Original subtitles

[woman vocalizing]

[dramatic music]

- The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

♪

- Get out!

You sinner!

- Where is he?

♪

male announcer: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ has touched the lives

of billions around the globe.

[whip cracks]

- [screaming]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

♪

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

announcer: Now, for the first time,

his story is told through the eyes

of those who knew him best.

- We are with you.

- Mary Magdalene is in many senses the ideal disciple.

- Enlighten us. Tell us what you mean.

- [groaning] [whip cracks]

- She wanted to be there till the very end.

- The was at the crucifixion.

She was at the resurrection.

- I have seen the Lord.

- She is the one that receives the message.

- I am ascending to my father.

- As the first witness to the resurrection...

[dramatic music]

Mary Magdalene is arguably the beginning of Christianity.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- Jesus saved me from myself.

He made this woman.

Who am I without him?

[overlapping chatter]

Some horror is a test

for even the strongest and bravest.

[whip cracks] - [groans]

- I am neither.

And yet...

I thought he was going to save the world.

♪

- The first time we meet Mary Magdalene in the Gospels,

she's possessed by seven demons.

- [whispering] Mary...

- So to put it in modern terms,

we might think of Mary suffering from schizophrenia

or from bipolar disorder

or maybe even post-traumatic stress disorder.

And she comes to Jesus to be healed.

[indistinct whispering]

[dramatic music]

- Do you hear them?

- Yes, I do.

- I can't bear it. - [raspy whispering]

♪

- Come out of the woman, you unclean spirits.

[straining]

Be quiet!

I command you to come out of her!

Do not enter her again!

[whispering stops]

- In that moment, Jesus freed her

from whatever the demons were in her life.

And Jesus' way of life,

his teachings, his spirit,

the way he interacted with folk,

it set her free.

- What is your name?

- Mary.

- My mother's name.

- That day, I became a student.

Jesus, my teacher.

And everything seemed possible.

- This is a life-changing moment,

no question about it.

She goes from being a deeply troubled person

that would have been seen as a social outcast

to being a person who follows a great teacher and preacher.

♪

She, in essence, goes from the outhouse

to the penthouse through a spiritual change.

- Mary Magdalene has her name because she was Mary

from a town in Galilee called Magdala.

- This was not a little, small, hole-in-the-wall town.

It turns out, it was one of the major fishing villages

on the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee.

[indistinct chatter]

- What's interesting about this is that

it's very unusual for a woman in Biblical times

to be associated with a town,

rather than with her father

or with the name of her husband.

So we think that she was probably unmarried

or maybe she was widowed,

and we think that probably she had some kind of status

in the town of Magdala, such that she was known

as Mary of Magdala.

- Many people still see Mary Magdalene as a sinner.

Part of it is because back in 591,

Gregory the Great linked Mary to being a prostitute.

Today, we know differently.

[gentle music]

[laughter]

- Luke 8: 1-3 tells us that Mary Magdalene,

Joanna, the wife of Chuza,

and Susanna and other women

are following Jesus around Galilee,

like the male disciples are

and providing for the disciples

out of their own resources.

- The Jesus would have women disciples

would surprise a lot of people,

because that's not what's taught in Christian tradition.

- We have no other evidence of a Jewish teacher

having women disciples before Jesus.

- A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was sowing,

some of the seed fell along the path.

The birds from above devoured it.

- The makeup of Jesus' followers,

as we see through Mary Magdalene,

is incredibly inclusive.

It is welcoming. It brings everyone in.

He's got women that he treats with respect.

He treats them as leaders, as disciples

and as equals.

- Still, other seeds fell on good soil,

which sprang up and produced a crop a hundred fold.

- Enlighten us.

Tell us what you mean.

- So there's something about Jesus and his ministry

that leads to both female and male disciples,

which is remarkable.

- In recent years, there's been a lot of discussion

about the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene

and if it was more than just disciple and Lord.

- Part of this story of Jesus and Mary together

extends into the this kind of fantasy

that they were secretly married,

but there's nothing in the Bible to substantiate

any of these ideas.

[gentle music]

♪

- The seed was the Word of God.

♪

- He didn't just free us.

He showed us how to live.

- Blessed are those who are persecuted

for righteousness' sake.

- He showed us forgiveness, compassion,

how to be kind.

[overlapping chatter]

He taught us courage to stand our ground.

- You brood of vipers.

How can you, who are evil?

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

♪

Lazarus, come out.

[all gasp]

[confused chatter]

- He opened our minds.

And we were happy.

[dramatic music]

♪

He warned us it wouldn't last.

♪

Did he know he'd be betrayed by one of our own?

- In the story, Judas betrays Jesus

to the Jewish authorities.

So then they came.

[whip cracks] - [groans]

- It was all over.

- The most important part of the story of Jesus

is the Passion narrative.

Mary really comes to the fore in this story.

- Jesus has been sentenced to death,

is facing crucifixion for the charge

of being King of the Jews.

♪

- I need to find him.

- It's too dangerous.

- Not for us.

♪

- When Jesus is arrested

with the charge of being some kind of a revolutionary,

the women disciples are this point

have a lot more freedom.

They're not under the cloud of suspicion

in the same way that the men are,

and it's here where they can really kind of move in

and fill the void.

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- The women disciples of Jesus come to the forefront

during the Passion narrative because the male disciples

are afraid for their lives.

They're afraid that Pontius Pilate,

who had taken Jesus to be executed,

would also round up his followers

and execute them as well.

[indistinct shouting]

♪

- [straining]

[dramatic music]

- The main reason that Jesus is being crucified

is that he is an ultimate challenge

to every authority figure in Jerusalem.

