(un)Learn

Nicodemus – a respected rabbi, educated, known for giving answers. Yet beneath his confidence, he senses something missing, something knowledge alone can’t fill. And he goes looking.

Mary – once tormented and rejected, now free because of Jesus. She has little learning, but she carries deep gratitude. She knows she doesn’t have all the answers, but she also knows that Jesus met her and changed her life forever.

In The Chosen, these two stand in contrast: a teacher searching for answers, and a woman from the margins who has found the answer in the person of Jesus. Both are sincere, both are on their way.

Their journeys reveal that following Jesus means both learning and unlearning.

Nicodemus must unlearn the assumptions that once defined his faith. Mary must learn what new life in freedom looks like, and how to live as one who has been restored.

Paul describes this same tension in Ephesians 4: “Put off your old self… and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” To follow Jesus is to lay down what no longer fits and take up what reflects who we’re becoming.

Unlearning can be harder than learning. It asks us to release old ways of thinking, to admit we don’t know everything, to let Jesus reshape what we believe about ourselves and about God. But in that surrender, new life takes root.

Whether like Nicodemus or like Mary, each believer walks the same path: shedding the old and stepping into the new.

Reflection Questions

• Who do you identify with, Nicodemus or Mary? Why?
• What beliefs or habits might Jesus be calling you to unlearn?
• What new way of thinking or living is He calling you to embrace?

Prayer

Lord, I know I have a lot to learn. Thank You for patiently and graciously leading me by the hand. Please show me what I need to unlearn, and make me receptive to the new things You are teaching me. Amen.