Small Group Participant’s Guide

Session 11

The Shepherd before the Cross

The story of the final hours of the Shepherd, before He went to His cross, starts after He and His followers had eaten, what we usually call today the Last Supper. Read Matthew 26:36-46.

Can we sense the humanness of the Shepherd here? He wants His closest friends around Him as He, full of fear, doubt and sorrow, faces the coming days. They obviously couldn’t stay awake though, as He had to rouse them three time.

The text says that He prayed to His Father three times to be released from what He knew was coming, but each time we see that His only desire was to do the will of His Father, whatever that would mean.

The following is what the Shepherd says on His cross. It is His words, whilst suffering for each of us, that we must look at.

They are, first, ‘forgive’ (Luke 23:34), second, ‘love and mercy’ (Luke 23:43), the third word is to His mother, Mary (John 19:26,27), the fourth word we hear, is the one the Shepherd speaks to His Father (Mark 24:46), the fifth word we hear is very human – “I am thirsty” (John 19:28), and the sixth (John 19:30) and seventh (Luke 23:46) words are different perspectives of the Shepherd’s last words on the cross.

The innocent Lamb, that is Jesus of Nazareth, was slain for our sins, so that you and I might be forgiven. Jesus says, ‘I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father’.  (John 16:28 NIV)

The Shepherd has fulfilled His mission, and that of His Father, once and for all time, on the Cross. The innocent Lamb, that is Jesus of Nazareth, was slain for our sins, so that you and I might be forgiven.

Questions:

1. What do you feel when you are on your own or lonely? Maybe you have your closest friends around you, but you are full of fear, doubt or sorrow. How would it feel to know that Jesus promises never to leave you, or forsake you, no matter what you feel or what you might have done?
2. What do the words, ‘Forgive’, ‘Love’ and ‘Mercy’, mean to you? Is it possible that they might reflect the heart of your Saviour and your heavenly Father?