Season 2, Episode 4: The Chosen

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Here is the link to watch episode 4. I pray you are Blessed. Below is this weeks study of the Episode.

THE GROUP CELEBRATES the FEAST OF THE TABERNACLES.

Nathaniel, being an architect, has designed the “BOOTH” or “SUKKAH” that they will eat and sleep in for seven days and nights during the Feast of the Tabernacles or Sukkot.

James questions Jesus about the prophet Zachariah, who says that one day EVERYONE, (Jews, Gentiles, Babylonians, Romans, etc.) will gather in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Tabernacles. James and the rest suggest that it was only the Jews that wondered in the dessert and that the Jews are the ones who truly understand what the feast means.

Jesus reminds them that all men have gone through a wilderness of some kind. The Disciples think this concept of unity, this prophecy, is impossible. Mary, Jesus’ mother, reminds them that she knows a little something about impossible prophecies.

(Jesus is showing us that we are all vulnerable, all have been lost, and all have been delivered through HIM. The booths are a leveler of all types of people; rich and poor. All sleep outside in a Sukkah and all must rely on God. The celebration is a reminder of all that He has done for us and how He has rescued us.)

JESUS SEES HIS DESTINY

On the way to the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus sees men hanging on a cross. This is His destiny as well.

(Your thoughts? Jesus knows what’s coming. He sees what is going to happen to him and yet He continues on. We know there are risks being Christians; believing in something and someone that the world can’t understand, but we need to stay strong and continue with what God has called each of us to do and to be all that God has called us to be.)

SIMON VISITS HIS BROTHER, JESSE (the cripple) who lays waiting for healing at the Bethesda Pool.

Simon is angry that Jesse has given up his Jewish faith and has turned to pagan beliefs. Jesse is on a mission and does not expect to survive. He has come to say goodbye. Jesse is angry that Simon left him to become a ZEALOT and feels angry and abandoned because Simon has never come to see or help him into the pool. Jesse begs Simon not to go through with his plan to assassinate a Roman.

He reads Simon’s note, which says, “Jesse, when YOU stand on two feet, I will know the Messiah has come and I will fight for the freedom of Zion in order to see that day.”

(Both men are angry and feel abandoned. Both have lost their FAITH and have put their faith in something else. We sometimes feel and do the same. Jesus is calling us to have faith in HIM.)

JESUS, JOHN, SIMON and MATTHEW go to the Pool of BETHESDA (The MEKVA)

Jesus points out Jesse as the one who has been at the pool the longest but doesn’t belong. He instructs the Disciples to stay close and watch.

When Jesus asks Jesse, the paralytic, if he wants to be healed, Jesse asks if Jesus will help him to the water. He believes their is healing power in the water. Jesse explains he has NO ONE to help him into the pool. Jesus says “LOOK AT ME.”

(This seems to be what Jesus says to a number of people in this series and in scripture. He says it to people who are focused on their situations and doubts; such as Simon, when he was unable to catch fish or when Jesus calls Simon out of the boat to walk on the water or Nathaniel when he meets Jesus the first time, the paralytic at Zebedee’s house or when Jesus holds Mary’s face to look at Him when he casts out her demons. Jesus wants us to focus on Him, not our situation, not our doubts and not the fact that nothing else has worked.)

Jesus says to Jesse, “I am not asking you who has or has not been helping you or getting in your way. I’m asking about you. This pool has nothing for you. You don’t need this pool. You only need ME.”

(Jesus says the same thing to Mary Magdalen when he first meets her, telling her that the wine she is using to stop the nightmare she is living with, is not for her. It has nothing for her. Jesus is telling us to not try to solve our problems with other things and other people. We need to turn to HIM first and foremost.)

Simon tells Jesse that he won’t be coming back to the pool and that the life he has been living for over thirty years as a cripple, is over. Everything has changed now that he has met Jesus.

(Our old life is over once we accept Jesus into our life. Nothing is the same. Everything changes.)

SIMON SEES JESSE WALKING

Simon stops his assassination attack on the Roman and follows his brother who has not walked for over thirty years. The love of his brother, the promise he made that he would fight until his brother could walk, and the desire for the coming of the Messiah is stronger than his anger and hatred of the Romans.

The Disciples question Jesus as to WHY He performed this miracle on Shabbat?

1. The law to not carry things on Shabbat was a oral tradition a man-made law, not part of Torah.
2. He did it because Shmuel, the Pharisee, was in town speaking against Jesus and false prophecy.
3. To stop Simon from going though with his plan. Simon would come to be one of the Disciples.
4. To show the Disciples to not be afraid to do what God calls them to do even if it means standing up to religious leaders and the law.
5. Jesus said, “Sometimes you have to stir up the water.”

1. To show that he is greater than any pagan belief, any Pharisee, any law and that His way is better than violence.
2. The Pharisees were just standing around the pool not helping anyone. Jesus took the time to heal the paralytic even on Shabbat. (Just like going to find the one sheep out of the 100, that was lost) Jesus also turned to make sure that the Pharisees were watching.
3. People believed that the water held power to heal. They believed an Angel stirred up the water. It was a pagan belief.
4. JESUS SHOWED THAT HE HOLDS THE POWER to HEAL, HE IS THE LIVING WATER, and THAT HE IS GREATER THAN ANY PAGAN GOD, LAW or ADVERSITY.

SCRIPTURE

John 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” (If Jesus’ kingdom was of this world, He would have called His followers to fight. The work of His kingdom must not be enveloped in violence—no matter how much zeal His followers may have.)

Mark 2:27 – Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Zephaniah 3:19 (a Prophecy) Behold, at that time, I will deal with all your oppressors. I will save the lame and gather the outcast; and I will change their shame into praise and remove their disgrace throughout the earth.

John 5: 5-12

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’

I pray you have been Blessed. VICTORIA

Thank you to The Chosen for the Photographs used in this post.

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