Why Christianity is a pilgrimage — not a vacation



Last summer, I toured the set of "The Chosen," sprawling across Camp Hoblitzelle in Midlothian, Texas, not far from Mercury Studios, where Blaze Media calls home.

My parish priest came along. He said the opening blessing.

Every generation gets to choose whether or not to abandon Christianity forever.

None of the cast or crew were there, so we got to see the set in its most humble form, its bare life.

We stood in a first-century village built from scratch on Salvation Army land — a gift, Derral Eves told me, both for the show and for Bible education.

Eves is the executive producer and marketing mind behind "The Chosen," the global television phenomenon that has drawn in millions of viewers and pushed Christian storytelling into new creative territory.

“This generation probably isn’t going to open a Bible,” Eves told us. “But if they see something that speaks to them — they might. And once they do, Scripture preaches. That’s where we want them to go.”

The goal, he explained, is not only to present Christ authentically but to show people who had real problems and real lives and how those lives were upended by love.

“For years, we’ve only talked about the divine side of Jesus,” he said. “But he had a mom. He had friends. He had people around him whose lives were changed forever.”

Technologic

"The Chosen" has taken Christ’s pilgrimage into the future.

God’s loving grace reaches us in every way. Especially technology. Every time, it affirms a truth of Christianity: We believe in the one true living God, the font of all newness.

We have to remain technologic pilgrims: to use our tools but never be used by them.

As I pointed out in my article “God bless the meme evangelists,” every generation gets to choose whether or not to abandon Christianity forever. But no generation has. Instead, believers have multiplied, billions of disciples, constantly renewed by our life of constant exile.

Testimony

I wasn’t always Catholic. Before that, I was a kind of street Baptist. Nondenominational — in the later years, several congregants celebrated worship music with color guard and hula-hoops. One lady even strutted around with a snake on her shoulders.

The church, Agape Metro, was named after the Greek word for love, the essence of the pilgrim’s allegiance. It lasted five years before fracturing into several other churches. None seemed as guided by inspiration as Agape.

We held services anywhere: the playground of a downtrodden park, the rented hall of the community center, the high school gymnasium.

We eventually migrated to a home of sorts, the creaky upstairs of a decommissioned firehouse, easily a century old. Wobbly, dank, bare.

But this poverty suited the focus of our mission. Ministry took place on potholed streets, in battered neighborhoods, full of half-wild dogs and single mothers, boisterous with drunks and criminals.

Each of us contained the temple of the Holy Spirit. Architecture was spiritual. Anything else was vain and fleeting.

We were called to navigate the war zone of human life like a lost tribe, roaming and bare. I was baptized in a lake. I still drive by it sometimes. I can still feel my face rising from muddy water, can still see the spangles of light as I broke through the glass of the surface, brand-new, redeemed, born again.

Starship eyes, lit up with fire.

Anxiety of the pilgrim

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was stuck in a cell in a Gestapo prison, with a jingle stuck in his head: “Let pass, dear brothers, every pain; what you have missed I’ll bring again.”

In a letter, he explained: “What does this ‘I’ll bring again’ mean? It means that nothing is lost, that everything is taken up in Christ, although it is transformed, made transparent, clear, and free of all selfish desire. Christ restores all this as God originally intended it to be, without the distortion resulting from our sins.”

A few weeks later, Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis. As the guards hauled him away, he announced the victory of his execution, “This is the end — for me the beginning of life."

The pilgrim belongs to God. The tourist belongs to spectacle.

Hitler had power, but not freedom — not like this. If God is with us, who can be against us? Absolutely nobody. Not the Nazis, not even Satan, and certainly not death. No darkness can overcome the flow of God’s light.

This migration is the heart of Christianity. It unlocks eternity and brings it into our world. We walk through the desert, homeless and poor, and as we collapse, we smile, because when we’re weak, we’re strong.

Birkenstocks

Fr. Vincent Lampert, an exorcist in Indianapolis, explained it to me plainly: “Jesus gave his apostles authority over unclean spirits. That’s what the Church continues.”

His power is passed down. But it’s not about spectacle or grand battles. It’s about presence.

Jesus didn’t tell us to run for office. He told us to go — two by two, with sandals on our feet. “If a town doesn’t welcome you,” he said, “dust off your feet and move on.”

And if it does? Linger. Enjoy the community. Then go again, poor banished children of Eve.

