Latest 'Grey's Anatomy' Episode, 'Personal Jesus,' Loaded With Bible Talk
Popular ABC series "Grey's Anatomy" has been on the air for the past 13 years and although mentioning religion from time to time, the network took it a step further in their most recent episode, titled "Personal Jesus."
The episode focused on Christian actress Sarah Drew's character, April Kepner, who is the show's resident "Christian." However, in this particular episode that aired Jan. 25, she is having a crisis of faith.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
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April kicks off the show with a voiceover telling the biblical story of Job, highlighting four messages he received about losing everything. She explained that although he lost it all, he still remained faithful to God and was rewarded for his faithfulness.
Throughout the rest of the episode, April's faith is tested also.
The doctor, who was raised Christian, is reunited with her ex-fiance, Matthew, (whom she left at the altar) when his wife, Karen Taylor, is rushed to the ER in labor. The woman, who is also apparently religious by comments she makes about God, is giving birth and April is the only doctor available to deliver her ex-fiance's baby. Unfortunately, Karen's blood pressure spikes and she starts bleeding out from preeclampsia and dies. April believes it's her fault and blames herself for once again ruining Matthew's life.
Another test the character faces is after a 12-year-old gunshot victim named Eric shows up at the hospital. The episode targets social injustice as he was shot by a police officer while climbing into his own house window because he forgot his keys. The episode promotes that he was shot because he was a young black kid living in an upper-class neighborhood. To April's heartbreak, the boy eventually dies in surgery also.
Perhaps the most biblically overt test comes after a 20-year-old man named David attempts to cut his right hand off because he was taking the Bible literally and could not refrain from "sinning" (masturbation). David and April then engage in a heated discussion about the Bible.
"I was following God's word," David tells the doctors evaluating his situation, including April, who says, "I'm not sure you heard Him right."
When accused of not being familiar with the Bible, she proceeds to quote Scripture to him.
"The Bible also says that your body is a temple and you should use it to glorify God," she snaps back at him. "The Bible also says that God doesn't tempt us beyond our ability, He doesn't give us more than we can handle."
The young man quotes Matthew 5:30, which says if your hand causes you to sin cut it off, but she stops him and proceeds to explain that when God created the world, "He also created metaphors."
Later in the episode, she comes head to head with David again, who has some more questions about the Bible. She argues that things aren't always meant to be taken so literally but eventually is so bogged down by all the loss she's faced that day that she can't answer him when he asks what's the point of it all.
The episode concludes with April not following Job's footsteps because she appears to have lost faith while at the bar, drinking away her sorrows.
Unlike her character on "Grey's Anatomy," actress Sarah Drew boasted about her faith when commended for saying the proper Hebrew pronunciation of "My God, why have you forsaken me."
"It helps to have a Hebrew Bible scholar for a husband and a pastor for a father," she tweeted.
It helps to have a Hebrew Bible scholar for a husband and a pastor for a father :) https://t.co/iNkrIb93PQ
— Sarah Drew (@sarahdrew) January 27, 2018