- [straining]

[crowd shouting]

♪

- He's undermined Roman order

and Roman rule,

and this is easily enough

to sentence a man to death.

[dramatic music]

[whip cracks] - [groans]

- On the other hand, he's a challenge

to the Jewish high priests and their religious authority,

because of Jesus' claim to be a king and a son of God.

[all shouting]

♪

[gentle music]

[whip cracks]

- I had seen what he could do.

He could have stopped this, but he didn't.

Why?

♪

♪

- To watch Jesus bringing that cross to Golgotha

must have been heartbreaking.

- [straining]

[indistinct chatter]

- The cross is a serious matter.

This is a heavy, heavy piece of wood.

It is between 100 and 300 pounds.

[dramatic music]

♪

[crowd shouting]

- You, help him.

♪

- What? - Help him.

- The Romans get a bystander, Simon of Cyrene,

which is in North Africa,

to help Jesus carry his cross up the hill.

[crowd shouting]

♪

- Now Simon was a pilgrim,

like lots of other pilgrims of the day.

He had no idea that this was going to be his task,

and yet now he is written in the history books

for having a very important role in carrying this cross.

♪

Scholars believe Jesus and Simon

must have carried the cross between 600 and 750 yards.

It was probably much longer than that,

because they had to go up and down different streets.

This was not necessarily a straight shot.

- [groaning]

[crowd shouting]

- We are with you.

- [breathing heavily]

- Then, Jesus speaks directly to the women following him.

♪

- Daughters of Jerusalem,

do not weep for me.

Weep for yourselves

and for your children.

- And he says, "Daughters of Jerusalem,

don't weep for me, weep for yourselves."

- [breathing heavily]

- Hey, come on, move!

[whip cracks]

- He's predicting the coming destruction of Jerusalem

and the fact that in the future

there will be much more serious things

for them to lament over.

[crowd shouting]

- So at this point in the crucifixion process,

we meet Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus again.

They are prominent Jews,

they're on the Sanhedrin, on the ruling council,

and maybe they felt terrible guilt

for their part in condemning Jesus to death.

- He may have been a part of the council

that ultimately had to approve of Jesus' crucifixion,

and yet they were secret followers.

[crowd shouting]

[dramatic music]

♪

[whip cracks] - Move!

♪

- When Jesus gets to Golgotha,

it's a place outside the city walls

where people are crucified,

and so when Jesus gets there,

he has to know that his death is imminent.

♪

- I waited for the sky the rain fire,

or the sea to sweep us away,

and I wanted to take out a sword and cut them all down.

I could not be his warrior,

but I would be his witness.

[gentle music]

- Of all of the people who knew Jesus,

Mary Magdalene has the courage

to see her discipleship through to the end.

Even though it's painful,

she doesn't shirk her responsibilities.

♪

- Jesus wasn't the only one crucified that day,

and actually in the Gospels

we hear about two people specifically

who were crucified.

These men are identified in the Gospels

as criminals or as bandits,

and what they seem to have been in fact

were political rebels.

♪

- Crucifixion in Rome is used for common criminals

but also for political criminals.

And the Romans didn't invent it.

The Romans got it from the Persians.

rius the Great of Persia

had crucified thousands of rebels.

Alexander the Great practiced it,

and the Romans adopted it.

[dramatic music]

♪

- [breathing heavily]

- Mary, don't look.

- The Gospel of John says that Mary,

Jesus' mother, is present at the crucifixion.

- Well, the last time Mary saw Jesus was at Capernaum,

so word must have gotten to her

that he was going on trial,

but she came to be at his side,

because he was actually facing death.

♪

- The only male disciple at Golgotha,

among all these women, is John.

♪

- So above Jesus' head is affixed a small sign,

and it says, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,"

and it says it in Greek, in Latin and in Hebrew.

♪

By putting this sign up there,

Pilate is making the ultimate mockery of Jesus.

He's saying, "Ha, this is your king of the Jews?

This is your king? He's hanging on a Roman cross."

And I think by doing it, he's not just mocking Jesus.

He's in fact really mocking the Jewish people.

- [groaning]

♪

- I heard her silent screams

and felt her icy pain as though it was my own.

♪

- [groaning]

♪

♪

- Crucifixion was one of the most horrific forms

of punishment.

What you would essentially do

is lay a person out on a crossbeam

and drive nails through their wrists.

- [screaming]

- This would severe the median nerve

and just shoot bolts of pain through the body.

It would feel like you're being struck by lightning.

♪

- It was absolutely agonizing.

We all use the word excruciating.

Excruciating is the word for it.

It is in fact the word that means--

ex crusis, from the cross.

The word itself points to crucifixion.

- [groaning]

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- They then raised up onto the cross.

Their feet were supported by a ledge.

Without the ledge, the weight of the body

would suffocate the victim instantly,

and one of the key things about crucifixion

was to make it last.

♪

- Let them all cry.

I will not break.

I will stand strong before my Lord,

Jesus of Nazareth,

the King of the Jews.

♪

♪

Hours passed.

His breath, never more than a whisper.

♪

We waited for silence.

♪

The most horrifying sound of all.

♪

- The victim could last for a few hours,

for a night, even days.

♪

- Please, give me some of your wine.

- If you look at all four Gospel accounts

of the crucifixion of Jesus,

twice over he's offered something to drink.

♪

He's offered posca, a thirst-quenching beverage,

which is the ancient equivalent of Gatorade.

♪

He's also offered myrrhed wine...

♪

a narcotic,

which he refuses.

- Jesus refuses the myrrh

that he's offered on the cross.

He's saying, "I'm willingly choosing to die."

