I love “The Chosen” – but with some provisos.
Last night we watched part 3 of Season 5.
Season 5 is a different level in terms of production and to some extent style. But it also goes further in adding to scripture, “filling in the blanks” if you like and there lies the danger.
There is so much embellishment, so much added dialogue that like a ship at sea there is a danger of losing sight of the coast! As an evangelistic tool it is very engaging, but a non-Christian, and I think especially of Moslems, could get very confused as to “what is truth?”.
Series 5 becomes rather indulgent, slow, reflective, allowing the characters and events to develop way beyond what we have on paper. Depicting real people means that even facial expressions become important. I know for instance that Jesus clearly had a sense of humour, but was he quite as witty as depicted? Which brings me to my main point. “The Chosen” has made me really think about who Jesus was. Or to be more accurate, what it was like to be Jesus!
How did Jesus cope with being “Son of God”, with being human, with feeling pain and rejection. In short, not going completely insane at knowing who he was. There is a great scene towards the end of series 5, the first conversation between Yeshua and Nathaniel (speculative of course) where Jesus invites Nathaniel to follow him and establish the kingdom of God. Humanly speaking Jesus sounds completely out of his mind. Quite insane! Well you would wouldn’t you living with the reality that you are the Saviour of the entire human race, Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
But there we have it. The Chosen raises lots of questions. Sends us away thinking. Isn’t that what Jesus did?
In short Jonathan Rhoumie doesn’t nail it (pun intended) but he gets pretty darn close.
