bring on the comfort

4. Speaking of how this show (so far) seems to be treating certain things with more subtlety than some other Christian movies/cartoons/etc. I've seen--CAN WE TALK ABOUT GAIUS FOR A SEC NOW? One of my biggest pet peeves about said other Christian media I've occasionally run into (speaking as a Christian myself) is how the Roman soldiers seem to always be written as the most insufferable, flat, obnoxious, braying, "I just enjoy teh evulz!1!," "MWA-HA-HA-HA"-ing villains you will ever meet. Not just the ones nailing Jesus to the cross, mind you, but any and all of them running into the other characters on the street.

Like… I'm not saying the relationships between the ancient Romans and the ancient Jews were in any way nice (that's putting it VERY mildly, in fact). According to our pastor (who is a history professor) in the Bible study I'm going to each week, there really was incredible, incredible tension and hostility on both sides, and there definitely would have been some extremely nasty bullying, along with the more serious persecution the Romans inflicted. But still--the Roman empire was a HUGE entity full of SO many people of so many walks of life, and you can't tell me there weren't SOME Roman citizens who were just simple, decent people. And being a soldier was a very common job for some of the men, to my knowledge.

Enter Gaius, who… well, to call him Matthew's "friend" would be a strong word at this point, but he at least seems to be more reasonable and less vicious than some of the other Romans. (It's sort of like, the bar for interactions between historical Jews and Romans is buried sixteen feet under the ground, and Gaius has his own bar for it just… laying there on the ground.) Yeah, Gaius reacts with disgust rather than sympathy when Matthew says his father has disowned him, but he at least deigned to ask Matthew ABOUT his family to begin with, just trying to make civil conversation. Yeah, Gaius snarks "he detests you as much as I do" about the praetor to Matthew, yet he keeps trying to grab Matthew back from getting himself hurt by offending the guy.

I just kept looking cockeyed at this particular Roman soldier, somewhat through the first episode and definitely through this second one. Part of me was kinda hoping maybe Gaius will start to Get BetterTM, and become one of the "friend group" (for lack of a better word). I have a huge soft spot for the few "good Romans" in the Gospels (the one begging Jesus to heal his servant, and the one who acknowledged "truly this was the son of God" after the crucifixion, are the two who most readily come to my mind), both because they're proof of "not all Romans were evil mustache-twirlers" right there in the source material, and because they're VERY important pictures of the earliest Gentile believers, whom Jesus actually interacted with Himself.

So anyways… I kept wondering if I should let myself "like" Gaius or not, because knowing what I do of storytelling patterns, I couldn't imagine him just STAYING in this uncomfortable "neutral ground." My brain literally told me, "Okay, this guy is either gonna end up Agent Kallus [from Star Wars Rebels] or Peter Pettigrew [from Harry Potter], I just don't know which yet." …So I broke down and looked up his TV Tropes page.

🚨 SPOILERS 🚨

*does the splits* *throws up confetti* *little party horn* Aaaaaaand IT'S KALLUS!! 🥳 Hooray!

…Now I'm of two minds, because part of me is thrilled that Gaius is indeed going to be one of the "good Romans," and not only that but one of those specific ones mentioned in the Bible--the one who begs for help for his servant! But I'm… kinda ticked at how this apparently is going to be portrayed. According to the spoilers (and my mom), Gaius asks for help because the "servant" is actually his illegitimate child. WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST HAVE KEPT THE SERVANT AS HIS SAME-AGE BUTLER (which is what it very much sounds like in the Bible itself)??!

To me that was always one of the most remarkable and touching pictures of male affection in the Bible--showing someone who platonically loved his friend so much (and a servant at that, firmly crossing social gaps again!), he would do something like that for him. Obviously people love their children, and rightly so, but that almost cheapens the point of that particular story, to me (especially since we ALREADY got ANOTHER story in the Bible about a father begging Jesus to heal his son, in John 4).

Buuuuuut anyways. I'll probably still like it when I see it play out on screen (especially since y'all know me and how I indeed have a soft spot for father-and-child bonds), and I'm still really happy that Gaius is gonna be one of the good guys eventually. So, now I can like this funky li'l Roman without worrying so much. 😁

5. Jesus hasn't had a lot of screentime Himself yet, but His one appearance in this episode, where He showed up for Mary Magdalene's dinner, was super-sweet. James and Thaddaeus are such cute little guys, showing up before Him (and that also got me wondering, do we even have a Bible verse about when they were called? I always thought the fisherman brothers were the first disciples, but apparently that's not how the show is writing it here, at any rate). And anyways… something struck me about the actor's performance that I had trouble articulating at first.

