Illustrated Summary of The Chosen: Season 1, Episode 6: Indescribable Compassion

 

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Quintus, the cynical Roman praetor, says to Matthew about Jesus's miraculous provision of fish: “You’re a fine reporter but you’re also a bit of a rube. I read your report: it’s clear Simon and his accomplice tricked you.” Matthew objects, “To what end?... I’m neither sophisticated nor subtle, Dominus, but I am observant. I detected no subterfuge. I recorded everything I witnessed—however impossible it seemed.”

Jesus is approached by a man the Bible describes as “full of leprosy.” His disciples are horrified. The man begs for Jesus not to turn away and says, “If You are willing, You can make me clean,” explaining his sister was one of the servers at the wedding where Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus says, “I am willing: Be cleansed.”

John says to Simon, who is nervous about a crowd gathering to listen to Jesus teach in Zebedee’s home: “Simon, you don’t need to be His bodyguard—I think He can handle anything! He called you to catch men.” Simon replies, “I don’t even know what that means.” John reasons: “If He needed you to know what it meant, He would have told you. So just be you, okay?”

John and James with their father, Zebedee, at whose house people will gather.

Nicodemus says to Shmuel, a hard-hearted Pharisee who, contrary to the practice of his order, betrayed John the Baptizer to the Romans since he was deeply offended by John’s calling religious leaders like him vipers: “Shmuel, would you read to me from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah?” Shmuel reads from chapter 40: “‘Comfort, comfort My people,’ says our God... A voice cried in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of Adonai, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” Nicodemus asks, “Who does that sound like?” “The heretic John,” answers Shmuel. “And what heresy do you find in those words, being that Isaiah said them also?” Shmuel says, “The problem is that John has appropriated Isaiah’s words by taking a spiritual description of God in heaven and applying it to John’s physical successor on earth. John said, ‘After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’ God has no body. He cannot wear sandals. God cannot take human form. To say so is blasphemy.” Nicodemus asks with a mild laugh, “Where does it say that God cannot take human form?” Shmuel answers, “In the scroll of Deuteronomy: ‘You saw no face the day Adonai spoke to you at Horeb—’” Nicodemus interjects, “Just because they saw no form doesn’t mean God cannot take one!” Shmuel replies, “In Exodus: ‘No one can see My face and live.’ This person would have to walk around with his face covered!” Nicodemus says, “So you would place limits on the Almighty?” Shmuel answers, “None that are not written in Law!” Nicodemus adds, “And if God did something that you felt contradicted the Torah, would you tell Him to get back in that box that you have carved for Him—or would you question your interpretation of the Torah?”

Shmuel, feeling bewildered, tells his teacher: “When I was a student, I knew all your sayings. I read every word you wrote. Your teachings were so sturdy, so reasoned and pure.” Nicodemus tries to guide him, saying, “We are still students, Shmuel, all of us! Our understanding will never be complete.” Shmuel confesses, “It frightens me that I can no longer predict your rulings.” Nicodemus asserts, “Fear alone ensures we remain ignorant, asleep in the safety of rigid tradition. Take the Sadducees: they take the first five Books, the Law of Moses, as inspired Scripture. The rest they disregard. To them, God stopped speaking when Moses died. Think of all they have missed: the Psalms of David, the stories of Ruth and Boaz, Esther and Mordecai! I don’t want to live in some bleak past where God cannot do anything new, do you?” Shmuel asks, “Why is that your concern? God gave us His Law; we must uphold it!” Nicodemus tells him, “We can do both! Let’s ‘look to the ancient roads where the good way is and walk in it,’ as Jeremiah said, and still keep our eyes open to the startling and the unexpected. Can we agree on that?” Shmuel reluctantly says yes. Nicodemus tries to encourage him, saying, “You and I, we can lead the others in this—” The conversation is interrupted by a fellow Pharisee named Yussif, who tells them a crowd has gathered to hear a common man preach. The three leave to investigate.

Rabbis Nicodemus and Shmuel

Jesus speaks earnestly to the crowd inside and outside Zebedee’s home in Capernaum: “You know the Tower of Siloam, which fell and killed the 18, yes? Do you think that they were worse than those who lived in Jerusalem? No, all must repent or perish.”

When Zebedee’s wife, Salome, worries about running out of snacks to feed the crowd, Mary Magdalene reassures her, saying, “They’re already being fed.”

 

Jesus says to Tamar the Ethiopian, the lead person lowering a paralyzed man through Zebedee’s roof to be healed by Jesus in the crowd below: “Your faith is beautiful.”

Rabbi Shmuel, having pushed his way to the window with Rabbi Yussif, calls out: “You! By whose authority do you teach?” Jesus remains silent. Shmuel presses, “Answer me!”

Rabbis Shmuel and Yussif

Jesus, focusing His attention on the man paralyzed since childhood, says to him: “Son, take heart, your sins are forgiven.” Turning to Shmuel and Yussif, He utters out loud the thoughts of their outraged hearts: “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sin but God alone, right? But I ask you—which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk? It’s easy to say anything, no? But to show you that the Son of Man has the authority in earth to forgive sins, I say to you, my son: Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.... Easy does it.”

Nicodemus, seeing Mary Magdalene, calls out: “Mary, wait: I saw it! I saw a paralytic walk past me on his two feet!” Mary answers “You asked me before if I knew His name. Now everyone knows His name and I fear for His safety.” Nicodemus tells her sincerely, “I mean no trouble to Him, no dishonor—” Mary objects: “Your friends tried to have Him arrested.” Nicodemus explains, “They’re jealous, they’re afraid. But I’m not, I promise. Mary, please, I need to talk to Him.”  Mary explains, “I follow Him, not the other way around.” Nicodemus pleads, “Will you ask Him for a meeting—in secret, under cover of night, at a place of His choosing.... I just need to speak to Him! Please, Mary.” Mary tells him she will try.

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