I do not want anything or anyone

to take this suffering from me.

This suffering is redemptive.

It's the ultimate sign of love.

♪

- You, who would destroy the temple

and build it in three days.

Come down from the cross and save yourself.

♪

- Vultures, every one.

I wanted to curse them,

but he never would.

♪

- Mocking is a regular part of the process

of degrading somebody in public,

and it was an attempt to publicly shame a person

so that their reputation and their family's reputation

could never recover.

[laughter]

[dramatic music]

- Father, forgive them.

♪

For they do not know what they do.

♪

- Jesus' words from the cross,

"Father, forgive them,

for they know not what they do,"

are critical as a summary

of one of the main things

that Jesus came to Earth to do in the first place.

- He was talking about Pilate.

He was talking about Judas, who betrayed him, his friend.

He was talking about the soldiers

who were at the foot of the cross

gambling over his clothes.

He was talking about the religious leaders

who turned on him.

- Jesus on the cross is forgiving the people

who are murdering him, who are torturing him.

- [groaning]

[wind whistling]

♪

- The Gospels tell us that at midday

the whole earth is filled with darkness

and the Gospel writers are saying

this is the darkest moment for humanity,

that the son of God is dying a lonely death

on a Roman cross.

[all screaming]

- Jews, Greeks, Romans all believed

in the power of weather omens,

and almost certainly they viewed this

as a profound sign of divine judgment and disfavor.

[wind whistling]

- A crucified messiah would have been difficult

for the disciples to comprehend

because they were expecting a messiah

that was more triumphalistic.

They were expecting a messiah that was going to usher in

sort of overthrow of their foreign occupier, the Romans.

- If you are the messiah, you are on the route

to becoming a king who rules over everyone.

♪

- I wanted his pain to end,

and then he cried out.

- My God...

♪

My God, why have you forsaken me?

♪

- If he had lost faith, what hope had I?

♪

- When Jesus says,

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,"

which means, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,"

in Aramaic, he's actually quoting Psalm 22

about somebody who feels abandoned by God

but shouldn't have been abandoned by God

because he's been faithful to God.

[dramatic music]

♪

- It is finished.

♪

- And then you have a simple,

anonymous Roman centurion

who has this conversion

after the death of Jesus.

♪

- Surely this man was the son of God.

♪

- Now, there was no way that they could deny

that they saw something very special in that moment.

This was the son of God.

♪

- He let go.

And the earth beneath us gave way.

Those who mocked him fell to their knees,

but it was too late.

He'd been killed.

And all hope was lost.

♪

- According to the timeline in our Gospels,

Jesus died somewhere at about 3:00 in the afternoon,

and the sun's going down at 5:00.

- We need to take the bodies down before the Sabbath.

Please.

End their suffering.

- So we are now in a race to get him off the cross,

wrapped up and into the tomb before sundown,

when Sabbath and also the Passover full bore begins.

♪

- Since the Jewish people couldn't work on the Sabbath,

including the work of burying a body,

the body had to come down

and go in the tomb very, very quickly.

♪

If Romans were in a particular hurry,

they might come along and break

the condemned prisoners' legs.

That would effectively drop

the body weight of the person on the cross,

dislocate the arms and the shoulders,

make it virtually impossible to breathe,

and at that point the person who was crucified

would die in a matter of minutes, not hours.

- He's dead.

He's dead.

- But in Jesus' case, he's already dead,

and there's no need for the breaking of the legs.

♪

- It was also traditional,

once the person appeared to be dead,

for the soldiers to finish them off

with a spear thrust into the side.

♪

- One of the surprising elements in the story

of the demise of Jesus

is that Joseph of Arimathea

goes to Pilate and requests the body.

♪

- Pontius Pilate was the prefect of Judea.

He is the man ultimately responsible

for the death of Jesus.

- When Joseph of Arimathea requests the body,

he's taking a risk with his fellow Jewish leaders.

When he was in the Sanhedrin with them,

he condemned this man to death,

and now here he is requesting the body from Pilate.

- I am Joseph of Arimathea.

♪

I have come to ask for the body

of Jesus of Nazareth to bury.

♪

- He's dead?

Already?

♪

Is this true?

♪

- Crucifixion fields were unbelievably nasty.

People don't ordinarily retrieve bodies from there,

so that request was a very strange one,

and I think for it to have come

from a member of the ruling elite

was probably particularly confusing to Pilate.

♪

- I will allow it.

- Pilate had to be wise enough to know

that grave-robbing was an international problem

all over the Roman Empire,

and one of the things he surely did not want

is the body of Jesus to simply disappear,

because if that happened,

some would say he didn't genuinely die.

♪

- [breathing heavily]

♪

- What do you want?

♪

- My name is Nicodemus,

and this is Joseph of Arimathea.

- We have come to give your son an honorable burial.

If you will allow us.

♪

- Thank you.

♪

- Joseph and Nicodemus came from nowhere.

Their kindness was something to cling to.

♪

♪

♪

- In the Gospels, Joseph of Arimathea

takes the dead body of Jesus down from the cross,

but it's the image of Mary, the mother of Jesus,

with her son that has become iconic.

- We have this image of the piet�

in later Christian art,

of the mother of Jesus gently cradling

the crucified and now dead Jesus in her arms.

♪

- Jesus' pain was over.

Ours had just begun.

[dramatic music]

- My kind, gentle son.

♪

It is done now.

♪

- For his mother?

I felt like I would drown in her sorrow.

♪

[gentle music]

♪

- Joseph of Arimathea was a wealthy man,

and he offers his tomb, his family tomb to Jesus.

♪

- We know from the Gospels

that Joseph of Arimathea's tomb was close to Golgotha.

