When my two sons were little guys, I was on the floor with them in their bedroom, reading a children’s picture bible to them. I don’t recall what alarmed me, but I said to myself, “That is NOT what the Bible says!”
When we were through, I went and compared the picture Bible to my Bible. After reading the account, I realized that may very well be what the Bible is saying: I just never interpreted one sentence that way.
Sermons can do the same thing. Listening to someone recounting incidents from scripture may cause you to see things in a way you never saw them before.
That happened to me yesterday. The pastor was telling the story of John Mark, his uncle Barnabus and the apostle Paul. I came to see this account in a very different light than I had ever seen it before.
Because we have read Bible accounts many times, we can tend to misinterpret them because that’s what we thought the previous times we read it.
That's very true. However, I'm not concerned that people are exposed to other interpretations. That's a healthy and normal thing. One of my concerns about this TV series (among others) is that it will become their only or primary interpretation of Jesus and the Gospel. To be honest, many, many people will watch this show and will have it imprinted on their minds as the standard on which to perceive the actual Bible--if they ever get around to reading it. That's simply how powerful the visual entertainment medium of television is and how disinclined people are today to to the hard work of actually cracking open a book. I already have heard from people when discussing some scene in the Bible, say things like "Yeah, but in 'The Chosen...'" as if it were some kind of standard to measure the actual Gospel against.
In short, I don't worry so much about so much about people who are already grounded in the Scriptures, but the forming of first impressions of those who are not.