I Have Called You by Name

I Have Called You By Name

 “But now, this is what the Lord says–He who created you, Jacob, He who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)

400 years. The length of time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The United States of America has only existed for 247. Four centuries without a prophet, without a Judge, without a message from God in Heaven. 400 years sustained by nothing more than a promise. How patient are you, waiting on unanswered prayer? What does a culture and society look like, that long without hearing God, that underfoot of a foreign power, clinging that long to the vestiges of hope? The first episode of The Chosen attempts to paint for us that very picture. {**Side Note Tangent–While extra-Biblical “color commentary” does exist in this show, we can approach it understanding that this re-telling is attempting, in good faith, to show us that these are not merely “Bible characters” but living breathing people that toiled in a world very recognizable to our own. Which helps us to directly apply what Scripture shows us, but our understanding should flow first from Scripture.**} What we see is not particularly flattering. We see a world broken and lost. There are faithful, but they are few, and even the most respected among them are doubtful, weak, and politically compromised. We see a world enslaved. Three of the subplots our protagonists are enmeshed in surround the issue of taxes. This is an important point. Taxes are an indebtedness to our world. They are levied dispassionately, they are demanded without grace, they are enforced by threat of violence and upheld by fear. Most of the people we are introduced to, regardless of religious fidelity, are subsumed to issues of money. Whether it’s Andrew and Simon’s struggle to remain, financially, afloat under an oppressive tax regime and a fickle fishing business, Matthew’s despised and lonely role as a Jewish collector of Roman taxes, or even Nicodemus’ role in massaging a religious message to encourage Roman tax compliance. (Or at least discourage its avoidance.) An interesting way to answer as to why is to take a clue from something Jonathan brought up in discussion, Parkinson’s Law.

Rendered simply, Parkinson’s Law dictates that “work complicates to fill the available time”. I believe a popular corollary to this is “nature abhors a vacuum”. Without God’s presence in our lives, we fill it with something. It won’t fit the hole He leaves behind, but we’ll muddle through as best we can in the desperate attempt to do so. And desperation is what colors all of the episode we saw. Each person we were introduced to was in the midst of conflict. Matthew, in the outcast role of a traitor to his own people. Andrew and Simon, literally in conflict, attempting to raise any money they could by hook or crook. Nicodemus, under the threat of Roman reprisal. And Mary, in conflict within herself and her past and struggling spiritually against a demonic force. All without comfort, all without hope of prevailing, all in over their heads, all in need of a Savior. If the curtain were to raise on your story today, what conflict would we find you amidst? What struggles would we see? How in need of a Savior are you today? The world portrayed for us in the first episode of The Chosen is one full of privation and need, it is harsh, unforgiving, cruel and uncaring. It is in dire need of direction, forgiveness, and hope. Sound familiar?

People are the same, now as they’ve ever been. Their problems and struggles are the same. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) The upside is that the solution is the same as well. The people we meet, in this opening installment, don’t yet realize just how lost they are. They’ve seen ugly things and are well acquainted with life’s doldrums, but they are absent hope of anything better so they settle on acceptance. There is no drive for improvement, only a struggle for subsistence. How depressing it would be to believe that mere survival on this lost and sinful world is all that life has to offer. But there is another Way. Mary’s story here is the heart of this episode because her struggle is not material but spiritual. Jesus did not come to fill the coffers of brothers Andrew and Simon, He did not come to ease the societal ostracization of Matthew, nor to bridge the divide between Nicodemus’ religious duties and his political obligations. “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” (Luke 19:10) The show presents this to us in the final scene. Mary’s initial contact with Jesus is met with fear. The show suggests she has significant reason to be wary of men in particular. And her life experience up till then was portrayed as one of constant pain, fear, sorrow, loss, and regret. Whatever new sense she got from this stranger she wanted to have no part in. And she retreated from the unfamiliar. God’s way will be unfamiliar to us. When faced with it, be sure to remember what was portrayed next. Jesus followed after Mary and called her out by name. (Heretofore, in the episode she was known only as Lillith or some variation of the same.)   

Much of human endeavor is an effort to be seen. Being noticed or recognized is the sole pursuit behind most of what drives social media. (Roughly 4.9 billion people generating about $66 billion in ad revenue) It’s a giant business, granting people the ability to shout from a platform. The irony of course, is that we desperately desire to be seen, but only on our own, very often fraudulent, conditions. That’s not what Jesus offers. He calls you by name and sees, not what you portray or pretend, but you. Past the pride and vanity, past the pretense and pomp. He sees you. He pursues you. He gave His life for you. And in that moment, Mary knew what the love of the Savior was. Gone was the guilt and the shame, gone were the walls and defenses, gone was the worry and the doubt. All washed away in the perfect love of her Redeemer. The exorcism shown was correctly downplayed, because there is no great “struggle” of Jesus versus some demonic horde. There is no force that can overcome God’s perfect love. Nor one that can even stand against it. He showed to her what is equally offered to all of us. We talked about growing our relationship with God and learning to lean on His faithfulness. But His work was complete on the 6th day of Creation. He proved His love to us before we were even born and has been the only constant throughout mankind’s entire existence. If our relationship is to grow it is only by tearing down our own obstacles, and removing our own hindrances. This can be accomplished with time, but why wait?!? Our lives may not mirror the despair depicted in Mary’s experience, but how much suffering do we really want to endure on our own when the answer is literally waiting to be invited in?

Jesus sees you. He calls you by name. More than what is merely in your past, He knows what your future holds. He is calling you to it, to become the one only He knows you to be. “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 18:3-4) How much faith we used to know! Growing, instead of making us wiser, makes us more convinced of our own wisdom. But we know nothing. We can know nothing because all our experience has one thing in common. It is predicated on the past. To step out in faith, is literally to step into the unknown. Into a future we cannot see, into a life we cannot predict, into a service directed by someone else. It requires us to relinquish control. Control that we are not capable of having. More accurately it requires us to relinquish the illusion of control and to recognize a truth. God sits on His throne. If fear threatens to stop you, take a look around to see just what you’re clinging to. He is calling your name. Will you answer?

Jordan Williamson