Mar-14 Liturgical study for Fourth Sunday in Lent

Liturgical study for Fourth Sunday in Lent

 

2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

Abraham was called out of Ur  in the nation of Chaldees, when God made a covenant and sent him forth into Judea; but now his degenerate seed were carried back into that country again as slaves for having broken the covenant with God by the sin of idolatry despite the warning of many prophets including Jeremiah. They mocked the prophets, despised their word and treated them as their enemies. In 597 BC Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, laid waste the land of Judah including the city of Jerusalem killing many including young and old. The remainder of the people that escaped the sword (about 10,000 wealthy Jews) were carried captives to Babylon for 70 years, impoverished, enslaved, insulted, and exposed to all the miseries meted out by their enemy rulers. Even in exile they didn’t always heed the words of Prophets Ezekiel and Isiah. Their exile ended when Cyrus the Persian conquered Mesopotamia in 538 BC, he allowed the Jews to return home specifically to worship Yahweh


John 3:14-21

Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish council that wielded an enormous amount of power, using religious orthodoxy to control the peopleJesus’ message was not one of condemnation but redemption; not just for Jews but for everyone (the world). Furthermore Jesus had an authenticity and authority about him that the Pharisees simply did not have. 

John uses ‘light v dark’ as a the metaphor for ‘good v evil’


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