Mini: The Chosen S2E3
267 | “Nothing Like the Picture”
Enjoy Season 2, Episode 3 of the Chosen
Grab a marshmallow and pull up a log — it's time for The Breakfast Club with swords and sandals. In this episode of our Winter Watch Party, we break down The Chosen Season 2, Episode 3 ("Matthew 4:24"). It’s a classic "bottle episode," meaning no set changes, no travel montages, and 100% character development as the disciples sit around a campfire waiting for Jesus. We play a game of "Bad Teams," debating who would be the worst pair to build IKEA furniture (looking at you, Peter and Matthew) or run a three-legged race. But amidst the bickering, we explore the hard work of unity — realizing that unity isn't about "sameness," but about choosing to love despite our different files on each other. Finally, we look at the creative choice to show an exhausted Jesus, reminding us that He "emptied Himself" for us — and that it’s okay to need a nap.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Jesus didn't just take on a human body, he took on human limitations — proving that exhaustion isn't a sin and needing rest is part of being human."
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Introduction and Welcome
Ryan: looks nothing like the picture, but it kind of works.
Bryan: we missing nine of these pieces? I don't know, it won't be a problem, well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Bible Geeks podcast. I'm Bryan Schiele.
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy.
Bryan: And thanks so much everyone for tuning in.
Breaking Down 'The Chosen' Season 2, Episode 3
Bryan: Welcome back here to the winter watch party. Together we are gathered around this virtual fire and breaking down "The Chosen" episode three of season two.
The title of this one is Matthew 4, 24, not to be confused with the actual passage, but it is, yes, the title. If you're a TV nerd though, you know what this episode really is. It's a bottle episode.
Ryan: It is a bottle episode, so there's no set changes. There's no big travel montages. There's just 12 people sitting around a campfire arguing about food and politics and the Messiah. It's kind of like the Breakfast Club, but with swords and sandals.
Bryan: [laughing] Yeah, so this is a risky move for a TV show to have an episode where basically nothing happens. So this might be one of the most important episodes of the season for understanding who these people really are. And so grab a marshmallow, pull up a log, and let's get into the episode.
Understanding the Bottle Episode
Bryan: The Breakfast Club with swords and sandals. All it. Okay, so for those who don't know what a bottle episode is, this is a familiar kind of tactic, I suppose, if you're like into film and television and like you're really focused on like the behind the scenes kind of stuff. A bottle episode is when they kind of focus on one location and they basically do the production of the show as cheaply as possible by not like traveling or having like B-roll or any of these other different locations that they're going to.
So this episode, season two, episode three, called, confusingly, Matthew 424,
you know, not confusing at all, is actually a bottle episode where basically they just stay in the same place the entire time and don't go anywhere. So it's a lot of character development.
Ryan: Yeah, think of those Star Trek episodes where they're all just in one ship, one little side ship or something. this is like the campfire episode, right? This is, we're just going to have a lot of character interactions. And you imagine like this is what it was like in following Jesus.
He's got a lot to do that. They can only be spectators. And this is a lot of hanging around. I mean, I imagine it's kind of like, you know, if you're part of the entourage of some, you know, rock star or something, they've got a lot going on and you're just, you know, sitting around only here instead of, you know, performing.
And they Jesus is like transforming lives.
Bryan: But it's amazing here in this episode, we'll get into it, but how Jesus is doing some work, but we're not actually following Jesus. And again, we mentioned this in all of our discussions, I think, in season one of "The Chosen," how this is about the chosen, right? This is about the disciples. This is not as much about Jesus, although it is.
And so we'll get into that here maybe in just a minute, but let's do a vibe check to start this thing out again.
Vibe Check: Rating the Episode
Bryan: On a scale from one to five loaves and fishes, Ryan, what would you give this particular episode?
Ryan: You know, I don't I don't want to put it. I don't want to put any of these like they're bad. This was good and had good moments. But I'm going to give it a two and a half.
Bryan: Ah,
Ryan: A little, little slower, little. I didn't have as many really powerful moments. There were some. And it was cool. Like, I'm glad it's in there.
But as far as like highlights and lowlights of the series, like big moments, I'm going to go two and a half. What about you? OK. Yeah, I think like my biggest complaint
Bryan: well, I gave the first episode in this season a three. I think I'm gonna give this one also a two, just drop it one because yeah, it's slow, but I mean, I really think this is great for character development.
