NOTES: 1] Only JN (Chs.11 & 12) tells of events centring on Lazarus, Mary, & Martha at Bethany, & leading up to Jesus' Passion. His anointing by Mary foreshadows his death & burial, as Lazarus' raising foreshadowed his resurrrection. Maybe Mary's 'footwashing' points to his at the Last Supper, too? 2] This incident leads into the events of Palm Sunday. (JN has already recorded a version on the occasion of another visit (2:13+) 3] A respectable woman always kept her hair covered.

WARMING UP: Is there a particular family you like to visit?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Afterthoughts from, follow-up to last week’s Group, or since?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:
 

1-2       Are dinner parties something we enjoy, or not? When we go to one are we more interested in the company, the food, drink, dynamics, or something else? Are the roles in our family as clear cut as those in Lazarus' family seem to be (in accord- ance with the customs & culture of that day & place)? How are we coping with the changing patterns of male / female roles in home & society? How 'locked in' or 'broken free' are we from roles & expectations of earlier days? Has our church made the same 'jumps' as we have? Have we made the same jumps as our church?

3          What are our responses to Mary's prodigality / generosity with the jar of nard (more perfume than ointment)? Is that kind of generosity part of our own make-up? Is generosity more a feminine characteristic than a masculine one? How much can love be measured by physical gifts of one kind or another? What do we make of an old Jewish blessing: 'May you have, may you give'? (Arnold Zable, in Cafe Scheherazade, Text, Melbourne.) How many opportunities for generosity do we miss / avoid by giving in to our respectability?

4-6       How reasonable is Judas' protest? Or is his argument just an example of the way we rationalise our opposition to being generous for God? An excuse for not being like God? What excuses do we ourselves make? How much does the judgment - informed or not - we make about a person determine our generosity, or lack of it, towards them? How much is wanting to hold onto what we have for our own use a root cause of such behaviour? Given the way JN blackens Judas' name, what are people likely to think / say about us as to our generosity, meanness, etc.? Now? When, like Judas, we're dead? If every gravestone had to have a 'degree of generosity mark' engraved on it, what would ours be?

7-8       Do we ever sense Jesus (by his Spirit, or maybe through some other person) telling us to stop picking on someone because they're doing the right thing & we aren't? How often does a guilty conscience lead us to take our own shortcomings  out on someone else. If we would only hear Jesus telling us to 'leave them alone' when we're acting badly towards someone, how might that change our behaviour towards them? What's the most effective way of dealing with a guilty conscience?
             How much do governments work on the principle that 'there'll always be poor people around' to justify not dealing effectively with poverty & associated ills? Does it bother us that this is the case 2000 years after Jesus teaches us better?
             If Jesus were still around in the flesh, would it make any difference? What does that say about him? Us?