This week: “The Life and Death of Jesus”

N.T. Wright notes that “when Jesus came announcing the kingdom of God, we see him doing all kinds of things like healing people and celebrating with all the wrong kind of folk—and then explaining this is what it looks like when God becomes King.  It is not what people expected.”   In looking at Jesus life and death, we will hope to see a big picture, recognizing that all the many characterizations of Jesus as:  a great teacher, a prophet, a religious leader, fully divine and human at the same time, a revolutionary, an advocate for the forgotten, marginalized, and the outcast, a healer and miracle worker—all of these embrace a part of who he actually was.  Jesus was a companion of earthy disciples and known as “the friend of sinners.”

This session will signify that Jesus was far more than these.  Jesus was the bringer of a new kingdom—an era where his followers became brothers and sisters in the family of God.  In our pastor’s preferred term—kindom—Jesus’ horrifying death and resurrection gave birth to a new life in a new family where those worshipping him as Lord are one family, kinship with ties of love united by his blood rather than bloodlines, by brotherhood and sisterhood across all boundaries rather than through dominance and hierarchy.  The Gospel writers see Jesus’ achievement on the cross as the inbreaking of God’s love into human life so powerfully that evil and death are defeated once and for all.  

Come prepared to be challenged by the example and guidance of one for whom the death of Jesus has brought deep personal significance for his faith journey.  Hear him gladly!  

Join us Sunday for the third study in the series The New Testament You Never Knew by N. T. Wright and Michael Bird. Marty Keeling will be leading this week’s session. Please note that due to copyright issues, this series is not being recorded or livestreamed.

The dates for the series are:
Oct 15, 22, 29
Nov 12, 19, 26
Dec 3, 10, 17