I've been watching the series, The Chosen, over the years. If you aren't aware of it, it's a series on the life of Christ. It is, of necessity, a fictionalized series -- we don't have the detail of events and conversation required to make now 4 seasons of this kind of thing -- but it includes a lot of actual accounts from the Gospels. For that I give it mixed reviews. It can be interesting to see the events from the pages of Scripture come to life, but it's disturbing when it becomes "true" even though we know some parts are fiction. Take, for instance, Thomas's role. He supplied the original wine for the wedding at Cana which ran out, prompting Jesus to turn water to wine. Of course, that first part wasn't in the Gospels. He was engaged to his business partner, Ramah, who (spoiler alert) gets murdered in season 4. Again, not in the biblical accounts. Thomas suffers a crisis of faith. Why didn't Jesus heal Ramah? Once more, not on the official record. And when, shortly thereafter, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, Thomas is ready to jettison Jesus entirely. Again, not in my Bible. I'm not aiming this at The Chosen; I'm talking about the concept. Thomas (and others -- all?) believe that a good God and a good Messiah would not allow His own to suffer loss. And we see that in our own times and even our own lives. Where is God when it hurts? Why would God allow ... fill in the blank? How could a loving God allow this travesty of justice? You get the idea.
I would like to point out a couple of things here. First, from a purely rational position, what are we thinking?? Is it our belief that a good and loving God would never allow any of His people to suffer loss? If that was true, then we'd have a long line of very, very old people still around who were loved and, therefore, didn't die. Believers would never be sick, poor, injured, or sad, because that's what we expect from a good God. Can you see that it's nonsense? The problem there, of course, is that God is not like us. He's not limited in time or thinking to our limited time and thinking. He's got a bigger idea of good. So, for instance, when Joseph's brothers begged forgiveness for ... you know ... aiming to kill Joseph, he answered, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good" (Gen 50:29). Yes, evil occurs. Yes, it is often even intentional. But God ... God allows evil for good to happen. Just because we don't see it doesn't mean it's not true. God even claims that He causes calamity (Isa 45:5-7). Second, then, is the biblical argument. In Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar boasted of his majesty and was cursed by God to eat grass and live wild for 7 years. When he was restored, he said, "He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'" (Dan 4:35). After Job suffered the loss of wealth and family and, ultimately, his own health, his wife told him to curse God and die. He responded, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). If our fictional Thomas had been in either place, he would have answered, "I can! I can declare God in error. I ought to receive only good from the hand of God!" And so, it seems, would a lot of us.
The question comes down to faith, doesn't it? If you believe in the God of the Bible, you must be settled with "Not everything will be peachy for me" alongside "God causes all things to work together for good" (Rom 8:28-29) You must be okay with "His thoughts are not our thoughts" (Isa 55:8). Mind you, it is thoroughly rational. If the God of the Bible is in the heavens, He will not be like us, He will do things we don't understand, and, whatever else they may be, they will be good and loving. And it's thoroughly biblical. Let's not allow the universal principle of "Me first" cloud our faith in the truth of "God first." Let's keep our eyes on Jesus, accept His intentions as good, and accept from the hand of God both pleasant and unpleasant. Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21).
6 comments:
As an aside to The Chosen, perhaps they're pulling some from the Gospel of Thomas? I've never read it, so I don't know anything that is in it.
One of the good things we can see from the bad in our lives is that we get to see how God meant it for good in the end. If we can keep that in mind, we can ride out the bad times knowing that God is faithful and good.
On the aside, the guy who created The Chosen, Dallas Jenkins, describes Ramah as fictional, so, no, I don't think they're drawing anything from the Gospel of Thomas. No amount of searching on my part pointed to any connection to any source other than The Chosen filmmakers.
