You Are Mine

I often go back to watch the very beginning and the very end of the first episode in The Chosen series. Hope and peace and acceptance are extremely hard to find these days and harder to hold onto.

The opening scene is a young child with her father who is ill. To calm her fears he quotes Isaiah (43:1-2) from the Old Testament: …the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.

The very end of this episode is what gives me chills - Mary Magdalene, called Lilith in earlier scenes, has just run out of a bar after ordering a drink and having someone's hand cover hers as she went to pick it up. “Lilith” is oppressed by demons, her every action in her adult life was rooted in this oppression, She was mentally unstable, promiscuous, an alcoholic. She'd searched for her identity, searched for her worth and for peace - searched for escape from the demons in her head, the voices that were pushing her closer and closer to death, insanity, maybe both. We don't know, at this point, who this stranger is from the bar who stopped her from taking that drink. 

As she's running to escape she hears one word, her name, her real name: Mary, coming from the stranger who followed her out. She came to a complete stop, shock on her face, gasping. As this stranger goes on to quote the same Old Testament  passage she'd held into as a child, she turns around and sees Jesus (the stranger). This is the first time Jesus appears in this series, right at the very end of the first episode. She walks to him, he places his hands on her head, still speaking that passage. The scene ends with her sobbing as Jesus is telling her that she is HIS.

This scene affects me deeply. As someone who doesn't often feel known by those around her, the idea of Jesus knowing my name, knowing ME, the better and the worst of me, fills my heart with incredulous hope. As someone who has had to battle a lot of pain, grief, and loss all through her life, seeing Jesus hold this weeping, lost, hurting woman fascinates me and draws me in towards Jesus. As someone who's had to face a lot of fear hearing Jesus tell this lost, frightened woman to not fear gives me courage. As someone who has battled feelings of unworthiness, hearing Jesus say he had ransomed Mary makes me feel worthy as well. As someone who has so often felt alone, abandoned in life, his words “You are mine” are just life-changing. 

Jesus showed no judgment, no condemnation, no disgust, at her lifestyle, only acceptance and love for her hurting heart, proof that he'd been with her throughout her life, proof that she was worthy in his eyes.

That line, that passage, those words, “You are mine” are just….well, life-changing.