Incorporate your discussion from your last group time and follow up with some of the insights and themes. You may encounter new ideas, but don't feel unsuccessful if you're all right back in the same ideas again. Mark expands on the the idea of "first must become last", humility and the condescension of power. It's a message we've apparently needed to hear a lot over the last few thousand years.
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Thaw
- What were you doing this week 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago?
- What most impacted you from Sunday?
Read
- Mark 10:32-52
- Thoughts and impressions?
- Why were the people shushing Bartimaeus?
- Why didn't Jesus tell him "follow me", instead telling him to just "go"?
Leader note: be sure and contrast this with what he told the Rich Young Ruler earlier.
Discuss
- Who do you know that seems to always have time/energy/consideration for others, even if it seems to take from them?
- What do we learn about Christ as we see him pause his journey toward Jerusalem to interact with someone who a) was obviously not well respected, b) was unclean and therefore unfit to interact with by any serious religious person heading to the Holy City c) couldn't reciprocate anything?
Apply
- In what ways does the course of your daily life contradict the values in your heart?
- What can be done about this, especially in light of the fact that guilt is neither useful or from God?
- Why do we have so much disdain for suffering, difficulty, inconvenience, etc. when we all recognize in hindsight, that's where all the good stories and all the deepest lessons are found?
- How can this group be a catalyst for becoming the kind of people who step into others' reality?
- How can your group, working perhaps with other groups, help build momentum toward our church becoming a people who willingly, fearlessly overlap with others and their difficulties?
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