Grave Concern (Part 1): Can We Change The Subject?

TO START

This Sunday, we jumped into a short series called Grave Concern as we head towards Easter. The hope of this series is to simply prepare our hearts by being mindful of our deaths in order to receive the good news of the one who conquered death. 

  • When you think of death, what images, emotions, Scriptures, words, etc. come to mind?

This week we are inviting your group to choose questions from the multiple options below.  Our hope is that these questions might help you to lead your discussion in a way that makes sense for your group this week as y’all “talk it out” and “live it out”.

TALK IT OUT AFTER READING MARK 15:21-32

STUDY

  • How did Jesus’s death fulfill what has been previously written in Scripture?

  • What are some of the realities that Jesus faced on the cross? How do the responses of humans in this scene speak to our condition?

  • How does Jesus’s response to darkness on the cross remind us of how we should love others and love God?

PROCESS 

  • In Western culture, we’ve decided to treat death as something we shouldn't talk about or should be a hidden subject. What was your upbringing like in relation to death? Did y’all talk about it? What about with your kids, how did you handle it?

  • When were you bumped by death or faced with death in an unwelcome way? How did you respond to it?

LIVE IT OUT 

PRACTICE

  • In what ways have you numbed yourself from the reality of death? What was the outcome of that choice or those choices?

  • Share an example of when you have met God in the midst of grief and death. 

PRAY

  • We invite you to pray over the group as you close: “Lord, we know how much you love us. Yet because of death and grief, it’s hard for us to feel it sometimes. God, would you use your love as a way to remind us that you know the taste of death and the vulnerability we cower from And yet you give us assurance in the reality that you know what death is like and you are not afraid to enter it as an act of sacrificial love, Amen.

Matt DeLano