Almost every heresy in the history the church has been tied to one of three issues: The authority of Scripture, the deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, and the nature and character of the Trinity. The one that most likely has attracted the most attention is the deity and humanity of Christ. Nestorians gave us a Christ whose deity swallowed up His humanity. He was fully God. Adoptionists gave us a Christ whose humanity was so full that God adopted him as Son of God. He was fully human and almost God. It seems in our day that we are more enamored if not captured by the latter than the former. We want a Messiah made like a man who is more like us than different from us. We seem to desire a Christ who comes to us with at least some potentially slight flaws and failings. We like him to be fully human and approaching “Godness” only when we need something radically big in our lives, like a cure for the cancer we face.
It is clear that this is what we are getting in the “He Gets Us” campaign. Jesus is more a refugee than a redeemer. He is far more the one who runs alongside us as we both breathe heavily along the trail but hear him reminds us that “He understands.” He smiles upon us and never frowns. He lifts us up when we are down and never takes us down to any place that would cause us to feel badly about ourselves or to have any sense of guilt over anything at all. He gets us. He gets our insecurities and fragility and wants us to be lifted up to know that we are “somebody” in His sight. He would love us to feel good about Him but His main goal is to get us to feel good about ourselves. He gets us. It is clear so far that this media campaign launched not long ago is clearly all about a very human Jesus.
But what about The Chosen? My take as of now is that I like it. I don’t get all the mild uproar from some people I really do trust who are far brighter biblically than I am that this series violates the second commandment. I like it because it portrays Jesus and His world, particularly the disciples, in a way that is much more realistic than most of the “Jesus” movies or television series that I have seen. So far, I have been drawn to the drama and love the comedy/tragedy balance that is displayed as each segment develops. But I think the jury is still out on its overall impact. When will we know? I think like everything else related to Jesus, we will know when we come to the end in Jerusalem with his trial, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. It is here that it all comes together. It is here that we see clearly and conclusively: Jesus is truly man, truly God. Or as the centurion said at the cross, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”
I think I heard Mark Dever first say this. I have heard oodles of others say it since then and claim it as their own, “whatever we win people with to get them to the church, is what we must use to keep them.” Those won with the “He gets us” campaign will have to keep making Jesus at best a good friend or a big brother. What about The Chosen? We shall see. I will keep watching until or unless I see that they too miss the meaning of who Jesus really is.