The Gospel of John tells us that the tomb

was in a garden outside the city walls

in accordance with Jewish burial practices,

which prohibited burial inside the city.

♪

- Jewish burial practices

involved a two-stage process.

There would be, first, the cleaning of the body.

♪

Then the family would lovingly and carefully

wrap the body in a winding sheet

in preparation for entombment.

♪

- Joseph of Arimathea provides the linen

that is used for Jesus' shroud.

- [weeping]

♪

Hundreds of years later, this becomes the basis

for the legend of the Turin Shroud,

the shroud that supposedly wrapped Jesus' body.

- There's more to it than even that,

because the even later legends about the Holy Grail

are connected with Joseph of Arimathea,

the so-called cup that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper.

♪

- It was hard to watch her final good-bye.

♪

- Jesus is buried, and the tomb was closed.

♪

I think the day after Jesus' crucifixion

was a painful day for Mary.

It was a day of introspection.

It was a day of commemoration.

♪

A day of waiting until she could go to the tomb

to pay her final respects.

♪

- Mary Magdalene wants to visit the tomb of Jesus

the day after his death,

but she can't because it's the Sabbath,

and it's impossible to do work on the Sabbath

without breaking the laws of Judaism,

so she has to wait.

- As far as the disciples know,

their leader is dead.

They are in hiding.

Jesus warned them

that his fate was to suffer and die,

but he doesn't say anything to them

about how they're to move forward after this.

So you imagine that atmosphere in that room,

the consternation, the sorrow, the confusion.

[indistinct whispering]

- [whispered] Mary.

[voices whispering]

♪

- I battle new demons now,

and I worry without Jesus the old wounds will return.

He is dead, and I am broken.

Am I already lost?

Maybe.

♪

[indistinct chatter]

[ominous music]

- Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb

on Easter Sunday morning

to anoint Jesus' body,

to weep over him,

really to care for him and say good-bye to him.

- I had to leave that house,

to remain close to him.

- Mary wants to go to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body

because it's not been done before.

It is part of her duty,

it is part of, not just a religious duty,

but a familial duty to perform this final service.

- I think when Mary Magdalene was going to the tomb,

she was expecting to find a dead body,

expecting to find the stone still there,

expecting to just be able

to cleanse Jesus' body, put the oils,

anoint it out of respect and out of honor

through the tradition.

♪

- When she gets there, the tomb is open.

♪

- It's empty, and Jesus is nowhere to be seen.

♪

- This was Mary Magdalene's lowest moment.

She goes to see the man that she loved

who had been tortured and killed,

and his body's not even there.

He should be here. Who took it?

♪

- She thinks grave robbing has happened.

Unfortunately, an all-too-common practice

in the ancient world.

- First, I couldn't trust me eyes,

but it was real.

My insides twisted.

My mind raced.

I was terrified of what they had done.

They have taken our Lord out of the tomb.

♪

♪

- Mary Magdalene tells the disciples

about the empty tomb,

and Peter and John, the beloved disciple,

run to the tomb to find out for themselves

if this is true.

♪

And all they see there

are the wrappings from Jesus' body.

- Why?

♪

You should come with us.

- It's not safe here, Mary.

- Leave me.

♪

They took him, tortured him,

killed him, and now they've stolen him.

♪

He is gone.

And who am I without him?

[sobbing]

- Mary's weeping, in deep grief,

and she hears someone call behind her.

- Woman.

♪

Why are you weeping?

- She sees two of God's messengers, angels,

like bookends at either end of the stone slab.

The angels ask her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

And whenever you see angels,

you're supposed to think God is at work,

but Mary is so deep in her grief

that even encountering angels

doesn't get her out of her funk.

- They have taken away my Lord,

and I don't know where they have laid him.

♪

- So deep in her sadness is she

that even when she turns away from the tomb

and hears a second voice,

she doesn't recognize the voice.

♪

- Woman, why are you weeping?

Who are you looking for?

- And she sees someone who she mistakes for the gardener,

and she says, "If you have taken away my Lord,

please tell me where you have put him."

- Mary.

[dramatic music]

- And it's in that moment that she recognizes him

and realizes that in fact he has risen,

that it's true.

♪

- Rabbouni.

[gentle music]

♪

- Do not hold onto me.

♪

Because I have not yet ascended to the Father.

- Mary simply calls Jesus "rabbouni,"

"my teacher."

Not "Lord" with a capital L.

Not "God" with a big G.

"My teacher."

But what she comes to learn is that he is the risen Lord,

that is the person he claimed to be all along.

♪

- Some people would say that this moment,

the resurrection appearance is the most important moment

in the entire Gospel.

This is proving the truth of Jesus' being,

that has come back from the dead,

he is fully present and incarnate in the flesh.

- But go to my brothers and say to them

I am ascending to my Father

and your Father,

to my God.

♪

And your God.

- It's a beautiful story,

and it's a remarkable story,

and it makes her the very first witness

to the risen Jesus, something that early Christians

would not make up because the witness of women

was not considered as viable as the witness of men.

♪

- The fact that Mary was the first person

to see the risen Christ says that is

the person that Jesus trusted most,

that this was intended to be the person to share this news,

and in fact he gave her an apostolic call in that moment,

saying, "Go and tell."

- The fact that Jesus revealed himself first

to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection

makes her the first apostle.

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- Between the time that Mary Magdalene

encounters the risen Christ on Easter Sunday

and the time that she finally proclaims the news

of the resurrection to the disciples,

Mary Magdalene is the church on Earth,

because only Mary Magdalene understood the resurrection.

So therefore she is one of the most important people

in the entire New Testament.

