Media Recommendation: “The Chosen”

Several years ago, when Shelly and I were working and teaching at Casady School in Oklahoma City, Father Tim Sean Youmans shared the television series “The Chosen” with our community multiple times via short video clips in his chapel talks. Since then, Shelly and I have watched all the episodes of “The Chosen,” which includes five seasons and will eventually total seven. I’ve used many clips from it in adult Sunday School classes I’ve taught as well as men’s Bible study lessons, and we’ve re-watched multiple episodes together at home. We LOVE “The Chosen” and highly recommend it.

This evening, I re-watched episode seven of season 2, titled, “Reckoning.” This is a short clip (1.5 minutes) on YouTube, showing part of a dramatic scene when Roman centurions arrest Jesus to bring him in for questioning in Capernaum with the Roman Praetor, Quintus.

As I related in my video update last night for “Heal Our Culture” and my related media literacy post about fact-checking Iranian war memes, “We are living in surreal times, and our news feeds can be both perilous and important to watch.” It’s very important we work to “reclaim our news feeds” from mainstream media sources (like TV channels) as well as “BigTech social media algorithms.”

In this fraught environment, I LOVE the opportunity to spend some time in the evening watching “The Chosen.” I’m not burying my head in the sand, I”m staying aware news and current events, but I’m also NOT going to watch news channels constantly when I’m not working or teaching. I watched my dear Grammy, my mom’s mom, fill her mind all day long with news from CNN, and most evenings with UFO conspiracy theories on the radio from “Art Bell Coast to Coast.” Repeated exposure to media has a powerful effect on our minds, and it’s vital that we’re proactive and intentional with the media we choose to consume.

If you love Jesus or are just interested in Jesus and would like to learn more about his life and ministry on our planet, I encourage you to watch “The Chosen.” It’s free to watch, you can download the app for AppleTV, Roku, FireTV, Android, etc. Or just watch it online in your web browser.

It’s a decision I’m confident you’ll be happy you made.