Are there aspects of Jesus’ message that perhaps you struggle to accept because they seem to challenge your sense of what you think God wants? Perhaps his teachings seem to threaten your understanding of what obeying God would look like, or they expose something we do as not quite central to what God is concerned with. Do these events in this passage highlight any areas in which your religion is blinding you to Jesus’ message?

First, we will look at how Jesus brings joy and not sorrow. Second, we will look at how Jesus brings life and not death.