Sunday Morning Bible Study

Join us this Sunday, February 28, at 9:30AM as we discuss The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  Don’t worry if you missed week one – you are welcome to jump in at any time.

February 28

We’ll be reading Mark 11: 12-19.

Questions to consider for Sunday

• The Sunday demonstration (Palm Sunday) occurs at the entrance to Jerusalem, the Monday one at the entrance to the temple. Why are these two events paired?
• A note on Mark’s method. Only the first half of the Fig story is given in this reading, the second half not until Tuesday.  Why? How do the two stories reinforce each other?
• The incident in the temple. Really a ‘Den of Robbers’? How is the Temple being used as a hideout?
• “For all the nations” quote is suggested as a Marcan addition to Jesus’ original symbolic action. In Jesus’ time, all could go into the outer courts. But when Mark wrote around 70AD, the Temple was close to destruction and closed.  Was Jesus looking for trouble? What parallels do you see for today?

This is one of Bill Lamb’s favorite books and he will be facilitating these discussions.

Here is the full Amazon description of the book.

Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson’s blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion.
Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus’s final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church’s traditional teachings.
The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

For the Zoom information, check your Saturday Zoom email or contact Bill Lamb at william.e.lamb@gmail.com.

Zoom (CUCC):  reserved for Bill Lamb; 9:30-10:30AM