable reality is that they are all doomed to fall short.
No actor is ever going to be able to live up to Jesus.
The Bible does not give enough backstory on the disciples to have a narrative that is both accurate and compelling.
Fast forward to me seeing the online buzz around Season 1 of The Chosen. I suggested to Sarah that we should have a look, after a couple of false starts we got the kids to bed early one night and watched the first couple of episodes.
We were hooked.
We have since watched every episode, but I have wrestled with it from a number of directions.
Firstly, it was not clear to me what it was trying to be. Was it trying to be biblically accurate?
No. it didn’t take long to see that wasn’t the plan.
Was it intentionally biased toward a specific church? I have heard many pundits try to make a case for that;
“Jonathan Roumie (The actor who portrays Jesus) is a devout Catholic and he is trying to elevate Catholic theology”
“The set is owned by the mormon church and the plot is therefore biased toward them”
“Dallas is an evangelical christian delivering a a fairy-floss message that has turned Jesus into a purveyor of a “follow your heart” or “Just love everyone” kind of faith.
If you look for such things you can absolutely find them. There are some things I see in there at times that makes me wince at inadequate theology or storytelling that strays too far from the information available, but what I am more interested in is the effect of the production… what does it achieve?
In the global community
There are two main areas of impact I have observed
- The renewed secular interest in Christianity – Amongst the online dialogue I have seen so many secular people giving genuine consideration to the gospel as a result of seeing a picture of Jesus that cuts through their misconceptions.
- The pulling down of bad pictures of God inside the church – I would have to agree that this depiction of Jesus is the best I have seen, where we see the full range of emotion from moments of serious reflection to joy and a sense of humour, it is a much more relatable picture of a Jesus that most of us would want to know. For many who have grown up with an exacting and dictatorial picture of God this has been transformative.
Personally
I have found The Chosen to be helpful for me as it has motivated me to fact-check certain scenarios and also given me new lenses to observe Jesus’ experience through.
That may not sound like a seismic shift, but when you have been exposed to Christianity for long enough the stories can begin to feel dry and predictable, so when you find something that helps you get excited and re-engage, that is valuable.
Would I let my kids watch it?
This may surprise you and sound somewhat hypocritical, but no, I will not be letting my kids watch it any time soon.
While I believe it is an interesting and valuable piece of art, if you are exposed to it BEFORE you have a solid understanding of the gospels it will become the standard by which the Bible is graded rather than the opposite. This is the sole reason I believe there is cause for concern.
The last word
Whether you like it or not, for this generation, I don’t believe there will ever be a more compelling depiction of Jesus presented to the general public than this production. The thing that excites me most about all of this is what I know the Holy Spirit can do with the efforts of imperfect humans who are giving their all to serve a perfect God.
