Interacting with the Word of God in a creative way moves my heart.
Not long ago, I was talking with a family friend, Mark Viniello, about his work on the movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” As a creative mind in all things in special effects, Vinny has created Hobbit feet for the Lord of the Rings and the masks of creatures in the last season of the Mandalorian. Mark explained that in order to make the scene in the Passion where Jesus is whipped, they superimposed a shot of Mark’s back being whipped instead of Jim Caviezel’s.
My family teases me about my love of "Jesus movies".
On a number of occasions, my family has come around the corner from the hallway and I’m wide-eyed and weeping in front of the television. When I watch the Jesus Film, The Gospel of John the Movie, or even The Greatest Story Ever Told, I am interacting with the Word of God in a creative way and it moves my heart.
Not all “Jesus movies” are well done.
Over the years I have seen some that are sac-religious and others where Jesus talks like a robot without much feeling. Some have taken liberties with the text that I don’t agree with, but I have never thrown a brick through my TV in protestation – I’m just thankful that I get to imagine more fully what it looked like when Jesus walked the earth. A positive example is the use of the Aramaic language in “The Passion of the Christ” which helped me understand what Jesus sounded like.
Most of the movies about Jesus portray a stoic Jesus that doesn’t seem human. There may be lots of reasons for doing this, certainly erring on this side of displaying the “deity of Jesus” versus making Jesus seem “too human” is part of the thinking. This hurdle makes it hard for us to connect to Jesus emotionally. He seems more like an object in a museum in many of these films instead of someone you would want to go fishing with and sit next to on the dock.
"The Chosen" captures a biblical and relatable representation of Jesus.
Finally, I have seen a video version of Jesus that shows his human nature and humor; it is found in the video series, “The Chosen.” While all of this series is not word for word from the Bible, I have found its content to be very accurate where it quotes from the Bible or tells the accounts from the gospels. A professor from my alma mater Talbot Seminary, a rabbi, and a Catholic priest, work together as consultants to make sure that there is “high plausibility” for everything in the series.
The way that Jesus is portrayed as approachable, humorous, and full of love has absolutely undone my heart.
While the real Jesus was probably 100 times more wonderful than what we see in these videos, I am so thankful for this new window into the heart of God and into what the disciples of Jesus may have been like.
If you haven’t watched The Chosen yet, you can find the first season on YouTube free for you to watch. The Chosen app is really the best way (if you are tech-savy) to watch the first season and the first few episodes of season two. Whether it’s the portrayal of Matthew, the tax collector, as someone who may have been on the spectrum, or Nicodemus as a conflicted pharisee – The Chosen is a treasure for any of us who follow Jesus and long to visualize what it was like to follow him during his ministry.
Just maybe ... it might be time for you to … Binge Jesus.
I look forward to seeing all of you who choose to worship with us in the Dome this Sunday at either 9:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m.
You can also live stream our 11:00 a.m. service on Facebook and YouTube
If you missed last Sunday's message, "Lessons from Three Kings", Week 16: "Sparing Saul & Trusting God's Timing" (1 Samuel 24-26), click here.
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