Jesus Loves the Little Children
The Chosen (Season One, Episode Three)
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing some thoughts and reflection questions for each episode of the TV show, The Chosen. I hope you’ll join me for this spiritual journey and pray that you’ll be open to hear what God might be wanting to communicate to you through this show! :)
HUMANITY
This is the first episode where we get to see Jesus for more than just a brief moment at the end. The thing I absolutely love about this show is how we get to see Jesus’ humanity and divinity. Sure, we hear through Scripture and learn through Tradition that Jesus was both God AND human, but that fact simply took on a new meaning for me when I watched this show.
Jesus had to sleep, eat, and work. While this might be such an obvious thing, it can really be taken for granted. Jesus is God after all, so one might assume that he can just bypass these normal, human necessities, but he is all in. He built fires. He cooked dinner. He slept. In this episode, he had such a peaceful spirit while he was doing these monotonous tasks, as if he was praying the entire time. He provides the perfect example of what it means to be in the world but not of it. He’s also a craftsman, and we see several of his wooden creations throughout this episode. There’s even a little nod to the Book of Genesis when he says, “It is good” after admiring his completed work.
Jesus made jokes. While we don’t know if this is 100% historically accurate, we DO know that he enjoyed the company of others, as they did him, so it would only make sense that he would have smiled and laughed with them, radiating true joy and love itself. Sometimes, I imagine Jesus as super serious, healing people and teaching about how we should/shouldn’t treat others, but seeing him make silly noises in front of the children shattered that false image for me. Also, I loved his little comments throughout this episode like saying “you couldn’t have waited half an hour” when the children woke him up and responding “bread for many reasons” when a child asked him what his favorite food was (a little foreshadowing to his future gift of the Eucharist?).
And finally, Jesus prayed. We hear about Jesus setting aside intentional time to do this MULTIPLE times in Scripture (Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, and Luke 6:12…just to name a few examples), so he models for us what we should do and how often we should do it. I found the very first scene of this episode of The Chosen incredibly moving! We see Jesus in a moment of authentic prayer with God. While it looks a little intense and isn’t exactly clear what He is saying or praying about, we can tell that Jesus is 100% showing up for this time alone with his father. There certainly have been times when I’ve shown my authentic emotions during my time in prayer. Yelling at God after finding out that a close friend has cancer and after hearing that another friend was killed in a car accident. Crying out in sadness when feeling isolated and lonely. Expressing joy and thanksgiving after hearing about a friend’s engagement or a new baby entering the world. But there have been other times when I’ve hidden my true feelings from God, just going through the motions of prayer or even neglecting prayer altogether. Seeing Jesus engage in authentic and ongoing prayer inspired me to continue striving to do this every day -- to show up and to show up often.
CHILDLIKE FAITH
There is nothing like the innocence of a child, and there is much we can learn from it. After all, we are told by Jesus himself that we must “become like children” if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3). But how can we do this? Well in this episode, we saw a little girl stumble upon an unfamiliar and empty camp. She curiously explored it, unraveling a tool kit, playing with some wooden utensils, discovering some food (but ultimately deciding not to take what is not hers). She ran away after seeing Jesus return to his camp, and yet, this little girl was quick to share the news of her discovery with a young friend. This was a beautiful example to me of how we should all share our discoveries, especially our faith! By sharing it, we can explore it further together. I loved how the children found Jesus breaking bread when they came to his camp (the second time for the little girl and the first time for the little boy), and how Jesus lightheartedly added them to his prayer, casually mentioning that they do not have to remain hidden. An example and reminder of God’s omniscience. He truly sees, hears, and knows everything.
Once the children came out of hiding, the little girl was quick and unafraid to ask questions to this stranger, and she even encouraged her friend to ask him questions, too. She was open, honest, and vulnerable with him, which is what God desires from each of us. I giggled a little when the little girl brought several friends with her the next time she visited Jesus’ camp. Again, an amazing example of what we should do every single day -- bringing more friends to Jesus so that they can get to know him. Her friends asked Jesus lots of questions, and I loved how gentle he was with them, responding in a way that they could understand and providing examples when necessary. The children listened and absorbed what he taught them, and they kept returning to his camp to learn more and more. We, too, should have this desire to listen to God and to keep returning to him over and over so that we can continue to learn more about him and grow in our relationship with him.
EPISODE THREE REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
~What does authentic prayer look like for you? Have you been able to reveal your true emotions to God before? What was that experience like? What holds you back from being completely authentic with God during moments of prayer?
~How do you “become like a child” in your faith? How can you continue to grow in this way as you move along on your spiritual journey?
~In what ways do you continue to grow in your relationship with God? What more can you be doing to strengthen this relationship?
~Have you ever considered yourself to be a “child of God?” What does that mean to you? Repeat the words “I am a beloved daughter/son of God” several times either in your head or out loud (HINT: it’s better to do it out loud). Do you truly believe it? If not, why not?
To watch all eight episodes of season one for free, download The Chosen app on Apple or Android mobile devices.
If you end up loving the show and want to “pay it forward” to help fund season two, you can either make a donation in the app and/or purchase the season one DVD set for yourself or friends/family.
