We begin episode three in the quiet camp of Jesus. He is spending time with the Father in deep prayer and meditation. In my own experiences with campfires or even fire in the hearth, there is something very soothing and relaxing about the experience. John chapter 17 tells us about a long prayer Jesus has with the Father. This may be very similar to that as a precursor to His ministry. He is seeking His Father as he prepares for what is ahead.
Enter Abigail (whose name means 'Her Father's Joy') and she wanders into the camp of Jesus. So this whole episode is going to highlight the children of Israel and their interactions with Jesus before He begins His earthly ministry.
First of all I would love to recreate this whole campsite. Though I would not know what to do with all those tools. Abigail explores it for us and shows just how much of a craftsman Jesus was and is. Truly He is still working with His hands. As He grew up though he would have worked with his earthly father Joseph as a carpenter. He could have even been one of main architects in Nazareth.
That moment when you hear your parents voice in your head telling you not to eat something that doesn't belong to you.
Healing the sick, cakewalk... starting a campfire.... ugh :) Just another piece they throw in to remind us of Jesus' humanity. He does of course get the fire going here and in our hearts as well.
When watching this scene as a family my oldest daughter made the comment, so families back than had the same boring dinner conversations do now. And the dads still don't pay attention.
I responded with pointing what Abigail did all her chores
Great music in this show by the way. I mean it would be rather different without musical score in the background. Jesus of course knows the children will be showing up the next day. He is always ready. Jesus prays to the Father before he goes to sleep, a good reminder to all of us. It is not about long flowing prayers, prayer can be simple conversation.
Abby brings along her friend Joshua to check out the campsite and find Jesus praying before His meal. Its great to see Jesus interactions with the children. He is truly going to be surrounded by the little ones His whole ministry because they know He is good. Kids have a way of telling who they can trust. He makes them smile and laugh and has so much to teach them.
Just throwing this in there so parents can have a good conversation to their children about wandering away from home into strange campsites. I mean yes this is Jesus and we all know that, but this is a good way to bring up the conversation.
Joshua the brave! Throw back to the book of Joshua and the Lord calling him to be courageous.
Alert children bring with them many questions! He is of course patient with all of them.
The actors performance flows along with the story so well in every scene. His conversation with Abby about what He does to make money and his response to her about how sometimes its better to not be wealthy reminds me of many Scriptures talking about money. Our focus should be on heavenly riches, Spiritual growth and works we do to spread His Kingdom. Wealth can be our family, friends, thoroughly enjoying the life He has given us.
If you want to know more about the bedtime prayer Jesus prays you can look up the Bedtime Shema for the full prayer. Praise you Lord our King! Also Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Love that they just want to hang around with Jesus. He tells them they are welcome but he has work to do and they may have to help. This is a message for all of us to find Jesus in the morning and seek to hang out with Him all day and help Him. It is not as though he needs help, it is that He invites us to help Him.
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Jesus brushes his teeth because of course the King of the Universe knows about dental care.
This exchange reminds me of the quote:
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
― The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Answering questions with a question is pretty normal among the Jewish friends I know. I believe Jesus is always wanting us to talk through our thoughts and intentions. As the children begin talking to Jesus we get to imagine so much about what His years of ministry would have looked like.
I could just hear Him saying "I am the bread of life" (John 6:34)
Keeping kids busy with crafts while you teach them is an excellent idea.
The Shema is the centerpiece of the daily morning and evening prayer services and is considered by some the most essential prayer in all of Judaism. You can read more about it here.
The children of course would all know the prayer and would have prayed it many, many times. It is wonderful to watch and listen to them all pray and you can see the look on Jesus' face how it moved His heart.
"And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." Matthew 8:20
Jesus telling the children His is preparing for His teaching ministry. This line is a good reminder of our real purpose on this earth is to advance the Kingdom.
Life will never stop being school. Every day we learn lessons on how to love one another.
She wins for my favorite defense for spending time with Jesus.