Character Dynamics and Development
Bryan: And so the conversations they're having, the difficulties that they're working through, I mean, the fact that like you almost are expecting a fist fight between a few of the disciples, like Peter and Matthew and some other people, it's like, ah, you know, really wanna see some stuff happen here in these conversations, but yeah, not gonna be the one I would recommend to like a first time "The Chosen" watcher.
This is kind of a deeper cut, maybe a B-side that I would give to somebody after they were more familiar with these
Ryan: is not the lack of, you know, new scenes or big drama. It's that there I didn't feel like I really learned a lot new about each character. You know, it's it's a lot of rehashed. Like we already knew that Peter and Matthew have this conflict and we already see a lot of these things. You got a little deeper into some of the side characters, like I said, learning a little bit.
I think I brought this up on a previous episode, learning more about James. I think this is where we really start to see that big James is is a really serious Torah student. So some of those kinds of things, but but not a lot of new revelations. And you can have a simple scene or a simple location where a lot of big character development stuff happens.
So that's my complaint. The good thing is like sometimes you just want to hang out with characters you are interested in. And these are cool people to sit around and be with around a campfire. Mm
Bryan: Well, we've been, you know, for all the episodes in season one, and then now into three episodes in season two, this may be the right time for an episode like this, where you just kind of take the foot off the gas a little bit. And like you say, I think for these people in real life, this would have been reality.
This would have been what it was like. And how did they deal with these moments of quiet? So I appreciate this. Let's move into a little bit of a game here. I kind of view these, you know, these moments of getting to know these characters and these people as like trying to build a team. And that's really what Jesus is doing here with these disciples.
He's building his close connections between all of these people. And I just wonder, like, with all the dysfunction that you can see happening within the group, what would you think about pairing up? Like who would be the worst pair for some of the scenarios I wanna go through here? So let me ask you this question.
You're putting together some Ikea furniture, right? And you, you know, you want them to work together to build the most structurally sound piece of furniture. Who are the two people you're gonna pick to do the worst job of that?
Ryan: just said it. Matthew and and Peter at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Peter's kind of impulsive. He he thinks he knows. Matthew also thinks he knows. Neither one. Great collaborators. Really? Yeah. So that's that's my pick. What's your
Bryan: I, well, no, it's definitely Peter and Matthew, but I cannot help but think about Matthew just like analyzing the manual and, you know, over microanalyzing the manual 'cause dude, that's me. Like that is exactly how I am.
Ryan: I would be the Peter in this scenario. Like guys, just don't even worry about the instructions. Let's just I think I got it. We.
Bryan: Yeah, yeah. So Peter would be the guy who's like just hammering the screws into place, you know, just not even caring what the thing says. And Matthew is like questioning everything for sure. Why
Ryan: looks nothing like the picture, but it kind of works.
Bryan: we missing nine of these pieces? I don't know, it won't be a problem, but. Okay, so scenario number two here, pick a team who are going to plan a surprise birthday party. They've gotta, you know, find one of the other disciples to surprise with a party. Who are you not going to pick to do that job?
Ryan: is again a bad team or a bad a bad pairing for that. OK. A surprise birthday party. I'm going to go Thomas and Matthew at this point, because I feel like those are the two that are not the festive. Even though Thomas was you know, he was he was running parties. I feel like they are they're going to overthink it.
They're going to be you know, it's not going to be about, you know, just the fun of the celebration. They're going to have. Yeah. A lot of technical. Well, I think we need 77 cups of this and we need, you know, that kind of
Bryan: Matthew is on the, Matthew is on like the hardcore, I gotta have things in a certain way, kind of overthinking it maybe. And, you know, maybe Thomas is the one who's actually like really, you know, aware of what needs to happen, but maybe is like not able to work overly well with Matthew in that case.
Ryan: Yeah. And I think they both are just like stuck in the details and and the the math of everything and all of that. What about you?
Bryan: was thinking about Mary and Simon the Zealot, you know, because you've got Mary who is obviously like wanting it to be nice and presentable and everything else. And then you've got Simon the Zealot who's like always watching the perimeter for assassins. Like probably is not gonna be overly focused on a birthday celebration.
He seems to be a real intense dude most of the time.