- I have seen the Lord.

♪

I was lost, and Jesus found me.

I am Mary of Magdala,

and I am his witness.

♪

[dramatic music]

♪

- The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

[camel bellows]

- Get out!

You sinner!

- Where is He?

[men shouting indistinctly]

male announcer: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ

has touched the lives of billions around the globe.

[whip cracks] - [screams]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

announcer: Now for the first time, His story is told

through the eyes of those who knew Him best.

- [panting]

- Peter is what I would call the "ride or die" disciple.

- Go! - This way!

- Jesus came into his life

and changed it forever.

- I tell you,

you are now Peter, the Rock.

On this rock, I will build my church.

[people clamoring] - Hosanna in the highest!

- Peter really believed that he was

gonna be the faithful disciple, but that's not what happens.

[man grunts, knife slices]

- It's a story of redemption.

♪

Peter becomes the foundation stone

on which Christianity is established.

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

- My name is Peter,

and I have been given a second chance

to deliver the message of Jesus.

This time, I won't let Him down--

not like before,

when I almost threw it all away.

[foreboding music]

♪

- I have seen the Lord.

- Mary, you're upset. Sit down.

- You must listen. He is risen from the dead.

I didn't recognize Him at first,

but then I saw His face.

It was Jesus.

He told me to come to you, to tell you--

- No!

All right, you disrespect us with your ravings.

♪

Was it that I didn't believe Mary?

Or the opposite--I was afraid she was telling the truth?

Because then I would have to look my Lord in the eye

and know that I had failed Him.

Me, Peter,

the one He'd once called the Rock.

♪

When I first met Jesus, I had a different name:

Simon.

I was a nobody--

a humble fisherman from Galilee.

I worked hard and expected little from life.

♪

- In the gospels, Peter is the first disciple called by Jesus.

♪

- Jesus reached out to Peter,

perhaps because he was a fisherman,

and Jesus knew that these were hard-working people.

They understand, you know, what it means to be hungry

or what it means to struggle, what it means to work hard.

♪

- Life in Galilee in the time of Peter

would have been incredibly hard.

You're one bad boat ride away from starvation.

♪

- Anything that they catch is going to be taxed by Rome,

and it would not just be taxation coming from Rome.

There was always the double tax of people

who were the local tax collectors,

who would always add something extra

for themselves.

For someone living under the Roman occupation,

day-to-day life is just trying to figure out,

"How do I make ends meet?"

♪

- In the Gospel of John,

Andrew, John the Baptist's disciple,

introduces Jesus to his brother, who was Peter.

♪

- Brother.

- Andrew.

- So he's been fishing all night, unsuccessfully.

♪

- Put out into deep water

and let down your nets for a catch.

- [sighs]

Master,

we've been working all night long

but have caught nothing.

- Jesus tells him to take his boat out again.

Peter, not surprisingly, is reluctant,

and yet he goes out because it's Jesus.

[dramatic music]

♪

- [laughing]

[laughs]

♪

- Don't be afraid.

♪

From now on, you will be catching people.

- For a man like Peter,

who's barely away from starvation,

and here comes this man who promises a new message,

a new salvation, a better world.

- When Jesus told Peter that he was going to

make him a fisher of men,

Peter knew what that meant, because he knew how to fish.

Jesus was letting him know He was going to use him

to bring people into His following.

♪

- One of the earliest symbols of early Christianity

is the fish, which actually makes a lot of sense,

because many of Jesus' earliest disciples

are fishermen.

Interestingly enough, given the prevalence of the cross today,

it actually doesn't become a symbol of Christianity

until almost 400 years after Jesus' death.

♪

- What did He mean, "catching people"?

I couldn't imagine my life changing.

Why would anyone listen to me?

♪

There was much I didn't understand about

Jesus of Nazareth,

but the one thing I knew without a shadow of a doubt

is that I would always be His devoted follower.

♪

[wind howling]

- Some people think that Jesus' recruiting of disciples

was rather like the Marines looking for a few good men,

but in fact, that doesn't seem to be the way.

[indistinct chatter]

He was looking for those who were willing to come

and follow Him and listen.

♪

- Peter seems to have been looking for something,

or at least Peter was very ready

to learn when Jesus called him.

- A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was sowing, some of the seed fell along the path.

- Simon Peter is impressed with Jesus and His preaching.

He's not like the scribes.

He's not like the local religious authorities.

And Peter is drawn to this exciting

new charismatic figure.

- Will You always talk in riddles, Lord?

My head is swimming.

- Too much wine, friend.

- I barely drank a drop.

[laughter]

♪

I--

I fear that I'll always be just two steps behind.

- I would describe Peter as a problem student for Jesus,

because he asked so many questions.

He didn't get basic statements, basic teachings.

♪

But I think Jesus saw in Peter a passion, a spark of passion,

that is exactly what He needed for His followers.

♪

- There's a moment in the gospel of Mark

where Simon Peter and Jesus are on the road together,

and they're having a little bit of a debate

about Jesus' identity,

and Jesus turns and asks the disciples

who they think He is.

♪

- Who do people say the Son of Man is?

♪

What about you?

Who do you say I am?

♪

- You're the Messiah.

You're the Son of the Living God.

♪

- Blessed are you, Simon, son of John.

♪

I tell you,

you are now Peter, the Rock,

and on this rock, I will build my church.

♪

- Jesus gives Simon an Aramaic nickname,

Kephas--Cephas--

which means "rock" or "rocky."

- This has significant symbolism,

because Peter will now become the foundation stone

of the Christian movement.

- [chuckles]

- Peter is a surprising choice to be Jesus' right-hand man.