I've never seen "a" Jesus act apologetic before. And maybe "apologetic" is the wrong word--He hasn't done anything WRONG, and that's probably the point of why this is so rare. Every other portrayal I've seen of Christ has made Him KIND, yes, and many times even incredibly gentle--but never quite so humble. Even though humility is very much supposed to be His thing, an incredibly important virtue in the Bible and in His teachings, so often fictional Bible spinoffs like this struggle to portray it so much. (They tend to go for "extremely gentle" in aiming for it, like I said--but gentleness and humility are a bit of a Venn diagram, not complete synonyms.)

I think that's because both writers and actors are afraid--and rightly so--of making Jesus look like He could ever be in the wrong. And I do hope The Chosen indeed keeps this in mind (from all the positive reactions to this show that I've heard about, hopefully it does). But--when it's done RIGHT, as I personally feel it was in this episode's case--it's INCREDIBLY touching, and mind-blowing the more I stopped and thought about it.

No, Jesus cannot make REAL MISTAKES--He is sinless and that's the point. But can He be worried about social gaffes? …Maaaaaybe? I'm not sure, get back to me on that. Can He be concerned about another person's thoughts of Him, and just their own comfort level? YES, I do think He can, especially because, during His earthly life, He (unlike the Father part of the Trinity) was not completely omniscient.

And that's what He shows to Mary, in this heartmeltingly soft, almost timid display at the door--"Is it all right? Can I come in?"

Like… this is GOD we're talking about here! But think about a parent playing with a child, maybe "asking permission" about certain things. "Can I take your plush dino off the shelf?" "Can we have chicken nuggets for supper, would you like that?" "Do you want me to push you on the swing, or do you want us to go home now?" These are all perfectly kind and right ways to parent, instead of just "We're gonna do this now, live with it," and never interacting with the child in a way that will teach them how to be considerate of others.

…This just really warmed my heart the more I thought of it, so I'm really glad this scene happened. It may even have helped me with my prayer life a bit. I think the word I'm ultimately looking for is "meek," which again was spoken of in the Bible, yet is so rarely portrayed in Christian media. The Chosen has a properly meek Jesus, and I like that, so far.

6. The one thing I have to say I don't like, in this episode and the first one, is the fisherman subterfuge subplot meanwhile. Partially because I'm a wimp who doesn't like too much tension (one reason I loved this episode was because it was, on the whole, "fluffier" than the previous), but also because I'm not sure this is how I would ever have imagined Peter.

Yes, Peter denied Jesus three times out of fear, after the crucifixion. But this is more than an after-the-fact, verbal betrayal--this is premeditated, and could lead to imprisonment or death for these other fisherman he's planning to turn in. In other words, it's a lot more malicious than I ever would imagine Peter being. I know it's gonna turn out okay, and he's gonna back out and probably feel ashamed of himself… but STILL.

Note I'm not saying "Ooooh, the disciples were too good to ever do something so sinful, we can't portray them like that!" The characters all being flawed humans whom Jesus came to save is very much the point. Forgiveness and redemption is VERY MUCH AT THE CENTER OF CHRISTIANITY, and therefore hopefully of this show! But, like… we already have redemption stories like that of the Apostle Paul, for downright villainy. Peter was hotheaded, but not coldhearted. I do understand he and Andrew and Eden are in a fix in the show, but here he's willing to throw other actual lives under the proverbial bus (chariot?), and I just… never got that impression of him in Biblical canon.

(Again, Paul--then Saul? Heck yes, he was the one "driving the chariot!" But not Peter. Peter simply had other sins, and that's part of the story.)

7. Okay anyways. Back to stuff I DO like, another thing that has impressed me so much about The Chosen so far is its artistry. It truly feels like walking through a real city in Bible times. Costumes, architecture, and so many props, all are immaculate! I love that. I've never even particularly been interested in the "Bible times world" for simple historical/anthropological reasons, but this show makes me enjoy it, so kudos for making it so real.