I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 1-4.

    I do not know why I went here this morning. If you were to make a series of superhero style movies out of the Book of Matthew, today’s passage would be the basis for the “Origins” movie. I think it has the potential to make an interesting movie. First we have the opening scene showing that Jesus is descended from Abraham. I am not quite sure how you would make this compelling, but I think it has possibilities as a series of montages (I was going to list some of the scenes, but realized that I am not sure how to make it work). The next scene is Mary becoming pregnant and Joseph planning to divorce her quietly then the vision telling him to marry her anyway. Up to here should take no more than 15 minutes total, and probably less than 10 minutes. Next would be two scenes with the astrologers from the east. One with them in Jerusalem, one with them in Bethlehem. Then would come the first action scene where Joseph and Mary hurriedly leave Bethlehem, followed a short time later by Herod’s soldiers sweeping down and killing all of the young children in the town.
    The first half of the movie would end with Joseph bringing the family to Nazareth with a transition scene showing the young man Jesus with His family in the house in Nazareth (so that the audience can see the connection of the actor playing the grownup Jesus with the baby). The next scene is John the Baptist preaching along the Jordan, clearly showing him condemning the same sort of men we saw advising Herod earlier. Cut to Jesus in the audience coming forward to be baptized. John sees the dove and hears the voice, but it is clear that no one else does (except perhaps one or two of John’s disciples). While John continues to baptize others, Jesus heads out into the wilderness. I am not sure how I would do the temptation scenes. They could be either realistic or vision/hallucination scenes. I suspect I would do the latter, allowing the audience to decide for themselves if they were visions or hallucinations. When Jesus comes out of the wilderness He hears of John’s arrest and heads for Galilee. In Galilee we see Him on the shore speaking to one or two people, more people come over as they hear what He is saying. When He finishes speaking He heads down the shore and calls the first disciples. Then we have a scene in a synagogue where Jesus heals someone followed by ever increasing crowds when He speaks in synagogues and following Him as He travels. Initially, He is invited to speak at synagogues by people trying to get more people to come to their services. Eventually, the crowds are too large for Him to speak in buildings and the “Origins” movie ends with Him speaking on the side of a mountain with His disciples moving out and repeating what He says so that those farther away can hear.