1
00:00:00,049 --> 00:00:01,280
Pastor Josh: Hey guys, how are we?

2
00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:03,980
Good to see all of you here this evening.

3
00:00:04,489 --> 00:00:08,060
I just want to thank every single
one of you for being here on

4
00:00:08,060 --> 00:00:09,590
your Sunday night on Palm Sunday.

5
00:00:09,590 --> 00:00:10,129
Thank you.

6
00:00:10,129 --> 00:00:10,640
Hallelujah.

7
00:00:11,900 --> 00:00:16,248
this Palm Sunday, I'm calling
this, uh, sermon the Lion Lamb.

8
00:00:16,248 --> 00:00:17,240
The lamb lion.

9
00:00:18,259 --> 00:00:21,349
And, uh, hopefully that's, understandable.

10
00:00:21,349 --> 00:00:26,689
As we get into this, I wanna read, if you
would turn with me to John chapter 12.

11
00:00:27,199 --> 00:00:30,499
We're gonna read the triumphal
entry in John's gospel.

12
00:00:31,279 --> 00:00:36,589
It's brief, but it's
succinct and full of meaning.

13
00:00:37,579 --> 00:00:41,929
John chapter 12, verse 12 to 19.

14
00:00:43,129 --> 00:00:47,480
Verse 12, the next day, the large
crowd that had come to the feast heard

15
00:00:47,480 --> 00:00:49,190
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

16
00:00:49,460 --> 00:00:53,870
So they took branches of palm trees and
went out to meet him, crying out Hosanna.

17
00:00:54,379 --> 00:00:58,190
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

18
00:00:58,550 --> 00:01:02,240
And Jesus found a young donkey
and sat on it just, it is written

19
00:01:02,629 --> 00:01:04,099
fear, not daughter of Zion.

20
00:01:04,099 --> 00:01:08,810
Behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's cult.

21
00:01:09,470 --> 00:01:12,860
His disciples did not understand
these things at first, but

22
00:01:12,860 --> 00:01:14,360
when Jesus was glorified.

23
00:01:14,795 --> 00:01:17,914
Then they remembered that these
things had been written about

24
00:01:17,914 --> 00:01:19,715
him and had been done to him.

25
00:01:20,285 --> 00:01:23,765
The crowd that had been with him
when he called Lazarus out from

26
00:01:23,765 --> 00:01:27,215
the tomb and raised him from the
dead, continued to bear witness.

27
00:01:27,725 --> 00:01:30,634
The reason why the crowd went
to meet him was that they had

28
00:01:30,634 --> 00:01:32,285
heard that he had done this sign.

29
00:01:32,824 --> 00:01:37,685
So the Pharisee said to one another,
you see that you are gaining nothing.

30
00:01:37,925 --> 00:01:42,035
Look, the world has gone after him.

31
00:01:42,545 --> 00:01:43,565
This is the word of the Lord.

32
00:01:44,285 --> 00:01:49,475
I found myself last week not
necessarily doom scrolling.

33
00:01:49,505 --> 00:01:52,744
'cause doom scrolling is more about
the short little videos you watch.

34
00:01:52,775 --> 00:01:57,994
I'm just doom walking because I
watch longer, new segments and from

35
00:01:57,994 --> 00:02:03,215
different sources and trying to get
a wide view of takes on what's going

36
00:02:03,215 --> 00:02:05,105
on in our present political climate.

37
00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,860
And I was sitting there on lunch
listening to a story and just heartbroken

38
00:02:09,910 --> 00:02:15,220
over the state of things, and I
had this thing that came out of me

39
00:02:15,610 --> 00:02:19,090
After I said it, I kind of wondered
at it and wondered where it came

40
00:02:19,090 --> 00:02:21,550
from, but here's the thought I had.

41
00:02:22,540 --> 00:02:27,160
I just simply thought on my lunch, sitting
in the van, I wish David Palmer were

42
00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:34,360
president now that if you're cool and
awesome, you get the reference right away.

43
00:02:35,065 --> 00:02:39,095
For those of you who aren't cool
and awesome, David Palmer was the

44
00:02:39,095 --> 00:02:43,715
fictional president in the long
running show, 24 with Keith or

45
00:02:43,715 --> 00:02:45,545
Sutherland playing Jack Bauer.

46
00:02:45,845 --> 00:02:46,774
He was a good president.

47
00:02:47,135 --> 00:02:48,755
He was the kind of president you wanted.

48
00:02:49,055 --> 00:02:50,704
He was a man of character.

49
00:02:50,735 --> 00:02:54,674
Uh, you know, he, stuck to his guns and
always did what was right, no matter the

50
00:02:54,674 --> 00:02:57,584
price he paid eventually losing his life.

51
00:02:57,584 --> 00:03:02,054
Spoiler alert, or I think of Aragon
and the Lord of the Rings, courageous,

52
00:03:02,054 --> 00:03:07,514
fearsome, valiant at the black
gate in the darkest moment, what

53
00:03:07,514 --> 00:03:09,914
Token coined the you catastrophe.

54
00:03:10,034 --> 00:03:14,024
That moment in time where things
seem the most hopeless, then

55
00:03:14,024 --> 00:03:15,374
all of a sudden there's a churn.

56
00:03:15,764 --> 00:03:19,574
He by himself, charges the
black gate and then the whole

57
00:03:19,574 --> 00:03:21,614
army follows after him to buy.

58
00:03:22,034 --> 00:03:28,574
Frodo and Sam a little more time,
and there's this king in Aragon.

59
00:03:28,754 --> 00:03:31,214
There's this, this king you're drawn to.

60
00:03:31,214 --> 00:03:35,594
There's this thing in him that you're
like, yeah, I would like as king

61
00:03:35,894 --> 00:03:40,634
culminating in one of the best scenes
in any movie ever where following his

62
00:03:40,634 --> 00:03:47,474
coronation, Aragon refuses the bow
of the hobbits as they pay homage to

63
00:03:47,474 --> 00:03:50,534
him and that he's newly crowned king.

64
00:03:51,014 --> 00:03:53,984
And he says, my friends,
you bow to no one.

65
00:03:55,574 --> 00:04:01,394
And then bows to them and all of
Gondor follows with him But we see

66
00:04:01,394 --> 00:04:06,224
even in the best of men and women,
twisted by power and money and lust.

67
00:04:06,629 --> 00:04:09,389
There was this guy that we wanted to
get, he had written this book called

68
00:04:09,389 --> 00:04:12,629
The Heavenly Man, and it was just
all the suffering he went through.

69
00:04:12,629 --> 00:04:16,819
He was tortured for years and years,
and the lessons he learned from

70
00:04:16,819 --> 00:04:20,959
it and the things he wrote were
so beautiful and other worldly.

71
00:04:21,259 --> 00:04:26,569
Finally at the church I was at years
and years ago, we got 'em to come speak.

72
00:04:27,169 --> 00:04:30,979
But what showed up before he got
there was a writer telling us that

73
00:04:30,979 --> 00:04:34,579
he needed a certain kind of bottled
water at a certain kind of temperature.

74
00:04:34,579 --> 00:04:37,099
And just the, the things were ridiculous.

75
00:04:37,099 --> 00:04:39,799
And after that, you just didn't
pick up and read the book.

76
00:04:39,799 --> 00:04:44,959
The same way famous pastors who have had
tremendous success in the kingdom leading

77
00:04:45,079 --> 00:04:51,919
thousands to the Lord justifying straight
evil, one famous apologist, justifying

78
00:04:51,919 --> 00:04:55,879
his gross infidelity, saying, because I
have done so much for the kingdom, God

79
00:04:55,879 --> 00:05:02,959
allows me to sleep with as many women as
I want all coming out after his death.

80
00:05:03,379 --> 00:05:09,169
The best we see is an anorexic mixture
of the qualities we long for in a leader.

81
00:05:09,449 --> 00:05:10,529
in a king.

82
00:05:10,889 --> 00:05:15,089
The record of actual kings, when you
look at it squarely, is not only abysmal,

83
00:05:15,299 --> 00:05:18,449
it's a kind of historical horror show.

84
00:05:19,259 --> 00:05:24,779
No one who has really read history in
the history of rulers or even a paragraph

85
00:05:24,779 --> 00:05:29,999
about Henry VII or Ivan the terrible could
persist in the delusion that kingship

86
00:05:30,149 --> 00:05:33,319
is a noble enterprise for the long term.

87
00:05:33,769 --> 00:05:38,089
Even in the best cases, kings fail
At best, kings turn to gluttons,

88
00:05:38,089 --> 00:05:40,339
neglect and or tyrannical.

89
00:05:40,549 --> 00:05:45,889
At worst, they wither and splendor
until they resemble waxing icons, living

90
00:05:45,919 --> 00:05:48,499
death mask, enthroned to over decay.

91
00:05:49,069 --> 00:05:53,179
The 20th century's revolutions in
Dethronement seem to end monarchy.

92
00:05:53,299 --> 00:05:58,639
We gotta get rid of this, yet we
immediately rebuilt in tabloid

93
00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:03,319
weddings, fairytales, and collective
daydreams, the whole enterprise.

94
00:06:03,949 --> 00:06:06,409
Where did we, the educated
and the practical?

95
00:06:06,529 --> 00:06:11,059
I say with quotes, the children of Darwin
and Freud get the idea of a true king.

96
00:06:11,629 --> 00:06:16,099
What primordial event, what
archetypal need, keeps us forging

97
00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:18,979
and reforging that impossible icon.

98
00:06:19,339 --> 00:06:23,659
Real kings were never like that, never
wise never, just never gentle, never

99
00:06:23,659 --> 00:06:27,799
truly brave, not in the way we wish,
not in the way we imagine when we

100
00:06:27,799 --> 00:06:33,409
describe the ideal prince, even David,
A man after God's own heart, the best

101
00:06:33,409 --> 00:06:37,429
king Israel ever had failed and failed.

102
00:06:38,808 --> 00:06:43,249
Yet the moment the last sword clatters
to the floor and the last crown is melted

103
00:06:43,249 --> 00:06:48,229
down, we find ourselves possessed by
images of the king, as he should have been

104
00:06:48,949 --> 00:06:50,929
the one who rules injustice and mercy.

105
00:06:51,109 --> 00:06:54,259
The one whose word is
true as his heart is pure.

106
00:06:54,409 --> 00:06:58,039
The one who suffers with his
people and who is by some

107
00:06:58,039 --> 00:07:01,069
miracle also unbreakably strong.

108
00:07:01,624 --> 00:07:05,344
We hold the absence of the true king
in our bones, like a genetic memory,

109
00:07:05,524 --> 00:07:09,604
and we cannot bear to let it go.

110
00:07:10,744 --> 00:07:14,674
If you know the real war heroes, you
realize quickly that a lot of them,

111
00:07:14,674 --> 00:07:19,354
after the parades and the medals
can't even live in civilized society.

112
00:07:19,774 --> 00:07:22,954
They're ruined for bureaucracy,
for cocktail parties, for the slow

113
00:07:22,954 --> 00:07:25,564
motion decency of domestic life.

114
00:07:25,744 --> 00:07:30,274
They're too much for us, too raw, too
honest, too seared by what they've seen.

115
00:07:30,874 --> 00:07:34,414
Sometimes they're an
embarrassment, sometimes a threat.

116
00:07:34,804 --> 00:07:39,844
The world wants its heroes, but
outta distance and preferably dead.

117
00:07:40,744 --> 00:07:44,404
And you also realize that the
sophisticated, the scholarly type, the

118
00:07:44,404 --> 00:07:48,994
one who is meek in the way of the sage or
the monk or the gentle queen mother, is

119
00:07:48,994 --> 00:07:52,144
so often the opposite of decisive action.

120
00:07:52,624 --> 00:07:55,924
The sweet ones are full of
hesitation or self-doubt.

121
00:07:56,074 --> 00:07:57,039
They're good company.

122
00:07:57,649 --> 00:08:00,619
But we would not follow them
into the battle or trust them to

123
00:08:00,619 --> 00:08:02,239
defend the city walls at night.

124
00:08:03,199 --> 00:08:04,279
I know something about that.

