![]() ![]() None of the artists are familiar to me, except for the ones who appeared in last year’s special, and none of the songs made much of an impression except for Brandon Lake’s haunting ‘Gratitude’, which did stick in my mind for a few days after I heard it. (The series’ experimentation with various formats – from extended tracking shots to silent montages – has definitely been one of its strengths, especially in Season 2.)Īnd this episode gets full marks for being one of the few dramatic interpretations of Mary’s story – possibly the only significant one outside of word-for-word adaptations of the gospels – to include the entire Magnificat in its dialogue.Īs for the rest of the Christmas special, I don’t have much to say about the music. (See here for one blogger’s efforts to fact-check this claim.) Still, it’s interesting to see these cloths treated like relics in a film produced by Evangelicals, who are not exactly known for their interest in more traditional relics.Īll that being said, it’s kind of exciting to see a “Jesus movie” that thinks beyond the traditional limits of the genre and pulls together so many texts while playing with things like continuity and non-linear storytelling. A quick Google indicates that many Christian websites have made this claim, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for it in the ancient sources. ![]() Second, the episode plays on a popular notion that the “swaddling clothes” the baby Jesus was wrapped in were part of a Jewish ritual for inspecting sacrificial lambs. Yes, there was some friction with the mobs here and there, but nothing like an organized government crackdown. But the scenario described in the book of Acts at this point in time – just a few years after the death of Herod Agrippa in AD 44 – is not quite so dire. For now, I will simply quibble with one or two historical points.įirst, the scenes set in AD 48 play very strongly on the notion that the Church is enduring persecution everywhere, and the language sometimes feels like something out of a 20th-century spy movie: people hold meetings in “secure locations”, Roman soldiers ask travelers for their “papers”, etc. I’m avoiding spoilers for now, but I hope to analyze ‘The Messengers’ more closely once it is available to stream. (It’s a little like seeing Claire Foy return to play the young Elizabeth in The Crown, after Olivia Colman took over the role.) And fans will definitely be buzzing with the introduction of at least one new character who plays a big part in the gospels, but is seen here long after the gospels came to an end. ![]() The conversations are filled with nods to scripture, people do sneaky things to get around the authorities, and the overall sensibility wavers between reverence and familiarity, between sanctity and mundanity, sometimes within the same scene: no sooner has Joseph complained that the innkeeper is full of “bull droppings” than Mary, watching from a distance, prays to God and the camera frames her face in a way that is downright iconographic.įans will get a kick out of seeing both of the actresses who have played Mary do so in the same episode for the first time ever. Those who have seen The Chosen will recognize the basic format here. As Mary dictates her story, the episode flashes back to the events of 4 BC, when Joseph and a much younger, very pregnant Mary (Raj Bond and Sara Anne, reprising their roles from the original short film) arrive in Bethlehem and cannot find a place to stay. In the future, specifically AD 48, Jesus’ mother Mary (Vanessa Benavente) is apparently near the end of her life and wants to send a message to a writer named Luke, who has been interviewing people for his gospel. The new episode, called ‘The Messengers’, takes place both before and after the main events of the series. ![]() Christmas with The Chosen opens in theatres across the United States tonight and will play for about two weeks - and, what’s more, it includes a brand-new episode that ties the original short film closer to the series as a whole, and hints at things to come. Now it’s time for yet another Christmas special – and this time it’s going to the big screen. ![]()
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