" It's your decision..."
It was one of the phrases that Al-Massih (Mehdi Debhi) uttered in the series that resonated so much in my head, bringing me into some sort of pendulum thinking especially about the doctrine of election. In the last 3 episodes I was on the brink of faith crisis but as I was balancing the reality presented with God's Word, I surely feel there was redemption.
The series Messiah is a very critical fictional presentation about God but I think it has made a healthy impact on my spiritual and theological perspectives. It was apparently drawn from an Islam perspective, and it makes it more special because it educates people more about the truth behind the beliefs of this religion. Muslims do know Jesus as Isa Al-Massih as stated in the Quoran. I also love how they made it clear that the true Muslims are actually peace loving and not terrorists as many would stereotype them.
If you plan to watch the series, you got to be ready to manage the crisis. It's your decision...
BEFORE I MOVE FORWARD WITH THE REACTION, I WANT TO BRING YOU THIS SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU WANT TO MAINTAIN THE SUSPENSE, YOU GOT TO JUST GET BACK HERE WHEN YOU FINISHED THE 10 EPISODES AND SEE IF OUR REFLECTIONS HARMONIZE.
[Mehdi Debhi is so cute, just saying]
All characters in the story portray our individuality especially how we respond to God.
What I like about the series is that it presents the authenticity and reality of things about people's faith. It also showed how God is not thrilled about religion at all as Al-Massih said, "I walk with all men". Indeed, it is not religion that will save us but Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him alone.
The time of the parousia or the second coming of Christ remains to be mystery to us. And so being in the same situation when Al-Massih (Payim G.) came in the picture, honestly, I would also confuse him as a terrorist being planted to cause unrest, given all the facts laid on the table about him.
In some episodes I was convinced that he was indeed the Messiah but on the next episode, he seemed to be a terrorist. And it was a constant up and down wild guessing. It was a fast swinging pendulum that would cause stress and strain in your brain if you get critical about every episode.
I was assessing myself, was I Jibril, who was called special by Al-Massih, a good person from the start and finished as a good person too? Or was I Rebecca (pastor's daughter) who was a confused young girl, intoxicated by her parents' faith crises, turned out to be a good person and believer in the end, believing God and understanding the beauty of relationship with the Lord? Or was I the pastor who was ministering to people even if he's on the brink of falling, making him gullible about things, got blinded and saw the hope of God as an opportunity for his selfish ambitions? Or was I the pastor's wife who was always skeptical but compassionate yet blind about the truth thinking that she knows the true truth?
Or was I the CIA officer who never believed miracles and was obsessed with facts, denying every spiritual revelations before her? Or was I Aviram who was a monster in the outside but loving in the inside, who hate Al-Massih but later believed? Or was I Samer who decided to turn back but was not really happy with the decision? Or was I the less exposed character Wallace who thought to be discpiling Al-Massih but turned out to be the other way around? Or was I the father of the CIA officer who believed because he just believed as the Lord showed all the signs around him?
Wow that's a lot to chew and we can go on with the other characters. There were even issues that were left hanging like about gay relationship, where a gay agent happened to be deciding to come out and said he believed Al-Massih, and went to his bf and that's it. Even in the Bible, Jesus did not address any LGBTQ issue although we can say that He talked about marriage a couple of times and He was clear that it is a holy thing that happens between a man and a woman only.
This series is one of those productions that will really make you think and that phrase again holds the entire emotion that you are ought to feel and heed, "it's your decision.."
I find the plot twists as metaphor of what happened also to Jesus when He walked on earth. The investigators are like the bad Pharisees (not all Pharisees then were bad like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea). Their goal was to prove the Messiah as false Messiah and have him crucified. The pastor was like some of them or even some Jews that time who seem to be "good-looking" spiritually but on the inside was not very sure about God, all gullible and easily driven astray by weak faith.
The American media concluded that Al-Massih was fake and for most of them, it was the end of the story, they were scammed and they moved on with life, without knowing that they were presented with the truth already and they blew it. And here comes the doctrine of election, where God hardens the heart of the people who will never really believe just like the Islamic studies student working at the diner, whom Al-Massih did not even bother to pursue. End of the line for the non-elect so to speak.
The Americans (who represented the NT Jews) fabricated a story about Al-Massih by taking facts about his life: first, being a normal person who had a brother who got trained with him by their uncle to do magic and illusion and second, having been mentally diagnosed as highly intelligent with a Messiah-complex state. It was enough for the Americans to say that he was a false prophet, false god. In comparison to the New Testament, it was also what happened during Christ's resurrection where the Roman leaders fabricated a story about the stolen body of Jesus to make people believe that He was a fake Messiah.
The series was indeed a good modern context representation of what happened there in the empty tomb.
Now as a bystander or observer, it is for you to decide where to put your faith in? Presented with the facts, how are you going to weigh them? Can't it be that Jesus really walked on earth and became 100% man yet being 100% God? Can't it be that it was possible that Al-Massih had a brother and family and got trained to do magic for a purpose just as how Jesus was trained to be a carpenter? Can't it be that God uses facts to present to the world that the elect will think and decide according to His will and the non-elect to not think out of the box even though they think that they already do?