125
00:08:04,279 --> 00:08:10,069
The meek and the brave, the lamb
and the lion are at war in us, and

126
00:08:10,099 --> 00:08:12,379
every compromise is a kind of defeat.

127
00:08:12,529 --> 00:08:14,749
We want the king who is both.

128
00:08:16,219 --> 00:08:22,309
I have noticed that in every mythology,
every literature, every cycle of

129
00:08:22,309 --> 00:08:24,799
stories, there is a king to come.

130
00:08:25,159 --> 00:08:29,059
A king hiding a king who will one
day rise and set things right.

131
00:08:29,674 --> 00:08:33,784
The Greeks had their golden age lofts,
but always hinted at in the Son of

132
00:08:33,784 --> 00:08:36,693
Zeus or the wise king of the Gods.

133
00:08:37,024 --> 00:08:41,554
The Arthurian legends are a
compendium of failed kings.

134
00:08:41,674 --> 00:08:45,124
Each one promising something
the last could never deliver.

135
00:08:45,664 --> 00:08:51,034
It is as if humanity is haunted by
the ghost of a king who never really

136
00:08:51,124 --> 00:08:55,924
lived, but whose shape is pressed
into every hunger and longing Every

137
00:08:55,924 --> 00:08:57,844
picture of the world made new.

138
00:08:59,074 --> 00:09:03,784
I've noticed too that we transpose
the empty place of the king into

139
00:09:03,784 --> 00:09:06,664
every other institution that fails us.

140
00:09:07,324 --> 00:09:13,744
We look for it in governments, holy moly,
in relationships, in teachers and artists,

141
00:09:13,864 --> 00:09:19,564
in revolutionaries, in mentors and
counselors, we keep waiting for someone

142
00:09:19,564 --> 00:09:21,634
to show the impossible combination.

143
00:09:22,249 --> 00:09:26,749
The might to sweep the world clean of its
filth and the gentleness to cradle the

144
00:09:26,749 --> 00:09:29,989
broken in the arms softer than a mother's.

145
00:09:30,529 --> 00:09:33,949
When the leaders fail us, we turn
them into monsters so we can keep

146
00:09:33,949 --> 00:09:38,119
our king uncorrupted in the realm of
fantasy, we will not surrender the

147
00:09:38,119 --> 00:09:43,129
shape of the ideal, even if it means
damning every attempt to reach it In

148
00:09:43,129 --> 00:09:48,799
real life, I tried like everyone to
be a little king in my own domain.

149
00:09:49,159 --> 00:09:52,069
If the king's not out there, maybe
he's here to rule my little patch

150
00:09:52,069 --> 00:09:57,619
of life with justice or failing
that with some kind of competence.

151
00:09:58,279 --> 00:10:01,429
I failed, of course, and found no
comfort in the failures of others.

152
00:10:02,179 --> 00:10:05,899
There were times I tried to become
a subject instead, a servant of some

153
00:10:05,899 --> 00:10:10,549
worthy cause or a person or even
a worthy church to be a part of.

154
00:10:10,609 --> 00:10:12,319
But here too, I found the absence.

155
00:10:12,529 --> 00:10:16,159
None of the Lords I serve could meet
the minimum requirements of the ideal.

156
00:10:16,729 --> 00:10:21,259
They would become petty
or selfish, or just tired.

157
00:10:22,564 --> 00:10:25,264
They broke my heart
with their ordinariness.

158
00:10:26,494 --> 00:10:29,284
I think of the setting
where a passage takes place.

159
00:10:29,554 --> 00:10:32,224
A Roman occupied Jerusalem.

160
00:10:33,004 --> 00:10:39,609
Rome was the essential
illustration of what it looked

161
00:10:39,609 --> 00:10:42,909
like from the outside of man.

162
00:10:42,909 --> 00:10:48,579
Things are going pretty smooth here,
but for Rome, with all its pate's duty

163
00:10:48,579 --> 00:10:54,839
or gravitas, seriousness, or the Pax
Romana, peace through strength gave

164
00:10:54,899 --> 00:10:59,729
the world only Caesars iron willed,
ruthless and statecraft, addicted

165
00:10:59,729 --> 00:11:01,949
to spectacle, capable of mercy.

166
00:11:02,159 --> 00:11:06,839
Only when it enhanced the state, Augustus
ruled as a God, but not as a servant.

167
00:11:06,869 --> 00:11:08,729
Marcus Aurelius wrote of duty.

168
00:11:09,044 --> 00:11:11,204
But not of self emptying compassion.

169
00:11:11,654 --> 00:11:14,684
The Roman ideal was the strong
man, the general, the law giver,

170
00:11:14,684 --> 00:11:16,874
power, and tenderness did not mix.

171
00:11:17,054 --> 00:11:21,134
The idea would have seemed
foolish, even contemptible to them.

172
00:11:22,904 --> 00:11:28,004
But John, the Apostle John, is exiled and
aged, sees the throne of the universe and

173
00:11:28,004 --> 00:11:33,044
weeps because nobody in heaven on earth
or under the earth can open the scroll.

174
00:11:34,004 --> 00:11:37,124
No one is strong enough,
no unworthy enough.

175
00:11:37,154 --> 00:11:39,794
But then the elder speaks
in Revelation five, five.

176
00:11:39,794 --> 00:11:42,614
We've not behold.

177
00:11:43,514 --> 00:11:46,094
The lion of the tribe of Judah is strong.

178
00:11:46,094 --> 00:11:51,344
To open the book and break the seven
seals, John lit his head braced

179
00:11:51,344 --> 00:11:54,884
for the roaring lion instead in
the place of the lion, as if the

180
00:11:54,884 --> 00:11:58,784
universe had played a trick, there
stands a lamb fresh from slaughter.

181
00:11:58,874 --> 00:12:01,334
Wounds still open, blood still wet.

182
00:12:01,334 --> 00:12:02,744
The vision staggers him.

183
00:12:02,954 --> 00:12:04,484
A lion who is a lamb.

184
00:12:04,784 --> 00:12:06,194
A lamb who is a lion.

185
00:12:06,374 --> 00:12:08,414
John had been told of power.

186
00:12:08,624 --> 00:12:11,114
He beheld a paradox.

187
00:12:11,939 --> 00:12:13,139
Who is this?

188
00:12:13,469 --> 00:12:14,639
What kind of king is this?

189
00:12:14,639 --> 00:12:18,269
Centuries before us, Jonathan Edwards
read this passage and marveled at it.

190
00:12:18,629 --> 00:12:21,989
He called attention to what he
described as a conjunction of such

191
00:12:21,989 --> 00:12:27,839
really diverse excellencies as
otherwise would've seemed to us utterly

192
00:12:27,839 --> 00:12:30,779
incompatible in the same subject.

193
00:12:30,779 --> 00:12:35,249
In other words, Jesus Christ embodies
the union of paradoxes so deep and wide.

194
00:12:35,429 --> 00:12:39,959
Our culture has spent thousands
of years failing to imagine it.

195
00:12:40,289 --> 00:12:43,019
Every story we tell about
kings, every myth, every legend,

196
00:12:43,019 --> 00:12:44,729
every epic, every hero's tale.

197
00:12:44,939 --> 00:12:47,069
The king is either conquer or martyr.

198
00:12:47,159 --> 00:12:47,519
Never.

199
00:12:47,519 --> 00:12:47,999
Both.

200
00:12:48,209 --> 00:12:52,019
The king is either a devourer
of hearts or a gentle shepherd.

201
00:12:52,109 --> 00:12:52,409
Never.

202
00:12:52,409 --> 00:12:52,829
Both.

203
00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:57,869
We invent gods of war, gods of compassion,
but never one who's both at the same time,

204
00:12:57,959 --> 00:13:00,659
in the same body, in the same single life.

205
00:13:01,469 --> 00:13:07,229
One of the science fiction, uh, franchises
that is making a huge comeback is Dune.

206
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,309
And Dune three is releasing, and
the title of the book for the

207
00:13:11,309 --> 00:13:13,439
third dune is called Dune Messiah.

208
00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:19,479
And this Paul eTrades, uh, the
Maade, he is this Messianic figure.

209
00:13:19,479 --> 00:13:24,639
But what's fascinating about this story
is spoiler alert, he's the villain.

210
00:13:25,749 --> 00:13:30,399
He's the villain because this
power, as people look to him as the

211
00:13:30,399 --> 00:13:32,229
Messiah, is this Messianic figure.

212
00:13:32,409 --> 00:13:33,129
It corrupts him.

213
00:13:34,689 --> 00:13:35,559
He's the bad guy.

214
00:13:35,559 --> 00:13:39,969
Only once in a great while in fiction do
we get glimpses of this greatness, Aragon.

215
00:13:39,969 --> 00:13:44,499
But even he doubted himself or David
Palmer, who is also deeply flawed.

216
00:13:44,579 --> 00:13:48,149
where then did this wild and
possible, ideal originate?

217
00:13:48,449 --> 00:13:52,559
It erupted into the world as something
absolutely new as a singularity,

218
00:13:52,739 --> 00:13:57,389
as the shattering of the old order
of what power and glory meant.

219
00:13:57,569 --> 00:14:00,509
The conviction of the first
Christians was simply this.

220
00:14:00,509 --> 00:14:06,149
The only reason we ever have the
concept of the Lord who is servant,

221
00:14:06,149 --> 00:14:10,619
the king who dies for slaves, the
lion who is also a lamb, is because

222
00:14:10,619 --> 00:14:13,409
such a person actually exists.

223
00:14:13,529 --> 00:14:18,809
Christians didn't invent the ideal,
the ideal invented Christians.

224
00:14:19,829 --> 00:14:21,569
No, mine could have projected it.

225
00:14:21,736 --> 00:14:26,639
No religion could have made up because I
ran so calendar to every ancient modern.

226
00:14:27,194 --> 00:14:28,604
Instinct of the human heart.

227
00:14:28,604 --> 00:14:30,704
It became thinkable
only after it happened.

228
00:14:30,854 --> 00:14:33,854
Why else do you think we're obsessed
with superhero movies, with fantasy

229
00:14:33,854 --> 00:14:37,964
novels, with tales of galactic rebels,
and last stands in tragic destinies.

230
00:14:37,964 --> 00:14:42,044
We want a savior who is both human and
other worldly who can crush evil, but

231
00:14:42,044 --> 00:14:45,704
never lose his soul in the process, who
is willing to die for his friends and

232
00:14:45,764 --> 00:14:48,734
yet never in the in be defeated by death.

233
00:14:48,914 --> 00:14:52,154
We want Gandalf, but
Gandalf must also be Frodo.

234
00:14:52,214 --> 00:14:55,784
We want Aslan, but Aslan must
also be the child he loves.

235
00:14:55,904 --> 00:15:00,104
We want both the divine rescuer and the
gentle friend, and no matter how many

236
00:15:00,104 --> 00:15:05,114
times we split them, we keep looking
for someone who can f them at last.

237
00:15:05,234 --> 00:15:10,634
In Jesus and only in Jesus, the
impossible fusion is fact, not just a

238
00:15:10,634 --> 00:15:15,284
rumor, not two dimensional story, but
a living, breathing, bleeding event.

239
00:15:15,554 --> 00:15:18,224
In his every act, the paradox is alive.

240
00:15:18,284 --> 00:15:20,954
He calms the storm, but
he weeps over the city.

241
00:15:21,203 --> 00:15:23,693
He calls out the hypocrites,
but he lives beggars and

242
00:15:23,693 --> 00:15:25,523
sitters and children's to side.

243
00:15:25,523 --> 00:15:28,553
He suffers fools, but he
also demolishes their lives.

244
00:15:28,703 --> 00:15:29,693
He's so gentle.

245
00:15:29,783 --> 00:15:31,133
You could mistake him for weak.

246
00:15:31,133 --> 00:15:32,033
It's so relentless.

247
00:15:32,033 --> 00:15:33,893
You can make him for being severe.

248
00:15:33,953 --> 00:15:37,283
He brings a sword, but he
heals with his own wounds.

249
00:15:37,463 --> 00:15:40,373
The lion is the lamb and
the lamb is the lion.

