1. The Death of Lazarus

During the celebration of Easter, we are reading the story about Lazarus in John 11, which reveals the miracle of Jesus raising him from death. It should be, indeed, a very perplexing matter for those who don’t believe in the Resurrection. For example it is reported that Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher, said: “only if someone could prove to me the facts of Lazarus’ case I would relinquish all my works, and become a Christian.”¹ So, how should we think and believe in the Resurrection? That is the theme of today’s lecture. (³¤­…)

1. Jesus Surrenders Himself.

Passion week commence today, and its a time in which we should recall successive events which took Jesus to the Cross. Last Sunday we contemplated the scene of His arrest on Thursday in the olive grove. We learned that He surrendered himself in order to obey God’s will, by being arrested. From this, we concluded that God was implicated and knowingly participated in the act of handing Jesus over to the Jewish authorities.
Today we will focus our attention on the judgement of Jesus, by reading chapter 18 from the Gospel according to John . In advance, I will give you the conclusion, and that is: the Cross was also chosen by Jesus Himself, not the other way around, not by force. (³¤­…)

1. Jesus, surrendered to God’s Will.

Today, on the fifth Sunday of Lent , we are going to observe Jesus’ arrest, and the very beginning of the Passion.
Firstly, I am going to invite you to take a chronological overview of the event. On the Saturday, Jesus shared a table with Martha and Mary in Bethany, where He was anointed by Mary with expensive oil. He enters into Jerusalem the following day, which is now known as Palm Sunday*, the final Sunday of Lent. On that occasion, a crowd welcomed Jesus, They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (John 12:13). (³¤­…)

1. Mary’s Offering

We are now reading, during the period of Lent, the Gospel according to John. To date, we have witnessed miraculous signs and teaching performed by Jesus, which encouraged many people to follow Him. When He fed the 5000 with five little loaves of bread, the people marveled, and tried to make Him their king. When the crowd saw Him open a blind man’s eyes, they thought He was surely sent by God. However an event which impacted greatly upon his followers, was the case of Lazarus. John tells us that Jesus brought Lazarus back to life four days after his death. After this event His followers were convinced that He was the very Messiah.

“Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him” (John 11:45).

But Jesus’ reputation, which was widely spread, caused the Jewish leaders to consider Him to be dangerous. So much so, they began to make plans to kill Him: “Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews. Instead he withdrew to a region near the desert, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples” (John 11:54).

Under such menacing circumstances, Jesus received an invitation from the family of Lazarus, a man whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Despite knowing the risks He went to a small village near Jerusalem, a place called Bethany, the name of which means ‘house of the poor’. John describes the scene: “Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:1-3). (³¤­…)

1. To Become Holy

We recently celebrated a marriage engagement with one of our members, and on that special occasion we read a passage from 1 Peter, which tells us how the relationship of a husband and wife should be.
To begin today’s meeting we will return to a reading from Peter, and seek some advice concerning husbands: “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers"¡Ê1 Peter 3:7¡Ë.
Though Peter repeats several times in this letter that wives must be submissive to their husbands, he tells husbands to only respect their wives. According to our modern thinking it seems a rather unfair attitude toward women. (³¤­…)