I. Pick Up the Stick 00:01
I was just listening to the readings, and it’s always interesting when you’re doing a series that is different from the readings, because all these things pop out at you in the readings. You’re like, “Man, I should preach that. Man, I should preach that.” But I’m not going to do two sermons, don’t worry. We’re just going to mention one thing that I do think God is saying to us this morning.
I was listening to that story in Exodus. Of course, we had that long series on Exodus in the fall, and there was this moment that struck me differently as we read it today. When Moses came, he’s like, “God, they’re going to kill me. What am I going to do in this situation?” God told him to take up his staff and go strike a rock (Exod 17.4–6). And yet when we pray to God, we’re like, “Okay, God, encourage me.” And we hear God, and he’s like, “Oh, I love you, and I have good things for you.” But he doesn’t give us things to do. Isn’t that interesting, huh?
I think maybe we all need to be challenged: what is God asking us to do in those situations? Because yes, the word of the Lord is that he is faithful, he is good, he’s going to see you through, he has good things for you. And you need to hear that constantly, because there’s the other voice that says, “God hates you, and you’re the worst, and you don’t deserve any of that.” And so we need to hear the encouragement of God. But there’s one more step, which is that we need to do the things of God, the things he tells us to do. And it might even be as simple as “Pick up a stick, go hit the rock, and water’s going to come out,” which even my son Rowan will tell you is not how sticks and rocks work. So don’t be surprised when he tells you to do things you weren’t thinking of doing, or that wouldn’t make sense to you.
So that’s just a little encouragement as we dive into these things. We can get so theologically minded, so Christianese, where we have all these phrases and things, that we forget God’s a God who demands obedience, and he often asks us to do things to save our life that don’t make sense.
II. Holy Tuesday 02:01
Okay, let’s start. Let’s talk about our series. We’re talking about the last week that Jesus lived on earth. What did he teach? What did he do as he prepared his followers for his crucifixion? The most scandalous, mind-boggling action of any leader in the history of the world was to raise up these eleven men and then go die and say, “Now it’s your turn.” Okay, there’s a little bit more going on there, but what is he telling them?
Today we’re doing Holy Tuesday, so this is Tuesday of Holy Week. There’s a really interesting thing about Wednesday: we have no stories from the Wednesday of Holy Week, and so we call that Silent Wednesday. There’s talk about how he spent that last day before the Last Supper and Passover with his followers, in communion with his friends in Bethany. We’re not going to get into that, because there’s not more than that to talk about. But Tuesday is his last day where he’s announcing to the world his purposes for the world, and then Thursday we’re in the Passion, we’re in the moments that are his: the drama of his crucifixion, the drama of the Passover.
And so as we’re going through today, you can hear an urgency in Jesus’s voice. This is the last time Jesus talks to the religious leaders outside of his trials, and he really desperately, like we talked about last week, wants Jerusalem to come to him. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how long have I wished to gather you under my wings” (Matt 23.37). So don’t hear what he’s saying today as rebuking the Pharisees because he doesn’t like them. Hear what he’s saying today as him trying desperately to correct their misapprehensions, so that they can see the truth. Because each one of these Pharisees (although all the Pharisees end up turning against him, whatever), each one of these Pharisees has an opportunity to know Jesus Christ, to know his purposes. And so he’s never treating them like this group that’s the enemy. He’s always answering them in the fullness of truth, that they might be saved as well.
III. The Fig Tree and a Mountain-Moving God 04:18
So, keeping that in mind, let’s join the narrative. Last time, he flipped over the tables, he cursed the fig tree, he did all these things. He went to Bethany, he slept, he got up, and we enter the story here:
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.” Mark 11.20–22
What? The fig tree? “Have faith in God”? Okay, let’s hear what he says:
23 “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11.23–25
That is a tangle of important things. But what does it mean about the fig tree? What’s the point? Well, I kind of get the humor in this. Jesus has raised someone from the dead, multiple people. He has healed people. He’s fed five thousand. He curses a fig tree, it withers, and Peter’s like, “Rabbi, look, what you said came to pass!” As if he’s shocked and amazed. There’s an exclamation point in there: “Rabbi, look!” Now, of course, there wasn’t punctuation in the original language, but there’s this idea of an exclamation, like he’s shocked. And Jesus is like, “Duh. Have faith in God. The mountains will move if you have faith in God. You’re surprised by a fig tree?” That’s the connection.