The music again, perfect. Watching Jesus with the children and answering their questions, perfect.
Jesus the master story teller. This story is from 2 Kings chapter 2 and involves the prophet Elisha cursing some young men for calling him names.
"The hoodlums who were taunting Elisha were young men, not little
At least I am going to assume that is the story Jesus was telling them. Interesting one.
children. You will find this word used in many places in Scripture, and
in every other place it is translated “young men.” This was a crowd of
young fellows. They were students of the false prophets. They were a
gang that mocked and ridiculed Elisha. They said, “Go up, thou bald
head.” What did they mean by that? They were telling him to do the same
thing Elijah had done. They were saying, “Why don’t you take off like
Elijah did?” Their jeering, recorded in the slang of their day, implied that
if Elisha were a great prophet of the Lord, as Elijah was, he should go on
up into heaven as Elijah reportedly had done. They were ridiculing the
truth in Scripture that God will take a people out of this world: This is the
same attitude, Peter says, that will appear on the earth again in the last days.
This incident in 2 Kings is given to us to let us know that God intends to judge
those who ridicule the second coming of Christ. 2 Peter 3:3-4" - Dr. Chuck Missler
At least I am going to assume that is the story Jesus was telling them. Interesting one.
We will never have any real idea of what prayer time would have been like between the Son and the Father, but I know it is the same kind of prayer time we should aspire to have. In this case I imagine He is praying about the ministry before Him and with what the Father is asking Him to do.
How good and how pleasing it would be for brothers to sit in unity. Taken from Psalm 133.
So much of His teaching to the children could be used for sermon points and illustrations. This entire episode should be in all Sunday school classrooms for that matter. I did notice little Joshua saying how the Rabbi in his school teaches Messiah will come free the Jews from Rome. This is an important point because those looking for Messiah were indeed looking through that lens.
I feel like I want to print this one for my classroom.
And this is a good one for all of us.
As for His comment about Messiah being a strong military leader that is a good question. There is of course passages of the Second Coming which we could put in that category. Some even believed there would be two Messiahs, one a suffering servant and a second to be the military leader. God of course knew the two were the same. But nothing is revealed all at once.
Abby is the little teacher's pet. There is always one and its always good. Again this whole interaction is a great teaching on justice, fairness, and how to respond to bullies.
At least a couple times David had the chance to take his own justice in 1 Samuel on King Saul. It is the Lord who will take care of all things in His own timing. We need to trust in that, no matter how hard it is.
I would love to see all these children come back in another season when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Meanwhile He tells them all to be peacemakers.
This is what the show is called The Chosen, it is about all the followers of Messiah whom He has chosen. All of us who are His called ones, chosen by Him.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God. (Isaiah 61:1-2)
In Luke chapter 4 Jesus reads this passage from Isaiah to the leaders in the Synagogue of Nazareth. Jesus stops short of "and the day of vengeance of our God" simply because that part has not happened yet. But it will when He returns!
Seeing that Jesus just finished teaching the children about justice it works really well throwing this passage into the context of this friendly gathering.
Jesus says many times in the Gospels that we should be as little children when it comes to faith and seeking Him. Children like the ones in this episode, always asking questions and finding understanding, are the kinds of people we all should be. Another reason why I love teaching, children are always full of so many questions and ideas.
I love that Jesus made a little stable for her to play with before He left. The rainfall even though I know it was not what they planned during filming was also a perfect way to end the episode. He is the Water of Life!
THE CHOSEN created by Dallas Jenkins. When I first saw his last name the first thing I thought was, could he be related to Jerry B Jenkins, the author of the Left Behind series? Indeed Jerry is the father of Dallas Jenkins. Anyone who knows me well knows how much the Left Behind series has impacted my life. The initials LB are still part of my Yahoo.com email address. Through the Left Behind series I met my beautiful wife way back in 1999! Seems like so long ago now. So I am forever thankful to Jerry and now thankful for Dallas creating this wonderful new show. I hope it draws you closer to Him.
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