Season 2 Episode 8 Diversity

[Dr. Shane]

This episode shows Jesus and Matthew putting the final touches on what becomes the Sermon on the Mount and ends with Jesus approaching the crowd as He is about to deliver it.  The big event that unfolds in the episode is that the viewers are introduced to Judas.  The director of The Chosen develops Judas into a conflicted believer who is torn between financial ambition and the understanding that all is vanity.  This episode also continues to show the disciples arguing.  Jesus comments on this to Matthew and says that it is to be expected when people from all walks of life are drawn together.  This is also something mentioned in The Hope Channel's series Revolutionary episode 3 Jesus the Rabbi (a link to it is below).   Young Jewish men looked for a rabbi to follow and jumped at the chance to follow Jesus when He asked them.  Capernaum was a very diverse place which allowed Jesus to choose such a diverse crowd.

The Christian church today is very diverse and that diversity continues to cause problems.  There are some that do not want to give up some of their cultural traditions that violate God's principles.  Then there are those that want to force others to give up cultural traditions even though they do not violate God's principles.  Those are two different errors committed for different reasons by different groups that work against church unity.  God desires to unite different people with different traditions together in unity.  Yet something about the human experience causes us to resist and either fight to hang onto something we should let go of, OR try to force others to give up something there is no need for them to give up.

Revolutionary Episode 3