But then the modern question comes up: “Yeah, but I’ve never heard of a mountain being moved and thrown into the sea. It’s never happened to me. I’ve never heard of it.” It has never happened, that we know of, that somebody has prayed and a mountain has been tossed into the sea. So what is Jesus talking about? I think part of that answer is that it’s a mystery, because he says, “Whatever you ask and believe, I will give you.” And I can tell you from personal experience it doesn’t mean what it says on the surface, because I have asked and I have believed, and things have not happened. So what is Jesus’s point? The mountains aren’t being tossed into the sea, and you can ask and pray and believe and things don’t happen. So why would he say that? Because we know Jesus doesn’t lie. He is the truth.
Well, my mom has this point that she frequently makes about when she disagrees with my dad. She has a procedure. She disagrees, and then she goes to God and says, “God, please change his mind, or change mine.” The “or change mine” is really important, although I’m sure “please change his mind” is sometimes prayed more fervently. But there’s this idea here that sometimes God’s not answering our prayers is an answer to our prayers. Sometimes when you pray for something, it’s actually not the thing you need or want or desire, if you could see the world the way God sees it.
What type of faith moves mountains? It’s the type of faith that believes God will move the mountain, and believes that when the mountain doesn’t move, God is still moving on your behalf. That’s the type of faith Jesus wants for us. Not that our prayers are ineffectual: “Well, if God’s only going to pick and choose, why should I even pray? He’s going to do what he wants to do anyway.” No, no, no. The type of faith that believes our prayers are so powerful that even if that mountain doesn’t move, there is a mountain moving. God is a mountain-moving God. And so when you pray fervently for that job (“I’m called to this job, I’m going to get this job, I’m going to get this thing”), and then it doesn’t come through, we say, “Thank you, Lord, for answering that prayer.” Because ultimately, what God is doing through our prayers, we have to trust, is better than our prayers.
So once again, I don’t want to overmysticize this. Yeah, pray for specific things and see God show up. He does. But when he doesn’t, we still have faith in our mountain-moving God. That’s a lot of faith.
And furthermore, he throws in this little nugget: forgive others so that God can forgive you. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on that, so let’s just all agree that we’re not going to drink the poison of unforgiveness and hope that the other person dies. Let’s not be a people of unforgiveness. It just messes things up.
IV. By What Authority? 08:47
Okay, let’s move on. There’s more to talk about. So he gets into Jerusalem, and right away the religious leaders… He had just turned over the tables. He had Palm Sunday, where he came in. And they are ready. They are armed and ready for him. They’re going to challenge Jesus because he’s getting too popular. He has too much of a following, and there are a lot of concerns going on. So it says in Mark 11:27:
27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, Mark 11.27
All the elites, all the experts came to him.
28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” Mark 11.28
That’s an interesting question: who gave you your authority? Basically they’re like, “What right have you to come into our place and do what you’re doing and contradict our authority?” So Jesus never answers the question on the surface. He jumps in and he says:
29 “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Mark 11.29–33
I love that answer, because it also answers their question. “What authority do you have to do these things?” “Well, what authority did John have to do these things?” If they had said “God’s authority,” Jesus would have said, “You have your answer.” He gave them the answer. And yet, because they were so twisted up in their political considerations, they didn’t want to lose face. If Jesus called them out for not believing in John… They didn’t want to lose face with the people if they said John wasn’t a prophet.
They had their chance. These are the defenders of Jerusalem. They are there, standing on the threshold, to defend the true faith, to lead the people to God. And Jesus gives them an opportunity over and over. And at this point, I believe, they lose their opportunity as a religious group to participate in what Jesus is doing. That’s my own opinion, but you can see from this point on the conversation changes. They make a choice. Instead of answering what they know, they decide to be cowards and hypocrites.
V. They Will Respect My Son 12:06
And then Jesus comes back with this. You might have wondered during Palm Sunday: he’s healing people, he’s doing all these good things, he’s feeding people. How do they decide to crucify him? Well, it’s because he started saying things like this. Matthew 21:33:
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” Matt 21.33–39
This parable always breaks my heart because of that line, “They will respect my son.” You just kind of hear the heart of God behind that: “Surely they’ll respect my son.” Now, of course, God knows the wickedness in our hearts, so he knew what was going to happen. But just hear the heart. Don’t make it this theological thing, “God and his justice needed a sacrifice.” No. The Father sent his Son because he wanted to save us, and we killed him. That’s the heart of Holy Week. Everything Jesus is saying is, “Jerusalem, come under my wings. Get on my program. Get back in right relationship with God.” And the answer is his crucifixion. That’s the answer the religious body gives. That’s the answer humanity gives when God shows up.