250
00:15:41,273 --> 00:15:42,923
So I wanna look very simply.

251
00:15:42,953 --> 00:15:48,683
This simple outline is the lamb,
the lion in two takeaways, the

252
00:15:48,683 --> 00:15:51,833
lamb, John 12 verse 12 to 19.

253
00:15:52,763 --> 00:15:56,573
Verse 12, the next day, the large
crowd that had come to the feast heard

254
00:15:56,573 --> 00:15:58,403
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

255
00:15:58,793 --> 00:16:02,633
There's an interesting parallel, as
Jesus has just been called the Son of

256
00:16:02,633 --> 00:16:07,553
David and Matthew's account by the two
blind beggars, and it was the one of

257
00:16:07,553 --> 00:16:11,393
the first times that Jesus didn't tell
them to be quiet after he healed them.

258
00:16:11,543 --> 00:16:13,103
He's like, all right,
it's out in the open.

259
00:16:13,103 --> 00:16:14,423
Let's get the show on the road.

260
00:16:14,633 --> 00:16:15,203
Let's do this.

261
00:16:15,203 --> 00:16:17,213
He has set his face toward Jerusalem.

262
00:16:17,333 --> 00:16:20,003
He's going to his death.

263
00:16:20,003 --> 00:16:22,403
He's gonna stir the pot.

264
00:16:22,683 --> 00:16:28,983
and the parallel In two Samuel, uh,
1514 to 23, David fled Jerusalem to

265
00:16:28,983 --> 00:16:33,483
escape his son Absalom, and he left
the city and crossed the Ke Valley

266
00:16:33,663 --> 00:16:38,703
going up the scent of the Mount of
Olives to get away to save his life.

267
00:16:40,713 --> 00:16:41,793
But here's the son of David.

268
00:16:42,783 --> 00:16:46,623
And in Luke 2337 it says, as he was
drawing near already on the way down

269
00:16:46,833 --> 00:16:50,313
the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude
of his disciples began to rejoice and

270
00:16:50,313 --> 00:16:52,953
praise God with a loud voice for all
the mighty works that he had seen.

271
00:16:53,493 --> 00:16:57,573
The son of David, as he was just
called by the two blind men, is on

272
00:16:57,573 --> 00:17:01,893
his way into Jerusalem in the same way
that David ran to save his own life.

273
00:17:02,343 --> 00:17:06,542
And here the true son of David
is coming in to give his life.

274
00:17:07,683 --> 00:17:09,542
Judea is under the control of the Romans.

275
00:17:09,573 --> 00:17:13,683
They built this thing called
the Antonio Fortress and 63 BC

276
00:17:14,073 --> 00:17:15,663
built just north of the temple.

277
00:17:15,903 --> 00:17:18,303
One of the towers of the fortress
was higher than the temple

278
00:17:18,333 --> 00:17:23,103
courts and looked down into it to
police what was going on there.

279
00:17:23,103 --> 00:17:25,772
A constant reminder of
the Roman occupation.

280
00:17:26,403 --> 00:17:28,923
The Jews at this time were not
independent, though they had

281
00:17:28,923 --> 00:17:30,063
some religious independence.

282
00:17:30,063 --> 00:17:34,203
They were ultimately under the boot
of an oppressor, and so all that is

283
00:17:34,203 --> 00:17:36,093
in their mind is this is happening.

284
00:17:36,633 --> 00:17:39,183
Verse 13 says, so they took
branches of palm trees and went

285
00:17:39,183 --> 00:17:40,593
out to meet him crying Hosanna.

286
00:17:40,593 --> 00:17:46,143
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

287
00:17:47,193 --> 00:17:52,413
What's fascinating is these
palm branches are incredibly

288
00:17:52,413 --> 00:17:54,063
significant on a surface level.

289
00:17:54,063 --> 00:17:56,793
And then later we'll look
on a deeper level why.

290
00:17:57,618 --> 00:17:59,148
In the Maccabean Rebellion.

291
00:17:59,328 --> 00:18:02,088
We don't have that part in our
Bibles because we're not Catholics,

292
00:18:02,088 --> 00:18:03,708
but it's got good history.

293
00:18:04,008 --> 00:18:09,288
In second century BC there's a priest by
the name of Matthias and he has four sons,

294
00:18:09,558 --> 00:18:14,268
and he's leading a war He leads it, then
his sons take it up, and a battle, and it

295
00:18:14,268 --> 00:18:18,228
leads to about a hundred years of freedom
and independence from the occupying

296
00:18:18,258 --> 00:18:19,818
armies and the rulers of the day.

297
00:18:20,178 --> 00:18:24,298
And one 40 bc one of these four brothers
by the name of Simon, defeated the enemy.

298
00:18:24,298 --> 00:18:28,078
And that's in first Maccabees 13
when Simon entered Jerusalem after

299
00:18:28,288 --> 00:18:32,888
the great enemy had been crushed and
removed from Israel's, the Jews entered

300
00:18:32,888 --> 00:18:35,048
it with praise and palm branches.

301
00:18:35,858 --> 00:18:39,518
And so from that time, palm branches
start to become a symbol for national

302
00:18:39,518 --> 00:18:43,058
independence and overthrowing the
oppressors that had ruled them.

303
00:18:44,243 --> 00:18:47,903
In fact, jump ahead and fast forward
a few decades from where Jesus is at

304
00:18:47,903 --> 00:18:53,483
right now, the great Jewish revolt from
about 66 AD to 70 AD that obliterated

305
00:18:53,483 --> 00:18:57,623
the city of Jerusalem and killed men,
women, and children, and everybody in it.

306
00:18:58,673 --> 00:19:01,553
It's the one thing, as Jesus is
warning as he's weeping over the

307
00:19:01,643 --> 00:19:04,903
city, man, you guys have missed it.

308
00:19:05,743 --> 00:19:08,773
But what's interesting is in that time,
because they were surrounded and they

309
00:19:08,773 --> 00:19:13,213
was barricaded, they started to mint
their own coin and they mint in these

310
00:19:13,213 --> 00:19:16,243
coins that were a fraction of a shekel
that they used to buy and sell within

311
00:19:16,243 --> 00:19:21,463
the city as the city was surrounded and
as they were striving for independence.

312
00:19:21,523 --> 00:19:26,563
And what was imprinted on the coin
was the symbol of palm branches.

313
00:19:27,943 --> 00:19:29,173
It was their idea.

314
00:19:29,173 --> 00:19:30,793
We're gonna rebel, we're gonna win.

315
00:19:30,793 --> 00:19:31,633
We're gonna hold that.

316
00:19:31,783 --> 00:19:35,623
We're gonna overthrow the oppressor,
like waving its national flag.

317
00:19:36,043 --> 00:19:39,733
So Jesus is writing into a city full of
people, and many of these people would be

318
00:19:39,733 --> 00:19:44,353
fired up for independence because rumors
are getting around the Messiahs here.

319
00:19:44,413 --> 00:19:46,573
He just healed the, he
just raised the dead.

320
00:19:47,023 --> 00:19:50,233
In fact, we're told from our passage
that that's why people are showing up.

321
00:19:50,293 --> 00:19:53,803
That's why they're waving palm branches
because they're like, oh, it's go time.

322
00:19:54,373 --> 00:19:55,393
It's go time now.

323
00:19:56,773 --> 00:19:59,773
What's fascinating too, so
there's this desire to break free

324
00:19:59,773 --> 00:20:01,643
from this, uh, uh, domination.

325
00:20:02,183 --> 00:20:06,248
It's interesting too, is biblical scholars
Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crosson

326
00:20:06,268 --> 00:20:09,083
in their book the last week point out.

327
00:20:10,808 --> 00:20:13,568
The time that this happens, two
processions are going on that day.

328
00:20:13,568 --> 00:20:14,498
According to history.

329
00:20:14,798 --> 00:20:20,138
Jesus is coming in on a donkey, and this
would be the time that Pontius Pilate

330
00:20:20,258 --> 00:20:22,788
on the other side of the city rides in.

331
00:20:23,118 --> 00:20:27,978
And Pilate would come with his
army and ride in on his wharf horse

332
00:20:28,058 --> 00:20:29,558
full of pomp and circumstance.

333
00:20:29,858 --> 00:20:33,938
And you've got this contrast, these two
kingdoms that are gonna collide, right?

334
00:20:34,118 --> 00:20:37,088
And then you have verse 14 and
si uh, 14 and 15 of our texts.

335
00:20:37,088 --> 00:20:38,798
And Jesus found a young
donkey and sat on it.

336
00:20:39,188 --> 00:20:41,138
Just, it is written fear,
not daughter of Zion.

337
00:20:41,138 --> 00:20:45,008
Behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey's cult.

338
00:20:46,058 --> 00:20:49,268
As we look at John's gospel,
it's there plain as day.

339
00:20:50,468 --> 00:20:54,368
On the one hand, you have this king
Jesus writing in Jerusalem in the

340
00:20:54,368 --> 00:20:58,358
way that would be farcical if it
weren't so loaded with meaning.

341
00:20:59,018 --> 00:21:01,538
He chooses of all things a baby donkey.

342
00:21:02,843 --> 00:21:04,823
This is the animal selected for a purpose.

343
00:21:04,823 --> 00:21:09,113
This is not what the world expects
from a king and certainly not the king.

344
00:21:09,863 --> 00:21:13,643
In the lore and the legend of the
people, centuries of memory had bred

345
00:21:13,643 --> 00:21:17,603
an expectation that when the S finally
arrived, he would be a champion.

346
00:21:17,783 --> 00:21:21,383
Not just a liberator, but
a majestic imperial figure.

347
00:21:21,653 --> 00:21:23,633
A man on a horse, a war horse.

348
00:21:23,693 --> 00:21:25,013
The hooves with thunder.

349
00:21:25,013 --> 00:21:28,343
The banners would snap, the
city would tremble, wake up.

350
00:21:28,343 --> 00:21:31,613
The old stories, David Solomon,
the judges, the Maccabees, and

351
00:21:31,613 --> 00:21:36,083
you see it there every time,
might empower the king as conquer.

352
00:21:36,443 --> 00:21:40,463
There's a reason the Romans themselves
despising and yet admiring the

353
00:21:40,463 --> 00:21:45,053
Jews in equal measure, always
anticipated a liter of that mold.

354
00:21:45,293 --> 00:21:47,603
That's why they were quick
to put down rebellions.

355
00:21:47,843 --> 00:21:48,923
So what is this?

356
00:21:50,093 --> 00:21:54,623
What would it have meant in a time like
that to see a grown man, a self-proclaimed

357
00:21:54,623 --> 00:21:58,493
king, riding into the heart of Jerusalem
on the back of a juvenile donkey?

358
00:21:58,643 --> 00:21:59,943
The optics are Absurd.

359
00:22:00,093 --> 00:22:02,253
The animal's not only weak, it's unbroken.

360
00:22:02,523 --> 00:22:05,343
The gospel writers do not miss a
chance to underscore this fact.

361
00:22:05,343 --> 00:22:06,963
That's how people would've seen it.

362
00:22:07,263 --> 00:22:08,823
Ridiculous.

363
00:22:08,883 --> 00:22:10,323
It's not merely spectacle.

364
00:22:10,323 --> 00:22:13,143
Jesus is making a point
with surgical precision.

365
00:22:13,353 --> 00:22:14,403
It is a joke.

366
00:22:14,463 --> 00:22:18,843
Yes, but the joke is on the
world's understanding of power.

367
00:22:21,273 --> 00:22:22,323
Why does he do this?

368
00:22:22,353 --> 00:22:25,413
Why does he make such a deliberate
and pointed show of humility?

369
00:22:26,178 --> 00:22:28,878
Because it's not only a
performance, it's a fulfillment.

370
00:22:29,388 --> 00:22:32,778
The prophet Zacharia had said a
hundred years before, and it's

371
00:22:32,778 --> 00:22:35,178
so insane that they missed this.

372
00:22:35,658 --> 00:22:36,978
Rejoice greatly.

373
00:22:36,978 --> 00:22:37,998
Oh, daughters of Zion.

374
00:22:37,998 --> 00:22:39,228
Shout aloud.