Ryan: And that's that's a little bit of a spoiler, right? I mean, hopefully people have watched this, but he's not in this yet, but he's about to show up. So, yeah, I like that. I like that pic.
Bryan: okay.
Ryan: Simon would not mesh well with several of these people, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's some people who used to work for Romans among them.
That might not go well.
Bryan: we'll get to that point for sure. All right, then we've got running a three-legged race. Who do you think would be terrible as a duo running a three-legged race? All
Ryan: going to say Big James and Little James the less because you've got you got mismatched sizes there. What about
Bryan: that's the only correct answer for this. You know, size differences aside is probably the biggest difficulty I think there. Yeah, so just a silly little exercise. I think these guys, all these guys and these ladies here in this disciple group, you know, they're struggling and some of them get along really well, some of them don't.
They've got, you know, interpersonal relationships and conflicts that are going on.
you know, we're not quite there, like you said, in the whole story, but I wanna think about Simon the zealot and like pull him in here as a conversation piece.
How does Simon the zealot and Matthew, you know, as like disciples under Jesus in Jesus' camp, how do these guys get along? Because, I don't know, Matthew seems to have problems with a lot of people, but in real life, like in the actual story of who, you know, Matthew was in the Bible and Simon the zealot was as followers of Jesus, these guys on paper should not get along at
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, it definitely speaks to the transformation and the transcendence of what they're doing above their formerly held politics. Now, both of them have to change who they are in order to follow Jesus.
you know, they both have to not only change themselves, but here's the hard part. They have to start to see each other as changed. And we kind of see that start to show up in this season with Matthew, especially people. Philip tells Matthew, whenever people start to see you as you were, you have to remind them.
This is how the world sees us is based on our past. But that's not who we are anymore. And I think there's really a lot to that. Adrian and I talk about that with each other a lot that, I used to be A, but now I'm B. But you have a file somewhere filed away in your filing cabinet of Ryan that Ryan is A.
But I'm not that guy anymore. I'm a different person. So, you know, you can see me differently. And likewise with her, with other people in the Church, we need to learn to not only see the transformation, but also give each other the benefit of the doubt. You know, love hopes all things, believes all
Bryan: I appreciate that 'cause I think we all have files for each other and sometimes we, you know, we hold up those files as like the key difference between us and the stumbling block that we refuse to get over in establishing unity.
The Importance of Unity Among Disciples
Bryan: And I think an episode like this and a thought process like this really does highlight for me the idea of unity because it's not about us all being the same, which is what I think we want unity to be, right?
We want unity to be like we all agree, we all react similarly, we all have the same way of dealing with things. And, you know, that is not unity. Unity is not sameness. It's deeper than that. It's a choice. It's something we work through. It's something that, you know, we maintain, Ephesians chapter four. Like we're maintaining this unity.
It's like we're holding the line trying to keep all of these things that could separate us from doing that. And I appreciate an episode like this just as a way of highlighting how difficult that work actually is and would have been at the time.
Ryan: is, it highlights how, to your point, the early disciples are a microcosm of the Church. Jesus is designing it that way. He's calling people for different purposes, from different backgrounds. And you start to see this group that's traveling around together, learning from the Messiah, all are
intentionally totally different. And yet the thing that binds them together is the most important thing.
Yeah. episode's title was Matthew 4.24. We haven't even really talked about it yet, but this is where Jesus is healing the masses. And I find it interesting here in this episode that like the show just does not decide to show the miracles at all. It's like really intentional. Like you should not know what is actually happening here in the episode.
Bryan: You just see the results of it. You hear people in it from the distance or like, you know, you see what's going on, but not directly. And like, why do you think this episode decides to make a choice like that, to not show the specifics of the miracles, but instead to focus on kind of what's going on behind the
Ryan: Yeah, I think it's really cool. And I think the reason is because each story has its own, like each person has their own story. Somebody comes out of the tent and Matthew's trying to take notes. And he says, "Hey, what happened?" And, "Oh, are you with Jesus?" And he just hugs him and knocks his book down. And Matthew can't even document it.
And he keeps rolling. That guy's story was changed by Jesus. Your story was changed by Jesus. People I don't know, their story was changed by Jesus. And, you know, here we are. We are not involved in everybody else's story. And so in some way, you're always on the outside of some of what Jesus is doing. And that's part of the story of these disciples and of what's happening around Jesus is that he is involved in so much.
