Important questions

Filming the first lesson in a new series of the Digital Sunday School this week had me rather distracted by the ‘how’ questions. How do I film my hands without a tripod? How do I make what I’m saying visually translate on to the screen? How can I make this homemade camera phone bipod stable and not casting an awkward shadow? How do I include a diverse representsion of who Christians are in this project? How will I be able to make more than one video a week? How have I lost [insert whatever I needed at that moment] again?!

To balance the self-centered and panic inducing ‘How’ questions I decided to write myself a list of important questions that I should focus on first when preparing a lesson. Yes, those how questions still need answering. But having a list like this puts them in their proper place; at the bottom of my to do list.

• Does what I’m preparing come from the Bible or from my own head?

• Is the gospel on display?

• What does God want to teach me in this?

• How can I say this in a way that a range of kids will understand?

• What are the challenges of this text?

• Am I glorifying God or myself?

• Will this build up the church, locally and worldwide?

These are probably not the only things I should be thinking about but it’s certainly a good place to start. I also have 10 steps to prepare a passage for teaching which I find helpful in prioritising these kinds of questions as well.

A brief thought about reading the Bible

Far too often I assume that I already know what the Bible is going to say. After all, I’ve known these stories since I was a kid, I’ve read them and studied them as an adult, I’ve taught these passages to others. This is particularly true of the gospels.

So imagine my surprise at being surprised on reading John 18:15-16 and seeing that John “was known to the high priest.”

MIND BLOWN!

How was this a detail I had never noticed before?! It’s part of one of the most famous passages in the Bible! I am frequently too confident in my own abilities as a Bible student to actually see what is in the text. Shame on me that I still have this attitude. But also praise God who is still able to surprise me with the glories of his word and his plan!

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For those of you who are interested in this detail I discovered for myself: let’s do a little bit of unpacking.

• The unnamed disciple is probably John who tends to obscure his involvement in the story (See John 19:26) and also turn up with Peter before all the other disciples (See John 20:3).

• How was this disciple known to the high priest? Well it’s not 100% clear if the high priest refferred to here is Caiaphas, who was currently serving in the role, or Annas, ex-high-priest and current father-in-law-to-the-high-priest. Either way it’s likely that he’d be known to both, whichever is particularly intended here. It’s unlikely that their lives crossed at work - I can’t see either Annas or Caiaphas buying their own fish - ad they probably weren’t chummy not least because Jesus and John are besties and the high priest is has been trying for a while to kill Jesus. They could be related; there is at least one John in the family (Acts 4:6) and names tended to be passed down. But that would make it strange that Luke doesn’t mention this while John and Peter (together again) are on trial in that chapter. Although it would make it super awkward if they were!

• Why does it matter? It’s not a big deal in the story but it does shed light on why John would include different details in his account. For instance it is only John who knows that Peter cuts off Malchus’ ear, no-one else knows his name but they do know that he’s a servant of the high priest. It also might explain why no-one challenges John as being a disciple of Jesus in the way that they do Peter. He’s known to them in a different context and might even enjoy some privilege there - after all they let a stranger in on his word.

I love the little details in the Bible, and I’m so glad that the Spirit included them. They humble me, allow me to see the reality of te events and people in the Bible and they glorify the God who pays attention to every little detail of our world.