Season Five Episode One - The Triumphant Entry

[Dr. Shane]

This episode begins with Jesus and His disciples sitting in the upper room at the Lord's supper. After He tells them He is leaving to be with the Father, the episode jumps back to the beginning of holy week. Jesus is on the donkey, surrounded by His closest followers, approaching Jerusalem. Jesus is welcomed to the city with shouts of hosana and hundreds waiving palm branches. He arrives in the temple and begins to preach. During his preaching His composure changes. He is deeply disturbed. It is evident that He knows that not only his death is near but that he will be tortured before. He is completely committed to the cause. He won't back down. But what do His followers think?

As I have read accounts of the passion over the years I have increasingly seen a divine model for masculinity. Jesus showed emotion but He never retreated. In His pain, He still had sympathy for others. He never demonstrated self-pity. How does our concept of masculinity differ from the example Jesus gave us?

In this episode of The Chosen we see the writers continue with the narrative that Mary gets it. The twelve disciples were stuck on their beliefs of what the Messiah was going to do that they never fully grasp the correct understanding of what Jesus was telling them each time He told them He would die and suffer many things. In The Chosen narrative, they are portraying Mary Magdalene as one of the few that listens and understands. It seems that in her narrative, she lived a life of sin so she was never fed stories of who the Messiah would be and what He would do. She started off with Jesus with more of a blank slate. Thus, she doesn't have the Confirmation Bias working against her. The writers are also portraying John as putting some of the pieces together but not as far along as Mary.

We know that all abandoned Him in the garden. John was the only one that came back, stayed and was at the foot of the cross,,, with Mary. Mary may not have been in the garden when Jesus was arrested. I like the narrative The Chosen is embracing. I have not watched the Bible round table yet. I will do that over the course of the next week and post again with my thoughts on that.

My big take-away from this episode is how Confirmation Bias impacts different people. As Seventh-day Adventists, what beliefs do we have that would make it difficult to see where we might be wrong? One that I could think of is adding fish in the diet. I think many Adventist may find it difficult to admit that adding fish in the diet could be beneficial.