It strikes me that only the “natural man” would expect life to be trouble-free, because he is ruled by wishful thinking--that God exists to serve him and see to his happiness; however, anyone familiar with the God of the Bible should easily know that “[His] ways are not [our] ways” and yet “they will be good and loving.” I am glad that you post on this topic as often as you do, since to my mind, this is one of the most important truths to accept--right along with the related “I will continue to struggle with my sinful nature” and “life will be hard this side of Heaven.” As you say, the notion that “not everything will be peachy for me” is “thoroughly rational” and “thoroughly biblical”--the way I always wish to think. May I not “speak as one of the foolish women would speak”!
I find it most interesting to learn you've been watching this series. I've seen the first three seasons and haven't tried to get (free) access to the fourth...though it's my intention. I'll come back to this later.
Your main point, if I'm understanding it correctly, relates to the many and varied ways people have come to have less than rational understandings of God and His nature. The portrayal of Thomas' unjustified understanding is an example. I often wonder why God does what He does, allows what He allows, etc., but I do tend to default to accepting it all as in line with His Grand Scheme. I trust it to be worth whatever suffering I must endure. After all, He is the Supreme Being. He's not totally dim. He surely knows what He's doing more than I ever could.
I've known one or two who have fallen away after a great loss because they prayed and felt ignored by the outcome. Not totally unreasonable given Matt 7:7-8, and hard to resolve in light of it. It's not often clear. And it's difficult for some to see these things as a personal injury, simply because what they sought was not delivered, rather than something else, possibly more beneficial than the prayer answered, like a tempering of their spirit and character by the fire of their travails (pretty darned poetic, eh?).
Anyhow. Another great post. Thanks.
As to "The Chosen" series...if I may stray a bit from the topic...what's your overall critique? I happen to like it despite some liberties taken, as it is well done in a cinematically or theatrical sense. I like the effort to imagine what it must have been like to live and be a part of the entire story of the life of Christ. They've done some really imaginative stuff, particularly in the many preludes of episodes which tie into the main story directly or indirectly as the case may be.
There've been a host of criticisms about the show, but most that I've seen are peripheral. One in particular had to do with actors rebuking criticisms by some about a case where a small "gay" flag was tolerated on set in support of some "gay" person or people working there. Others had to do with a few points of concern with the liberties taken, such as that which you've highlighted regarding Thomas. Another had to do with Matthew's apparent Asperger syndrome, which also has no basis in Scripture.
Jesus is well known to be both man and God. The series works to show what that might actually look like. If they showed a scene in which while teaching his Apostles, they were engaged in a game of Texas Hold 'Em, it would certainly depart from Scripture in one sense, but definitely show that He lived not unlike a regular guy, teaching while relating to His followers as really one of them.
Anyway, I like it despite it's imperfections and feel it can be used to draw people to Christ, as well as to give Christians much to discuss with those who would be drawn, both about what's accurate, what's imagined and what's definitely counter-Biblical. I also think the producer treats the subject matter with respect, even if his efforts fall short of perfection.
What say you?
As The Chosen was not the point, it is off topic, but I've watched the entire series -- all 4 seasons. I know there was concern because Angel Studios is connected to Mormons, but I don't evaluate the show based on off-screen (like the "gay flag" thing) issues. I was disturbed by some of the portrayals, especially when I realized that, although they weren't my idea, they could have been fairly accurate. I was disturbed by some of the portrayals that were intentionally fictional (e.g., Matthew on the spectrum, Peter as a con man, James with a serious limp, and, of course, Thomas and Ramah, etc.) because they used them to make points that Scripture never intended (like Thomas ready to walk away from Christ because Jesus didn't heal his fiancé). That kind of thing has real potential to distort the truth of Scripture and substitute for biblical reality. ("I know it's true: I saw it on The Chosen>") That being said, since I knew most of the biblical stories and was able to keep my head straight on the fictional aspects, I enjoyed it enough to finish season 4. (I particularly enjoyed a special with Dallas Jenkins and Jonathan Roumie where we get a glimpse of these two primary entities behind The Chosen. (Roumie is devoutly Catholic but really close to Evangelical and Jenkins introduces himself to the pope as Evangelical.) It was interesting and informative.)
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