So then the question from Jesus:
40 “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Matt 21.40–41
So what’s happening here? What is the war Jesus is fighting? He is taking back the salvation God offered through Israel and through the old covenant, and he is fulfilling the old covenant and providing a brand-new set of tenants to manage his vineyard. Because Israel, from the very beginning, from Exodus, from Abraham onwards, was to be the vineyard of God that provided the fruit of God’s salvation to the entire world. And they turned their back on that, and they became a squabbling people, again and again fighting for their own power, keeping the foreigner out, doing their own thing, building this religious edifice to their own holiness. And when God showed up, the one they were supposedly worshiping, they crucified him.
But the hope, and the revelation, is that now there are 2.2 billion Christians because of their decision, instead of 2.2 billion Israel worshiping God. I mean, I’m jumping out on a leap here, because of course Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world, so there is no hypothetical where Israel gets it right. The glory of God is that he knew that and he came anyways. He knew that and he saved us anyways. He knew that and he chose Israel anyways, knowing they were going to fail, but still extending love again and again, and pursuing.
So in this you see what is happening in Holy Week. What is Jesus enacting with all of these things? He’s changing the guard. It’s a new covenant, new tenants. And now Christianity is the number one religion in the whole world by a long shot, because Jesus brought fruit out of his next generation, out of the new covenant, by his power. Not because humanity changed. Not because his eleven disciples were the holy Jews he took, like, “These are the eleven people who are the holiest of all Jews, and they will change the world.” No, because Jesus did it for us and invited us to walk into it. The problem with the law, the problem with the old covenant, is that it relied on us to fulfill it. Jesus came and said, “I’ll fulfill it, and then I’ll welcome you into the resurrected life of my kingdom.” And that’s what’s happening in Holy Week.
VI. The Stone the Builders Rejected 16:41
So let’s keep going here, because you can see now things are going to shift as he gives this parable, and Jesus calls back to the prophecies. He says:
42 “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. Matt 21.42–45
Their eyes were opened just enough to hear the truth of Jesus’s words, but instead of submitting themselves to the truth, they decided to kill it. And the same temptation comes up in our life when we get the hard truth: the thing your wife tells you that you don’t want to hear at that moment, the thing your boss tells you that you’re fighting against, whatever. And instead of “Oh man, you’re right, I need to change, I need to change direction, I need to repent,” it’s “No, no, no, that’s not my problem. No, no, no, you’re exaggerating.” Whatever it is in your life, if it is a time of hard truth that God’s bringing to you, are you submitting to the truth, or are you crucifying it?
Now, I’m using dramatic language here, but I do think we’re talking about this from the picture of Jesus coming in to us. We talked last week about when he cleared the temple. It’s like he’s clearing the temple of our heart of all our idols, all our distractions, all our things, so that we can encounter him. And in this moment he’s coming into Jerusalem and saying, “Here’s the truth. How are you going to respond?”
Now, I love that picture of the stone: whoever falls on it breaks in pieces; whoever it falls on is crushed utterly. And I think of that as the model of salvation, the model of repentance. Jesus is a stone, and when you encounter him in your life, whether you were born into a Christian family or not, you’re going to encounter him. And you can either throw yourself on the mercy of God, and you will be broken in pieces, but what will remain is the resurrected person God’s called you to be. Or when you encounter Christ, you can resist it, and it will crush you utterly. Reality is unforgiving. The truth is unforgiving. So throw yourself on God, who is forgiving.
VII. Render to God What Is God's 18:43
Okay, so Jesus is laying down the law, and I’m using that phrase pun intended. He’s laying down the new law: this is the way it will be. And then, from that point on, basically everyone who comes to talk to Jesus was sent to test him. They’re like, “We’ve heard enough parables, Jesus. We’re going to lead the conversation from now on.” And so we get to this point where now they’re full tilt trying to trap Jesus. In Mark 12:13:
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. Mark 12.13
They’re going to trap the Word in the words that he says. The absurdity is fun to look at, looking back. But it’s the same thing: we also argue with God ourselves, as if he doesn’t have this thing figured out.
14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. Mark 12.14
Flattery to start with. “We’re going to boost his ego so he’ll fall into our trap.”