375
00:22:39,228 --> 00:22:40,548
Oh, daughter of Jerusalem.

376
00:22:40,578 --> 00:22:41,958
This is Zacharia nine, nine to 10.

377
00:22:42,348 --> 00:22:48,318
Behold, your king is coming to you
righteous and having salvation is

378
00:22:48,318 --> 00:22:55,668
he humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a cult, the full of a donkey.

379
00:22:56,718 --> 00:22:59,838
And there's another verse right
after that, the very next verse, I

380
00:22:59,838 --> 00:23:02,088
will cut off the chariot of Ephraim.

381
00:23:05,448 --> 00:23:09,558
That's Israel and the
warhorse from Jerusalem.

382
00:23:10,563 --> 00:23:16,323
And the battle bow shall be cut off
and he shall seek peace to the nations.

383
00:23:16,443 --> 00:23:21,423
His rule shall be from sea to sea
and from river to river to the

384
00:23:21,453 --> 00:23:24,663
ends of the earth, and they miss
the whole point of his coming.

385
00:23:24,663 --> 00:23:25,743
They want the champion.

386
00:23:25,743 --> 00:23:27,453
They want the swords,
they want the violence.

387
00:23:27,453 --> 00:23:28,533
They want the overthrow.

388
00:23:29,313 --> 00:23:34,893
That's why in Luke 1941 to 42, and
when he drew near and saw the city,

389
00:23:34,893 --> 00:23:40,953
he wept over it saying, would that
you even, you had known on this day

390
00:23:41,253 --> 00:23:51,123
the things that make for peace, but
now they are hidden from your eyes.

391
00:23:51,783 --> 00:23:52,623
It was right there.

392
00:23:53,583 --> 00:23:58,923
He's coming in to make a piece in
the most unusual, upside down way.

393
00:23:59,703 --> 00:24:03,453
The sighted passage in John is
almost a paraphrase, but the original

394
00:24:03,453 --> 00:24:04,713
is much thicker with meaning.

395
00:24:04,713 --> 00:24:08,013
Rabbis and scribes have
puzzled this for generations.

396
00:24:08,133 --> 00:24:11,463
How could the Messiah deliver
of Israel ride a donkey?

397
00:24:12,093 --> 00:24:13,113
Wasn't that beneath him?

398
00:24:13,563 --> 00:24:17,103
Wouldn't a king, especially God's
king, make a more splendid entrance?

399
00:24:17,343 --> 00:24:18,813
Chariots, at least.

400
00:24:19,473 --> 00:24:24,603
How can omnipotence be yoked to
such triviality as if the coming

401
00:24:24,603 --> 00:24:26,793
of the king is a contradiction?

402
00:24:26,793 --> 00:24:31,983
In terms the Messiah, the
one that ancients longed for?

403
00:24:32,313 --> 00:24:37,053
The one to restore the fortunes
of the nation is a peculiar

404
00:24:37,053 --> 00:24:39,153
figure on a peasant beast.

405
00:24:39,153 --> 00:24:42,003
That's what they're witnessing
and the world expects a conquer.

406
00:24:42,183 --> 00:24:47,223
What it gets is a contradiction,
but this isn't just a mockery of

407
00:24:47,223 --> 00:24:50,613
power, it's a revision of power.

408
00:24:51,423 --> 00:24:53,823
Jesus is not simply being humble for show.

409
00:24:53,943 --> 00:24:57,933
He's recasting the very
possibility of sovereignty.

410
00:24:58,593 --> 00:25:01,323
In his choice of Mount, he's
making an announcement about the

411
00:25:01,323 --> 00:25:05,493
kind of king he is and the kind of
kingdom he intends to inaugurate.

412
00:25:06,003 --> 00:25:08,733
He's not coming to reinforce
the logic of the world.

413
00:25:08,763 --> 00:25:10,143
He's coming to upend it.

414
00:25:10,863 --> 00:25:13,383
The people, of course, are
swept up in the spectacle.

415
00:25:13,383 --> 00:25:16,173
They cut down branches, they lay
their cloaks on the road, and

416
00:25:16,173 --> 00:25:20,403
an ancient sign of deference for
royalty, peaceful, festive, wild.

417
00:25:20,463 --> 00:25:25,083
They shout hosan as a word that
means save us now a desperate cry

418
00:25:25,203 --> 00:25:27,453
that is equal parts hope and demand.

419
00:25:27,903 --> 00:25:32,253
The city is in ferment, but the man
at the center of it all, the man

420
00:25:32,253 --> 00:25:37,173
writing the donkey is not what they are
expecting, and that is precisely the

421
00:25:37,173 --> 00:25:42,063
point he's saying without saying that
the real enemy is not the Roman empire.

422
00:25:42,333 --> 00:25:47,283
The real enemy is not the political order
nor the religious establishment, nor even

423
00:25:47,283 --> 00:25:51,573
the iron logic of history that crushes
the poor in the weak at every turn.

424
00:25:51,993 --> 00:25:54,513
Those are the symptoms.

425
00:25:55,233 --> 00:25:56,583
Not the disease.

426
00:25:56,943 --> 00:26:01,173
The disease is sin and death itself
and the fear that undergirds it.

427
00:26:01,173 --> 00:26:04,713
And the only cure for the disease
is a king who appears to have no

428
00:26:04,713 --> 00:26:11,373
defense, who seems not to resist, who
accepts humiliation and even death.

429
00:26:11,613 --> 00:26:16,293
In other words, a king
who triumphs by losing.

430
00:26:17,463 --> 00:26:19,953
This is not what anyone is
looking for in a savior.

431
00:26:20,523 --> 00:26:24,003
And the old story, salvation
is wr by strength, by, uh,

432
00:26:24,003 --> 00:26:26,373
being a hero, by the sword.

433
00:26:26,883 --> 00:26:30,813
Even the most pious, the ones who
spent their lives pouring over the

434
00:26:30,813 --> 00:26:34,953
sacred text could not imagine that
the messiah and weakness could ever

435
00:26:34,953 --> 00:26:41,013
belong in the same sentence, the king
is supposed to be a lion, not a lamb.

436
00:26:41,928 --> 00:26:44,388
He's supposed to conquer, not
submit, but in this moment, the

437
00:26:44,388 --> 00:26:46,128
definition of victory is rewritten.

438
00:26:46,498 --> 00:26:51,658
If all the violence of history is being
funneled into this one absurd spectacle,

439
00:26:51,658 --> 00:26:56,128
A would be king writing to his death on
a borrowed beast surrounded by a crowd

440
00:26:56,128 --> 00:26:58,108
that has no idea what is about to happen.

441
00:26:59,158 --> 00:27:00,538
The crowd wants a revolution.

442
00:27:00,538 --> 00:27:02,188
Jesus offers sacrifice.

443
00:27:03,868 --> 00:27:05,698
The crowd wants justice.

444
00:27:06,088 --> 00:27:07,408
Jesus offers mercy.

445
00:27:08,008 --> 00:27:10,228
The crowd wants to be freed
from their oppressors.

446
00:27:10,228 --> 00:27:14,428
Jesus wants to free them from
themselves, from the logic of violence

447
00:27:14,428 --> 00:27:17,848
and retaliation that has ruled the
world since the very beginning.

448
00:27:18,538 --> 00:27:20,578
None of this makes sense if
you're looking for a hero.

449
00:27:20,638 --> 00:27:22,378
All of it makes sense though.

450
00:27:23,308 --> 00:27:24,838
If you're looking for a redeemer.

451
00:27:25,783 --> 00:27:30,103
When he says in Matthew 2028, I have
not come to be served, but to serve

452
00:27:30,103 --> 00:27:32,233
and give my life as a ransom for many.

453
00:27:32,233 --> 00:27:33,733
He's not uttering a metaphor.

454
00:27:33,733 --> 00:27:35,233
He's outlining a strategy.

455
00:27:35,293 --> 00:27:41,263
He's declaring war on the entire system of
power and dominance that has ever existed.

456
00:27:41,563 --> 00:27:45,283
The miracle is that he does it
by refusing the very tools the

457
00:27:45,283 --> 00:27:47,263
world uses to defend itself.

458
00:27:47,533 --> 00:27:52,053
He allows himself to be destroyed
knowing that by only by going

459
00:27:52,053 --> 00:27:54,063
through death, can he defeat it.

460
00:27:54,723 --> 00:27:56,793
This is not an abdication of strength.

461
00:27:57,933 --> 00:27:59,373
It's a transfiguration of it.

462
00:28:00,213 --> 00:28:03,333
What we long for after
all is never just a king.

463
00:28:04,083 --> 00:28:08,133
It's never just a strong man or a
philosopher prince or a CEO in the clouds.

464
00:28:08,493 --> 00:28:12,633
What we long for is a king who is
incorruptible, who cannot be bought, who

465
00:28:12,633 --> 00:28:17,763
cannot be seduced by his own greatness,
who does not use power as a narcotic,

466
00:28:18,303 --> 00:28:20,133
but as a medicine for the world.

467
00:28:21,123 --> 00:28:26,343
A king whose joy is in the restoration
of the battered image of his subjects.

468
00:28:26,943 --> 00:28:32,103
And it is here the man on the donkey's
colt, who is riding not to win, but

469
00:28:32,103 --> 00:28:33,933
to lose in the service of the lost.

470
00:28:34,083 --> 00:28:37,683
He is the true king because
he does not spare himself.

471
00:28:37,923 --> 00:28:40,863
He is the true king because
he wants to share his glory.

472
00:28:41,493 --> 00:28:43,383
He is the lion who is a lamb.

473
00:28:46,473 --> 00:28:48,813
It is such a strange and
almost offensive aversion

474
00:28:51,873 --> 00:28:53,973
that at first it's almost like what?

475
00:28:55,023 --> 00:28:57,093
In fact, some of the
crowds don't believe it.

476
00:28:58,983 --> 00:29:03,033
They saw the palm parade and imagined a
nationalist revolution, and if they had

477
00:29:03,033 --> 00:29:07,823
stuck around, they've seen him, wear a
ragged purple robe and a thorny crown.

478
00:29:07,883 --> 00:29:13,043
And the word king nailed above his
head, hung out to dry as a joke.

479
00:29:14,123 --> 00:29:17,933
Jesus feeding the crowds and the
preaching the sermon about, you

480
00:29:17,933 --> 00:29:20,633
know, they all wanna follow around
'cause he's the free meal ticket.

481
00:29:20,693 --> 00:29:23,873
Then he preaches the sermon
that you know, you don't do it.

482
00:29:23,903 --> 00:29:26,573
Megachurches thousands
are following him, right?

483
00:29:27,023 --> 00:29:31,103
And he preaches the sermon about, you
got to eat my flesh and drink my blood.

484
00:29:31,103 --> 00:29:33,623
He's like, I am the
bread of life, you guys.

485
00:29:33,653 --> 00:29:34,403
You're gonna be hungry.

486
00:29:34,403 --> 00:29:35,363
You eat that bread again.

487
00:29:35,363 --> 00:29:39,853
But if you eat me you
will truly be satisfied.

488
00:29:40,093 --> 00:29:46,753
And what's fascinating is that this group
ends up leaving to where it's just the 12.

489
00:29:46,903 --> 00:29:49,873
And Jesus says, do you go as well?

490
00:29:50,293 --> 00:29:56,203
In fact, everybody's scared
of 6, 6, 6 in John 6 66.

491
00:29:56,443 --> 00:29:57,793
This is what scares me.

492
00:29:58,243 --> 00:30:02,743
After this, many of his disciples
turn back and no longer walk with him.

493
00:30:05,173 --> 00:30:06,523
And so he says, do you leave too?

494
00:30:08,653 --> 00:30:09,253
Peter says.

495
00:30:10,933 --> 00:30:11,953
Where else do we go?

496
00:30:13,153 --> 00:30:14,923
You alone have the words of eternal life.

497
00:30:14,923 --> 00:30:15,583
You are the bread.

498
00:30:15,583 --> 00:30:16,243
We've tasted

499
00:30:19,633 --> 00:30:20,263
crazy.

500
00:30:20,623 --> 00:30:22,183
The crowd did not want that kinda king.

