I just discovered The Chosen

The Chosen season 1 episode four is not the first time WE meet Simon and Andrew. I always assumed the series introduced each of these characters the first time Jesus met them. But while he calls each and every one of his disciples on their first meeting, we see them and get to know them before hand. Which is amazing. It starts when Jesus starts calling his disciples, right before his time comes to begin his ministry. But it starts with him being a face in the crowd to the main characters. And 4 episodes into the show he begins calling them. None fo their stories started when he called them and none fo their lives ended the day they were called. The only way to tell the story through their eyes, which is a major point of the show, is to establish what each of their individual eyes were. You see them talk and debate with each-other. And a few of them even knew each-other from before.

The show weaves a narrative where two brothers Andrew and Simon are in trouble because of their debts to Rome. They meet with a tax collector Matthew who helps them. Matthew was born to privilege and is protected by a roman official named Quintus. And this is before Jesus passes by Matthew's tax collecting booth and calls/chooses him. The five season historical drama The Chosen was something I was always interested in, but didn't know a damn thing about beyond what was on paper. Nothing drew me to the show. I only recently even watched a couple of the scenes on YouTube. I understood what it was about. the unique take of individualizing the disciples and telling his story through there eyes there's one thing I never realized. Now let me back up and say I've checked seasons 2-4 out of the library once and didn't watch any of it. I never saw the scenes where Jesus called his disciples.

So I saw the YouTube clips of when he called Matthew. And something clicked in my head. A couple fo things actually. One that Gaius, a Roman solider who was with him told him he was being crazy throwing everything away to follow this street preacher. Making him the first dropout. Like Francois, aka St. Francis of Assisi Matthew threw away a life of privilege to follow God.

But also one of my favorite passages in the Gospels is of the Faithful Centurion. It's found in  Matthew chapter 8 and one other place. There is a Roman Centurion, Gaius who comes to Jesus and asks him to heal his servant. But anyway this centurion's name is Gaius. So when I heard Matthew call this Roman solider Gaius I thought maybe he would be the faithful Centurion to come later. So I watched that scene. I saw the potential for a tapestry. And when I looked at the episode list I saw they had made one. Not just people like Nicodemus, Zacheaus and the Faithful Centurion having met him or seen him before they are shown in the gospels, but the disciples themselves, the Apostles being part of each-others lives before being called to follow a man they each recognize as the Messiah.

Most of the time in the gospels Jesus calls someone nearby and they leave everything and follow them. Nothing else is known about most of the disciples who were called. There is no relationship, no context. Only Andrew and his brother Simon (Peter) James and John, and Matthew's stories are told as encounters. Here Nathaniel, Simon Z and at least one other disciple encounter, meet with and accept Jesus invitation to join him. That 'addition' is what makes the unique approach of having Jesus story told through his disciples eyes even work. Now remember I said that in Matthew 8 he's asking Jesus to heal his servant? In Matthew 8 the centurion comes himself. In Luke 7 he sent people to ask him to come and when Jesus was on his way the centurion "sent friends to say 'lord I am not worthy you should come under my roof, only speak the word and my servant shall be healed'."

Matthew's account is so different and a more personal account because it is. Matthew was actually there. Luke, whoever he was did not meet Jesus of Nazareth and was a gentile. He was recording these things about 40 years after Jesus crucifixion. The powerfulness not just of a centurion asking a Jew for help, to heal merely a servant when he could just as easily order it, but a man who didn't know anything about the messiah, with boldness and confidence absolutely freaking sure Jesus, whoever he was could do this. Instead of believing he could do this because of who he was. A roman solider calling Jesus 'Lord', wasn't recognizing him as the messiah. But as a lord. Someone with power, authority. Someone against whom he was unworthy. I want to see what kind of tapestry they weave.

It will be a great and worthy journey. Of that I have absolutely no doubt.