When Jesus Goes Prime Time: Wrestling With ‘The Chosen’
(ANALYSIS) There’s no doubt that “The Chosen” is a worldwide phenomenon. It’s one of the few depictions of Jesus that is beloved by both Christian and non-Christian audiences. And now, with its new season’s debut on Prime Video, the series is likely to get even bigger.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s been without criticism. One consistent concern within some in the Christian community is the way it “adds to Scripture” by fleshing out stories in the Gospels or just making up things that never happened.
As one blog put it, “Other than potentially breaking the Second Commandment not to make a graven image, the show also presents false teaching about Jesus Christ. The series does not claim to represent an accurate depiction of Jesus Christ and does claim to have artistic liberty. However, to claim this an authentic Jesus, as Dallas Jenkins does, is blasphemy. There is no authentic Jesus outside of the biblical Jesus.”
Among some objections to the first season are “Simon does not go through with being a spy and has to pay his debt. Jesus pays the debt by having the disciples catch a large number of fish. This causes Matthew to believe Jesus is the Messiah. The problem with this is none of it is in the text. It also implies we do not need the Bible to know what happened. This storytelling is a direct attack against Scripture alone for our understanding of God.”
Some are concerned that the portrayal of Jesus and the Gospels is so strong that it will start to replace the Bible for people as the strongest image in their head of who Jesus is. As manuscript scholar Wes Huff put it, “I had a friend who started watching ‘The Chosen,’ and the way he described it to me was that when he started reading his Bible … he started picturing Jonathan Roumie. … And that concerned [my friend]. And the way that he described it is, he said that when he watched the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies and then he read the books … these thoughts popped up in his mind where he was like, ‘That didn’t happen. That’s not how that narrative goes.’ And he was confusing the source material.”
A friend once asked me how I reconcile those concerns with my praise of “The Chosen” as a depiction of Jesus. It’s a concern I took seriously. After all, the Bible does warn about the dangers of depicting God and bowing before idols (for a strong Protestant case that the early church was also against icon veneration as an application of these principles, you can listen to Gavin Ortland’s video on the subject).
Movies do have a deep power to become more real to us than the things we read. And the idea of putting words in Jesus’s mouth is something that — as a writer — would fill me with fear and trembling. I remember when a book came out that was called “Jesus Calling,” which was a series of devotions written as if it was Jesus talking to you. It made me feel sick and concerned. I didn’t want my devotionals to speak as if they were Jesus, even though they were the words of man.
Ultimately, I don’t find the criticisms of “The Chosen” on this basis to be very persuasive as a reason to condemn the show wholesale. There is certainly plenty to criticize “The Chosen” for (and I have), but nothing that justifies dismissing the show completely.
I don’t find a lot of data that “The Chosen” is causing people to read their Bible less, or that it’s replacing the Bible for them. While some anecdotal stories claim that has happened with some people, I’ve heard far more who say they went back to reading the Bible or reading it more after watching “The Chosen.” Jenkins and members of his team often point out how they personally know and regularly get thousands of comments and stories about how people who’ve been drawn back to the Bible by “The Chosen.” And there are plenty of people not affiliated with “The Chosen” series who share those stories as well.
The series obviously gives an interpretation of who Jesus is and what He did. But it’s not clear that this is so different from the kind of interpretation that goes on any time a preacher gives a sermon and talks about Jesus or when any Christian explains the Gospel to their friends. All of these interpretations of Jesus affect how we perceive Him when we read the Gospels.
Obviously, there are dangers anytime imperfect people are responsible for communicating Jesus to others. Some pastors have made Jesus look bad to parishioners and outsiders alike, and some parents have turned their kids off to Jesus. But that’s not an argument for not communicating Jesus to people — but rather to do it better.
The reason we think preaching about Jesus and making paintings of Jesus aren’t bad — even though they’re interpreting Him as a mediator between us and Scripture — is that, rightly, we consider it presentations that help us see and understand Jesus better. Likewise, “The Chosen” doesn’t claim to be Scripture. It is merely an imaginative way to help us see Jesus potentially more clearly. In fact, Jenkins regularly highlights that he wants people to go from his show to the Bible and read that more.
Movies and TV have a power that books and sermons don’t always have. But that seems to me a greater reason to have such depictions of Jesus as part of the media landscape. Most people spend far more parts of their lives watching TV than they do reading their Bible. These things then draw their hearts to love whatever the movie or TV show is depicting rather than Jesus. If Jesus is depicted on their screens, it can draw their hearts to love Him so they are compelled to go read their Bible or go to church. If they don’t ever see Him on a screen, they will likely be drawn toward something else. The PCA recently completed an investigation of the book, saying they won’t recommend or sell it but also wouldn’t condemn it.
If we agree that on-screen depictions of Jesus that add things to Scripture aren’t automatically evil, then “The Chosen” actually comes out seeming like something of a miracle. It sticks pretty darn close to Scripture when it comes to Jesus’s own words and actions, mostly developing other characters. And what it does add to Jesus’s words is typically within the realm of Christian orthodoxy.
So, how do Christians watch “The Chosen” so that it is a help in their walk with God rather than a hindrance?
First, engage with more film depictions of Jesus, not less. If there are Jim Caviezel depictions of Jesus (“The Passion of the Christ”), Jonathan Roumie (“The Chosen”) and Oscar Isaac (“The King of Kings”) highlights the fact that these are interpretations of Jesus — and not Jesus Himself. And it fractures their influence, forcing people to see the common reference point as Scripture, much the same way the multiple versions of Superman and Spider-Man highlight the reference point of the comic books as the true canon they come from.
Second, engage with it critically. What are they getting right? What are they maybe off about? Most of my reviews of “The Chosen” highlight the strengths and weaknesses of their interpretations and this helps you not fall into the trap of equating this Jesus with the actual Jesus. This is good advice for any form of media, since any movie or show can be a combination of truth and falsehoods.
Finally, you should be reading Scripture and being part of a church community far more often than you are watching “The Chosen.” Whatever we engage with the most becomes central to us and our biggest influence. The book “The Great Dechurching” notes that many Christians watch the news more than they read the Bible or live with Christian community, so they gain a more political view of life than a Christian one.
The danger of “The Chosen” is ultimately the danger of any good thing: that it will steal us away from God. The answer, like anything else, is to lean more into our relationship with the one true God. When we do that, everything, “The Chosen” or otherwise, falls into its proper place.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.