501
00:30:22,183 --> 00:30:25,263
They wanted a Caesar and what
they got was a scapegoat.

502
00:30:25,623 --> 00:30:27,933
They wanted a revolution,
and they got a requiem.

503
00:30:28,173 --> 00:30:31,743
They wanted a parade and got a
processional to a skull shaped hill.

504
00:30:32,643 --> 00:30:37,713
If we are honest, at times, in our
most desperate moments, neither do we.

505
00:30:39,513 --> 00:30:44,283
We want the strong and the sweet,
but we want them in alteration.

506
00:30:44,793 --> 00:30:47,013
Never in the same person,
never at the same time.

507
00:30:47,193 --> 00:30:48,003
We want the lion.

508
00:30:48,003 --> 00:30:51,903
When our enemies press
us, when they betray us.

509
00:30:51,903 --> 00:30:53,283
When they've stabbed us in the back.

510
00:30:53,583 --> 00:30:56,883
Go, Lord, break the teeth
in his mouth or whatever.

511
00:30:56,883 --> 00:30:57,753
Come on.

512
00:30:58,473 --> 00:31:00,873
Whoever touches me, touches
the apple of your eye.

513
00:31:01,083 --> 00:31:02,613
Sick him, right?

514
00:31:05,163 --> 00:31:07,653
But we want the lamb when
our own consciences process.

515
00:31:08,958 --> 00:31:12,948
Never, both except in
fairytales where they're safe.

516
00:31:13,098 --> 00:31:14,328
But this isn't a fairytale.

517
00:31:14,418 --> 00:31:17,418
It is an answer to the ache
that grows in every generation.

518
00:31:17,418 --> 00:31:21,378
The ache for someone to heal the split
in the world without splitting us in two.

519
00:31:21,378 --> 00:31:22,398
In the process.

520
00:31:22,878 --> 00:31:25,218
Jesus does not come to reign
over the world as it is.

521
00:31:25,278 --> 00:31:29,448
He comes to remake it, not by
smashing the existing order, but by

522
00:31:29,448 --> 00:31:31,818
letting the existing order smash him.

523
00:31:33,708 --> 00:31:37,158
Unless the green wheat falls into the
ground and dies, it remains alone.

524
00:31:37,158 --> 00:31:39,288
But if it dies, man, it bears much fruit.

525
00:31:39,828 --> 00:31:44,808
And then the resurrection and the
recreation, remember, it's not just

526
00:31:44,808 --> 00:31:51,318
fall, right and redemption, it's
creation, fall messed up redemption.

527
00:31:51,438 --> 00:31:54,948
But then he's restoring all
things, including you and me,

528
00:31:55,128 --> 00:31:57,828
in this world that he has made.

529
00:31:58,608 --> 00:32:00,498
Jesus has not come to reign
over the world as today.

530
00:32:00,558 --> 00:32:01,458
He comes to remake it.

531
00:32:02,253 --> 00:32:02,943
In suffering.

532
00:32:02,943 --> 00:32:05,073
He recasts strength in dying.

533
00:32:05,073 --> 00:32:05,823
He gives life.

534
00:32:06,033 --> 00:32:09,003
He comes not to gather power,
but to empty himself of it.

535
00:32:09,183 --> 00:32:14,253
Not to fill an earthly thrown but to
fill a grave, and then from the grave

536
00:32:14,253 --> 00:32:18,303
to fill the world with the undying
echo of mercy when he says, I have

537
00:32:18,303 --> 00:32:21,533
come to deliver you from something
far more enslaving than the Romans.

538
00:32:21,683 --> 00:32:26,003
He means the tyranny that no
political revolution can touch, the

539
00:32:26,003 --> 00:32:31,553
tyranny of death, guilt, futility,
and the ancient unbreakable chain

540
00:32:31,613 --> 00:32:33,413
of violence and retaliation.

541
00:32:33,593 --> 00:32:38,393
He means the world as it has
always been, and the world as only

542
00:32:38,393 --> 00:32:40,073
a new kind of king can make it.

543
00:32:40,673 --> 00:32:43,883
This is not the king who will fill
your granaries or make you feared

544
00:32:43,883 --> 00:32:47,093
by your neighbors or let you go
on believing in your own goodness.

545
00:32:47,153 --> 00:32:50,453
This is not the king who will make
life easier, but the king who will

546
00:32:50,453 --> 00:32:55,853
make the worst about you into the
do in the sunrise as it melts away.

547
00:32:56,303 --> 00:32:58,943
And the best about you immoral.

548
00:33:00,443 --> 00:33:04,103
Not the king who paves the way for
national glory, but who paves the

549
00:33:04,103 --> 00:33:07,913
way through the valley of the shadow
of death, not by walking ahead of

550
00:33:07,913 --> 00:33:12,653
you, but by walking it first alone
and then circling back for you.

551
00:33:12,653 --> 00:33:16,343
Scarred but unbroken, gentle
and impossible to defeat.

552
00:33:16,493 --> 00:33:20,153
He wins by losing, conquers, by
surrendering, transformed the world,

553
00:33:20,303 --> 00:33:26,333
not by rising above it, but by
sinking into its sickest depths and

554
00:33:26,333 --> 00:33:29,363
drawing the poison into himself.

555
00:33:29,753 --> 00:33:33,683
Verse 16, as disciples didn't understand
these things at first, but when Jesus

556
00:33:33,683 --> 00:33:38,663
was glorified, ah, then they remembered
that these things had been written

557
00:33:38,663 --> 00:33:40,703
about him and had been done by him.

558
00:33:40,703 --> 00:33:44,693
The disciples did not understand, even
as they laid their cloaks before him.

559
00:33:45,143 --> 00:33:46,703
I guess this is what we're doing.

560
00:33:49,613 --> 00:33:52,613
One of the most fascinating
things is when Jesus is the grave,

561
00:33:52,613 --> 00:33:56,753
they are just so devastated.

562
00:33:58,568 --> 00:34:02,558
Not a clue, but man, the glorified
Jesus shows up and it's here.

563
00:34:02,558 --> 00:34:03,668
It says, oh.

564
00:34:03,668 --> 00:34:07,268
Then John writing, he's
like, we ended up getting it.

565
00:34:08,797 --> 00:34:12,378
We ended up getting, There was Thomas

566
00:34:15,678 --> 00:34:17,297
saying, I can't be disappointed anymore.

567
00:34:19,998 --> 00:34:26,328
Not unless I put my hand in his side,
put my fingers and the nail piercings,

568
00:34:28,728 --> 00:34:32,388
and a week later Jesus shows up
and he is like's, get this done.

569
00:34:33,558 --> 00:34:35,148
I dunno if he's unbuttoning his robe.

570
00:34:35,148 --> 00:34:40,308
And he's like, and Thomas just falls on
his face and he says, my Lord and my God.

571
00:34:42,858 --> 00:34:43,578
Clicks.

572
00:34:45,078 --> 00:34:46,578
Clicks.

573
00:34:46,638 --> 00:34:47,118
Peter,

574
00:34:49,277 --> 00:34:54,498
seeing Jesus cooking fish in the
morning, another hard night at fishing.

575
00:34:55,547 --> 00:34:59,088
What's fascinating is the text says
that Peter put on his outer coat.

576
00:34:59,088 --> 00:35:00,828
He doesn't take his outer coat off.

577
00:35:01,188 --> 00:35:04,308
'cause I think he thought, I'm
gonna walk on water to Jesus.

578
00:35:04,308 --> 00:35:05,898
I can't wait for this boat to get there.

579
00:35:06,018 --> 00:35:06,588
And he sinks.

580
00:35:06,588 --> 00:35:08,118
So then he is like, well, that was them.

581
00:35:08,118 --> 00:35:12,468
And he swims and he looks
at Jesus in the face.

582
00:35:14,328 --> 00:35:15,108
Peter, do you love me?

583
00:35:17,028 --> 00:35:20,118
You know all things you know, all things

584
00:35:23,868 --> 00:35:26,858
the disciples didn't understand, even
as they laid their cloaks before him,

585
00:35:27,818 --> 00:35:31,268
as they shouted the ancient slogans,
as they watched him disappear into the

586
00:35:31,268 --> 00:35:34,988
city gates, they did not understand
until every other hope had been stripped

587
00:35:34,988 --> 00:35:39,518
from them until the last fantasy of
triumph had been nailed up and buried.

588
00:35:39,788 --> 00:35:43,448
Only then when the entire project
had crashed, when the memory of

589
00:35:43,448 --> 00:35:47,678
those donkey hoofed hours was a
source of embarrassment and regret,

590
00:35:47,798 --> 00:35:49,268
did they begin to see the pattern.

591
00:35:49,268 --> 00:35:52,178
The weakness was the point, the defeat.

592
00:35:52,868 --> 00:35:57,638
The only kind of victory that mattered
what looked like the shabb ast of

593
00:35:57,638 --> 00:36:03,548
defeats was in fact, the only way to
burn the rod out of the system without

594
00:36:03,548 --> 00:36:06,278
burning the world along with it.

595
00:36:07,058 --> 00:36:11,198
Remember, this is not just an abstraction,
a cool story, you know, a, a metaphor

596
00:36:11,228 --> 00:36:13,298
to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise.

597
00:36:13,298 --> 00:36:15,128
This is not just a poetic metaphor.

598
00:36:15,458 --> 00:36:20,078
The lion is a lamb in the sense that
when the full violence of the world

599
00:36:20,078 --> 00:36:21,968
comes to him, he does not return it.

600
00:36:22,118 --> 00:36:23,228
He lets it break him.

601
00:36:23,498 --> 00:36:30,978
And in being broken, unmask it as
powerlessness, the kings of the world

602
00:36:30,978 --> 00:36:32,868
reigned by sending others to die.

603
00:36:33,798 --> 00:36:40,578
The true king and his infinite unflinching
bravery goes to die in our place.

604
00:36:40,998 --> 00:36:43,218
The lamb, the lamb, the lamb.

605
00:36:43,338 --> 00:36:45,498
Before its she, it was silent.

606
00:36:45,543 --> 00:36:45,633
Hmm,

607
00:36:47,703 --> 00:36:52,083
the lion, the way king visits
his subjects, not in a gold

608
00:36:52,083 --> 00:36:53,583
chariot, but on a young donkey.

609
00:36:54,543 --> 00:36:58,263
And then just as deliberately the
radiances of his glory that breaks through

610
00:36:58,383 --> 00:37:03,183
the self-abasement like the sun behind
a cloud to see him riding the cult.

611
00:37:03,213 --> 00:37:07,713
The ancient symbol of humility and
peace is not to see the king diminished.

612
00:37:08,043 --> 00:37:10,233
It's to see kingship redefined.

613
00:37:10,683 --> 00:37:14,703
The narrative lingers here, the unbroken
cult, the, the Messiah serenity, the

614
00:37:14,703 --> 00:37:17,313
peace that subdues, even the untamed.

615
00:37:17,973 --> 00:37:22,353
But as the story proceeds and as the
crowd responds, we see that the hour

616
00:37:22,503 --> 00:37:28,023
is not for lowness only, but the
revelation of the king's true majesty.

617
00:37:28,833 --> 00:37:32,643
You think about an unbroken cult
and the crowds gathering around him,

618
00:37:32,643 --> 00:37:35,103
and yet man, that cult was happy.

619
00:37:35,703 --> 00:37:38,163
He was just, just on mission, right?

620
00:37:38,223 --> 00:37:39,543
So the crowd gathers.

621
00:37:39,813 --> 00:37:41,133
The city is choked with pilgrims.

622
00:37:41,133 --> 00:37:43,053
Their voices layered
a haze of expectation.

623
00:37:43,053 --> 00:37:45,933
Here's the Messiah, entering
not with a military pump, but

624
00:37:45,933 --> 00:37:49,383
with a rag tag of peasants and
children, the poor, the unclean.

625
00:37:49,743 --> 00:37:51,933
Yet as he descends the soap
of the Mount of Olives, the

626
00:37:51,933 --> 00:37:53,493
people improvise a coronation.

