Dr. Jesse Stone serves the creators of The Chosen, along with his colleagues, by reviewing the content for theological accuracy.
CHRISTIAN ANALYSIS
“The Chosen: Last Supper” is the latest installment in the widely acclaimed television series on the life of Jesus. Premiering at the end of March, just ahead of Holy Week, the season has captivated audiences and critics alike — marking the first time in the series’ history that a season carries a subtitle. The choice to entitle Season 5 “Last Supper” is not merely a stylistic flourish. It signals a deliberate narrative and spiritual pivot. As the show approaches the climactic events of the gospel story, it invites viewers to linger longer at the table, to see the final week of Jesus’ life not just as a rush toward crucifixion but as a deeply personal unfolding of love, betrayal, tension, and communion.
The season begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where the adoration of the crowds quickly gives way to mounting opposition. The tension builds, as the plot to end Jesus’ life grows, and by the time we reach the Last Supper, it is clear that the stakes are more than just political — they are personal, both for Jesus and for the disciples. This tension is not lost on The Chosen’s viewers, who feel the growing unease, especially in the intimate moments of the meal itself. But beneath this tension lies something deeper — an invitation into a mystery that, even for those seated at the table, is still unfolding.
One of the most striking features of The Chosen is its deliberate pacing. The show slows down time, inviting viewers into the final days of Jesus’ life as a prolonged, weighty process. This slowing of time mirrors the way the canonical gospels themselves treat the final week, where the narrative slows to focus on the emotional and spiritual gravity of the events. In The Chosen, the Last Supper is not just one moment among many — it is woven throughout the entire season, appearing in pieces, sometimes out of chronological order, but always with one central message: this meal is the lens through which we must understand these final events in Jesus’ life. The show forces us to confront this meal, not as a moment frozen in time, but as a deeply personal interaction, a culmination of Jesus’ ministry and his relationship with his disciples.
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Of course, the significance of this Last Supper cannot be fully understood without acknowledging that it took place during the Jewish festival of Passover. The Passover meal, or Seder, was the annual commemoration of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. This meal was filled with rich symbolism: the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the lamb — each element serving to reenact the dramatic salvation God brought about for His people. By sharing in this meal annually, the Jewish people not only remembered but participated in the greater covenantal story of God and His people.
The Last Supper serves a double function in the narrative of The Chosen. First, it marks a climactic moment in Jesus’ ministry with his disciples. In this meal, Jesus not only shares his final moments with them, but he also offers the new command to love one another as he has loved them. He washes their feet, stooping to serve them in a moment of quiet but profound intimacy. The disciples, however, are still struggling to grasp the full weight of what is unfolding. Their confusion and anxiety about the future are palpable, but so too is Jesus’ love and determination to prepare them for what’s to come.
With each action and teaching, we get to see how the disciples have grown and changed because of their relationship with Jesus, from their confusion and humility (Simon Peter) to their deep affection (James and John) to their doubts (Thomas) and even their animosity (Judas). This same supper brings out of the twelve a variety of emotional responses, all in ways that correspond to their growth as characters throughout the show’s first four seasons. One of the greatest gifts that The Chosen has given viewers is the chance to step into the lives of those who walked and talked with Jesus and to see in their own lives a reflection of our relationship with him.
The second function of the Last Supper in The Chosen is how this event provides the interpretive context for making sense of the nonsensical events that follow. The fact that we in the 21st century do not see the insanity and absurdity of the passion narrative is a sign of how much we have domesticated its drama and desensitized ourselves to its provocative claims. It is a senseless idea that an innocent man would die for the sins of the world. It is foolish to believe that the way God saves humanity is by giving His life over to them and letting them kill Him by suffering the worst injustice at their hands. It is a peculiar madness to imagine that a crucifixion — one of the most shameful and horrific methods of execution ever devised — would be the coronation ceremony of the King of Kings. And yet, the gospel proclaimed in the New Testament invites us to believe just this and to see in it all the wisdom, power, and love of God.
The earliest Christians saw this precisely because Jesus used the Supper as a way to interpret his coming death for the disciples. After all, if we assume that most of the disciples had been with Jesus for his three-year ministry, then we can say that they had celebrated the Passover feast with him before this time. Not only that, they had been celebrating this festival their entire lives. They knew what to expect. They knew the elements of the Seder meal and their meaning. They knew the songs that they would sing and the story they would recount. In the midst of the tumultuous events that had transpired since Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem, one might imagine the disciples would have been relieved by the time the Passover meal began. Finally, here, a sense of normalcy. Something familiar and safe.
But then, in the middle of the meal, as Jesus begins to share the bread and wine with the disciples, he does the unthinkable and breaks from the expected script. He hands them the bread and says, “Take. Eat. This is my body, which is given for you.” And next he takes the cup, saying, “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” When he spoke these words, Jesus had not yet given his body or poured out his blood, but because he said these shocking things to the disciples, they were able to see the meaning in his death in time.
We often hear Christians speak of Jesus’ death as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. This is certainly true, and the New Testament says as much very clearly. But we do not often stop to consider why they viewed his death as a sacrifice. On its surface, there is nothing about the crucifixion story that signals a sacrifice is happening. First of all, Jesus is killed outside the city where the temple was, and the temple would be the place one would expect sacrifices to be offered. Second, no priests officiated over his death, but for a first-century Jew, only priests could perform the sacrificial rites under Jewish law. Why would anyone watching Jesus’ execution imagine that a sacrifice was taking place? They wouldn’t. Instead, we can see how the earliest Christians came to identify Jesus’ death as a sacrifice precisely because they interpreted his death in light of the Passover and, particularly, the Last Supper Jesus shared with his followers.
As we quickly approach Easter during this Holy Week, many of us will attend churches where this story is reenacted, performed, and proclaimed. As part of our annual observance of Holy Week, many of us will come forward in our churches to receive communion. Let me encourage you in this holiest of weeks to imagine afresh what it means for us to come to the Lord’s table and proclaim his death until he comes again.
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Jesse Stone is theologian in residence at OneHope and completed his Ph.D. in New Testament studies at the University of St. Andrews in 2023 under the supervision of Prof. N.T. Wright. In addition to his work as chair of the Global Theological Review Board for Come and See, Stone serves as a visiting professor of Biblical Theology and Missions at Southeastern University.
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