Here’s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media & culture: 02/07/25

Way to go. Globetrotting explorer Bear Grylls continues his trek retracing the footsteps of Jesus in the Holy Land in tonight’s edition of Jesus: Refugee Renegade Redeemer tonight at 8:00 PM ET on TBN. 

JWK: Tell me about Jesus: Renegade Refugee Redeemer. What drew you to this project?

Bear Grylls: In short it’s been the most exciting humbling revealing series I’ve ever done – by miles…Essentially I take a motorbike, a tent (and) a parachute and go to Israel and travel the country to discover some hard truths about who Jesus really was. I wanted to find out why He is the most influential person to have ever lived. The series is a revelation. It lifts the lid on who the real person of Jesus was – away from the fairy tale type story and into the raw real grit of who He was, what His hard life was like, why every day people loved Him and why the elite feared Him – then ultimately to discover what He came to achieve.

JWK: What surprised you the most as you followed Jesus’s footsteps in Israel?

BG: The Israel desert is brutal and getting a small insight into what Jesus went through in that desert for 40 days alone with nothing was intense. I tried to bring a cool survival and adventure element though to the whole series. It felt so natural to do and so much of the Jesus story is rooted in adventure at heart. The climbs, the storms, the hikes, the fishing, the fights and sleeping rough… the story has it all.

JWK: What do you hope viewers take from this series?

BG: That the Jesus we think we know is so different from the real Jesus. He was more fun, more radical, wilder and more accepting and less judging than anyone who has ever lived! That faith isn’t church. That love doesn’t condemn. And that Jesus will give us water of life in our hearts. The way of Jesus is so different from what we often grow up to believe. It’s not about rules but about freedom.

JWK: What’s next for you?

BG: Our new series on Netflix airs this month called BearHunt. It’s a full-on jungle survival series where I drop 12 celebrities into the jungle and have to track them down. What can possibly go wrong!?
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