Why follow Jesus: To lose yourself
Warm-up: If you have been so successful that journalists from abroad want an interview and your opinion on leadership, how does that feel, and will you respond?
Read: John 12
1) How does the ‘career’ of Jesus develop in this chapter?
- vv2-3: In the sight of his followers?
- v9: In terms of his fame by miraculous signs?
- vv13-23: How he was welcomed?
2) Meanwhile, what career did Jesus plan, and why?
- vv7-9: Why did he muse at this moment about his burial?
- v14: Why did he choose to ride on a donkey and not on a stallion befitting a king?
- vv24-27: Why did he regard self-sacrifice as essential to bring fruit?
- vv31-32: How did he plan to truly draw people to himself, eventually? [By a most shameful death]
- v24: How did Jesus expect these imminent events to glorify the Father and the Son? cf Jn 17:10 (by the fruit of his atoning sacrifice)
3) What ‘career’ did Jesus have in mind for all his followers?
- vv24-26: What does it have in common with a grain that must fall into the ground? cf Mt 10:34-39 (cross of conflict)
- Read Mt 16:24-26 What does it mean to ‘deny yourself and take up your cross’?
4) v3: How did Mary become an example for what it means to “hate your life in this world to gain it”?
- How did Judas Iscariot and some Jewish leaders “love their life in this world”? cf Jn 12:6; 12:42-43
5) v37: Why did the Sadducees not change their views on the resurrection of Lazarus?
6) Jesus said that if it was necessary for him to suffer, it will be equally necessary for his servants (Jn 12:24-26):
- What does this say of his view about sufferings, and why God allows them?
- Hint: Why are sufferings necessary, i.e. what are they necessary for?
- Do you find this saying relevant or helpful for you in the situation where you are today?
- How can we love our life too much?
- In what ways do you show proper indifference to your own life?
- Where do you need to be in order to be where Jesus is?
- How does ‘dying with Christ’ look like for you practically in the real life? Do you take all grievances as God-given occasions to practice how to ‘lose yourself’ and entrusting yourself to his will? Or do you fight back for your rights and reputation?
Prayer: Pray for each other that this perspective may become yours, and for courage to follow Jesus also in losing yourself and ‘your’ life. Pray also for those who are threatened by persecution and required to lay down their lives literally.
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