Monday Lunch Bible Study – 23 February 2015

Come and talk about the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday over lunch today 12:10 – 1 pm or so – Check facebook around noon for the location!  Bring your lunch and your thoughts and your questions!

Mark 8:31-38

31 Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Reflection

What are you trying to gain? What are you working toward?

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “ashamed?”

Where do you struggle to keep your mind on divine things, rather than human things?

What does it mean to deny ourselves? To take up our cross? To follow? Are these distinct or blended together?

How do we make sense of Jesus suffering and death, and what does it lead us to do or expect in our lives?