BREAKTHROUGH
(Open-ended,
Life-centred Explorations of the Sunday Gospels for Home Groups)
JN18: 33-38...Sunday, Nov. 26th, 2006...The
Reign of
Christ / Christ the King / Last S.after Pentecost
NOTES: 1] Pity the 'Year of MK'
has to end with JN! The Lectionarians seem to have reigned on this? 2] Many scholars believe 'Jews'in
this passage is better translated 'Judeans', i.e. Jews of Judea
(Jerusalem & surrounds). 3]
Pilate comes into the picture because only he could order a death
sentence. 4] History (outside
the Scriptures) records Pilate as a thoroughly bad egg.
WARMING UP: How readily do we
believe what other people tell us about other people?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
33-35 How many different ways
can we inflect / emphasise Pilate's initial question to Jesus? Does
altering the inflection alter the meaning of who / what Pilate is faced
with at all? Does any one emphasis throw more light on what's going on
in this situation? How much is justice where we live 'inflected' by how
a person looks, their social or economic class, their race, all that
kind of thing? Do we have a legal system, but not necessarily a justice
system? Are people like Jesus still rail- roaded because the power of
others, or the system itself gang(s) up on them? If justice doesn't
reign, how can God?
How much does it matter that Jesus is 'King of the Jews' to those of us
who don't come from a Jewish background? Did we come to our own
conclusion that Jesus is our King on our own, or because someone else
told us about him? If the latter, what kind of process did we have to
go thnough before forming our own conclusion? What is our own
conclusion? Is Pilate, like Jesus, a victim of some pressure group's
persecution of another person? Do we notice any deterioration from
'detached debate' into more personal attack & villification in the
Editorials or 'Letters to the Editor' columns of our newspapers today,
or in other media forms? What lies behind this? Is it much different
from what's going on as Jesus stands before Pilate?
36-38 Are we ever tempted to
use Jesus' 'My kingdom is not of this world' as a cop-out instead of
playing our part in making his rule happen here on earth now? If
Jesus' rule is 'not of this world', what relevance does it actually
have for our life in this world?
Apart from the Samaritan woman in JN 4, is Pilate's "So you are a
King?" the only record of someone turning Jesus' words back on him,
rather than vice-versa? Do we ourselves ever 'turn Jesus' words around'
when it suits us'? How do we feel about Christians either in history or
right now going to war in this world 'in Jesus' or God's name'? Do we
ever do it ourself on our own small scale battlefields? What about when
extremists, whether Christians, Muslims, or anything else go to war 'in
God's name'? Does God ever abuse his
power, or go to war? How can we exert the force of what Jesus says here
about his Kingdom not being 'of this world' in our own lives & at
government level? How much are our lives demonstrably proof that we
'listen to Jesus' voice' - & act on what he says?
Do we know any better than Pilate what 'truth' is? Are we sure? Truly sure? Given that lying is a
deliberate policy of many of those in power today, is there any more
important question than Pilate (even a bad egg like him!) asks here?
Note:
From next Sunday, when the 'Year of Luke' begins, Preachers might like
to visit: angelfire.com/journal2/laterallyluke
11/13/03 10:56 A1
