The purpose of the session was to set the cross in the context of what went before and to try and jump through Constantine and Christendom. The idea being that the Early Christians were known as followers of the "way", the gospel writers spend more time talking about Jesus' life than his death and to provide a bridge to what it means for us to live the life of the cross like Jesus. Below I'll just give a brief summary and people from the UEA might pop in and share some stories. Hope so, cos that'll make the conversation fun!
The Road Begins
I started by looking at the pre-incarnate Christ. The Jesus of Gen 1, Col 1 and John 1. Namely involved in creation, sustaining creation, firstborn over all creation, the glory of the father. Also in John 1 the idea of dwelling amongst us and the link to the Old Testament and the idea of the Tabernacle as a place in which the glory of God dwelled.
From Heaven you came helpless Babe
I then started looking at Phil 2 where Jesus' divinity is affirmed but he then humbles himself, taking on the nature of a servant and so on. I also looked at the vulnerability of the incarnation simply from a human perspective of being a baby and growing up.
First Stop
I looked at Jesus' baptism and temptation. At the baptism clearly Jesus was without sin but still chose to affirm his common humanity yet God affirmed from heaven his divinity. In addition his temptation further provides a commonality with us as per Heb 4-5 which talks about Jesus being tempted in every way, just as we are.
Blink and you've missed it
I also looked at how the road to the cross was not always easy to spot. I touched on Marks Messianic Secret, the role of parables etc.
The soundtrack
I looked at Luke 4 and the message of the Kingdom and explored the people who Jesus had encounters with emphasising the acceptance and servant hood of Jesus.
Destiny
I also touched on the sense of purpose and destiny in Johns gospel and phrases like "he walked through the crowd because his time has not yet come" when they tried to kill him in Luke as linked to above.
I concluded with some reflective questions: -
- Imagine yourself watching the life of Jesus as a movie. Where do you see yourself, which character are you? At which point do you encounter Jesus?
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2 comments:
I found it really interesting that you spoke about Phil 2 over the weekend. God's been speaking to me loads about this passage. In particular the way Jesus went about His mission and what that means for our outreach. Jesus' mission was incarnational, He came to us rather than attracting people to Himself, He made the first move. I'm wondering whether God is saying something about how we do mission, do we spend too much time trying to make church look cool and relevant and attract people to ourselves when really we need to forget about ourselves and start serving, finding people's needs and meeting them. I dont know, just a thought.
I think you hit the nail on the head about incarnation and how it relates to mission. Most evangelism assumes people will come to us - showing my age but a bit like Waynes World 2 "book them and they will come", whereas Jesus, as you say, went rather than waited.
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