Mary Jane’s Story

“When I first saw The Chosen, I thought it was entirely plausible and the actor looked like how I pictured Jesus. Our pastor encouraged everyone to watch the first season, and I did. As I watched, Jesus came alive to me. He was real. His story was real. Mary, who had been tortured by demons with no hope, found herself at the edge of a cliff when a dove appeared and guided her to Jesus and healing. He called her by name, cast out her demons, and she became a devoted follower.

I have read the Bible and the story of Mary, but until I watched The Chosen, Jesus, Mary and the others were just names. The events I read about were also just words, void of backstory and context. For me, The Chosen gave faces, life, and souls to the people of the Bible.

In our last Anna’s Circle Training session, we were given a final challenge: to start a Discovery Bible Study. Every week we were asked how we put our training into action. I still wasn’t sure how to introduce others to Jesus. I wrestled with who to invite to my Bible study as I don’t know a lot of people. Then, it came to me. In the dark at the beginning of the fourth watch of The Chosen, when all good ideas come to me, I could share the story of Jesus by sharing The Chosen!

I called my friend Trisha who was raised Catholic but hasn’t attended mass since I’ve known her. I took dinner to her place and told her about The Chosen. Then I asked if she’d like to watch it with me. She agreed. We decided that Wednesday morning she’d make coffee and I’d bring muffins.

Later I discovered that Trisha couldn’t wait and found all eight episodes on the internet. She watched the entire first season without me! Still, that Wednesday, I arrived with hot muffins and we had a great conversation. By the following Wednesday, Trisha had binge-watched seasons two, three, four, and five! When I showed up with muffins, we had a lot to talk about. It turns out, Trisha was affected by The Chosen as I was. Jesus and His story had come alive to her, too. We spent hours talking about Jesus, Mary, fish, Nicodemus, the wind, the Bethesda pool, and lots more.

When I asked Trisha about what she’d seen, she had tears in her eyes and said, “When Nicodemus cried, I cried with him.” She also shared how she now sees Jesus as a friend she can talk to every day, and at any time. We continued to meet four times over coffee and muffins to learn more about Jesus and the events of His life.”