This month of the lectionary, our Christian calendar explores Christ’s ministry in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John brings about many powerful Jesus narratives that are formative in understanding the life and ministry of Jesus.

Each week as we walk through Lent, we discover a story of who Jesus is. We witness who he is to us in our tradition and who he was to the people of his time and his community. The Gospel of John is famous for Jesus’s “I am” statements and there are several of those famous passages in the Lectionary this month. It is through these “I am” statements woven throughout Jesus’s ministry that we learn who Jesus is.

How do we learn who we are through Jesus? And how does Jesus reveal who He is through us? I believe the African philosophy of Ubuntu holds some of those answers. Ubuntu says, “I am because we are or We are because of each other.” As we explore the lectionary for lent this month, I invite you hold onto this thread throughout the texts. Learn about Jesus through others, and ourselves through Christ.

March 1: Second Sunday in Lent, John 3:1-17

On the first Sunday in March, we meet Nicodemus, a pharisee, who meets Jesus at night to learn more of who Jesus is and his ministry. Throughout their encounter, Nicodemus and Jesus tell each other who the other is. The opening of their conversation Nicodemus tells Jesus, “We know you are a teacher who has come from God.”

It is clear throughout the discussion that Nicodemus does not understand much of what Jesus is saying and even more, what he is alluding to. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “You are a teacher of Israel,” but when it is clear Nicodemus is not understanding Jesus’s points in the discussion, Jesus flips the script and tells Nicodemus who Jesus is, culminating in one of the most famous versus in the Bible John 3:16. In which Jesus challenges those who come the Christ not to have their life turned upside down by the Good News, but to have their understandings of God affirmed and settled.

What spiritual practices are we developing to be able to see God, faith, and ourselves differently?

March 8: Third Sunday in Lent, John 4:5-42

This week we explore the longest conversation Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels: the woman and the well. Unlike the conversation with Nicodemus, which is a rather short conversation will little debate, the conversation with the woman at the well has several questions and declarative statements exploring the theological debate.

The Woman at the well begins by telling Jesus who he is to her and who she believes herself to be to Jesus. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.” Jesus goes deeper and reveals to her that he is the Messiah, “I am He.” After revealing who he is the woman, she goes into her city and shares what happened and many people in the city believed in Jesus because of this woman’s testimony.

Because the woman was known and trusted in the city, her testimony meant something to the people, and they were able to accept Jesus, showing us the importance of community relationships when encountering God.

How does my community know God through my actions and my relationships?

March 15: Fourth Sunday in Lent, John 9:1-41

Following Jesus’s longest dialogue in the Gospels with the woman at the well, we experience Jesus’s largest absence in the Gospels in the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. In this story Jesus heals a blind man which leads to an investigation of the healing by the pharisees. Throughout this long periscope, we see a mirror of “I am” statements between Jesus who states, “I am the light of the world” after the healing and the man born blind during the Pharisees’ investigation with several “I am the man.” The man’s identity was fundamentally changed by his encounter with Jesus.

How have encounters with God or faith in our life changed how we see and define ourselves?

March 22: Fifth Sunday in Lent, John 11:1-45

One of the most critical moments of Jesus’s ministry is the resurrection of Lazarus, a story of love, loss, and hope for life after death. In this passage Jesus reveals “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” Often we focus in on the resurrection portion of this statement because of the miracle of resurrection and the anticipation of Jesus’s resurrection. But Jesus also declaratively states “I am the life” as well as “I am the resurrection.”

How do we live into this dualistic understanding of Christ?

March 29: Palm Sunday, Matthew 21:1-11

The last Sunday in March is the start to Holy week when Jesus enters Jerusalem as King. This passage is steeped in symbolic imagery as Jesus’s procession deliberately mirrors the procession of Roman military parades by contrasting Roman Conquerors with not a military stallion but a donkey, not trumpets but shouts of Hosanna and the waving palm branches, not flags of empire. During the procession of Jesus into Jerusalem someone asks, “Who is this?” and is given the response “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

How would we answer that question today? Who is Jesus and how will people know of Jesus because of us?