The Chosen

During the last few months there has been lots of streaming of shows on various entertainment sites. Some shows have been old favourites watched again, some have been new experiences discovered and some have been so compelling that we’ve found ourselves not just watching, but binging. This happened to me with one particular show. An article about The Chosen came up in my Facebook feed one Sunday night in May after watching Evening Church online. I hadn’t heard of The Chosen before and so (being a lover of good dramatic presentations of Biblical material) I took a look at the first episode. Eight episodes later and with nothing more to watch, I turned off the light at 4.45am and went to bed.

During the night of viewing, I didn’t drift into sleepiness even once. I was mesmerised by the way the series remained true to scripture while presenting a show that was filled with character development and plausible back stories. Typically, when we see the Bible enacted, the writers change the text “for dramatic purposes” and we end up with a show that barely resembles what we read in the scriptures. Just think about ‘Noah’ and ‘The Exodus” movies from recent times. The Chosen is not like this. It’s written and directed by an evangelical Christian.

The only changes appear to be with some of the chronology and locations. So, as with all dramatic presentations, it’s important to read the original text. Those familiar with the Gospels and the Old Testament connections will be captivated by the way it’s presented. Knowing what will happen next doesn’t spoil the experience of seeing it happen on screen.

The reality of the characters, the simplicity of the sets conveying life in the 1st Century, the research into Jewish customs, the clever plot development, the frequent splashes of humour, and so on are all brilliant. However, it is the genuine humanity of the various encounters people have with Jesus and their reactions to him and what he does that had me in tears on multiple occasions.

My Bible study group was working through “The Master Plan of Evangelism” by Robert E. Coleman at the time. It’s a classic study of the way Jesus went about his mission of global evangelism by investing in a team of disciples who would carry out the task after his departure. As I watched The Chosen, I saw various sections from chapters in the book being acted out.

The end result from watching the first season was an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for the salvation I have in Christ and a desire to go back and read the Gospel accounts again asking God to help me see Jesus more clearly.

I encourage you to watch The Chosen yourself. But be careful as you do. Remember that it’s not scripture, but a dramatic presentation based on scripture. As such, it adds a lot of material that fills out the stories we find in the pages of the Bible. So, for example, there’s a whole episode that’s about the wedding at Cana.

Oh, and if you do watch it – have some tissues handy and make sure you have time up your sleeve (each episode is only about 47min long, but stopping yourself from watching “just one more” will be hard to do).

The plan for The Chosen is to produce 8 seasons all up with 8 episodes per season. It’s being crowd funded and only season 1 has been completed. But, I’m looking forward to the rest as it unfolds.