The Chosen (Spoiler Alert-Unless You’ve Read the Bible)

 Did anyone catch that episode of The Chosen last night? I’m referring to season 5 episode 2 “House of Cards.” This episode depicts the famous moment when Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem and knocks over the tables of the money changers. I have read the gospels multiple times and was fully aware of this story before I watched the episode, but to be honest I never really pictured it happening that way. I thought, “A whip? Really? Did Jesus actually use a whip in any of the gospels ever?”

Yes, he did.

John 2:13-16 says, “The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.”

Okay, I have a lot of Bible-learning to do…and I always will.

Many like to paint Jesus as a gentle, peace-loving, social justice warrior. A good man to emulate, maybe even a prophet. Progressive Christians tend to cherry-pick stories of Jesus in which he showed special favor or kindness toward sinners, such as the woman at the well (John 4:7-30), the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11), and Jesus’s relationship with Mary Magdalene, whom many wrongly believe to have been sexually immoral or a prostitute. Yes, Jesus ate with sinners. He spoke to sinners. He loved sinners. But never once did he affirm their sins. Over and over, again and again, Jesus called sinners to repentance!

John 2 is an excellent example of how Jesus does not affirm sin. In fact, he hates it! I always used to think of this as the go-to story of that one time Jesus was really mad or really hated sin. However, Jesus shows this all throughout the gospels. He calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 12:34. Jesus talks about hell repeatedly in the gospels-according to John Piper (and many other Christian apologists), Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else in the bible-and he talked about hell more than he talked about heaven (see this article: Jesus Said More about Hell Than Anyone in the Bible). Make no mistake, Jesus takes sin very seriously. And we should too.

I want to get something straight here. The sin depicted in this scene is not the sin of capitalism. It is not wrong for people to buy and sell or to work hard to make money for their families. In fact, the Bible encourages this! 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says, “For even when we were with you, we would give you the command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Proverbs 12:11 says, “Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.” I could go on…but you get the point.

No, the sin here is using a place set aside for the worship of God for man’s selfish gain. I think the scene in this episode of The Chosen depicts this well. First, there is the man extorting sojourners by asking for exorbitant fees and calling it an “exchange rate.” He’s obviously slimy and we’re supposed to hate him. Then there’s the mean lady with the cart demanding Jesus get out of her way so she can use the temple as a short cut. Finally, there’s the man who is kind to Tamara and gives her and the other Gentile woman two sets of doves. We don’t hate him at all! He’s nice and it seems like he’s just trying to make a living for his family-however, he is still taking advantage of those seeking to offer sacrifices for Passover and using a place of worship as a place of commerce.

The truth is, this is a minor depiction of what happens when we rebel against God. It’s also just that-a depiction. It takes artistic license. The passage in the Bible is relatively short and we don’t know exactly how it happened in real life. The creator of The Chosen Dallas Jenkins has said on multiple occasions that this is not Scripture; he encourages viewers to look at Scripture as they watch the show. If you watch The Chosen (or even if you don’t), I encourage you to look first and foremost at Scripture for the truth. Everything else will inevitably fall short of the eternal Word of God.