My New Jesus Obsession

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 Friends, I am newly obsessed with Jesus. A new Jesus.

This Jesus smiles a lot and has a perpetual twinkle in his eye. This Jesus dances and sings at wedding parties. This Jesus blows raspberries with his mouth to entertain children. This Jesus gently joins Simon to tease Andrew about his bad dancing. This Jesus looks the outcast in the eye and says her name with love and delight. This Jesus is someone I want to hang out with. He’s as joyful as a Texas sunrise, as natural as life, and as comfortable as my favorite loveseat.

My friend Maureen introduced me to The Chosen, a film series about the life of Jesus. I’ve been seeing advertisements for it all over my Facebook for weeks – maybe months – but I’ve pointedly ignored them. I rarely see film depictions of Christ that I like . . . partly because I’m very particular. I still have nightmares about Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth back in 1977. I mean, he looked stoned, right? And kind of creepy. He scared me a bit. Was I the only one a little freaked out by that mini-series?

But unlike that old attempt, The Chosen is an absolute delight and inspiration. I love this show. LOVE IT. There are only eight episodes out right now, and I watched them all in a few days -- and I’m going to have to watch them all a dozen times more until the new season comes out because I’m experiencing some kind of withdrawal already.

The production quality is outstanding. The acting is terrific. The script fascinates me – they add all these fascinating backstories to the characters to weave everything together. I’m just fascinated by the whole stinkin’ thing. (How many forms of “fascinate” did I use there? I can’t come up with a better word. I’m fascinated. With all of it.)

But Jesus is the big selling point for me. Because he’s real. He’s human – the best of humans. I mean, love just oozes out of every pore of his being. You could spend no more than an evening at dinner with the man, and you would know that he not only loves you – he genuinely likes you and enjoys your company, just because you’re you. Like Mr. Rogers, but so much better. He wants to hear about your day. He’s got great stories to tell you and great advice to share. You will leave him a better person than you came . . . but you won’t want to leave. I watched the scene with him hanging out with friends at the home of Zebedee, and I felt tension melt from my shoulders and worries float from my mind and I wanted to go a-a-all Mary, sitting at his feet forever listening . . . and I wanted to grow up and be a better person so he would smile at me even more.

The narrative is just getting started here, and because I know the story well, I know there are less pleasant twists to the plotline coming up. I expect to hear some harsh words out of his mouth at some point. And some anger. But today . . . friends, today I’m just revelling in my Jesus’ smile. Because I can see a smiling Jesus -- smiling at me.

I’ve told you before – God and I have had it out for the last couple years. I really needed this Jesus right now.

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