Myth-breakers

In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas fled from one town to the next, preaching as they darted from martyrdom and tragedy. In Lystra, they healed a crippled man on the street.

The locals, caught in pagan delusion, flipped out.

They shouted, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" (Acts 14:11). They called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes," and they brought out oxen for sacrifice.

The apostles tore their clothes in protest: “We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news: that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them."

But the evil one caught up with them and spread his whispers through the crowd, a scandal that led to the stoning of Paul: The persecutors “dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.”

Rebellion

Critics and enemies of Christianity love to conflate Christ with the gods of antiquity — as if the Christian story is just another version of ancient mythology. But this is the same error the Greeks made in Acts. They tried to fit the gospel into a pagan framework.

But there are no longer pilgrimages in the name of Venus or Mars. Their temples are ruins. Their rituals are forgotten. Meanwhile, time itself has been reshaped around the birth of Christ. His story still sends people walking.

I recently spoke with James Quiggle, who has written over 75 commentaries on Scripture and Christian doctrine. When I asked about this tendency to reshape Jesus, he pointed to the root issue: rebellion. Rebellion against God, against His values, His authority, His love.

“When people reject the true God,” Quiggle told me, “they still need to worship something. So they invent a version of Jesus that fits their rebellion — one with just enough divinity to inspire, but not enough to convict.”

They make Him manageable. A philosopher. A demigod. A temporary vessel. Something that can bless their path without calling them to leave it.

But the real Jesus doesn’t meet you halfway. He calls you to follow. To become a pilgrim. The joy of the Christian journey isn’t that we invent God — it’s that He calls us out of ourselves and into communion. The apostles followed a person, not an idea. And that’s still the offer.

The good news

The Acts of the Apostles opens with the ascension and Pentecost — explosions of glory. But the real miracle is quieter. It’s the joy. Somehow, Acts is a joyful, and exciting, book.

These men were hunted. Tortured. Killed in the most horrific ways. They could have saved themselves by denying the Resurrection. They didn’t.

Instead, they laughed. They sang hymns in prison cells. They broke bread and preached hope. Only John lived to old age, and not for lack of trying to kill him.

They knew the cross was not the end. They had seen the empty tomb. Like the good thief to Christ’s right, they looked through the smoke and saw eternity. And with their gaze facing that light, they never stopped walking.

Pilgrims and tourists

The Christian life is a pilgrimage, not a vacation. The pilgrim knows nowhere is safe except the final holy site. Pilgrims make vows, embrace discomfort, and walk toward holiness.

Tourists, by contrast, chase moments. They want stimulation, not transformation. As Byung-Chul Han puts it, they live in a “totalization of Here and Now” — a string of disconnected experiences, stripped of meaning.

The tourist performs; the pilgrim belongs.

Philosopher Giorgio Agamben once wrote that the tourist undergoes a kind of self-sacrifice — not to unite heaven and earth, but to “celebrate the destruction of all possible use.”

The pilgrim belongs to God. The tourist belongs to spectacle.

Kingdoms in conflict

From the angel’s annunciation in Luke to the agony of Gethsemane, the Gospels present a slow-motion collision between the kingdoms of men and the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of emperors versus the kingdom for pilgrims and apostles.

One is gilded, political, and violent. The other is veiled in mystery. One builds temples to power. The other sleeps in a manger, walks with lepers, dies on a tree.

First person

In Acts 16, Luke shifts. Suddenly, he’s no longer writing about the apostles. He’s with them.

“We got ready at once to leave for Macedonia,” he writes. No explanation. No apology. Just a new pronoun and the sense that we are in this together now.

By Acts 27, Luke is still there — documenting shipwrecks and storms and miracles with the intimacy of someone who lived it. The Gospel of Luke and Acts, taken together, make up 27.5% of the New Testament. Nearly a third. The Church’s story is told through a writer who wasn’t there at the beginning — but who joined when the Spirit led him into pilgrimage.

Jesus Christ, superstar: TV hit 'The Chosen' scores on big screen



How bad did "Snow White" flop? Bad enough to get hammered by run-of-the-mill Jason Statham flick "A Working Man" in its second weekend in theaters.

Another title also lapped the Disney dud, except it’s not a movie but part of a long-running TV show.

'This fan base ... they are incredible. They love to gather communally, and they’re all very loyal.'

