Includes a sample introduction to the lesson, text highlights and outline, illustrations you can use, discussion questions you can share, and spiritual life applications you can make. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRODUCTION/ILLUSTRATION
“Caesar awoke on the famous day, the Ides of March, 44 BCE, not feeling well. His wife had a bad dream, in which he had been murdered. She begged him to stay home. He sent word to the Senate that he was ill and would not be in attendance at the day’s meeting. He was scheduled to embark on a military campaign the next The Senators panicked; this was to be the day they struck Caesar down. Miss this day and Caesar would march off on campaign, and cloak himself in more martial glory. This was their last chance.
Desperate, they sent someone Caesar would trust: Decimus Brutus, a distant cousin of Caesar, as well as the famous Marcus Brutus, one of Caesar’s trusted lieutenants. Caesar’s patronage had brought Decimus military appointments and political offices alike. Caesar loved Decimus like a son, and said so in public on many occasions. When Decimus arrived to talk Caesar into attendance at the Senate meeting, Caesar listened. Off they went, arm in arm.”
(Phillip Barlag, The History of Rome in 12 Buildings, p. 54-55)
(You could also choose to include the question on betrayal from later Point II in the introduction)
The betrayal and assassination of Julius Caesar is one of the most famous in history — surpassed only by the one we will study in today’s lesson in Matthew 26, the betrayal of Jesus by Judas after the Last Supper.
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