627
00:37:53,493 --> 00:37:57,603
There are no trumpets, no purple banners,
no fex of soldiers, but there are palm

628
00:37:57,603 --> 00:38:01,113
branches, improvised instruments of praise
plucked from the trees, waved in the air,

629
00:38:01,263 --> 00:38:04,773
shaken like the signs of victory, and
then the garments spread on the road.

630
00:38:04,773 --> 00:38:07,473
A makeshift carpet softening the
way for the animal's feet and

631
00:38:07,473 --> 00:38:09,183
for the one who rides upon it.

632
00:38:09,183 --> 00:38:12,693
At a glance, the Palm branch is look
like a child's idea of festivity,

633
00:38:12,933 --> 00:38:17,283
or a spontaneous attempt to
dignify an undignified procession.

634
00:38:17,493 --> 00:38:18,993
But you have to read the stories.

635
00:38:19,113 --> 00:38:23,313
If you're steeped in the language of
Israel, you know that palms are not

636
00:38:23,313 --> 00:38:25,173
mere decoration and they're loaded.

637
00:38:25,173 --> 00:38:28,473
They appear in feast and festival,
and the architectural or the

638
00:38:28,473 --> 00:38:31,863
temple carved into the woodwork,
embroidered into the curtain.

639
00:38:32,688 --> 00:38:35,568
As we talked about earlier, palms are
the symbols of victory and deliverance.

640
00:38:35,568 --> 00:38:38,628
The maccabean victors wave
them after their revolt.

641
00:38:38,688 --> 00:38:42,168
Here in this reenactment,
no one can miss this point.

642
00:38:42,348 --> 00:38:46,878
The crowd is borrowing the rituals of
triumph and rendering them to this galion

643
00:38:46,878 --> 00:38:50,208
teacher, crowning him with the very
symbols of freedom and independence.

644
00:38:50,478 --> 00:38:54,318
But even this is only the
surface of the symbol.

645
00:38:54,478 --> 00:38:56,758
said The surface and then a little deeper.

646
00:38:56,968 --> 00:38:59,753
The people see a conquer,
a liberator, perhaps even a

647
00:38:59,753 --> 00:39:01,733
revolutionary, and their shouts.

648
00:39:01,733 --> 00:39:05,303
Hosanna are a mixture of worship
and something like political hope.

649
00:39:05,693 --> 00:39:07,793
Jesus, like the Obama picture, right?

650
00:39:07,823 --> 00:39:08,363
Hope.

651
00:39:08,513 --> 00:39:09,113
Boom.

652
00:39:09,773 --> 00:39:11,423
It's a ticker tape parade.

653
00:39:11,783 --> 00:39:15,203
If you've seen the streets of any
city after a World Series or a Super

654
00:39:15,203 --> 00:39:19,223
Bowl, you have the picture yet for
Jesus, the palm means something deeper.

655
00:39:20,348 --> 00:39:24,908
A resonance that echoes not just
through the memories of national pride,

656
00:39:25,058 --> 00:39:28,718
but down the halls of the prophets
and through the secret wisdom of the

657
00:39:28,718 --> 00:39:32,978
Psalms and into the very architecture
of the new world he is inaugurating.

658
00:39:33,188 --> 00:39:36,608
For Jesus knows that the next time
he comes, the palms will not be mere

659
00:39:36,608 --> 00:39:39,128
cuttings shaken by fickle crowds.

660
00:39:39,368 --> 00:39:42,158
The whole tree will wave,
all nature will join.

661
00:39:42,158 --> 00:39:45,758
In the verse from Psalm 96, then
the trees of the forest will

662
00:39:45,758 --> 00:39:47,288
sing for joy before the Lord.

663
00:39:47,378 --> 00:39:49,208
It is about to become literal.

664
00:39:49,358 --> 00:39:52,598
And Isaiah 55, the
prophet is more explicit.

665
00:39:52,748 --> 00:39:55,508
You shall go out in joy and
be led forth with peace.

666
00:39:55,628 --> 00:39:59,648
The mountains in the hills before
you shall break forth into singing,

667
00:39:59,798 --> 00:40:05,048
and all of the trees of the field
shall clap their hands for centuries.

668
00:40:05,048 --> 00:40:06,458
This was read as poetry.

669
00:40:06,993 --> 00:40:13,383
As liturgical hyperbole, the way one
might say The earth trembled or the

670
00:40:13,383 --> 00:40:17,853
heavens wept, dear me, but in Jesus'
mind and in the mind of the gospel

671
00:40:17,853 --> 00:40:22,068
writers who record this day, the
poems are not just a festive touch.

672
00:40:22,308 --> 00:40:28,038
They are the first intimation that the
whole creation is about to awaken, that

673
00:40:28,038 --> 00:40:33,348
the long sleep of the world is nearly
over, and that the king who enters in

674
00:40:33,348 --> 00:40:40,548
humility will soon reappear not as a local
teacher, but as the Lord of everything.

675
00:40:40,998 --> 00:40:46,098
That is one of my favorite
quotes, and it's tattoo worthy.

676
00:40:46,158 --> 00:40:46,758
Get it.

677
00:40:47,238 --> 00:40:49,998
Get it before somebody else
gets it is from the lion in

678
00:40:49,998 --> 00:40:50,868
the witch of the wardrobe.

679
00:40:50,898 --> 00:40:57,168
Simply, it says, when Aslan bears
his teeth, winter meets its death.

680
00:40:57,738 --> 00:41:00,738
When he shakes his mane,
we shall offspring again.

681
00:41:02,508 --> 00:41:03,483
That's what's happening right now.

682
00:41:05,183 --> 00:41:07,223
He knows that the poems
will never be the same.

683
00:41:07,223 --> 00:41:13,163
The symbol once co-opted for the
brief hopes of political liberation

684
00:41:13,433 --> 00:41:18,413
means something so much deeper will
become the sign of something cosmic.

685
00:41:18,683 --> 00:41:22,523
A transformation that begins in
the dust of Jerusalem, but will

686
00:41:22,553 --> 00:41:26,753
like a drop of ink and water,
eventually saturate the whole world.

687
00:41:27,323 --> 00:41:30,623
The palms are not just for him,
but for the world itself, which

688
00:41:30,623 --> 00:41:35,783
as Paul writes in Romans groans,
waiting with eager anticipation for

689
00:41:35,783 --> 00:41:37,703
the revealing and the sons of God.

690
00:41:37,703 --> 00:41:39,413
Creation is groaning.

691
00:41:40,523 --> 00:41:41,693
For that redemption.

692
00:41:41,873 --> 00:41:45,893
And so as the people line the road
and the palm sway, Jesus sees both

693
00:41:45,893 --> 00:41:49,973
the celebration and the shadow,
the adulation of the crowd and the

694
00:41:49,973 --> 00:41:51,773
horror that waits the city's heart.

695
00:41:51,953 --> 00:41:54,893
He sees the temple and beyond
it to the inner sanctum, the

696
00:41:54,893 --> 00:41:57,353
curtain that will soon be torn.

697
00:41:57,473 --> 00:42:00,473
He sees the darkness gathering,
the friends who will scatter

698
00:42:00,713 --> 00:42:05,033
the silence of the tomb and
the eventual unstoppable dawn.

699
00:42:06,518 --> 00:42:07,298
For the king.

700
00:42:07,298 --> 00:42:09,938
Every jester, every word,
every sign is doubled.

701
00:42:10,208 --> 00:42:13,688
It is what it is and that it's
something more always right.

702
00:42:14,048 --> 00:42:18,128
It is the majesty of the king that is on
display here, but it is a majesty that

703
00:42:18,128 --> 00:42:22,418
is unafraid of suffering, unmoved by
the trappings of power, a majesty that

704
00:42:22,418 --> 00:42:26,768
is strong enough to be misunderstood,
betrayed, and killed, knowing that the

705
00:42:26,768 --> 00:42:34,148
glory hidden in shame will one day resat
the worlds, the palms are a prophecy.

706
00:42:34,148 --> 00:42:39,578
They're a promise embedded in the objects
themselves that all the potential beauty

707
00:42:39,578 --> 00:42:44,018
of the world, all the implicit vitality
of creation will one day be brought

708
00:42:44,018 --> 00:42:50,198
to completion and we'll find its final
purpose, not in the service of emperors

709
00:42:50,378 --> 00:42:56,198
or fickle crowds, but in the honor and
the praise paid to the returning king.

710
00:42:56,648 --> 00:42:58,118
And that's what this day means.

711
00:42:58,358 --> 00:43:02,588
This is the day that the Lord has made,
is literally talking about this moment.

712
00:43:03,488 --> 00:43:07,028
Every act of creation, every tree,
every spring bloom, every title.

713
00:43:07,028 --> 00:43:10,328
Roar is waiting, rehearsing for the day.

714
00:43:10,478 --> 00:43:13,598
When the king returns for good and
the palms and they're waving are

715
00:43:13,598 --> 00:43:18,608
both the memory of that first parade
and the rehearsal for the next.

716
00:43:18,848 --> 00:43:23,708
The arrival of the king is not just the
triumph of one man over his enemies or the

717
00:43:23,708 --> 00:43:26,658
victory of a new ideology over old ones.

718
00:43:26,838 --> 00:43:29,838
It is the beginning of the
recreation of the cosmos.

719
00:43:30,078 --> 00:43:34,578
Everything that is every Adam and
every angel is about to be put right,

720
00:43:34,668 --> 00:43:39,108
and the palm branches are draft
one of their universal applause.

721
00:43:39,408 --> 00:43:44,778
Even the stones, Jesus said,
Palm branches are alive.

722
00:43:44,778 --> 00:43:45,198
You cut 'em.

723
00:43:45,198 --> 00:43:45,978
They're starting to die.

724
00:43:46,758 --> 00:43:49,998
Even the stones, if the people
were silenced, would cry out.

725
00:43:50,118 --> 00:43:51,498
That's how much creation groans.

726
00:43:51,498 --> 00:43:56,088
That's how much it is anticipating
the redemption that is waiting, that

727
00:43:56,088 --> 00:43:59,148
he is inaugurating guys, the stones.

728
00:43:59,868 --> 00:44:02,088
Stones are gonna cry.

729
00:44:04,818 --> 00:44:07,668
Even the trees, if the crowd were
gone, would clap their hands.

730
00:44:08,298 --> 00:44:12,108
The point is not to diminish the drama
of the day by spiritualizing that

731
00:44:12,108 --> 00:44:15,708
away, but to let it be what it is.

732
00:44:16,638 --> 00:44:20,058
The moment when the ancient dream
of a true king, strong, meek,

733
00:44:20,058 --> 00:44:23,508
victorious, enthroned, and crucified
takes on flesh and rides into

734
00:44:23,508 --> 00:44:25,338
the city, he comes in humility.

735
00:44:25,338 --> 00:44:28,938
But this humility is the dress of power.

736
00:44:29,148 --> 00:44:33,918
He accepts the adulation for the crowd
knowing for some it will curdle into

737
00:44:33,918 --> 00:44:39,048
hatred, but also knowing that the day
will come when the hosannas will not fade.

738
00:44:40,548 --> 00:44:44,958
When all of creation will at
last recognize him for who he is.

739
00:44:45,678 --> 00:44:49,338
The king is coming, and when he
comes, the world will come alive.

740
00:44:50,058 --> 00:44:53,688
The trees will sing, the fields will
exalt, the mountains will break forth

741
00:44:53,688 --> 00:44:57,138
the song, and the palms will wave
not as symbols of fleeting hope.

742
00:44:57,768 --> 00:45:01,668
But as the banners of a kingdom
that cannot be shaken for this

743
00:45:01,668 --> 00:45:04,548
is the day that the Lord is made
and it's only the beginning.

744
00:45:05,028 --> 00:45:09,048
The highness of Jesus does not
cancel his lowness and his lowness

745
00:45:09,048 --> 00:45:10,848
does not disqualify his highness.

746
00:45:11,058 --> 00:45:13,188
They magnify each other.

747
00:45:13,758 --> 00:45:17,538
He's the only king who's enthrallment is
completed by crucifixion, whose glory is

748
00:45:17,538 --> 00:45:21,348
never so radiant as when he is emptied
out, poured into death, and then at

749
00:45:21,348 --> 00:45:24,558
last overflowed into resurrection life.

