Opening prayer
Read the italicized passages of Scripture in Chapter 17.
Questions
- Timothy Keller writes, “Of all the things Jesus could have said…he specifically says he’s the judge. By his choice of text, Jesus is deliberately forcing us to see the paradox. There’s been an enormous reversal. He is the judge over the entire world, being judged by the world” (196). Why is that reversal important?
- What reasons does Pilate have for not wanting to condemn Jesus to death (198)?
- What do you think of when you read the quotation from Psalm 22 on page 199?
- Keller writes, “All four Gospel writers take pains to show us that all the critical events of Jesus’s death happened in the dark” (200). What is the significance of that darkness?
- The pain of forsakenness is greater when one is forsaken by someone with whom there was deep intimacy. What was it like for Jesus to be forsaken by his Father with whom Jesus had experienced “infinitely long, absolutely perfect” love (202)?
- Have you ever tried to navigate in total darkness? What was it like?
- How is having anything more important than God like darkness (204)?
- How does valuing anything more than God lead to devastation and disintegration in a person’s life (204)?
- Keller tells us that, because we are all orbiting around something other than God, we are all on a trajectory towards a life of disintegration that won’t stop when our lives come to an end (205). How has Jesus altered our trajectory?
- How can there be beauty in the darkness because of Jesus?
Close by reading from “The only time I ever faced death…” on page 210 to the end of the chapter.
Closing Prayer
Farewell to Shadowlands 