The Chosen Season 1 Episode 3: a review #thechosen
This episode really speaks to me as a Father. Jesus attention to the needs, insecurities, and wishes of the children shames my selfishness. I love kids, I have six of them; but even the most loving father know the frustrations of parenting. We adults have responsibilities to take care of and little people with never-ending questions and problems often elicit sharp replies rather than compassion and instruction. We ARE teaching something to our children with our actions that we don’t want them to learn. There is an old saying that “more is caught than taught.” I’ve noticed behavior in my children that I instantly correct and as I’m laying out what the bible says and what God expects from us I realize I’m guilty of the same thing; but I excuse myself because I’m the adult. What we see in this episode is a man who is willing to joke and tease, correct and instruct, and pour of himself into these little humans who may be starving for the attention they require. Mathew nineteen tells us the story of the disciples turning away the families with children who wanted to see Jesus. The Parents wanted prayers for their kids, the kids wanted excitement, the disciples wanted order, but Jesus wanted to give of himself to precious citizens of the kingdom of heaven.
We seem to go back a bit to Jesus traveling about as a carpenter for hire while also teaching as a rabbi to whomever will listen. The focus of this episode is His campsite and the children who visit it. Abigail is the ring leader, outgoing and confident, and she is the one who discovers his tent and slowly comes to trust Him and brings all her friends to see him. Joshua and Abigail are the two whom the plot focuses around. Abigail pesters Jesus with question: “what are you doing here? where did you come from? what is that wood for? are you a carpenter? Why don’t you live in a house? How do you make money? All the questions adults are too polite to ask. Joshua tells Abigail she should not. (Perhaps you see in yourself one of these two children. The outgoing, social butterfly Abigail; or perhaps the reserved, cautious, play-it-safe Joshua.) After eating his food and the rapid fire interview, she declares its time to go home and Joshua follows.
Over the few days He is camped the children come and help Him and Jesus teaches them songs and ethics and askes them to quote their Hebrew lessons. Always He is encouraging their good actions. Joshua finally askes a question and Jesus calls him “Joshua the Brave.” Like many men today, Joshua struggles with fear. Perhaps fear of saying the wrong thing, or appearing stupid, or doing something dangerous; or just not liking conflict. This fear can paralyze decision making and stop a man from being the confident leader God made him to be. Jesus is fostering courage in this young man.
The Children are seen traveling alone and discussing who Jesus is. A Little girl thinks he is a prophet from God. Joshua tells her what he has learned in school: there are no new prophets. Another child thinks He is a murderer. Out of the mouth of babes.
“I think he’s maybe a new prophet, and He will show us the will of God.”
“No, there’s no new prophets, Rabbi Josiah says so.”
“Maybe he’s a murderer!”
We see a lot of daily life stuff: fishing, cleaning wounds, and brushing teeth. This campsite is very thought provoking of the daily life and tools available in that day. This emphasizes the humanity of Jesus. He didn’t speak his meals into existence.
There is more that furthers Jesus story and tells us what the Jews believed at that time and overall the episode succeeds in showing us who Jesus is, and as the song says: “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”
No big complaints with this one. I give this a rating of 0 flies!