He's, after all, just a fisherman.

We don't have evidence that he's well-educated.

We don't have evidence that he's really multilingual.

In fact, the later tradition from Papias

says that he spoke and preached in Aramaic,

and that Mark had to translate his sayings into Greek.

♪

But Jesus' concern is to pick someone

that has the character,

and the chutzpah, if you will,

the deep courage to be a follower of Jesus,

even if it could cost one their life.

- [panting]

[people clamoring]

- I wasn't just Simon from Galilee anymore.

I was Peter, the Rock.

- Go! - This way!

- And over the coming months,

I was right there by His side.

- Go, go, go!

- Go. Go. - Oh!

- People laughed and spat in His face.

[people clamoring]

I shielded Him when they threw punches and hurled stones.

[crowd cheering]

He has healed him. Do you see?

And I was there when they started to listen.

♪

So when He told me we would enter Jerusalem

once more, I was worried.

♪

- Although we don't know for sure,

most scholars believe that Jesus and Peter

entered Jerusalem somewhere between 30 and 33 AD

during the spring festival of Passover.

It's the celebration of not only God's promise,

but the culmination of the Exodus story.

[indistinct chatter]

We're talking about a festival

where the whole point is about

God freeing the people from slavery,

freeing the Jews from servitudby a foreign power.

And now, who's running Judea?

The Romans are.

[indistinct chatter]

And so it's an extremely dangerous place to be.

[people clamoring]

- Hosannah in the highest!

- Jesus' message is dangerous,

but for Jesus, Jerusalem is the only place

that He can possibly go.

It's not only the political,

but it's also the religious center of Jewish life.

- This is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.

- The symbolism of Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem

should not be lost.

This isn't just a guy taking a ride on a donkey.

[people clamoring]

This is a reenactment of the Jewish coronation

of the king of Israel.

- I don't see you hailing our new king.

- Blessed is the coming kingdom!

- Peter's vision of a messiah is someone who's going to help

overthrow foreign rule--

in this case, Roman rule--

and re-establish a Jewish kingdom.

[people clamoring]

- I think even Peter at that point might have seen

the threat and the danger that Jesus was generating.

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- They're heading for the temple.

Send reinforcements there now.

♪

[people clamoring]

- It is everything we've been waiting for--

the fulfillment of the divine destiny,

the start of a glorious new kingdom.

[people clamoring]

♪

But how quickly it all changed.

♪

- The Last Supper rolls around,

and Peter does not have the exuberance that he had before.

[indistinct chatter]

There is a slow and impending weight

that is upon him and the other disciples.

♪

- Come. Let me.

- Lord, are you gonna wash my feet?

No. You'll never wash my feet.

♪

- Peter is horrified by the idea

of Jesus washing their feet,

because He's their leader,

and this is something that a slave would do.

♪

- No servant is greater than his master,

nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

♪

- When Jesus is washing the disciples' feet,

He's saying that He has not come

as a kind of royal military king.

He's come as a suffering figure,

and He's enacting that role of servant with His disciples.

♪

- This is My body,

which is given for you.

♪

Do this in memory of Me.

♪

Take it and eat it.

- When Jesus brought His ministry into Jerusalem,

He knows that His death is imminent.

♪

- This is the blood of My covenant,

which is poured out for many.

♪

- The breaking of the bread and the drinking of the wine

comes to represent

Christ's body and Christ's blood.

The Last Supper becomes the origin of the Eucharist

or the Holy Communion to Christians.

♪

- Hearing the Messiah speaking about death,

and yet he had already witnessed His power.

Peter's confused.

How is this possible, and how is this a revolution?

Peter doesn't quite get it.

♪

- Ask Him what He means.

It is difficult to hear Him talk that night.

Why would we need to eat and drink

in remembrance of Him?

It chilled me even to think of it.

♪

- I don't think Peter expected Jesus to be

a messiah who would start a movement so powerful

that it would get Him killed.

I think he expected Jesus to raise up the oppressed.

But to push it to the point where e Roman government

was so threatened by Him that He had to be crucified,

I don't think he saw that coming.

♪

- I have prayed for you,

that your faith may not fail you.

- Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and death.

♪

- Truly, I tell you, this very night,

before the rooster crows,

you'll deny me three times.

♪

- I had no doubt in my mind.

I had never denied Jesus.

I would defend Him to the death with sword,

with word, with deed.

- I think that Peter really believed that he was

gonna be the faithful disciple, but that's not what happens.

- After the Last Supper,

Jesus leaves the security of the walls of Jerusalem

and goes across to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray,

and Peter follows Him.

♪

- Jesus is restless.

I was worried. His words had disturbed me,

and I knew that our arrival in Jerusalem

would alert the authorities, but He was insistent.

♪

- We have to remember, early Jews were not looking

for a crucified Messiah.

We have literature, like the Psalms of Solomon 18 and 19,

that has this militaristic,

Davidic, messianic figure

that's gonna come

and retake the land.

Jesus was very different.

- My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow,

to the point of death.

♪

Stay here.

Keep watch.

♪

- Yes, of course, Master.

♪

- Jesus tells Peter to watch with Him,

to stay awake with Him.

Jesus sees what is coming,

and He is traumatized by the possibility of this

impending suffering and death.

♪

- Peter doesn't want to participate in Jesus'

great moment of anguish, because, like all of us,

he shrinks from these moments of suffering,

and to see the leader who he has entrusted his whole life

to now doubt and suffer

is probably too much for him to bear.

♪

- I didn't believe that God could let His Son suffer.

Surely we'd all be saved.

Why couldn't I keep even a simple promise?

I didn't heed His predictions.

