Observing a known story line from a different perspective can bring about some thoughts I hadn’t heretofore considered. My bride began watching season five of The Chosen last Sunday night. I’ve seen most of the previous episodes and have enjoyed the story telling and capturing the biblical narrative into what I believe will be a six-season TV series. As far as I can tell, the writers and directors have done a pretty good job at portraying the storyline from Jesus’ birth, his life and ministry. And now the story is at the last supper. What’s obvious, and I’m a little surprised that I hadn’t pick up on this earlier, is apparently how little the disciples had previously understood what Jesus was saying and doing. The disciples have all along been confused and not fully grasping all the things they’re being told over the previous three years. Yet, this lack of understanding seemed especially pointed in this most recent episode. The implied meanings as to the coming crucifixion and resurrection baffled the disciples. Jesus was speaking in parables and incorporating various figures of speech and metaphors. Something clicked as to the confusion of the disciples and their lack of understanding during the last supper. It was sort of eye opening. And frustrating.
Jesus is telling his disciples that ‘everything will be made clear soon’ and that the disciples will come to understand what he is saying. Jesus further tells the disciples that he’s going away but that ‘a helper’ i.e. the holy spirit will come to help them. The disciples gathered that the holy spirit, whatever that is, will be present when they go out into the world to spread the gospel.
One can infer, I suppose, that after the resurrection, everything would come to be understood by the disciples as to the teachings Jesus gave. But I wonder. As I understand it, the disciples did disperse into the world and did proclaim the resurrection and this new gospel in which the OT law had been (or would very soon be) usurped and replaced with faith in the son of God for the remission of sin leading to salvation and eternal life. I don’t have a good feel for the overall timeframe when the disciples did go out and spread the gospel. Yet, I can only gather that variance as to the teachings of Jesus (whether by the disciples or even after the disciples had left a given location and moved on to a new place) became problematic. Consider that the Apostle Paul visited and wrote to various established churches to provide doctrinal corrections. I wonder, was the necessity of Paul writing letters to various churches due to people trying to incorporate “the old with the new”? That is, marry a ‘new’ theology based on faith with an ‘old’ theology premised on the law (aka new wine into old wineskins)? Or could it have been that the disciples, at least some of whom were illiterate, were doctrinally inept and confused as to many of Jesus’ teachings. Or perhaps many of the disciples lacked the ability to adequately communicate thoughts and ideas which were still difficult to grasp even though they had been with Jesus for three years?
Today we have the compiled Bible in many different versions and languages, lexicons, dictionaries, concordances, seminaries, schools of theology and skads of books on all topics related to theology written by a myriad of people over the last few hundred years. Yet are we better off today because of all this? Maybe there’s something to be said for the ‘oral tradition’ being passed down? Many of the scribes and pharisees rejected Jesus. Why weren’t the miracles and the healings enough for everyone to believe that Jesus is who he said he was? Were Jesus’ teachings so radical – then and now – that he was dismissed out of hand? Or were there other factors such as pride, politics, power and influence which led to so many rejecting the notion of salvation by faith and instead preferring to live according to blood offerings and the law or whatever other means individuals thought absolved them from the penalty of their sins. It’s interesting to consider that for the Jews, the law was their heritage and custom – and had been for thousands of years. As to the Gentiles, perhaps they’re more akin to the eat, drink and be merry crowd.
I can easily point to discrepancies in the gospel accounts in addition to the variance of doctrines spread out over all of Christendom as to reasons why my faith has faltered. I also question whether any of my prayers as a believer were ever answered. And nor have I observed anything that I could call a miracle. The disciples, however – assuming one believes that which is written in the Bible, saw water turned into wine, the feeding of the 5,000, multiple healings and even Lazarous being raised from the dead and yet, as is portrayed within The Chosen, it’s unclear whether the disciples truly understood Jesus, his life and ministry, his sermons, his teachings and likely a host of other things. I guess I can only conclude that if the folks in the know i.e. the disciples struggled with matters of faith, why should I be surprised if I should also struggle in my faith and the understanding of who Jesus is?
Martin's Mercurial Musings 