icebreaker: ie ( if you could live in a TV show for one week, what would it be and why? ) or,… …if not an icebreaker prayer, praise requests the scripture: ( read it out loud, twice if possible from 2 different translations
image: ask yourself, what image, what word picture, do you want your group to leave with ? why? and what does it mean?
verse: what key word, what key verse resonates with you from your, our reading?
theme: what is the main, the central idea 💡 embedded in this passage? why is this theme central? what is does it mean? to you? to others ?
prayer: pray over this scripture…pray the word … ie ‘Lord, help me, enable me, to read your word with true empathy… true emotional understand and act on it …’
exhaustion … in contrast to ‘rest’ – Easter Monday blog… from Luke 22
sorrow’s exhaustion
39 ‘Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
‘But they ( the women ) rested…’; the disciples slept, not in rest, but from sorrow’s exhaustion. The women of Luke 23 Reston obedience.
Luke sees both, and with his ‘but’, highlights the women’s choice.
One of the many things I miss about living in London is Easter Monday. All banks are closed; all financial markets and a number of restaurants. It is a day of rest and reflection- from busy works and family; from travel. Easter Monday is, then, for rest. And the women who walked with Jesus illustrate this-
Luke 23…’Going to Pilate, he ( Joseph of Arimathea ) asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54 It was Preparation Day,and the Sabbath was about to begin.
55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.’
‘But they rested…’’ Seeing Jesus’ flayed, tortured form, seeing their beloved teacher without life, how did these women respond?
Going to their home, they prepared salves for their teacher’s disfigured body and face. And then thy rested. How?
They trusted in the scriptures, in the word. They were obedient to their faith, their teacher’s parables and word.
Luke writes ‘But …’ He was surprised at their rest, yet he was instructed by their examples. In the midst is sorrow, rest in the promises of the word, the scriptures. In deep distress, have the faith to be obedient…
Our Lord wants us to enter into rest: his rest. Stop, pause, reflect.
‘Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
‘ … his heart went out to her…’ Jesus visits the town of Nain. Walking to the town gate, by chance, he sees a widow who has lost her son, her only son. Seeing her sorrows, her tears, her, his heart moves to her. This is his empathy.
In the Greek ‘empathy’ is used to describe someone who is acting while being driven by passion. With such emotions, no one can see objectively or calmly. Jesus is not at peace as he sees this unnamed mother and widow. A woman who has lost her himself and now her only son, one who had to remind her of a loved husband’s lost. One sorrow calls up the other. She is alone.
But not quite alone. Jesus sees. He approaches. He feels deeply, with his heart going to her.
In the English version ‘empathy’ means that someone is getting to feel deeply (“more inside”) the other and his/her situation. This widow is not alone. Jesus’ heart is with hers.
They cry together. And so, …
14 Then he ( Jesus ) went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Our Lord came to Earth to show us, to see our sorrows. He came to teach us, as he walked among all peoples, how to feel even when immense pains were involved. He came to share our pains; to share us with his father and the Spirit.
He came to teach us how to feel, to feel deeply.
We are his heart, his empathy. Jesus comes to feel deeply.
Us.
Feel as Him the Easter week of 2023. Let hearts go out to those in need. Feel, by the Spirit, as Jesus. Deeply feels.
essential question: what is wisdom saying to your heart this day?…
wisdom: think on the resurrection…
resurrection is not a reforming or a rebuilding, it a the promise of a new creation, better bodies, cleaner hearts ….
from Romans 4….
‘Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.’
hope is not ‘maybe it will happen;’ hope is here in our Lord Jesus’ resurrection … It will happen
charles osewalt's blog 
Recent Comments