Last night we watched another episode of The Chosen. Jesus and his disciples are making their way from Galilee to Jerusalem. The action goes back and forth between Jesus and the disciples – altogether or in smaller groups – and a couple rabbis who find themselves in the turmoil of the San Hedrin after they’ve encountered Jesus.

As Jesus and his crew are on the road they encounter a company of Roman soldiers. The soldiers, as is their right under the law they’ve imposed, compel Jesus and the disciples to drop their own luggage and carry the soldiers’ loads for a mile. Jesus himself is compelled to carry a load and to wear the helmet of one of the soldiers. Seeing this, one of the disciples says to another that he is “murderously angry” about what the Romans are doing to Jesus. We don’t know enough about this disciple to know how much difference his time with Jesus has made in his life and whether his not acting on his murderous rage is a new thing or not.

How often do we find ourselves “murderously angry?” How often is our rage aroused by what’s been done to us? How often by what has been done to others? How often by what we perceive to be done to Jesus? What is Jesus’s will when it comes to existence and function of “murderous anger” in our lives?

When they finish their legally required mile, the disciples start putting down the loads they’ve been carrying. Jesus, however, keeps right on going. The disciples are confused. The Roman soldiers are even more confused. They initially even show some fear as if they’re wondering about Jesus being some revolutionary madman who has nefarious purposes up his sleeve. Jesus explains that they did one mile because of coercion, but now they’ll do a second mile out of volition.

How often do our actions as Christians – our obedience to the commands of Jesus – confuse the people around us? What advantages came from Jesus confusing people? What advantages might come from Christians living and acting in ways that don’t make sense to the watching world?

To what degree in in what areas are we willing to go beyond what is legally required of us? Do we adhere to the letter of the law and nothing more? Why would Jesus teach his disciples to “go the second mile?” Why would “going the second mile” make any sense when it is for the benefit of an oppressor, an enemy?

When they return to their own luggage Jesus’s disciples express their confusion to him. Jesus points back to his teaching they they themselves has heard. “When you are troubled, think back on my message.” Why do you think the disciples failed to remember what Jesus had said? Do you think they grasped this particular message when they first heard it? Do we have a practice of thinking back on Jesus’s teaching when we are confused?

After they’ve settled in at the house of his friends in Bethany, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Again, the disciples are confused. “Is the Kingdom unjust?” they ask. It sounds that way to them. Some people worked all day, others worked just an hour. Each received the exact same pay. They’re sure that’s not how the world ought to work. Jesus responds that the kingdom is not based on what we deserve.

How concerned should we be that Jesus’s teaching doesn’t confuse us as much as it did his first disciples? Showing their confusion and the degree to which they just don’t “get it” is a strength of The Chosen’s presentation of the disciples. Are we less confused by Jesus’s teaching because they and the generations between them and us have done such a good job forming us in the ways of Jesus? Or are we less confused because we’ve had generations to domesticate Jesus’s teaching so we now “know” that there is no real conflict between his ways and the ways in which our culture has formed us? What can we do so that Jesus’s teaching again has a sharp edge to challenge and provoke us?

We see Mary and Martha and their different approaches to serving Jesus. The episode puts his conclusion this way, “The best way to serve me is to pay close attention to my words.” That is exactly what Mary was doing. There is the background assumption, however, that paying close attention to Jesus’s words is more than hearing but also includes obeying and putting into action.

We see Jesus conversing with his mother, who has taken up residence there in Bethany. She senses that Jesus is frustrated. This is the same frustration that carries over from the previous episode. Jesus is concerned that his disciples just aren’t getting it. “They act in a way like they have not absorbed a word I’ve said.” The issue has not come up in The Chosen, but when we consider modern American Christianity the focus is commonly on being certain of our eternal destiny rather than on acting like we’ve absorbed Jesus’s teaching. It’s as if our Protestantism has forced us to think being a Christian is only about believing (because that is what it meant by “faith”) that life change is optional.

Jesus says (and this is The Chosen, not scripture), “The human desire to avoid difficult news sometimes makes one deaf.” If I don’t want to hear something, then I won’t hear it. If might be that it “goes in one ear and out the other” or that I intentionally(?) misunderstand it so that it doesn’t challenge me. How can we become people who “have ears to hear?” How can we learn to recognize our failures in hearing?

Judas meets up with his mentor Hadad. Hadad pushes Judas to assert himself and his worth. After all, Judas has special skills and he ought to be appreciated – and rewarded for them. Judas tells Hadad, “I’m new, so my opinion doesn’t count for much.” The context of this comment is the slowness with which Jesus is advancing his work. He’s encouraged to “Help Jesus act like a king.” Judas is absolutely sure Jesus is the Messiah. He is also absolutely sure he knows that “Messiah” means and therefore what Jesus is up to. We see the first signs that Judas will feel the need to push Jesus to move in the “right” direction, that is, toward raising an army and opposing Rome. In other words, Judas is on a par with the other disciples as “not getting it.” He has not understood that Jesus’s kingship (and his kingdom) does not work like the kingship/kingdoms he knows in this world.