Winter Story-line

Piecing together Jesus’ experience in the SpendaYearwithJesus timeline is a challenge — getting to know the characters, grappling with the setting and producing a set of plot options true-to-life.

Major principles like no shortcuts, religious conflict, and friendship frame Jesus’ experience.  Cues from the Gospel stories help fill in the gaps.

There are two important dynamics shaping the winter story-line.

The first dynamic is the development of Jesus’ friendship with Lazarus. However we tell the story it needs to account for the development of friendship between two first-century men.

The second is the aborted arrest order of the Jerusalem religious rulers at the Fall Feast. The winter tension in John 10 resumes the explosive fall tension recorded in John 7-9.

Jesus’ pattern was to engage and withdrawal, so withdrawal in between the tensions and after is logical based on the cues.

To be sure, the winter story-line is one of tension  to the end.

Connect with Jesus’ experience.