The Chosen: Loaves and Fishes Recipes 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
/Year Released: 2017-2023
Directed by: Dallas Jenkins
Starring: Jonathan Roumie, Shahar Isaac, Elizabeth Tabish, Paras Patel, Noah James, George H. Xanthis
(3 seasons, episodes approx. 45 min. each)
Genre: Faith and Spirituality, Documentary, Drama
“All the greatest stories have been told. It’s how they’re retold that counts.” Different Drummer (True Belief #10)
Just change the point of view and “the greatest story ever told” becomes new and fresh again. This time it is the disciples, uneducated and often lost and confused, who frame this exquisite narrative about Jesus.
A charismatic fisherman struggling with debt. A troubled woman wrestling with demons. A gifted accountant ostracized from his family and people. In this ground-breaking first season of The Chosen see how Jesus reaches each of these and more as He works His first miracles and embarks on His ministry to change the world. See Him through the eyes of those who knew Him.
In fact, Jesus himself hardly appears in the first few episodes.
And yes, there is a disclaimer on The Chosen, the most successful “crowdfunded” TV series or film to date, about how the stories of the New Testament have been broadened with more characterization of Jesus’s early followers.
They certainly look nothing like the noble robed figures envisioned by Renaissance painters. Instead they are somewhat grubby looking ordinary guys dealing with their mysterious leader, who is often away praying for days and weeks at a time.
Indeed. they and Jesus himself are ragged lot, sleeping in makeshift tents, their hair unkempt, going hungry for days at a time, the disciples arguing among themselves, often feuding with new followers.
The one who is most disliked is Matthew (Parar Patel). Yes, they guy who wrote the first book of the New Testament. He is a despised publican, a tax collector, who has left his Jewish roots behind to work for the hated Romans who collect outrageous taxes. Even Matthew’s mother and father have disowned him.
He is hired to spy on Jesus as his following grows and becomes more of a threat to the fragile peace in Jerusalem. Only then does he accidentally witness a miracle that he cannot forget. The actor who plays, Matthew, by the way, plays him as at least “on the spectrum “ of autism, if not being a full-fledged autistic. His body language and obsessive zest to write everything down reflect that.
Not very popular, to say the least:
Simon says to Jesus, “Who? Do you have any idea what this guy has done? I don’t get it.”
Jesus answers, “You didn’t get it when I chose you, either.”
Simon objects, “But this is different!”
Jesus says, “Get used to different.”
Yes, that is Simon (Shahar Isaac) speaking, one of the most interesting characters, often called Simon Peter and later designated by Jesus to lead his new church. In the first episode we see Simon engaging in an ancient form of fight club, where he and his brothers in law use various tricks against each other to bring in some extra cash.
He is the only disciple married, and happily married at that. Another expansion from accepted narratives. His beautiful and loving wife Eden ( Lara Silva) gladly accepts Simon’s call to follow Jesus, even though he is gone for weeks and months at a time. That is not to say that all is harmonious, especially when Jesus and many of his followers often pop in for by for dinner unannounced. And especially lots of comic relief when Simon returns home after a long sojourn and some of his disciples expect to be housed in his rather small domicile. Not too much privacy for the loving couple.
*Another important player is Mary Magdalene, here portrayed as someone possessed of 7 demons, but certainly not the prostitute or supposed wife of Jesus as somehow portrayed by the ancient Church or in film. (Longer explication of this below.) And she, like everyone else in the film, is very human, often filled with self-doubts and remorse over her past.
But it is Jesus Christ himself who mesmerizes. So human and with an ironic sense of humor that you cannot help but fall in love with him – in the platonic sense, of course.
We see this in his interaction with some children furtively spying on his crude campsite in the country.
The next morning Jesus prays before breakfast, “Blessed are You, Lord our God—King of the universe, who gives forth bread from this earth…. And I pray that if ever there are two children who come visit My home here, You will give them the courage to say Shalom so that they will know they do not need to remain hiding in secret. Amen.” He makes those children laugh and befriends them. They introduce their friends to Him. He teaches them practical skills and spiritual truth.
A girl named Abigail says, “My family is not wealthy.” Jesus responds, “Many times that is better.” She responds, “I don’t know about that.” Jesus laughs gently and says, “You will.”
When even more children awaken him one morning, a sleepy-eyed Jesus teases, “Couldn’t you have waited at least a half hour?”
With an ironic smile he refers to James and John as the “Sons of Thunder” when they insist he call down “fire from heaven” to destroy some Samaritans who spit on them. Jesus jokes that that is nothing compared to what they will face later on.
We see him struggle to prepare for his famous Sermon on the Mount, asking Matthew to help him get it just right, especially the opening. And it is a zinger, all right, so different from what had been traditionally preached.
Later we observe his reluctance to perform public miracles, at least not early on, knowing that it is not yet the time for his true identity to emerge.
