THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 7-8

THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 7-8, which has been released to theaters, follows Jesus and His apostles to the tomb of their friend, Lazarus, where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and then they return to the house where Lazarus lives with his sisters, Martha and Mary, where Jesus has dramatic conversations with two of His apostles, Thomas and Judas, and with an open-minded priest, who decides he doesn’t like the way Jesus does things. THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 7-8 provides an excellent, dramatic finish to Season 4, with a great presentation of the Gospel from John 11:25 where Jesus declares Himself the resurrection and the life.

The two episodes begin with Jesus and the apostles traveling to Bethany to see Martha and Mary, who are grieving over their beloved brother’s death. Martha greets Jesus at the entrance to Bethany and tells Him that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus had been there earlier. Jesus replies, “I am the life that overcomes death. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live. And, whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Martha says I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who’s coming into the world.”

Martha’ younger sister, Mary, arrives with Jesus’s own mother, Mary, and Jesus weeps with them over the death of Lazarus. Jesus then walks with them to the tomb of Lazarus, where he orders the apostles to remove the stone from the entrance. The apostles and the crowd are flabbergasted when Jesus orders Lazarus to come out of the tomb and he does!

However, Judas thinks Jesus, as the Messiah, will now raise an army to defeat Rome and re-establish a Jewish state. Jesus later disabuses Judas of that notion when he preaches the parable of the sheep and the goats from Matthew 25. The business partner of Lazarus has brought an open-minded priest, who wants to hear Jesus’ plans from his own mouth. Like Judas, the priest decides he doesn’t like Jesus’ teaching of the sheep and the goats. They are also upset that Jesus lets Mary wash his feet with expensive perfume instead of selling the perfume to feed the poor. Jesus replies, “You will always have the poor with you, and, whenever you want, you can do good for them, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And, believe me, wherever the Gospel is proclaimed through the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.” The priest, however, thinks Mary’s actions violate the Law of Moses and gets further upset when Jesus says that the Law of Moses is fulfilled in Him. Jesus then adds that His true followers will be those who follow His command to love one another.

Jesus also has words with the Apostle Thomas, who doesn’t understand why Jesus would raise Lazarus from the dead, but not raise his late wife, who was murdered. Jesus tries to tell Thomas there’s a higher purpose in the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus assures Thomas that he may not understand the purpose now, but later he will.

Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem, the leaders of the Sanhedrin, especially the High Priest, decide that Jesus must be handed over to the Romans to be killed.

THE CHOSEN: SEASON 4 EPISODES 7-8 provides an excellent, dramatic finish to Season 4. There are many powerful scenes with well-written dialogue that brings out the conflicts between the characters. The acting between the characters in these two episodes is particularly good. Any movie or television show that focuses so much on the character interaction between the actors will end up making its story and dialogue come alive.

By inserting pivotal moments in the Scriptures, such as Jesus’ famous comments to Martha in John 11:25 about resurrection, belief and eternal life, Episode 7 has a clear presentation of the Gospel. Episode 8 follows this up with references to Matthew 25 and to Jesus Christ’s command to love one another. Episode 8 also has a nice reference to the Passover lamb that highlights John the Baptist’s description as Jesus as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”