Preface
The Chosen is a work of fiction, based loosely on historical accounts in scripture. However, It is very important to note that it is not scripture. Its aim is to explore the life of Jesus and of His disciples. Of Christ we know much because all of scripture is about Him. Of the Apostles we know very little in comparison. Interlaced in the show are subtle scriptural references which I will include to give context and meaning to what you will see in the episode.
In this review, my approach is to examine the characters in light of biblical events and concepts. Therefore, I will not cover the non-biblical characters except when necessary to relate them to the main biblical characters in the show.
Main Biblical Characters
- Jesus
- Simon Peter
- Andrew
- Zebedee
- James
- John
- John the Baptist
- Matthew
Spoiler Alert: I have included many details from the episode that may spoil the ending. I have included a pre-show reading list of scriptures that will give you insight into the characters and concepts presented during the show. Afterword, you can come back and read about what happened in the episode.
Pre-Show Reading List
- Isaiah 40:3
- Psalms 51:17
- Matthew 13:47-50, 16:13-20
- Luke 5:1-11
- John 1:19-28, 3:1-6
- 1 Peter 5:6-7
Theme: The Rock on Which It Is Built
Simon’s character is very important to the gospels and the church. He was one of the first disciples who Jesus called to follow him when his public ministry began. Jesus renamed Simon to Cephas, which in Aramaic means rock. He was also called Peter in the gospels which in Greek also means rock. Simon Peter was the one who Jesus would entrust to be the father of the early church.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Matthew 16:13-20, ESV, Emphasis added
Opening Scene
In the opening scene, it is a continuation of Simon Peter’s betral of his fellow jewish fishermen. It is the night of the sabbath. He is in a boat with many roman soldiers. Their mission is to catch those fishermen avoiding taxes by working on the sabbath. Simon Peter’s goal is to have his debt forgiven in return for giving these fishermen up to roman authorities. He comes up on some of Zebedee’s fishing bobber. Zebedee is the father of two of the disciples, James and John. He had decision to make, either lead the authorities to Zebedee and his men or to lead them astray. He decides to double cross the romans and leads them to a sandbar where the boat comes to a stop. Following his decision, the roman guards suspect him of deception and as a warning, cuts the left ear of Simon Peter and gives him a week to deliver up the men or pay what he owes.
Matthew’s Mission
Matthew takes another meeting with Quintus who senses that he has been double crossed by Simon Peter and enlisted Matthew to use his skill of accurate accounting to follow Simon and write down everything that he observes Simon doing. So he hands Matthew a new notebook to record Simon’s activities.
John the Baptist
John the baptist is introduced to us in this episode. Although we don’t see him at first, he has caught the attention of the Pharisees. A council was convened to discuss a matter that has been causing quite a disturbance among the people. Shmuel, Nicodemus’ student, said that he saw with his own eyes a line extending from the Jordan river and stretching as far as the eye could see. The people were waiting in long lines for John to baptize them in the river. They were discussing that this particular person, John the baptist, was teaching a baptism of forgiveness and the forgiveness of sins. He was described as a loud man with camel’s skin.
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40:3, ESV
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
John 3:1-6, ESV
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John 1:19:28, ESV
Nicodemus was very inquisitive of what the man said. The writers of The Chosen were portraying Nicodemus as beginning to understand that this may be prophecy being fulfilled. He then promptly concluded the meeting. Later in the episode Nicodemus meets him in jail to ask him questions regarding miracles. This scene is continued later in the next episode.
Simon’s Mother-in-Law is Sick
In this scene, Simon comes into his house and sees his wife standing with her brothers. Then he heard coughing coming from another room. It was his mother-in-law. Having her sick in his house creates tension between him and his wife because Simon is close to being arrested and he feels that he cannot deal with having a sick person in his house at the same time. His entire world was crashing all around him and he was loosing hope. Simon kicked his wife’s brothers out of the house so he could talk privately to his wife Eden.
