Now Streaming Week 9: The ChosenSample

Spiritual truths are inherent in The Chosen, the first-ever multi-season series about the life of Jesus. Season one launched with more than $10 million in donations, making it the highest crowdfunded media project ever. Over 194 million views have been streamed from its app, and the series is 100% "ripe" on Rotten Tomatoes. That kind of success for a faith-based media project is so unexpected, one might deem it miraculous.

The Chosen invites viewers to see Jesus through the eyes of some of the people who met Him, were healed by Him, followed Him, and rejected Him. The apostle Peter explained that although Jesus was rejected by men to the point of crucifixion, He was chosen by God as the once-for-all sacrifice for our sins. "Coming to Him as to a living stone," Peter wrote, "rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious" (1 Peter 2:4). A "living stone" seems like a contradiction in terms, but Peter likened Jesus to having the strength and solidarity of stone and also being fully alive because He died and was raised from the dead.

More than a living stone, Jesus is the cornerstone, the foundational stone laid at the corner of a building that provides strength and symmetry and sets the direction for the rest of the structure. The cornerstone is the reference point for a whole building, and the building that Peter described is the church. "You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (v. 5). It's one thing to come to a living stone; it's quite another thing to become a living stone. When you come to Jesus, you become like Jesus.

We have been chosen by God first to salvation and then to a life of service to Him as He continues building His church by building up His people. And this is a building, a "spiritual house," that the world has never seen before in that we don't go to the temple; we are the temple. We don't come through a priest; we are the priests. We don't make animal sacrifices; we offer spiritual sacrifices. What kind of spiritual sacrifices will you offer today to the One who sacrificed it all for you?