Why I Don’t Watch Shows Like “The Chosen”

It seems that Christendom is starting to be delivered from the cheesy movies that seemed ubiquitous a few decades ago.  The production quality and acting are getting to a level that can at least be stomached.  This is a good and blessed thing.  While excellence and faithfulness are not a necessary pairing, there should be a desire for excellence, and a pursuit for it should be made to whatever extent is practical.  

As should always be the case, the message is critical.  Yet the method is still extremely important.  The methods really do matter.  This brings us to the question of the new show called The Chosen.  It has been getting great reviews, and they have found funding from the crowdsourcing that has become possible in our technology-driven world.  With such high productionqualities, great writing, and a message that has Christ as the main character, isn’t this what Christians have been waiting for?

First, we need to understand that this isn’t completely new.  One of the most used media sources in world evangelism was and is the Jesus Film.  What made this movie unique was that followed very closely the gospel of Luke.  Other Jesus movies have done the same with other gospels narratives, even up to word-for-word precision.  Therefore, its tie to the scripture is very high.  Is this not commendable?   Why in the world would I disparage the use of media whose sole purpose is to exalt Christ and the power of the gospel?  Isn’t that what we are supposed to be about, and isn’t this another tool we can use for the sake of the kingdom?  

All of these questions have been coming at me lately from two angles.  First, I heard another pastor friend praising this show and the effort that was being put into it for the sake of truth and accuracy.  Secondly, and most impactfully, I preached Hebrews 1:1-2.  Let me work up to why Hebrews 1:1-2 is so important by taking us to the 10 Commandments.  The first 4 of them are all about worship.  God really, really cares about worship.  The second commandment is what matters for this article - we are to make no images.  Does this mean we cannot take pictures or carve statues?  No, it means that when it comes to what we worship, namely God, we are not to make images of him.  Why?  Because every one of them will be wrong and God does not want wrong worship.  He is a jealous God.

So, depictions of God are out.  However, the objection is raised that God is spirit and invisible so the no image-makingcommandment makes sense.  But Jesus is different we are told because we know that he became a man, had a form and could be touched and seen.  This is all certainly true, and that is not a bad argument.  That very fact is why I don’t think we are in jeopardy of being in dividing territory.  This isn’t something that we need to declare as grievous sin and call for repentance.  Having said that, I do think depicting Jesus like this is quite unwise and that it should be avoided with great care.  Why?  Enter Hebrews 1:1-2 

The driving point of Hebrews 1:1-2 is that Jesus is the final and ultimate speaking of God.  Or as John 1:1 says, “The Word was with God and the Word was God.”  Jesus is the message of God.  Jesus is the Word of God.  Jesus is everything God is and says and does.  I think A.W. Pink gets to the heart of what that means when he says this:

It is not only that Christ declared or delivered God’s message, but that he himself was and is God’s message…Take the perfect life of Christ, his deportment, his ways; that is God “speaking” – revealing himself – to us.  Take his miracles, revealing his tender compassion, displaying is mighty power; they are God “speaking” to us.  

 What Pink is saying is that everything Jesus is and does is God’s speaking.  It is not just Jesus’ words, but his facial expressions, the tone of his voice, the glance of his eyes, his hands reaching out to touch, his silence, his sweaty hard work, his crying, his fervency, his patience, his peace… everything top to bottom, beginning to end, IS God’s Word.  

Do you see the implications for this when making a movie with an actor portraying Jesus?  If you think it is a serious thing to try to add another book to the Bible, then you should also think it is a serious thing to give creative license for what Jesus would say or do in any given situation, even the ones recorded in the Bible.  Because Jesus is the Word of God, because Jesus is the final and ultimate Speaking of God, to portray Jesus in any way will be putting words into God’s mouth.  You have no authority to do that, any more than you have to add another book to the Bible!  

This is why even the Jesus Film, which is the words of Jesus found in the Gospel of Luke, is still problematic.  Even though we know the words are authoritative, everything about how Jesus spoke them, his demeanor, his looks, his attitudes, the way he did his deeds is completely made up; straight out of someone’s brain.  Does that matter?  It does because worship matters.  And worship is what the second commandment is all about.  When you watch these depictions of Jesus, your worship is being affected as your conception about God is being shaped.  God has only given us one source to do that, and that is the Word of God.  

Let’s remember that God could have ordered the history of the world so that video cameras existed during the time of Christ.  That did not happen.  God wanted inspired words coming through prophets and apostles to shape our understanding and worship of God.  The one and only exception to that was Christ himself.  Yet, Christ himself was so perfect and so godly that he was called the Word of God.  By hiring an actor to attempt this, someone is giving you a false word from God, even if the spoken words are straight from Scripture.    

Now I am sure someone will point to all the people who have been saved from watching the Jesus Film, and to all the people who are blessed and challenged from watching The Chosen, and therefore have qualms with my qualms.  With results like that, how can I disparage it?  To raise a question like that, my friends,is the very definition of pragmatism.  Just because something is producing some kind of result, even a seemingly good result, that is not necessarily the critical issue to be focused on.  The world is filled with examples of God using poor, broken, and even evil things to draw people to himself.  That is not a biblically legitimate reason to make poor, broken, and evils methods your ministry model.  The critical issue is always what God has said in his Word.  Our hope is in the foolishness of the message preached - Christ and him crucified - not production quality and good writing.  

Make all the movies you want about Bible characters.  Flawed people depicting flawed people fits really well.  But flawed people depicting the Perfect Son of God doesn’t work because his perfection makes everything thing he did, absolutely everything, the very speaking of God.  To think you can accurately reflect that in your creative license is the height of pride and a fool’s errand.  The fact that Jesus regularly baffles and confounds us, because we are so sinfully different, should drive us away from ever attempting to depict him.  Depicting baby Jesus works because we know what babies do, but the life of Christ is beyond us because we are creatures and he is Creator.