From the Cradle to the Cross in Five Days

In one paragraph

On the Sunday before Christmas, the pastor walked through five scenes from the Gospel of Luke, moving from the night of Jesus's birth to the moment a dying criminal asked to be remembered. The thread connecting all five was a single repeated word: today. God, he said, has always worked in time and space, and he is still doing it. The sermon opened at the manger. The pastor read the shepherds'...

Read together

1. John 3:16-17 read aloud by Bob during the Advent candle lighting as the fourth Sunday of Advent reading
2. Psalm 150:6 paraphrased in pastoral prayer as 'let everything that has breath praise the Lord'
3. Luke 2 read aloud as day one, the cradle, shepherds and the birth of Christ in Bethlehem
4. Luke 4 read aloud as day two, Jesus returning to Galilee and reading from Isaiah in the Nazareth synagogue
5. Isaiah 61:1-2a quoted as the passage Jesus read in the synagogue, stopping before the day of vengeance
6. Luke 5 read aloud as day three, the paralyzed man lowered through the roof and Jesus forgiving his sins
7. Luke 19 read aloud as day four, Zacchaeus climbing the sycamore tree and Jesus inviting himself to his house
8. Luke 23 read aloud as day five, the crucifixion and Jesus promising paradise to the believing criminal
9. Isaiah 42 referenced as one of the servant passages studied in prior weeks, 'my chosen one, my servant'
10. Isaiah 49 referenced as one of the servant passages studied in prior weeks, 'my servant'
11. Isaiah 50 referenced as one of the servant passages studied in prior weeks, 'my servant'
12. Isaiah 53 referenced as the suffering servant passage, 'by his stripes we are healed, wounded for our transgressions'

Talk about it

1. Bob read from John 3:16-17 and noted that the passage contrasts God's perfect love with His perfect justice. How do you hold those two things together in your own understanding of who God is?
2. The pastor walked through Luke 4, where Jesus read from Isaiah 61 and stopped before the line about 'the day of vengeance of our God.' Why do you think Jesus stopped there, and what does that tell us about the age we are living in right now?
3. When the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof, Jesus responded to the faith of the man's friends, not just the man himself. Has anyone ever carried you to Jesus, or have you ever done that for someone else? What did that look like?
4. Zacchaeus went out of his way to find Jesus, and Jesus invited himself into Zacchaeus's home. The pastor pointed to the pattern of ask, seek, and knock. Where do you see that pattern showing up in your own life or in the lives of people around you?
5. The sermon moved from the manger to the cross in five days, and the pastor ended by asking what Jesus is saying to each of us today. What did you feel God speaking to you through any of those five scenes?