Week One: Gathering

A. Open session in prayer.
B. View video for this week’s readings.

C. What general impressions and thoughts do you have after considering the video, readings, and the daily writings on these Scriptures?
D. Discuss questions based on the daily readings.
1. KEY OBSERVATION: The two very different stories in this chapter reveal a Jesus who performs signs (both miraculous and prophetic), and yet he does not entrust himself to those who believe in his name based on such actions.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What should this teach us about making assumptions about who counts as a genuine follower of Jesus and who doesn’t?
2. KEY OBSERVATION: It is hard to miss Jesus’ impatience with the Jewish authorities, who think that they know better than Jesus and understand him when they don’t. Corruption in the house of God (or in the ministry) is the last place one should find such a thing.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: If the religious leaders become corrupt, what happens to their followers?
3. KEY OBSERVATION: In these two stories in John 2, we see the gamut of emotions of Jesus, from joy and celebration to anger and forceful action.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: What questions do both of these stories raise about Jesus?
4. KEY OBSERVATION: The signs and miracles of Jesus were only the undercard to the main event—the death and miraculous raising of Jesus.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Why do you think all four Evangelists spend a third or more of their total narrative on the last week of Jesus’ life?
5. KEY OBSERVATION: The last story of John 2 tells us that there is an appropriate time and place for confrontation of evil in the house of God, of corruption in the clergy.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Can you think of a modern-day example of confrontation of corruption in the clergy?
E. What facts and information presented in the commentary portion of the lesson help you understand the weekly Scripture?
F. Close session with prayer.