These questions are connected to the message, Mob Trial: The Love of Power Versus the Power of Love, from Sunday, March 19, 2023. You can watch it here.
- Robyn said, “In this death-denying, pain-evading culture, Lent is necessary.” Do you agree and if so why do you think this is true? How are you observing these 40 days leading up to Easter? Or how would you like to?
- The love of power and the power of fear can lead us down some very dark paths. Reflect on the choices of Peter and Judas, and the words of Martin Neimöller’s post-war poem, First They Came (see below). It can be easy for us to think we might make a different choice, but where in your life have you given into or acquiesced to the love of power or the power of fear?
- Read Daniel 7:13-14. How does this allusion to the “Son of Man” from Daniel cause them to leap to the question: Are you then “the Son of God?”
- We often think of Peter as a coward who denied Jesus, but he was the only one who followed him to his trial. Have there been times in your life when you’ve stepped out in faith but then retreated in fear?
- The only way we know that Peter denied Jesus is because Peter, himself, confessed it. No one called him out. No one (other than Jesus) witnessed it. In your own life, is there something you need to confess? Has there been something regrettable in your story that later became a testimony of grace for others?
- Compare Luke 4:3 and Luke 22:67. Given that the names Messiah and Son of God are synonymous, what parallels do you see? What implications are insinuated for the religious council in this?
- Being a place of oasis and safety requires us to look in the mirror regularly and examine ourselves, both as individuals and as a church community. Is there something or someone we are unknowingly trying to control? Where are we seduced by the love of power or where can we easily be seduced? Where do you see this played out in the church at large?
First They Came by Martin Neimöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me