[somber music]

- [scoffs]

♪

Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not keep watch for one hour?

Watch and pray?

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

- So sorry. I'm sorry, Lord.

- Peter fails this test.

He falls asleep when Jesus needs him.

And it's not the last time that Peter is gonna fail either.

[hooves clopping]

The authorities send a large crowd

armed with clubs and swords to arrest Jesus.

♪

- Judas.

- It is Judas

who betrays Jesus.

♪

- Arrest them.

- You treacherous...

[grunts, knife slices]

- Put your sword back in its place,

for all who draw the sword will die by it.

[dramatic music]

♪

- Peter just cuts off the ear. Blood is everywhere.

But Jesus heals the person who wants to arrest Him.

♪

- I thought I was proving myself;

I was being loyal.

This man that had come to arrest Jesus,

and instead of fight,

He healed His enemy and surrendered?

It made no sense to me.

♪

- Jesus was teaching him how

to be a nonviolent revolutionary.

♪

- Take them all.

[ominous music]

♪

- My mind's racing.

Judas betrayed Jesus.

Everything's happening so fast.

The only thing I was sure of was that I was not like Judas.

I would not deny Him.

[sobbing]

♪

- When Jesus is arrested,

Peter follows Jesus

to the house of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas,

'cause he wants to see what's going to happen to his master.

♪

- Entering Caiaphas' courtyard is a lot

like entering the lion's den. If Peter is recognized,

there's nothing to say that he won't also be arrested.

[indistinct chatter]

- I felt fear that night in a way I have never known.

[ominous music]

♪

- Peter's moving into

incredibly dangerous territory...

♪

Because he is fiercely

loyal to Jesus.

He's what I would call the "ride or die" disciple.

♪

But the depths that we will go to protect ourselves

is absolutely extraordinary.

♪

- People recognize Peter,

and they say, "Hold on a minute.

Aren't you with Jesus of Nazareth?"

- This man was with Him!

- No, woman. I don't know Him.

- And then somebody else says,

"Are you one of Jesus' disciples?"

- You're also one of them.

- I am not.

- Three times, Peter denies knowing Jesus.

- Certainly this fellow's with Him.

He is a Galilean.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

[rooster crows]

- And at the moment

of that third denial,

the cock crows, fulfilling something that

Jesus Himself had prophesied at the Last Supper.

- He's done the very thing that he told Jesus

he would never do:

deny and desert Jesus.

♪

- Their eyes lock,

and Jesus looks directly into Peter's soul.

♪

This is the last moment where Peter ever sees Jesus alive.

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

- Jesus has been sentenced to death.

He's facing crucifixion for the charge

of trying to lead a rebellion against the Romans.

♪

- We know that for 300 years or more,

until the Roman emperor Constantine

banned crucifixion,

it was the most common form of execution

for public criminals, revolutionaries, and slaves.

♪

- Come. We're in danger.

We must hide.

♪

- When the leader of a rebellion is crucified,

there is precedent that the Roman Empire

then hunts out the followers as well.

♪

- And so Peter has to go into hiding,

because he was affiliated with someone

who was an enemy of Roman authority.

♪

- Was I as bad as Judas?

Why did I deny Him?

This fear, this cowardice--

everything that I thought

I knew about myself was wrong.

- I think we should be incredibly sympathetic

towards Peter in his denial.

Yes, he denied Jesus.

On the other hand,

he did it because he was profoundly scared,

and I think this denial is one of those moments

that comes out as really, really human.

All of us can relate to a time when we fell short

because we were scared, and this is Peter's moment.

[dramatic music]

[whip cracks, Jesus grunts]

♪

- [grunts]

♪

- We waited.

We did nothing while Jesus suffered.

[dramatic music]

♪

[whip cracks, man shouts]

♪

[whip cracks] - Move.

- [grunting]

[whip cracks]

[Jesus gasping and panting]

[dramatic music]

♪

- Don't look. - [gasps]

[dramatic music]

♪

- Mary.

[ominous music]

♪

- He's dead.

- [gasps, sighs]

♪

[distant chatter]

- After several days, Mary Magdalene

is the first person to see the risen Lord.

♪

- Those days are a blur,

and then Mary returned with her news, and I...

- He has risen from the dead.

I have seen the Lord.

♪

I went to the tomb.

A man spoke to me.

It was Jesus.

He told me to come to you, to tell you.

- No!

All right, you disrespect us with your ravings.

Is it not bad enough

we must mourn for Him

without being taunted too?

- I know what I saw.

I spoke to Him, and I believe in Him.

♪

- I can't listen to this anymore.

♪

- Peter doesn't believe Mary Magdalene when she says

that she's seen the resurrected Lord.

Why not?

Well, Peter's a man of his time,

and in 1st century Jewish Palestine,

women were not considered reliable witnesses.

♪

- Why was I so cruel?

Why did I doubt her?

This shame.

It was shame.

♪

I was lost.

♪

Could she have been telling the truth,

you know, or had they taken His body?

I didn't know what to believe.

♪

- You need to remember that from a Jewish point of view,

resurrection doesn't involve visions.

It involves a bodily raising of somebody

back into a physical form.

But that's not the end of the story.

♪

- Peace be with you.

[dramatic music]

♪

Why are you troubled?

♪

Why do doubts rise in your minds?

♪

Look at my hands and my feet.

♪

It is I myself.

- In the first century, it's not unusual to imagine

that you saw the ghost

of someone that you knew and loved.

♪

- When Peter saw the risen Jesus,

he knew he was seeing something unprecedented.

This was not a hallucination or some spiritual,

ghostlike being.

♪

This was a transformed, glorified body

that could be touched,

but also could enter locked rooms.