“For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Mark 12.14
I mean, you can just hear the hypocritical nature of what they’re saying. And then they say:
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mark 12.14–17
And once again Jesus answered their question, but not in the way they expected. He answered their question in a way that could be understood; in a court of law, Jesus said nothing wrong. “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” But for three hundred years after this moment, the first Christians looked at this passage and said, “Caesar doesn’t get our allegiance and our worship. God does.” So they’re trying to trap him into saying something that sounds like an insurrection, so they can send him to the Romans to be killed. That’s their whole point. And he says something that’s used for the greatest insurrection in the history of the world, and yet they can’t trap him. Jesus is pretty smart. He’s saying, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” which sounds like “Pay your taxes,” and sure, fine, pay your taxes. “But render to God what is God’s.”
And Jesus could have just as easily picked up a little kid and said, “Whose likeness and inscription is on this?” Whose likeness and inscription is on you? God’s. So render to God what is God’s. There’s no middle ground. You belong wholly to him. So sure, pay your taxes, but sacrifice your entire life to God.
VIII. Seeing What You Never Saw Before 21:50
So then there’s a series of fun tests. The Sadducees get their shot, about the resurrection, and Jesus is like, “God’s the God of the living, not of the dead” (Mark 12.27). “So let’s move on. You don’t understand what you’re talking about.” I love that line in there. He’s like, “You do not understand of what you speak.”
And then there’s the great commandment. This guy has a heart for God. He actually wants to know. He’s like, “Jesus is answering so well that I’m going to ask him my most burning question.” And he says, “What’s the greatest commandment?” And you hear it every Sunday. The first commandment is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul; love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12.30–31). It all comes down to love. Not the love we celebrate on Valentine’s Day. The love we celebrate when we look at the cross: the love that is laying your life down for your neighbor and for God, both of which are very difficult to do, believe it or not. It’s simple but difficult.
And then they say, “Okay, now we’re going to test him again. Whose son is the Christ, the Messiah?” They’re trying to see: is he going to claim to be the Messiah? And Jesus just comes back and says, “Okay, look at this prophecy.” He could have picked several. He picked this one: “Let’s do this one today.” And he says, so David writes in the Psalms, “The Lord said to my Lord” (Ps 110.1). We know that’s a prophetic psalm, and the Messiah is supposed to come from David’s line. But why is he calling his son his Lord? Unless maybe his son is not just his son. Maybe he’s not just an earthly Messiah, but actually he’s the Son of the living God, Lord, like God.
We don’t have to go into the ins and outs of prophetic ministry, but it was a sick burn in his day. Back then people were like, “Whoa, what did he just say?” Because they knew that Scripture, they knew the prophecies, and when he said that, they’re like, “I never thought about it that way before.” And that’s my whole point in bringing up this one. We could have just skipped it, but I wanted to bring it up because when Jesus shows up, you see things in a way you never thought of before. And the reason you can keep reading the Bible for eighty, ninety, a hundred years and get stuff out of it is that Jesus is showing up when you read the Bible, when you hear his words, when you come to church on Sunday. So open your eyes, open your ears. He’s going to show up and show you things you never saw before.
Then he says, “Beware of the scribes” (Mark 12.38–40), because they hadn’t gotten beaten up at all yet, so he needed to throw them in there. There are these different groups, and he needed to beat up on the scribes a little bit. He talks about how they pray these long-winded prayers, like they’re trying to make themselves important. But when you pray, “Mountain, go into the sea, in Jesus’ name,” that’s enough.
And then we get the widow’s offering (Mark 12.41–44), and it’s just thematically perfect, because what is Jesus about to do? The widow goes in and she gives the two mites, and he says, “All these people give these gifts, and this widow gave all she had,” to God’s temple, to God’s people on earth. And what is Jesus about to do? He’s about to give the exact same thing: everything he has, for you. Everything. There’s no dollar amount that covers it when you give everything.
IX. Wars and Rumors of Wars 24:38
So then, just to sum up how Jesus ends his day: he moves to the Mount of Olives, and he’s looking out at the temple. He’s done talking to the religious leaders, and now he’s just talking to his followers, and he’s saying, “This is what’s going to happen.” And he tells them a few things. We’re not going to read it, because we just don’t have the time. But he says the temple is going to be destroyed (Mark 13.2), which he said several times, but he wants them to know the temple’s going away. And what he’s saying there is both: yes, in forty years, we know, the Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the old temple. But more importantly and more immediately, what he’s saying in this context is: there’s no more temple religion. There’s no more old covenant. You no more go get a lamb and sacrifice it. You no more follow these ways. “Instead, I’m going to show you something new, and next time we meet, I’ll tell you what the new thing is”: the new covenant.