750
00:45:25,038 --> 00:45:28,158
The palms and their trembling
are the first witness to this

751
00:45:28,338 --> 00:45:32,208
mystery, and their hosannas echo
down the ages waiting for the day.

752
00:45:32,208 --> 00:45:35,058
When all things are made new,
the mute finds its tongue.

753
00:45:35,358 --> 00:45:37,698
The caged thing stretches its wings.

754
00:45:37,698 --> 00:45:42,228
The withered wood pushes out green
shoots and bursts into flower.

755
00:45:42,558 --> 00:45:43,428
In his presence.

756
00:45:43,428 --> 00:45:48,408
All creation shivers with readiness
and the air, crackles with the scents

757
00:45:48,408 --> 00:45:53,088
that everything can must become itself.

758
00:45:53,478 --> 00:45:55,823
Finally, extravagantly.

759
00:45:56,673 --> 00:46:02,673
And joyfully, including you and me, when
the king steps across the threshold,

760
00:46:02,673 --> 00:46:06,783
everything under his hand, every servant
in his house, every inch under of his

761
00:46:06,783 --> 00:46:11,043
kingdom, every voice that can praise
is caught up in the song of gladness.

762
00:46:11,043 --> 00:46:15,183
The whole world, it is reach,
even the smallest shyest longing

763
00:46:16,233 --> 00:46:18,903
blooms toward its fulfillment.

764
00:46:19,683 --> 00:46:23,823
But not only creation is impacted, but
we as his image bearers, the redeem.

765
00:46:23,823 --> 00:46:27,213
When the king comes into our
lives, we flourished like

766
00:46:27,213 --> 00:46:29,613
that untamed donkey, right?

767
00:46:29,703 --> 00:46:31,653
Who do you have riding your life?

768
00:46:31,773 --> 00:46:32,793
You think you're in control.

769
00:46:32,793 --> 00:46:33,783
You're not what?

770
00:46:35,343 --> 00:46:36,243
Lemme put it this way.

771
00:46:36,603 --> 00:46:40,143
We went to Disneyland recently, and

772
00:46:40,833 --> 00:46:41,583
one of

773
00:46:43,683 --> 00:46:46,203
the things about Disneyland
that made it special

774
00:46:48,273 --> 00:46:49,623
is rides never broke down.

775
00:46:50,973 --> 00:46:51,393
It was like.

776
00:46:52,098 --> 00:46:53,028
Rare.

777
00:46:53,088 --> 00:46:55,758
It was like, cool, like if you were
on a ride that broke down, it was

778
00:46:55,758 --> 00:46:59,298
like, I'm gonna, uh, I'm gonna post
on Facebook about that, you know,

779
00:46:59,298 --> 00:47:01,098
and that's special and that's crazy.

780
00:47:01,098 --> 00:47:02,178
And, it just didn't happen.

781
00:47:03,018 --> 00:47:04,968
Well, this time we're there and,

782
00:47:07,278 --> 00:47:09,918
I don't know, seven times more.

783
00:47:10,218 --> 00:47:11,508
The rides just kept breaking down.

784
00:47:11,508 --> 00:47:14,088
And if you weren't inside, you
don't get the free lightning pass.

785
00:47:14,088 --> 00:47:16,608
You've waited an hour spring break.

786
00:47:16,878 --> 00:47:18,138
Uh, so there's a lot of people there.

787
00:47:18,138 --> 00:47:20,358
But you wait an hour and
boom, you're just done.

788
00:47:20,388 --> 00:47:20,838
You're gone.

789
00:47:20,843 --> 00:47:22,433
and it happened over and over.

790
00:47:23,183 --> 00:47:25,943
Finally, one of our friends said,
well, what's interesting is they

791
00:47:25,943 --> 00:47:30,353
brought in new management and
their whole goal was to save money.

792
00:47:31,073 --> 00:47:36,473
And so the people who crowded themselves
on keeping these rides from breaking down

793
00:47:36,473 --> 00:47:41,723
ever and spent time and energy and, and
talent into keeping these things going.

794
00:47:42,023 --> 00:47:44,993
well, they got fired to save a buck.

795
00:47:45,413 --> 00:47:50,483
And they brought in some chipper
chicken, you know, uh, to take over.

796
00:47:50,543 --> 00:47:53,443
And now there's this chaos But
that's what happens, right?

797
00:47:53,923 --> 00:47:55,093
Under new management.

798
00:47:55,213 --> 00:47:57,913
Sometimes you'll see a restaurant
that says, under new management, maybe

799
00:47:57,913 --> 00:47:59,233
you've had a bad experience there.

800
00:47:59,233 --> 00:48:00,973
And so under new management, right?

801
00:48:00,973 --> 00:48:02,353
You're like, yes.

802
00:48:02,563 --> 00:48:07,783
Or sometimes what happens is you're going
to your favorite place, and somehow it's

803
00:48:07,783 --> 00:48:09,733
just not as good as it used to be, right?

804
00:48:10,033 --> 00:48:13,163
And so sometimes, the, there's
crowds At first, it's amazing.

805
00:48:13,163 --> 00:48:14,273
You're telling everybody about it.

806
00:48:14,273 --> 00:48:16,953
There's lines out the door,
and then pretty soon it's a

807
00:48:16,953 --> 00:48:17,973
ghost town in there, right?

808
00:48:18,153 --> 00:48:20,793
And so people are like,
man, what happened?

809
00:48:21,003 --> 00:48:25,443
And then you'll see a sign that
says, original owners back, right?

810
00:48:25,443 --> 00:48:27,603
And you're like, that's what happened.

811
00:48:27,793 --> 00:48:28,813
Oh, they sold it.

812
00:48:28,813 --> 00:48:30,793
And so somebody's trying
to save money and cost cut.

813
00:48:30,793 --> 00:48:32,503
But now the original owners are back.

814
00:48:32,533 --> 00:48:35,443
We're getting the, we're getting
the fat stack now, right?

815
00:48:35,443 --> 00:48:37,073
We're getting, we're gonna
get what it used to be.

816
00:48:39,208 --> 00:48:40,558
The metaphor is almost too easy.

817
00:48:40,558 --> 00:48:44,188
But easy things are sometimes the
truest our lives, our loves our world

818
00:48:44,188 --> 00:48:45,778
are like being on a broken ride.

819
00:48:45,778 --> 00:48:49,228
Suspended, vulnerable at the
mercy of whatever is in charge

820
00:48:49,228 --> 00:48:50,728
of the cables and the cars.

821
00:48:51,688 --> 00:48:52,858
The management matters.

822
00:48:52,858 --> 00:48:55,738
The one running the system matters,
and the reason for the breakdowns,

823
00:48:55,738 --> 00:48:57,028
the reason for the dead stops.

824
00:48:57,028 --> 00:49:01,258
The reason the world so often feels
shrunken and anxious and broken is

825
00:49:01,258 --> 00:49:05,428
because it has been left to us, to
our own management, our own cleverness

826
00:49:05,428 --> 00:49:06,928
and pride and self-absorption.

827
00:49:07,018 --> 00:49:09,058
And the record of that management,

828
00:49:11,728 --> 00:49:13,018
it's abysmal,

829
00:49:15,208 --> 00:49:18,568
made me think, is this all there is?

830
00:49:20,068 --> 00:49:24,178
There's people who live their
entire lives under bad management,

831
00:49:25,828 --> 00:49:31,768
and that's just become normal and
that trace echo that calls out.

832
00:49:32,233 --> 00:49:37,333
For someone to put things right has been
so muted and so muffled and so choked

833
00:49:37,333 --> 00:49:41,533
out, strangled by the cares of this
world that he can barely hear it anymore.

834
00:49:42,373 --> 00:49:43,483
Is this all there is?

835
00:49:45,853 --> 00:49:48,763
If that's all there is, think of the
time you lived in a house that felt

836
00:49:48,763 --> 00:49:53,743
for a season to be home, then it was
empty, repainted for someone else.

837
00:49:53,743 --> 00:49:57,943
Now your presence erased your memory
of irrelevant to the new owner.

838
00:49:58,663 --> 00:50:01,543
It's just something else
or your group of friends.

839
00:50:01,543 --> 00:50:04,873
So essential to your joy, your meaning,
your sense of belonging for a string of

840
00:50:04,873 --> 00:50:09,733
years until jobs, couples disappointments
pull them like magnets in all directions.

841
00:50:09,738 --> 00:50:12,313
You try to keep it going,
but hey, life gets busy.

842
00:50:12,563 --> 00:50:17,453
soon your shared jokes and traditions
are reduced to a text thread that if

843
00:50:17,453 --> 00:50:24,383
you half-hearted emojis, then nothing,
or your closest intimacy perhaps with

844
00:50:24,383 --> 00:50:28,583
a spouse or a child or a parent is
already shadowed by the certainty.

845
00:50:29,048 --> 00:50:35,828
That one of you will bury the other or
worse fade inconsolably before the end.

846
00:50:37,538 --> 00:50:40,388
All the stuff in your childhood room
that once seemed permanent, the posters,

847
00:50:40,388 --> 00:50:43,388
the trophies, the baseball met, the
book are now box, step gathering.

848
00:50:43,388 --> 00:50:44,828
Mildew are simply thrown away.

849
00:50:44,858 --> 00:50:52,298
Every forever is a short lease in
human terms, and the landlord is always

850
00:50:52,568 --> 00:50:55,508
turnover, entropy, and dissolution.

851
00:50:56,468 --> 00:51:00,278
But wherever the king comes,
wherever he takes over, wherever

852
00:51:00,278 --> 00:51:04,328
he's allowed to manage, to
rule, to love, the thing blooms.

853
00:51:04,328 --> 00:51:06,788
Wherever the king is, the
world gets its voice back.

854
00:51:07,028 --> 00:51:09,728
The palm trees wave, the
city's burst into flower.

855
00:51:09,938 --> 00:51:11,858
The river flashes with possibility.

856
00:51:11,858 --> 00:51:15,998
The world in his hands is a world
alive, wide and bright and full of

857
00:51:15,998 --> 00:51:18,218
hope, no matter the circumstances.

858
00:51:18,368 --> 00:51:23,018
Remember the sun in the desert, heat
in Jeremiah, it's flower doesn't fade.

859
00:51:23,108 --> 00:51:25,928
It's leaf doesn't wither in that heat.

860
00:51:26,048 --> 00:51:27,608
It thrives.

861
00:51:30,533 --> 00:51:33,293
Whatever he manages lives,
whatever he touches, sings.

862
00:51:33,293 --> 00:51:37,103
Let me ask you, and then as I've
asked myself now quite a few times,

863
00:51:37,103 --> 00:51:40,133
sitting on a ride that's broken or
commuting in traffic or laying wide

864
00:51:40,133 --> 00:51:41,633
awake in a bed at three in the morning,

865
00:51:46,103 --> 00:51:47,723
we really like being in charge.

866
00:51:50,513 --> 00:51:53,873
If we could, I think we'd say, come in.

867
00:51:53,873 --> 00:51:55,523
Jesus, stay out Christ.

868
00:51:57,053 --> 00:52:00,293
But that would be as ridiculous if I
came over to Nina's house and like,

869
00:52:00,293 --> 00:52:02,973
Hey, come in, Kayla, you stay out.

870
00:52:02,973 --> 00:52:03,993
Josh, you can come in.

871
00:52:04,353 --> 00:52:10,233
You can't divide that person,
but we kind of want the,

872
00:52:12,963 --> 00:52:18,033
I really need your help, but it'd
be great if you let me keep being

873
00:52:18,033 --> 00:52:20,283
in charge, calling the shots.

874
00:52:22,653 --> 00:52:23,968
But I think if we really thought about it.

875
00:52:25,458 --> 00:52:28,968
Even in our darkest moments of
pain, is this not the life you want?

876
00:52:28,968 --> 00:52:30,498
Is this not the world you wish for?

877
00:52:30,768 --> 00:52:33,348
The world you ache for
and the marrow your bones?

878
00:52:34,698 --> 00:52:36,858
Have I have you perhaps settled for less?