When they were alone, Simon comes clean to Eden and tells her how bad things really are. He confessed to her that they were in debt and fishing has been unfruitful. He told her that he needs a miracle. She then asks Simon, “where is your faith?” He then told her, “faith isn’t going to get me more fish.” Eden then continued by saying he was “trying to do everything himself.” It was because he was relying on himself and not honoring God, that he was in such a bad position. This is how we are at times. Often we get ourselves in deep trouble with sin and we try to fix it in our own power before and often instead of turning to the Lord.
She thanks Simon for at least being honest with her. She then says to him, “maybe God can get your attention now.” God will humble those who belong to him. His power is greatest when we rely on and trust that he will provide for us. There is a valuable lesson for all of us in this. We need to stop trying to fix everything ourselves and turn our gaze and our trust to the Lord.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite (remorseful) heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalms 51:17, ESV, Parenthesis added for clarification.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7, ESV
Simon Peter’s Miracle of Fish
Simon went out alone on his boat in an attempt to catch the fish needed to pay back the tax debt he owed. Net after net came back empty or nearly so. His situation was bleak and he began to talk with God in anger. Asking where God is. While he is doing this, Matthew is off shore, observing him, documenting what he sees Simon doing.
All of the sudden he is joined Zebedee, and his sons James and John as well as others. They wanted to help him. All night they cast nets to no avail. Andrew, Simon’s brother, kept trying to tell him about the Lamb of God that he saw. About the man Jesus. But Simon told him, “we don’t need a lamb, we need fish”. The sun then rose on the men and it was decided that they would go with Simon to shore and into the hands of the romans who they thought they saw waiting for them. But it was not roman soldiers, it was Jesus teaching by the water.
When they come onshore, Jesus asks if he can use Simon’s boat to teach his followers so that they could hear him better. Jesus asked Simon to stay even though he was in a hurry. Jesus began to teach another parable to the students who were with him. He said that “when this net is cast into the sea what happens?” Simon said that it gathers fish. Then Jesus continues, “it gathers…all kinds of fish. And the kingdom of God is like what happens next. After the net is full Simon and others draw it to the shore and sort out the fish. The good fish go into the barrels and the bad fish…thrown away. So it will be at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. Therefore, every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven, like you all are now, are like a master of a house who brings forth his treasures both new and old. You are to do the same with this knowledge.” The treasure that he was speaking of was the Word, from the Old Testament and the New Testament.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 13:47-50, ESV
After this, he dismisses the crowd. Some stayed back to watch what was going to happen.
Jesus tells Simon Peter to put the net down for a catch. Simon was reluctant but threw the net out anyway. Then, all of the sudden, the nets were overflowing with fish. The boat was so heavy with fish that it began to sink.
After this, Simon Peter knelt before Jesus and told him to depart from him because he is a sinful man. He said to Jesus, “you don’t know who I am and the thing I have done.”
Simon then asked Jesus, “What do you want from me? Anything you ask I will do.” Jesus said to him “follow me.” Jesus called James and John also that day to follow him. Zebedee then told the men to go on, and that he would get some help to get the fish to market and settle up the debt. Simon was joking with Jesus asking him if he thinks he should do that miracle a few more times to make more money. Jesus responded to him and says “fish are nothing, you have much bigger things ahead…from know on I will make you fishers of men. And you are to gather as many as possible, all kinds. I will sort them out later.”
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:1-11, ESV
Summary
In this episode the main theme was the calling of Simon whom Jesus renamed to Peter in the Greek or Cephas in Aramaic. Jesus performed a miracle where so many fish were caught in the nets, that the boat was about to sink. This miracle was an integral part of the parable regarding the kingdom of God and how all sorts of people will be gathered and then the good sorted out from the bad. The bad will be cast into hell the good will live with Jesus in heaven. Matthew is given a task by the roman governor Quintus, to record the things Simon is doing. Matthew’s gospel accounts are quite detailed in reality and so this fits and builds his character for this show. John the Baptist comes into the scene as well, preparing the way for the Lord as was foretold by the prophet Isaiah.
I pray that this review was a blessing to you. My hope is that by God’s grace I can give you not only information on this wonderful series but give you biblical resources that will enrich your knowledge and understanding God’s word. God bless you.
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