“The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1” earned a per-screen average of $4,743 last weekend, a thousand-plus more than “Snow White” attracted by the same metric. The show, detailing the life and times of Jesus Christ, has been a sensation from the jump eight years ago.

Early 'Supper'

“Last Supper Part 1,” the beginning of the show’s fifth season, will be available to stream in June on Prime Video and, at a date to be determined, for free via the official “Chosen” app.

Audiences, apparently, couldn’t wait that long.

It shouldn’t be shocking to see “The Chosen” stand tall against Hollywood’s biggest films. “The Chosen” is a consistent moneymaker in theaters courtesy of Fathom Entertainment.

The Colorado-based company first brought the story to the big screen via “Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers.” That 2021 title earned an impressive $13.7 million in select theaters, and a new tradition was born.

The latest theatrical release in the series, “The Chosen: Last Supper Part 1” became the best-selling installment in less than a week with $15 million from U.S. theaters ... and counting. One difference this time? IMAX theaters shared “The Chosen” with fans.

Looking for hope

Ray Nutt, chief executive officer of Fathom Entertainment, says the show’s theatrical success started as the global pandemic started to recede in 2021.

“People were looking for some hope, some faith, and to gather communally,” says Nutt, who previously served as senior vice president of business relations at Regal Entertainment Group.

Fathom Entertainment quickly learned this wasn’t just another faith-based property.

“This fan base ... they are incredible. They love to gather communally, and they’re all very loyal,” Nutt said.

A different approach

Fathom offers an alternative to big studio films and franchises. The company serves up reissues of classic films — think this year’s 50th anniversary rerelease of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” — to indie fare and faith-friendly films like the upcoming “Carlo Acutis: Roadmap to Reality.” That film, detailing the journey of the first Millennial saint, hits theaters April 27.

The company regularly reaches out to faith-based audiences, a group sometimes ignored by traditional Hollywood. The company’s loyalty to faith-friendly titles comes from deep research into that sprawling demographic, Nutt said.

And of course, results.

“We’ve had a lot of luck with Catholic content,” he said, adding that “Mother Teresa: No Greater Love” performed particularly well in 2022. “We’ve drilled down into certain categories where we know there are audiences, and we communicate with them.”

Follow the money

Nutt isn’t surprised to see mainstream Hollywood companies expand their faith-friendly content in recent years. Netflix is currently prepping an update on “The Chronicles of Narnia” by Oscar-nominee Greta Gerwig. Prime Video has found success with the recent “House of David,” already greenlit for a second season.

“Hollywood will follow the money ... we’re very proud we’ve been able to pioneer this space,” he said.

Nutt says Fathom is constantly evaluating its business model to address consumer craving.

One example? This year, Fathom will allow audiences to catch up with recent “Chosen” installments, giving them the chance to “binge” all three season five updates, even if they missed “Last Supper Part 1,” for example.

Part of the Fathom Entertainment model is that films stay in theaters for a limited time. The “Monty Python” rerelease, for example, will be shown on just two nights — May 4 and 7.

The theatrical landscape is undergoing seismic shifts of late. Theatrical windows — the time between a film’s release and its debut on home-streaming platforms — are shrinking. Box office numbers have yet to recover from their pre-pandemic levels. The 2025 box office receipts have been troubling, above and beyond Disney's disappointing "Snow White" tally.

'A very resilient industry'

Nutt remains bullish on the theatrical experience in 2025 and beyond.

“It’s a very resilient industry and somewhat recession proof,” he said, recalling how often observers predicted the theatrical model’s death in the past. Some said the advent of television would strike that mortal blow. Others predicted the dawn of cable television options like HBO would do the same.

Innovation matters on the theatrical level, and we’re seeing that across the industry. Some mainstream theaters are toying with 4DX experiences, where the consumer’s chair moves along with the action on screen, among other enhancements.

For Fathom, it might be as simple as having film historian Leonard Maltin greet audiences with trivia about a beloved film. Nutt compares it to an MLB giveaway, where attendees get a free T-shirt or similar souvenir.

“Our research tells us that’s really working for us,” he said. “If you do something that might be extra, like Fathom does all the time, you’ll get that person no matter what the window is, off the couch and into the movie theater.”

“The Chosen: Last Supper Part 2” (episodes 3-5) debuts April 4, with the third installment (episodes 6-8) arriving April 11. Show fans can choose the “binge-fest” option mid-April.

