We want the Bible to be like us.

 We want the Bible to be like us.

There are some things about the TV show The Chosen that I really like. Artistically, it is fabulous. The acting is really good. The dialogue and drama is actually pretty interesting and when you’ve seen a lot of Christian productions that are so bad that they are embarrassing. It's nice to see one that is of the highest quality. 

 At the same time that there's much about it that I admire, I noticed that it tends to project our culture and our ideas back on to the Biblical narrative.  You may recall that in the buildup to The Sermon on the Mount Jesus is preparing His thoughts with the help of Matthew as a scribe while the rest of the disciples are preparing for a big production. They have to find a location where there can be good visibility and a stage has to be built. Mary Magdalene and the other female characters are handwriting brochures or bulletins that will be passed out in the communities. Jesus' core disciples take these bulletins and go through the area passing them out and advertising the great speaking event that's about to happen.

 But what actually do we see in the Bible? If we look at Matthew 5:1-2 we read, “And when He saw the multitudes He went up on the mountain side and after He sat down His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and He began to teach them saying.”  The Sermon on the Mount wasn't preached to a huge crowd that came as a result of an advertising program nor was it directed toward the population at large. Rather, The Sermon on the Mount was a teaching between Jesus and his disciples. At the end of the account in Matthew we see that there were “multitudes” who heard the sermon.  But there is no indication that they were invited to come listen.  

So, where did the director or producers of “The Chosen” find the model of a big event that is advertised in the community to draw in as many people as possible? It didn't come from the Bible so it had to come from somewhere. What's depicted in “The Chosen” is an awful lot like what we see in modern-day Church marketing/advertising/marketing. If you're going to launch a church, you have a big event with a big stage and a big display and a lot of advertising beforehand. What was depicted in “The Chosen” reflects our culture and expectations projected and superimposed on the Biblical narrative.  

But rather than beat up on “The Chosen” let’s stop and look at our lives.  In how many ways do we press our expectations onto Scripture?  Where do we think that the way we do it is a Biblical pattern, when, in fact, it is not?  In some cases, these expectations are harmless in and of themselves.  But they set a precedent of carelessness that can produce problems later on.  I was once called to task for performing “secret baptisms”.  A man decided to become a Christian and he didn’t want to wait till Sunday to be baptized.  He wanted his sins washed away that night.  On short notice a few folks met us at the church building and he was buried with Christ then and there.  But in the mind of my accuser the time for baptisms is Sunday morning after the last song.  

I once heard an off hand comment to the effect, “If we had a building we would be a real church.”  The oldest known church building, the Dura-Europos church building, was an ordinary home converted to a place of worship about 200 years after the church began on the day of Pentecost.  Were all the churches during the first 200 years not “real churches''?

My point is not to beat up on misinformed people.  It is, however, to call us all to constantly examine our life, faith and practice and see if the things we assume to be absolute are not merely conveniences or customs with which we are too comfortable.  To be effective in this self evaluation we must constantly be examining, reading, and reflecting on scripture.  We can never be the people of the Book if we are never in the book