Season 3 Episode 1 Apology Accepted

[Dr. Shane]

There is so much in this episode.  All of Season 3 is incredibly well done.  This episode starts with the Sermon on the Mount.  Afterward, it has Judas asking Jesus if he can follow Him.  I had written to the producer, Dallas Jenkins, before Season 3 was written and quoted a portion of the Desire of Ages to him.  The portion covered the calling of Judas.  I don't know if Dallas had read Desire of Ages before I sent my letter or not but he followed the narrative.  Judas was the only disciple that asked Jesus if he could follow Him.  That is, Jesus approached the other eleven first.  Only Judas approached Jesus.  Dallas put the scene together well.

My favorite scene in this episode is Andrew apologizing to Mary.  I have struggled with anxiety every since college and the National Guard.  I understand all too well the anxiety the character Andrew deals with.  I too have apologized many times when my anxiety got the better of me.  I learned long ago that there is no shame in apologizing when I have done wrong.  The shame is refusing to apologize and justifying the error.  Andrew struggled to get his words out as he apologized to Mary.  Mary's reaction is so classic and yet an echo of one of my own apologies.  Mary says thank you.  I like that the script writers did not have her tell Andrew "It's OK".  When someone does something wrong to us and later apologizes, "thank you" is a great response.  Telling them the bad thing they did is "ok" is not a good way to respond.  Then Mary says that no one has ever apologized to her before and Andrew tells her she doesn't deserve that either.  That is a very well done scene.  

I once blew up on the phone with the secretary of an architect.  I have a mild form of PTSD, probably related to a near-death experience in the Army.  Part of my PTSD is that occasionally I experience what is known as emotional dysregulation.  A trigger causes me to go into fight-or-flight prematurely and I verbally explode.  That happened with this secretary.  Having learned how to apologize, I called the architect about an hour after the incident happened and apologized to him.  He accepted my apology and told me that his secretary would probably appreciate me apologizing to her directly.  So, I called her and apologized.  Her response was, "I don't know what to say.  Apology accepted.  No one has ever apologized to me before."  You know, I think it is a sad commentary that the world is filled with sinners and there are so few apologies being made.  It really isn't that hard.  I really appreciate this apology of Andrew to Mary in this episode.

The Chosen Season 3