Luke 22:14-23:56
Lead in: The four Gospels agree on the major points of Jesus’ passion and death but bring different perspectives. This implies that though the authors of the four Gospels narrate the same story of Jesus’ passion, each emphasizes their own unique perspective. The same can be said when there’s a debate over certain issues. While both sides may appear to be saying things that appear to contradict what the other is saying, in reality they might be saying much the same thing only from a different perspective.
Prompt: How might our own unique perspective influence our understanding of the truths of our faith compared with other’s perspectives?
Prompt: How can we benefit from listening to the other’s point of view so to grow in our understanding of the underlying truths we each hold dear?
Lead in: The story of Jesus’ passion is fraught with the unexpected. First, Jesus is betrayed by a friend. Then he is abandoned by his followers. Then he is hauled into the authorities who want to get rid of him. Then Jesus suffers the cruel and inhumane treatment of his torturers. Then carrying a cross up to Calvary, he endures the mocking jeers of a crowd who has turned against him. All this leading to an agonizing death on a cross. That is the unfolding drama that marked the last hours of Jesus’ life.
Prompt: While our lives may not match the tortured suffering of Jesus’ passion and death, none of us is spared the suffering that comes with the unfolding drama that life is.
Prompt: As you reflect on the unfolding drama that life is, where do you most identify with the unfolding drama of Jesus’ passion and death? What can that teach you?
Lead in: After Jesus was arrested, Peter followed at a distance. While warming himself by the fire in a courtyard, a woman recognizes him, “This man was with Jesus.” All eyes are on Peter who denies that he ever knew Jesus. Questioned for the third time, Peter again denies that he knows Jesus. But when the cock crows, Peter realizes he’d just done the thing he said he’d never do. He had betrayed the one to whom he owes everything.
Prompt: Have you ever said or did something that betrayed the trust of a friend? What did you learn from this?
Lead in: In Philippians 2, Paul urges the bickering church at Philiippi to be a community of humility and love. To bring his point home, Paul quotes a hymn of praise that describes the humility of Christ, who “did not cling to equality with God…but emptied himself taking the form of a slave.”
Prompt: If Christ empties himself taking on the form of a slave, then what does it mean to you to empty yourself as Christ did for us?
