The cross is the most central symbol of the Christian faith. When asked what that cross means, many of us might say: “Jesus died for my sins.” And we would be right, but what really does that mean? And is there more to it than that? Our journey this Lent at Trinity will explore the many ways the Bible articulates the mystery of what God has done in the cross of Jesus Christ, and the profound connections made to our day-to-day lives, and to the life of our world today.
To join a group, click here.
Week of March 6
Jesus Died for Me
Romans 5:6–11
Introductions | Especially if a group is meeting for the first time | Have each person talk about the first time they did something they were pleased to accomplish. Like the first time you learned to ride a bike. Or the first time you scored a goal for your team?
Open with Prayer
Warm-up Questions
Have you had the experience of someone taking your place for something? What was it and what was the result?
CS. Lewis said, “The central Christian belief is that Christ’s death has somehow put us right with God and given us a fresh start. Theories as to how it did this are another matter. A good many theories have been held as to how it works; what all Christians are agreed on is that it does work.”
Do you agree or disagree that Christians agree that it works? What does that mean?
Read | Romans 5:6–11
Questions | Leaders, feel free to pick and choose.
What Why do we need saving from God’s wrath?
Do you think we are powerless over our sin? Do you think of humanity as God’s enemy?
How does the sacrifice of Jesus remedy the situation?
How would you describe why Jesus had to die?
How does Jesus’ death on the cross affect you?
Play Song | “And Can It Be,” Charles Wesley
What does this song say about the death of Jesus and how it affects you?
Are you skeptical, interested, confused, hopeful, amazed? Or some other response?
Pray Together
Week of March 13
Victory Over the Powers
Colossians 2:13–15
Open with Prayer
Warm-up Questions
Do you like scary Sci-fi movies? What’s your favorite? Do you ever think there are powerful beings trying to do us in?
Read | Colossians 2:13-15
Questions | Leaders, feel free to pick and choose.
What is the function of cross in this passage?
What is the ‘written code’ Paul refers to?
What ‘powers’ and ‘authorities’ do you think Paul is referring to?
Read this Walter Wink quote:
“Jesus, [Paul] claims, has “stripped” the rulers and authorities and made a public display of them (Col. 2:15). Paul is making an ironic reference to the actual event of Jesus’ crucifixion. If CNN had captured the crucifixion, the film clip would have shown Jesus Himself stripped, crucified naked and exposed. According to Paul, what actually happening was the opposite: Jesus stripped the powers. Paul again borrows from Roman imperial custom in saying that Jesus makes a “public display” of the powers, having triumphed over him in the cross.” By his death, Jesus leads the powers in a triumphal procession, displaying them as the trophies of his conquest, the plunder of Egypt.
How did Jesus do that? Rome proudly portrayed itself an instrument of universal peace. It stood for law and for justice. The trial and death of Jesus, however, placed a huge and permanent question mark over Roman justice. Three times in John’s account of Jesus’ trial, the Roman governor Pilate declared Jesus innocent. Pressured by Jews clamoring for Jesus’ blood, fearing that he would offend Caesar if he refused to punish a Jew who called himself a king, weary of trying to control the chaos of Judea, Pilate sent Jesus to death. When push came to shove, Roman justice was just another form of antique scapegoating, willing to condemn the innocent to restore or keep order.”
Do you agree with Wink? Did Jesus’ death revealed something broken about Roman justice? How?
Watch Video | N.T. Wright
Picking up on NT Wright’s insight that salvation is not just for ourselves, but returns us to our God-ordained purposes in the world, what do you make of the phrase - “God made you alive with Christ”?
Play Song | “Drive Out the Darkness,” Porter’s Gate
Pray Together
Week of March 20
Only the Suffering God Can Help
Matthew 27:45–50
Open with Prayer
A Time of Sharing (invite people to share only if they feel comfortable)
Was there a time when you experienced deep grief and wondered where or if God was? What brought you through it, if at all?
