By Ben McEachenThursday 13 Apr 2023#FollowingTheChosenPodcastsReading Time: 2 minutes
Cut to the chase: this might just be the Best Ever Episode of The Chosen.
Clean: Part 2 in Season 3 builds to a moment that forced tears to the eyes of TV/film reviewers Laura Bennett and Ben McEachen.
In this episode of #FollowingTheChosen podcast, Laura and Ben don’t mess about.
They leap straight into discussing the on-screen depiction of one of the Gospels’ memorable moments of startling healing.
“That bit just got me”
Recognised in Mark 5:25-34 as an unnamed woman “subject to bleeding for 12 years”, The Chosen presents Veronica (Zhaleh Vossough) as a shunned, disturbed but hopeful believer in Jesus’ power.
“In the first part of Clean, we see her with the desperation she has to finally be healed, after so many years with her condition,” Laura said.
“The scene where she gets to realise that healing… that bit just got me.”
Ben and Laura loved the subtle force of the sequence, as Veronica pushed through a throng to only touch “the hem of his garment” – presumably, to not make Jesus “unclean”.
Picking up on such a small but telling detail of Scripture and bringing it to screen life is part of The Chosen‘s ongoing appeal.
Similarly, the #FollowingTheChosen team was struck by the tender portrait of Jesus and his reaction to the woman’s touch.
An emotive exchange that spoke loudly from the Bible’s brief details about the woman’s faith and Jesus’ care.
Out with the old
The emotional healing of a sick woman symbolises Clean: Part 2‘s continued focus upon the difference Jesus makes to understandings of “clean” and “unclean”.
Without diving deeply into Old Testament Law or Jewish traditions, The Chosen cleverly shows the “new wineskins” approach of Jesus to the established, old way.
“Jesus is the one who cuts through it and this episode helps us to see that,” Ben said.
Laura and Ben discuss other aspects of Clean: Part 2, from its “hardcore” opening scene to the long-awaited moment when Jesus raises Lazarus’ daughter from the dead.
As they do, they keep coming back to what you keep noticing throughout the episode – the recurring contrast between life wtihout Jesus and life with Jesus.
Laura pointed out Veronica’s critical storyline reminds that the seismic change Jesus brings to anyone’s life is an old/new transformation.
“We don’t just keep holding on to our old way of living or thinking,” Laura said.
“We take that newness that Jesus offers and we make adjustments because of it.”
Listen to #FollowingTheChosen in the player above or watch the video below.