Interact
After the video, prompts are supplied for thinking and sharing with others personal perception and experience. This opening activity prompts participants to think about and relate to the topic, and to share with others.
Review the 5 Types of Love
- Romantic Love is shaped by attraction and desire, inviting closeness and emotional vulnerability.
- Covenant Love is formed through promise and commitment, expressed in faithfulness over time.
- Family Love forms and protects, given before it is chosen, shaping identity through care and responsibility.
- Friendship Love grows through shared life and trust, strong enough to hold honesty, loyalty, and disagreement.
- Neighbor Love is offered beyond familiarity, choosing compassion and dignity even when affection is absent.
Using the list below (or your own) choose the best metaphor for the spheres of love between people (above)?
- Skydiving
- Music
- Fire
- Lightening
- Anchor
- Roots (of a planted tree)
- Home shelter
- Bridge
- Rope
- Net
- Team
- Table
- Road or journey path
Insight
The Bible discussion begins with a careful reading of the whole passage, either from your own Bibles, or from the provided images below.
Then participants are to ask:
- What is going on in this passage of Scripture?
- What are the key words and phrases? Highlight them.
- Why do you think this passage is included in the Bible?
- What does it contribute to our “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ”?
The story opens in a familiar and deeply human way. Lazarus is named, his illness is real, and his relationship with Jesus is already understood. When the sisters send word to Jesus, they do not make demands or offer arguments. They simply say, “The one you love is sick,” trusting that love itself is reason enough to reach him. Their message assumes closeness, history, and care, the kind that does not need to be defended.
What follows feels uncomfortable precisely because it feels so human. Jesus hears the news, John tells us plainly that he loves Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and yet he remains where he is for two more days. The delay is not explained to the family, and it does not feel compassionate in the moment.
John is careful to make love personal rather than abstract. Jesus does not love people in general. He loves these people. In the same Gospel, we are told that Jesus loves his own to the very end (John 13:1), and in Hebrews we are reminded that he is not distant from human weakness or grief (Hebrews 4:15).
How do we recognize love when it does not move according to our expectation?
Insight Out
A parting video clip with a personal invitation to apply the message to “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ” in the coming week.