Read | Matthew 27:45–50
Questions | Leaders, feel free to pick and choose.
What do you make of Jesus’ suffering?
Does his suffering have anything to do with yours? In what way?
Read this quote from Theologian Jurgen Moltmann in “Only the Suffering God Can Help”
“When Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian of the German resistance-movement against Hitler, was imprisoned by the Gestapo in Berlin, he had a similar encounter with God. He wrote in a letter, “Only the suffering God can help.” In their religions, men in their distress are searching for divine power, but the Bible brings us to the powerlessness and the suffering of God, because “through His wounds we are healed.” A few months later Bonhoeffer was brought to the gallows in the concentration camp of Flossenbürg and died with the words, “This is the end, for me the beginning of life.” For Bonhoeffer the suffering God was not only a consolation in his own suffering. He also discovered that we are called “to share in the suffering of God in the world. Christians stand with God in God’s suffering.”
Watch Video | Theologian Jurgen Moltmann
What stands out for you in this interview?
Pray Together especially about personal suffering, suffering in the world and other places of pain.
*** Leaders, please send out to your group the following reading in preparation for next week’s session: Excerpt from The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James Cone
Week of March 27
The Cross and the Lynching Tree
Acts 10:34–40
Open with Prayer
Warm-Up Questions
When you think about forms of punishment, what seems the worst to you?
When you think of means of execution such as gas ovens of the holocaust, lethal injection, firing squad, lynching, crucifixion, what seems the most inhuman to you? why?
Read | Acts 10:34–40
Questions | Leaders, feel free to pick and choose.
What disturbs you the most about Jesus’ death on the cross?
Watch Video | Interview with Dr. James Cone (Bill Moyers) - [watch from 2:12 to 9:02]
Note: The whole interview is 45 min long - but the suggestion is to watch just a 7 minute clip which you can start at 2:12 and go until 9:02.
Read this quote from Theologian Rev. Dr. James Cone.
“Until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a “recrucified” black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white
supremacy.”
Did it ever occur to you to link the cross and lynchings in this country?
Do you think that it is accurate to say that lynching is a “memory that most white Americans would prefer to forget?”
Does a collective lack of remembrance lead to the “fraudulent perspective . . . of the meaning of the Christian gospel for this nation” as Cone claims?
Cone also suggests that a new kind of “lynching” is taking place in the criminal justice system of our country, “where nearly one-third of black men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight are in prisons, jails, on parole, or waiting for their day in court. Nearly one-half of the more than two million people in prisons are black. . . . ” (p. 163) Were you aware of this situation?
How can we in the 21st century Christian community put these together in a wholistic and meaningful way?
Play Song | “O Sacred Neck, Now Wounded,” Porter’s Gate
(A resetting of an old passion hymn which connects Jesus’ suffering to George Floyd’s 2020 death)
What stood out to you in this song? How does this connect with Dr. Cone’s insights?
Pray Together
Week of April 3
Christ the Passover Lamb
Hebrews 10:1–18
Leaders, consider reading this chapter on “the Lamb of God” from Fleming Rutledge as a backdrop to facilitating this conversation with your group.
Open with Prayer
Play Song | “There Is a Redeemer,” Keith Green
Warm-Up Questions
When you think about forms of punishment, what seems the worst to you?
When you think of means of execution such as gas ovens of the holocaust, lethal injection, firing squad, lynching, crucifixion, what seems the most inhuman to you? why?
Read | Hebrews 10:1–18
Questions
What is the writer telling us about Jesus’ sacrifice for sin?
Was Jesus’ death, the kind of sacrifice that ended all sacrifices for sin? How does this idea affect you?
Would there have been another way to accomplish the same thing?
Watch Video | Sacrifice & Atonement Biblical Theme Video | BibleProject™
Does this video clarify anything for you regarding Jesus as the Lamb of God?
Pray Together