Yet, Jesus is a loyal earthly son, especially when his mother (Vanessa Benavente) asks him to perform his first public miracle when they run out of wine at the wedding feast of her good friend’s son. Even if he does not want to be public with his true identity yet, Jesus cannot turn down his beloved mother.
Perhaps Jesus’s most frequently used phrase, mostly directed at the disciples he is trying to mold, is “O, Ye of little faith,” a phrase my father often used when we doubted him, too, especially when he was driving somewhere and we thought he was lost. Like Jesus, my father had a sense of humor, too.
You, see, Jesus purposely chose followers who had little education and were of low status. There was less to undo, he thought. His wine is new, and it must go into new vessels, he tells them.
Finally, we see Jesus as very different from his Father, the God of the Old Testament, who favored the Jews and helped them win many a bloody battle. Those awaiting the Messiah expect him to arrive with a sword to expel their Roman conquerors, but that is not the way with Jesus.
“Render onto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Render onto God the things that are his.”
His love is for all, not just fellow Jews, something that the Hebrew Pharisees and Scribes see as blasphemy, just as they do his surrounding himself with those they consider unworthy.
Whether you are religious or not, Christian or from some other faith, The Chosen holds lessons for all of us: To demonstrate love, redemption, and forgiveness for everyone. Who can argue with that?
***
*Despite—or perhaps because of—Mary Magdalene’s clear importance in the Bible, some early Western church leaders sought to downplay her influence by portraying her as a sinner, specifically a prostitute.
“There are many scholars who argue that because Jesus empowered women to such an extent early in his ministry, it made some of the men who would lead the early church later on uncomfortable,” Cargill explains. “And so there were two responses to this. One was to turn her into a prostitute.”
To cast Mary as the original repentant whore, early church leaders conflated her with other women mentioned in the Bible, including an unnamed woman, identified in the Gospel of Luke as a sinner, who bathes Jesus’s feet with her tears, dries them and puts ointment on them (Luke 7:37-38), as well as another Mary, Mary of Bethany, who also appears in Luke. In 591 A.D., Pope Gregory the Great solidified this misunderstanding in a sermon: “She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary [of Bethany], we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark."
“Of course, the other response was actually to elevate Mary. Some argued she was actually Jesus’ wife, or companion. She had a special status.” –Robert Cargill,
While some early Christians sought to downplay Mary’s influence, others sought to accentuate it. The Gospel of Mary, a text dating from the second century A.D. that surfaced in Egypt in 1896, placed Mary Magdalene above Jesus’s male disciples in knowledge and influence. She also featured prominently in the so-called Gnostic Gospels, a group of texts believed to have been written by early Christians as far back as the second century A.D., but not discovered until 1945, near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi –Sarah Pruitt
–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁
Trailer
Film-Loving Foodie
Taking just a few fish and small baskets of bread, Jesus feeds several thousands, not just once but twice.
Your family can experience the meal served at the miracle of the loaves and fishes when Jesus feeds so many people.
Historians tell us that barley loaf and Tilapia* were most likely served. Tilapia is also called "St. Peter's fish". Tilapia has been fished in the Sea of Galilee for thousands of years.
Saint Peter was a fisherman from Bethsaida. One day when Peter and his brother Andrew were out fishing, Jesus came and called them to be fishers of men. Without reservation, the two dropped their nets, left their homes, and followed Jesus.
Loaves and Fishes (Barley Loaf and St, Peter’s Fish)
Ingredients
2 C Barley Flour
2 tsp baking powder 1⁄4 tsp salt
1⁄4 C olive oil
3⁄4 C water/milk
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
2. Sift barley flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Add to that, the olive oil and water/milk and mix till you achieve a doughy consistency. 4. Flatten into a circle on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
5. Divide into eighths (in triangles)
6. Prick all over with a fork
7. Put into the oven for 20 mins
8. Take out of oven, spread butter, drizzle with honey and enjoy!
St. Peter’s Fish
Ingredients
6 small potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
salt, to taste
2 tbsp rosemary
2-3 tilapia fillets
1 clove of garlic
1/2 lemon, sliced
pepper, to taste
Instructions
1. Line one large or two small baking sheets with aluminum foil and preheat oven to broil.
2. Slice potatoes into wedges and place on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and rosemary.
3. Next, place the fillets on the lined baking sheet. Melt the butter and add the garlic after removing from heat. Drizzle over fillets, and then place the lemon slices on top.
4. Bake at a broil until the tilapia has reached an internal temperature of 145°F, or follow the instructions on packaging. This should take between 5 and 10 minutes. If the potatoes aren’t yet golden brown, remove the fish and bake the wedges at 400°F until the edges become crispy.
5. Remove from oven and serve with your favorite greens; beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts are all delicious options!