And as he’s sitting there saying these things, he starts to warn them about what’s going to come. Because you’ve got to think: Jesus has the heart of God for his followers. He loves them in a way we can barely imagine. And he’s thinking about the fact that when he dies and then ascends into heaven, they get beaten up, tortured, and killed. All of these people at least get beaten up and thrown in prison at some point or another, and almost all of them die. So what do you say to that group of people? “Go build my church. You’re going to die.” He’s trying to help them see.
But like I said, I’m going to sum up. I’m tempted to read, but there’s too much. So he starts telling them, “You’re going to stand in front of rulers. You’re going to be in front of magistrates and kings. Don’t be afraid. The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say” (Mark 13.9–11). So that’s number one: don’t be afraid. “You’re not doing it in your own power. You’re doing it in mine.”
Number two: everything’s going to go to hell, in a way, because Jerusalem gets destroyed. Nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom (Mark 13.8). War is going to happen. You’re going to see a heck of a lot of hell when the kingdom of God comes in to throw it out. Don’t be alarmed. Wars and rumors of wars (Mark 13.7): that’s in this little passage.
My favorite thing about that, that I’ve heard, is: yeah, we’ve seen a lot of wars and rumors of wars, but there are all these prophecies about peace, about people beating swords into plowshares (Isa 2.4). So let’s look for those. We’ve seen all of these. Why are you looking for more wars and rumors of wars? We’ve seen them all. Let’s look for the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding (Phil 4.7). Let’s look for the things where the glory of the Lord covers the earth like the waters cover the sea (Hab 2.14). That’s the stuff we’re still looking forward to. The wars and rumors of wars, they’re happening, and Jesus says, “I understand. It’s going to happen. Don’t be afraid.”
And then he says, “Be on your guard,” and he talks about how even children and brothers and sisters are going to rise up and betray you (Mark 13.12). “You’re going to suffer betrayal. You’re going to suffer all these things. But I’m with you, and the Holy Spirit will empower you.” And further: “Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, so when you see it surrounded, get out of there.” He gives them a specific prophecy to get out of Jerusalem. In fact, many Christians escaped because they took the words of Jesus seriously, forty years later.
X. Stay Awake 28:41
And then there’s this last thing I’m going to say, and we’ll wrap up on this, because I do want to read this little part. Mark 13:24:
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” Mark 13.24–27
It’s very complex and scary language. I’m going to sum it up really easily: when Jesus died and rose from the dead, there was no other spiritual power that would ever have authority again on this earth. That’s what he’s saying. We don’t have to look for the actual stars to darken, or the moon, or the sun. What he’s saying is: all of those spiritual forces that people worship, the sun god Ra, the god Baal, all of those things, everything that thinks it has authority on earth, “in my death and resurrection, that all goes away. And I’m going to send my angels, or messengers, to the ends of the earth, proclaiming my kingdom.”
And today we sit here as the angels of the Lord, sent to the four corners of the earth, proclaiming the kingdom of God. All of this was so that they would go forth in the power of God, not fearing the works of the enemy. And every time we leave here, we tell you to go forth rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s the same message. What Jesus is saying is, “I’m going to destroy all of the power of the enemy.” And what we’re experiencing from now until we enter into that new heaven and new earth is the defeat of the enemy. There’s no “Oh, but he has the stronghold over here, and it’s scary.” No. Jesus has everything. We’re just walking it out in our life. And the reason we’re still walking around, the reason we don’t see the new heaven and the new earth, is that new babies are being born every day, and Jesus wants them to get into his kingdom too.
I’m saying a lot that probably could use some explanation, but I’m just going to leave it here, and we’ll talk about it more next time. But what Jesus has done is make a way where we can walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, and everything is under his authority. He’s already King. So when you come up against that thing in your life that he can’t handle: he can. And when you come up against that person who is bound by the powers of darkness: well, Jesus has come that they might have light and freedom. And we have a ministry to do, just like the eleven disciples who created 2.2 billion Christians, who changed the world. We have a mission.
And then his very last thing he says is, “Stay awake” (Mark 13.37). I didn’t read that passage, but the last thing he says to them before the Last Supper is “Stay awake.” So as we go on into Lent, I just tell you: wake up, stay awake. Amen.