Setting the Scene
Picture Jerusalem in the days before Passover, sometime around AD 30; nobody can fix the year more closely. Imagine the city packed far beyond its walls with pilgrims who have walked up from Galilee, from Jericho and from towns across the sea. Smoke rises from the altar. Lambs bleat in pens. Under the colonnades of the temple courts there is a roar of voices in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew, and the clink of money changing hands.
Picture the mood in the streets. Only days ago a crowd went out with palm branches to meet a teacher from Galilee riding into the city, and everyone is talking about Lazarus, the man in Bethany who was dead and is now walking about. The Pharisees mutter that the world has gone after him. Roman soldiers watch from the walls.
Among the worshippers stands a small group who do not quite belong. They are Greeks, men who have come a long way to pray to Israel's God, and they are standing in the outer court, as far as they can go. They have a request, and they are looking for someone who might help them. They pick out a Galilean with a Greek name.
The map
Jericho to Bethany and the temple.
- Bethany John 12:1–2; 11:18
- Jerusalem John 12:12–13, 20–22
One question to start
1Level 1: Observation
Trace the chain in verses 20 to 23. Who speaks to whom, in what order, and where does the conversation end up?
Carry on with the whole session
Members see the whole session as the app shows it: the readings, the talk, the word studies, all three levels of question, the challenge and the prayer.