He's spending himself, you know, he's about to collapse at the end. That's probably the most moving part of the whole episode because he is just so at work in people. And here are these people that are, you know, that are also changed by Jesus. But they're in the aftermath of their conversion experience trying to figure out what it means to follow him and to be unified, like you said.
And I think that they're trying to at the end, they each get a lens, a new refreshed lens into what this is all about. When they see what Jesus is doing for others, it kind of minimizes all of the differences and helps them put their own story into context. I think there's something like that going on here.
It's just how does Jesus work with other people outside of our frame of reference start to change us as we know what he's about?
Bryan: I think when you, if you were to focus so much on the miracles and what's going on, it would really highlight probably the wrong message from what this episode is trying to get to. And like you alluded to it, right? The episode is trying to get to a point where you get to see the impact of Jesus' work, his ministry.
What is the overall cost to Jesus in these moments? Like he's exhausted. He's just, you know, at the end of all of this, like he comes out, he's like just shaking and he's just beat. He can barely walk.
Jesus' Exhaustion and Humanity
Bryan: And so I think for me, what this episode is starting to shift into is like, let's see Jesus as a human and not as like Superman Jesus, like it didn't affect him at all.
It was, he was just out there. He never needed to eat. Like he was just perfectly, no, like he was doing things in his life. He emptied himself as it talks about in Philippians 2. I mean, ultimately at the end of his earthly life on the cross, he emptied himself there, but I think he poured it all out, even in moments like this, you know, Matthew 4, 24 and moments where he's dealing with people.
He gave it all to them. And I can just imagine at the end of days like this, Jesus having this reaction. And I think that's what this whole episode is building to. And so I appreciate that we get to see this side of Jesus as the one, you know, like this costs him something. He's exhausted at the end of these kinds of days.
And I have to imagine that this is not just a dramatization that Jesus really did need these moments after times like this to recover, to nap, you know, to take a break. It really kind of speaks to the embracing our limits conversation that we had earlier in the season last season.
Ryan: we don't know a lot about what the physical experience of doing miracles was like for Jesus.
Bryan: Yeah,
Ryan: It's an interesting, I think that it is a reasonable take that they have on it. But even just the work of interacting with 170 people or whatever in a day and
Bryan: that's real for me, by the way.
Ryan: Right. Right. Like the social battery idea.
Like everybody has that. And you have to be so, you are. This is the one interaction that this person is going to have with Jesus. And Jesus knows that. And Jesus is going to maximize
Bryan: And they're having this interaction at the height of their probably, the height of their emotional life. Like, you know, the most important impactful disease they might have or whatever condition they might be suffering with, Jesus is meeting them at that moment. Like emotions are high, no doubt.
Ryan: Yeah. obviously he does it perfectly, but he does it maximizing his benefit, his effect in the world while tending to the fact that he still has to eat.
He still has to sleep. In the design of the plan, he is incarnate and human.
Bryan: All right, well, I just wanted to get to that point here 'cause I think that's where the episode is really going. And I feel like, you know, we don't know a lot. So it is nice to kind of think through these things together. And I do have to imagine that Jesus just needed a nap after days like this. And maybe that leads us to a challenge that we kind of teased on, you know, in our last season.
Challenge: Embracing Rest
Bryan: But I think, you know, if you didn't get a chance to do the nap challenge last season, maybe this is the time to do it, right? If Jesus needed help kind of taking off his sandals after a long day of ministry or whatever it was, I think we're all allowed to stop. So maybe for me, maybe for all of us, we can take some time this week to just admit that we're at our limit if we are, and maybe take some time to just simply rest.
That's a challenge I think I'd love to take on myself, actually,
Ryan: Yeah. There's that wonderful psalm that says he gives his beloved sleep or something like that. This is a gift from God. And Jesus received that, and we should receive that. And that is part of our service to God.
Conclusion and Teaser for Next Episode
Bryan: All right, so this has been episode three of season two of "The Chosen" here in our winter watch party. On our next episode, the plot is gonna kick back with a controversy about the Sabbath and this very famous pool that we're gonna talk about. I'm excited about getting into that one. And Ryan, it's been a blast.
Until next episode, everyone, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
Ryan: Shalom.