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Did Jesus really pray for Judas? 'The Chosen' faces backlash over 'super unbiblical' scene



Dallas Jenkins, creator of the hit TV show "The Chosen," is defending a scene from the show's upcoming new season.

The controversial and tense scene, from the unreleased season 5, depicts Jesus speaking with Judas before the betrayal.

In the scene, Jesus tells Judas that he has a "choice to make": "Who you belong to. Who has your heart?" Jesus then says, "I want it, and I've had it before. You followed me willingly." Judas responds by telling Jesus, "There is nothing more that I want than that," to which Jesus says, "Then I will pray for you."

The scene generated widespread backlash on social media with accusations that the scene is "super unbiblical."

As evidence, critics highlighted several passages from the Gospel of John:

  • John 6:64: "'Yet there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him."
  • John 6:70-71: "Then Jesus replied, 'Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!' (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)"
  • John 17:12: "None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled."

Critics, therefore, suggest that Jesus never had Judas' heart and that Judas was never a true follower of Jesus because he was predetermined to be damned.

The problem with the scene, the critics argued, is that it implies Judas was once a follower of Jesus — thus suggesting that salvation can be lost — and that Jesus might pray that Judas would not betray Him, which Jesus did not do and which would run counter to God's redemptive plan. Critics also raised the point that the scene is not depicted in the Bible.

Yes, the controversial scene is not in the Bible. But most of Jesus' life — His every interaction, teaching, and dialogue — is not recorded in the Bible.

Earlier this month, Jenkins responded to the controversy in a new video, denying charges that his show is committing heresy.

"We are not implying that Jesus is going to pray that Judas will change his mind," he said. "Yes, Judas' betrayal is part of the Father's will. It is part of this crucifixion and ultimately salvation story. So Jesus did not say in the scene, 'I'll pray for you, Judas, that you'll change your mind from whatever you’re about to do.'"

Regarding Jesus' statement that he would pray for Judas, Jenkins pointed to Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27-28, teachings from Jesus in which He commands his followers to love and to pray for their enemies.

In the end, Jenkins explained the show believes Judas was, in fact, once a follower of Jesus — but not at the time of the betrayal, which Jenkins described as "God's will" — and believes Jesus prayed for His enemies, including Judas.

Whether or not one agrees with Jenkins, it's important not to misunderstand the Bible or "The Chosen." In this case, I think critics of the scene have partially misunderstood the purpose of both.

First, the Bible does not "tell history" in the same manner that modern people expect history to be told (i.e., surveillance-camera style).

While the Bible is true because it is God's infallible Word, each of the Gospel writers had a specific motive for writing his stories: They are showing that Jesus of Nazareth is, in fact, the long-awaited, promised Jewish Messiah. And importantly, the Gospel writers are posing the same question to you that Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:13-16; Mark 8:27-29; Luke 9:18-20).

What the Gospel writers did not intend to do is to tell the story of Jesus in the same manner that we read history in modern textbooks.

We should, therefore, expect creative license in films and TV shows depicting biblical stories.

Yes, the controversial scene is not in the Bible. But most of Jesus' life — His every interaction, teaching, and dialogue — is not recorded in the Bible. This fact raises an important question: Is it fair or right to expect the Bible to tell the story of Jesus in a manner that God did not intend, i.e., with our modern suppositions and expectations of historical storytelling?

Second, given that a TV show like "The Chosen" must use creative license to actually develop a cohesive plot, we should ask: Is "The Chosen" being faithful to scripture?

While viewers of "The Chosen" and its critics disagree about the answer to the question, Jenkins has said repeatedly that he and his team are seeking to create a faithful portrayal of the biblical story.

In the first episode of the show, "The Chosen" informs viewers:

"The Chosen" is based on the true stories of the Gospels of Jesus Christ. Some locations and timelines have been combined or condensed. Backstories and some characters or dialogue have been added. However, all biblical and historical context and any artistic imagination are designed to support the truth and intention of the scriptures. Viewers are encouraged to read the Gospels.

The mission of "The Chosen," then, is clear: to create a faithful depiction of the life and ministry of Jesus and to lead viewers to the Bible and to God.

We can agree or disagree about the faithfulness of the added backstory and dialogue. But "The Chosen" has chosen a worthy mission, one that all Christians should pray God uses to bear fruit for His kingdom.

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