Jesus Loves the Little Children
The Chosen: Season 1, Episode 3

One truth is evident, Jesus loves the little children and all of us very much.

After watching four seasons of The Chosen quite a few times, I have seen something new in almost every episode. Today, watching S1E3 where the prologue features Jesus camping alone in the wilderness. The thing that caught my attention was his mood while he was praying, “Father, glorify me with yourself.” He appeared weeping and sad. “Father, speak through me,” is audible. He seemed pained, anguished, sorrowful and just highly emotional. He appeared sweaty and disheveled with the state he was in.

Seeing his mood and mental state, I first thought maybe God had revealed his plan or destiny to Jesus about his inevitable torture and death, but then I knew that was just silly because “…No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son…” (Matthew 11:27 NIV). He has always known these details. Throughout the series, even His mother, Mary, knows. She knows what the end will be. Mary doesn’t like it, but understands that God’s will be done. She does not know when, but Jesus lets her know that it will be “soon” and that “his time has come.”

God’s will be done

So that took me to my next thought: foreshadowing of Gethsemane. “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done,” (Luke 22:42 NIV) where this emotional scene in Season One is foreshadowing the truth that will come in Season Five perhaps.

As a (previously) filmmaker and screenwriter, I do usually make sense of these elements that we see and hear. S1E3 went a long way to show us what life is like in the setting of the show. Establishing the technology, daily life and general era of the setting. You actually have to make fire and carry your cargo. Jesus toils in the dust as “just a man” with blood, sweat and tears. There are a few instances in the series where he says to another, “I’m just a man.”

An example for us all

I think my final answer about the prologue for S1E3 is this… Jesus is a man on the earth, and He prays to His Father in Heaven continually.  In the “Invitations” episode S1E7, Mary of Magdala says: “Where are you going?”and Jesus replies: “To be alone. I need to think. And to pray.”In seemingly every episode, he does excuse himself from present company and wishes to be alone, to pray. We don’t get to see a lot of what that looks like. So, this opening scene is a glimpse that we, the audience, can carry with us throughout the series that might be what it looks like when he prays. This scene is intense with emotion, so most likely also a foreshadowing of Gethsemane “…sorrowful and very heavy.” (Matthew 26:37 KJV)