
Zoom
Bible Study Classes – 14 March 2023, at 07:00 PM EST
Meeting ID: 848-9423-0612
Pass Code: 669872
For our Bible
Study, we will be using the John Ortberg book,
Who Is This
Man? The Unpredictable Impact of the
Inescapable Jesus.
For this week’s
study, read the Chapters 2 and 3
I am an historian, I am not a believer,
but I must confess as an historian that this penniless
preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.
H.
G. Wells
[Jesus] created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. Ephesians 2:15 MSG
A. Jesus
changed the way people think about the greatest and the least. The people of Israel worshiped one God, who
was loving and caring. Other ancient
cultures had multiple gods and a hierarchical way of ordering life. Only the king was divine. Peasants and slaves were created by inferior
gods. This is the Dignity Gap.
1. Jesus
was heir to an explosive notion: Every human being is made in the image of
God. Every person has great worth.
2. Jesus
taught a totally different view of children.
3. Jesus
modeled the worth God places on human life (Matthew 6:26; 10:29 -31; 12:11
-12).
4. Jesus
created a whole new vision of what it means to be a human being - the
revolutionary idea that the “least of these” were to be treasured.
5. Jesus
had a radically new view of women.
6. We
live in a different world today because of Jesus, regardless of what folks
think about him.
The Dignity Gap
B. The
ancient, hierarchical way of establishing human dignity and worth was based on
proximity to the gods, kings were thought to be divine or semi-divine and
everyone else was created by a series of progressively lesser gods, ending with
peasants and slaves at the bottom of the ladder.
1. What
hierarchies of human dignity and worth would you say are at work in our times
and culture? What
"proximities" do we tend to use to confer greater or lesser value on
people?
2. Consider
one of your own spheres of life, for example, a group of friends, a social
networking site, your workplace, school, church, or even this group. What are the subtle and not-so-subtle
hierarchies of worth in this context? In
other words, what makes someone a "king" or a "peasant"?
3. In
what ways, if any, have the hierarchies influenced how you view people, who you
spend time with, or how you treat people?
Bestowed Worth and Dignity
C. Briefly
describe a time when you were aware of being treated with dignity. Based on that experience, how would you
complete this sentence? Treating someone with dignity means . . .
D. When
Jesus looked at people, he saw the image of God, and that is what caused him to
treat each person with dignity.
1. How
would you describe your own experience of being treated with dignity by Jesus?
2. During
the course of your everyday life, in what individuals or groups do you find it
relatively easy to see the image of God? In what individuals or groups do you find it
very difficult to see the image of God?
E. In
a passage from the gospel of Luke, Jesus establishes the value of human beings
using an analogy that is familiar to us now but would have been surprising in
Jesus' day:
Are not five sparrows sold for two
pennies? Yet not one of them is
forgotten by God .... Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
(Luke 12:6 -7)
Sparrows were cheap, buy-four-get-one-free.
Worth less than a cent, they were among
the humblest of temple sacrifices available to the poor.
1. How
does Jesus' use of sparrows challenge the prevailing hierarchy of human worth
in the ancient world?
2. How
does Jesus' analogy impact you personally? For example, is it shocking, deeply
reassuring, somewhat comforting, or so familiar it no longer has much impact?
3. Would
you say that your cultural context, one very different from that of Jesus'
listeners, magnifies or diminishes the potential impact the analogy has on you?
Why?
Dignity for the Least of These
F. In
his teaching, Jesus often challenged the way people thought about the greatest
and the least with Statements like this:
Anyone who welcomes a little child like
this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my
Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest. (Luke 9:48 NLT)
G. The
Greek word translated as "welcomes" is dechomai. (dekh '-om-ahee). It can also be translated as
"receive" or "accept" and is concerned primarily with
hospitality, a very high value in Jesus' time and culture. Once when he was a dinner guest of a Pharisee,
Jesus acknowledged three common acts of hospitality-washing feet, greeting with
a kiss, pouring oil on the head, by pointing out how his host had failed at all
three (Luke 7:44 -46). The Pharisee may
have invited Jesus to dinner, but he did not welcome Jesus.
1. Have
you ever experienced something like this, knowing you were included but somehow
still not welcomed? How did it impact
you?
2. Among
those considered the least of these in Jesus' day were children, women,
prisoners, foreigners (non-Jews), and those who were sick or in need (Matthew
25:35 -40). In the routines of your own
life, with whom do you have contact who might be characterized as one of the
"least of these'' today?
3. Jesus'
revolutionary teaching was that the "least of these" were to be
welcomed - received and accepted as persons of great worth and treated with
dignity. How does this understanding of
what it means to be welcoming challenge or encourage you in connection with the
"least of these" in your own life?