Peter must have been in utter awe.

♪

- Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me

in the law of Moses,

the prophets, and the psalms.

♪

- There's nothing more important in Christianity

than the resurrection of Jesus.

- Sit with me now.

- Jesus defeats death, so He defeats sin,

and being raised to new life is about a promise to Christians

that they too will be raised on the last day.

♪

- And repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

♪

- I couldn't bear to look at Him.

I feared I'd see disappointment in His eyes.

♪

He only appeared to us that night.

I'd lost my chance to ask for forgiveness.

♪

I went back to Galilee to my life as a fisherman.

♪

Peter the Rock had failed.

What else could I do?

♪

- Peter goes back to the fishing life

because that's what he knows. That's what is familiar.

But this is not the same person

that we met early on in the Gospel.

- In the ancient world, there is no bank account,

there is no 401[k],

there is no way to secure any of your possessions,

except through the constancy of your work.

So without Jesus, Peter has nothing.

♪

- I thought that I could go back to the man

I was before I met Jesus

and forget everything.

It wasn't that simple.

- Peter thinks it's all over.

There is no sense that that longed-for messiah

has fulfilled the destiny that Peter was hoping for him.

- [sighs]

- He thinks very carefully back to what has happened.

♪

- No servant is greater than his master.

♪

This is my body.

♪

Take it and eat it.

♪

- Peter had to go through a period of doubt.

Did this lead him to have doubts about Jesus?

Perhaps most of all,

it led him to have doubts about himself.

♪

- He needs to be forgiven

for the role that he failed to play

in the crucifixion.

♪

- [panting and gasping]

♪

No!

[hammer bangs]

No!

[hammer bangs]

[groaning]

[hammer banging]

No, no, no!

[gasping and panting]

- The problem is that Peter is still struggling

with the fact that he denied Jesus.

♪

Judas betrayed,

but Peter betrayed in a different way.

♪

- I couldn't forget.

I couldn't go back.

I was a different man now.

♪

- So one day,

Peter is there, and he's fishing,

and he looks to the beach...

[delicate music]

♪

- It's the Lord.

♪

- In that moment,

Peter's life completely changed.

♪

Jesus comes back in full force

and full strength and glory.

♪

- He had come for me, and I felt free...

[laughs]

Like the chains in my mind

were finally coming loose.

♪

- In the Gospel of John,

Jesus and Peter speak at this time.

Jesus gives him a direct commission.

♪

And He asks him three things. He says...

- Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?

- Lord, You know that I love You.

- And He asks him again, "Peter, do you love Me?"

♪

- Feed my lambs.

♪

Do you love Me?

- And again, Peter says, "Yes, Lord. I love You."

- Tend to My sheep.

♪

Simon, son of John,

do you love Me?

♪

- And what He's saying is,

"Declare it,

because you couldn't say it after I was arrested.

You couldn't say it when we locked eyes.

You could not say it then.

Say it now."

- Lord, You know all things.

You know that I love You.

♪

- Feed My sheep.

- [chuckles]

- And with those statements--

"Feed My lambs,

tend My sheep, feed My sheep"--

a threefold recommissioning,

just as there'd been a threefold denial,

and Peter is restored to being the leader of the disciples.

- From that moment, I knew I would be able to do

whatever Jesus commanded of me.

I'd been given a second chance.

♪

- I'd been given a second chance.

♪

- Jesus' great commission, as it's called,

is sort of a Big Bang moment for Christianity,

because it's the moment where it takes off.

♪

Jesus is telling His disciples

that they need to spread the word.

- All authority in heaven

and on earth has been given to me.

So make disciples for all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

♪

- This is the first missionary movement

in religious history.

This is the first time anybody says,

"Go out and recruit people en masse."

♪

- And surely I am with you always,

to the very end of the age.

♪

- I knew Jesus as my teacher,

as my friend, and as the Son of God.

Because of Him, I am restored.

I have regained my purpose.

♪

- We see Peter a transformed man.

He has finally gotten it.

He comes out renewed, more confident,

ready to go forward,

and in fact, he does go forward.

- Is that all you're taking?

- Peter understood that his task

was to reclaim various people

for the following of Jesus

and to go throughout the empire to do this.

♪

- Christianity spreads rapidly throughout the Roman Empire.

Less than a decade after the death of Jesus,

there were probably 10,000 Christians.

200 years after Jesus' death,

there might be close to a million Christians.

- This movement has gone from a group of followers

in rural Palestine

to some of the largest cities in the empire.

- And 300 years after the death of Jesus,

the Roman emperor himself,

Constantine, converts to Christianity.

♪

[music crescendos]

♪

- In Catholic tradition, Peter goes to Rome

and establishes the first Roman Catholic church

there, becoming the first Pope.

But is this historical?

♪

- If you read Paul's letter to the Romans

written sometime in the late 50s AD,

there are a huge number of followers of Jesus

already in Rome,

and Peter's nowhere to be found.

♪

- Despite this, the church at Rome,

St. Peter, is still named after him.

If you enter into St. Peter's at the Vatican City,

you will go and see the words that Jesus speaks to Peter

there written around the bottom of the cupola.

- You are now Peter, the Rock,

and on this rock, I will build my church.

♪

- Peter's story ends,

according to tradition,

with him being crucified in Rome upside down,

because he insists that he's not worthy

to be crucified the same way as his Lord.

- Peter's story, in a sense, is all of our stories.

We make mistakes.

We have flaws and weaknesses,

but like Peter, we can receive forgiveness

and get back up again.

♪

- I am Peter, the Rock,

and I will go forth and build His church.

[dramatic music]

♪

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