879
00:52:36,858 --> 00:52:40,488
Have we somewhere along the way,
accepted breakdowns is normal.

880
00:52:41,658 --> 00:52:45,918
Learned to eat your overpriced
Disneyland lunch stuck on Splash

881
00:52:46,103 --> 00:52:50,628
Mountain and now it's called something
else and call it good enough.

882
00:52:51,198 --> 00:52:54,498
Or do you still long for a life that
works, a life that is managed by

883
00:52:54,498 --> 00:52:56,028
something true or something stronger?

884
00:52:56,028 --> 00:52:58,878
Something both fierce and gentle.

885
00:52:59,148 --> 00:53:01,668
Something as reliable as a king

886
00:53:04,008 --> 00:53:05,358
and as tender as a lamb.

887
00:53:07,488 --> 00:53:08,838
This is the glory of the king.

888
00:53:09,018 --> 00:53:10,338
His management is always good.

889
00:53:10,338 --> 00:53:14,448
His reign always brings forth what's
best, even if he leads you down.

890
00:53:14,448 --> 00:53:18,348
The Princess of the Goblin, It tells
the incredible story of this princess

891
00:53:18,348 --> 00:53:20,598
who's being infested by goblins.

892
00:53:20,628 --> 00:53:25,788
The her fairy godmother tells her,
follow this thread and don't ever

893
00:53:25,788 --> 00:53:27,588
let go of it, and you'll be safe.

894
00:53:27,898 --> 00:53:30,928
she starts to follow the thread
because the goblins are gonna take

895
00:53:30,928 --> 00:53:35,128
her away and it leads her out of the
castle where the safety is, and it

896
00:53:35,128 --> 00:53:37,078
leads her right into the goblin cave.

897
00:53:38,008 --> 00:53:40,828
But what she realizes halfway through
it as she's following the thread and

898
00:53:40,828 --> 00:53:44,608
there's many times she's thinking
about giving up, is that, well, all

899
00:53:44,608 --> 00:53:47,758
the goblins are out there looking for
me and the castle, and surely they

900
00:53:47,758 --> 00:53:53,698
would've found me and step by step
clinging to that thread, she is perfectly

901
00:53:53,698 --> 00:53:56,848
kept safe through the entire story.

902
00:53:59,878 --> 00:54:01,738
His rain always brings forth what's best.

903
00:54:01,738 --> 00:54:03,988
His strength is made perfect in weakness.

904
00:54:03,988 --> 00:54:05,728
His hands are scarred, but they're steady.

905
00:54:05,908 --> 00:54:07,198
His rule does not crush you.

906
00:54:07,198 --> 00:54:07,948
It blesses you.

907
00:54:08,188 --> 00:54:10,138
It calls you out into the sunlight.

908
00:54:10,138 --> 00:54:14,038
It makes you yourself at last in
him all the seeds of your life.

909
00:54:14,038 --> 00:54:15,178
All the secret longings.

910
00:54:15,178 --> 00:54:18,838
All the buried greatness find
their chance to sprout flower and

911
00:54:18,838 --> 00:54:20,368
to bear fruit under his reign.

912
00:54:20,518 --> 00:54:23,938
We do not just function, we flourish.

913
00:54:24,583 --> 00:54:25,693
He is the one you seek.

914
00:54:25,693 --> 00:54:29,113
He's the only one who, when you
stand in his presence, you feel it

915
00:54:29,113 --> 00:54:33,343
Once unworthy and yet completely
at home, disrobed of pretense, but

916
00:54:33,343 --> 00:54:37,303
clothed for the first time in warmth
you did not earn and cannot lose.

917
00:54:37,543 --> 00:54:40,963
He's the only king when he comes forth
the earth shakes in the mountains,

918
00:54:40,963 --> 00:54:45,133
tremble who can walk on water and
still the storm, and yet who kneels

919
00:54:45,253 --> 00:54:49,333
in the dust to wash the dirty feet of
the beloved and the betrayer alike.

920
00:54:49,543 --> 00:54:53,323
He is the one whose eyes see through the
world, yet linger on the single sparrow,

921
00:54:53,323 --> 00:54:59,233
the single child, the single tear of
yours on your pillow or in the bathroom.

922
00:54:59,623 --> 00:55:03,973
He's the one who, when the time comes
to enter, his city chooses not the

923
00:55:03,973 --> 00:55:08,803
warhorse, not the chariot, not the
gilded litter, but a battered donkeys

924
00:55:08,803 --> 00:55:12,553
full so that in the midst of all
who crave power, he might show that

925
00:55:12,553 --> 00:55:14,053
his kingdom is not of this world.

926
00:55:14,173 --> 00:55:17,683
And his rule is not by
domination, but by invitation.

927
00:55:18,313 --> 00:55:21,943
He is the one who gathers up the bruised
reeds in the smoking wicks of the world.

928
00:55:22,003 --> 00:55:24,373
He speaks not condemnation, but comfort.

929
00:55:24,553 --> 00:55:29,053
He's the one who at the table welcomes
not the powerful or the pedigree,

930
00:55:29,293 --> 00:55:32,953
but the tax collector, the zealot,
the street walker, and the child

931
00:55:32,953 --> 00:55:34,783
with sticky hands in a runny nose.

932
00:55:34,963 --> 00:55:39,103
He's the one who offers his own body
and blood is bred for the hungry wine

933
00:55:39,103 --> 00:55:44,373
for the ruined and the most mysterious
exchange becomes the host and the

934
00:55:44,373 --> 00:55:49,443
meal priest, and the offering, the
servant and the sovereign all at once.

935
00:55:49,443 --> 00:55:52,493
He's the one who though every
throne in history has been secured

936
00:55:52,493 --> 00:55:54,323
by violence and threat claims.

937
00:55:54,323 --> 00:55:59,513
His by being stripped, mocked, spat
upon and nailed to wood so that when

938
00:55:59,513 --> 00:56:04,163
he says, behold the king, the old story
of the world is unmade and a new one.

939
00:56:04,493 --> 00:56:05,543
Is begun.

940
00:56:05,753 --> 00:56:08,903
He's so glorious that he can
summon angels with a whisper and

941
00:56:08,903 --> 00:56:10,553
turn back the sun with a word.

942
00:56:10,823 --> 00:56:14,663
Yet he's so gentle that he will not
quench the hope of a single soul clinging

943
00:56:14,663 --> 00:56:19,133
to him By the thin threat of faith, he
weaves over cities that will not have him.

944
00:56:19,253 --> 00:56:20,573
He pleads with the proud.

945
00:56:20,573 --> 00:56:21,833
He wrestles with doubters.

946
00:56:21,863 --> 00:56:23,693
He listens to the secrets of the shame.

947
00:56:23,753 --> 00:56:25,373
He gives them a new name.

948
00:56:25,433 --> 00:56:26,453
He does not flatter.

949
00:56:26,453 --> 00:56:27,443
He does not coerce.

950
00:56:27,593 --> 00:56:29,783
He does not break the bruised for sport.

951
00:56:30,383 --> 00:56:33,593
He binds up the broken and
takes their scars for his own.

952
00:56:34,013 --> 00:56:37,873
He's so radiant that he, that to see
him is to see the fullness of God so

953
00:56:37,873 --> 00:56:42,193
accessible that the outcast in the
foreigner and the enemy discover that

954
00:56:42,193 --> 00:56:44,533
they're honored guests at his feast.

955
00:56:47,233 --> 00:56:50,443
He is the one who calls you
not simply to be his servant.

956
00:56:50,848 --> 00:56:55,498
But his friend, and not simply his
friend, but is beloved, and not

957
00:56:55,498 --> 00:56:59,788
simply his beloved, but his own
body joined together by a union more

958
00:56:59,788 --> 00:57:01,678
intimate than any marriage on earth.

959
00:57:01,948 --> 00:57:06,358
He's the one who knows your secrets,
your faults, your failures, and does

960
00:57:06,358 --> 00:57:10,828
not shun you, but opens arms wider,
inviting you deeper into his own life.

961
00:57:11,128 --> 00:57:15,658
He is the one though he deserves
every crown and scepter and anthem.

962
00:57:15,658 --> 00:57:19,738
Instead, empties himself becomes
a base exposed and humiliated.

963
00:57:19,738 --> 00:57:23,818
He is the one whose blessedness is
not kept behind walls or reserved for

964
00:57:23,818 --> 00:57:25,948
the worthy, but who gives it away?

965
00:57:25,948 --> 00:57:30,928
Who multiplies it, who plants it like a
seed in the dirt of your own life so that

966
00:57:30,928 --> 00:57:38,098
it might grow into an orchard and a garden
even in the wasteland of our regrets?

967
00:57:38,398 --> 00:57:40,858
He's the one above all who
wants to be known by you.

968
00:57:41,158 --> 00:57:42,418
Behold the king.

969
00:57:42,838 --> 00:57:46,618
He is not what you expect, but he
is what your soul has always needed.

970
00:57:46,918 --> 00:57:49,668
Blessed is he and blessedness will
come into your life if you receive

971
00:57:49,668 --> 00:57:52,848
him for who he is, the true king.

972
00:57:53,770 --> 00:57:54,810
I Two implications.

973
00:57:55,620 --> 00:57:56,250
We'll be brief.

974
00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:00,690
Lemme try bringing this to earth because
I don't want you in any way to walk

975
00:58:00,690 --> 00:58:02,910
out of here thinking this is abstract.

976
00:58:03,150 --> 00:58:07,440
This transformation isn't just a
spiritual daydream, it's as real as

977
00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:10,920
Friday night at home when everybody's
tired and the takeout is late and

978
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:12,600
nobody wants to put away the laundry.

979
00:58:13,425 --> 00:58:16,785
And you have opportunity to
utter sharp word or to serve.

980
00:58:17,025 --> 00:58:21,435
It's as real as the office, as the
hospital waiting room As the friend,

981
00:58:21,435 --> 00:58:23,145
you keep meaning to call, but never do.

982
00:58:23,775 --> 00:58:27,525
The kindliness of Jesus when it enters
a person does not only change their

983
00:58:27,525 --> 00:58:31,845
self-concept, it changes the weather
system of the room when they enter.

984
00:58:32,895 --> 00:58:34,455
It's not just a matter of personality.

985
00:58:34,545 --> 00:58:35,595
We all have different personalities.

986
00:58:35,595 --> 00:58:38,355
Some are born more sensitive, more
attuned to the feelings of others.

987
00:58:39,405 --> 00:58:42,315
Some are born more assertive,
more focused on the task.

988
00:58:42,855 --> 00:58:45,015
But the kindliness of Christ
when it comes into you does

989
00:58:45,015 --> 00:58:46,695
not wipe out your personality.

990
00:58:47,655 --> 00:58:50,835
It doesn't turn the strong into the weak
or the stubborn into the sentimental.

991
00:58:51,435 --> 00:58:56,175
Rather, it takes what is best
and purifies it, exalts it, and

992
00:58:56,175 --> 00:58:58,785
unmasks the fake imitations.

993
00:59:00,435 --> 00:59:05,085
The pushiness of the barbarian, we'll call
'em, is transformed into holy boldness.

994
00:59:05,745 --> 00:59:10,575
The sweetness of the timid is transformed
into real meekness, which as we've

995
00:59:10,575 --> 00:59:12,165
said is strength under control.

996
00:59:12,210 --> 00:59:14,310
It's not possible on your own.

997
00:59:14,310 --> 00:59:17,100
It's not possible through
discipline or New Year's resolution.

998
00:59:17,280 --> 00:59:20,350
It is the art of letting
someone else manage your heart.

999
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:24,040
The servanthood of Jesus is not
the servanthood of a doormat nor

1000
00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:26,830
the servanthood of martyr complex.

1001
00:59:27,070 --> 00:59:29,590
It is the servanthood of royalty.

1002
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:35,500
It's all about our identity, guys,
of someone who is so secure in

1003
00:59:35,500 --> 00:59:39,730
their identity, so anchored in their
worth that they can afford to lose

1004
00:59:39,730 --> 00:59:41,560
all outward signs of position, ugh.

1005
00:59:42,190 --> 00:59:46,660
To be called names, to be overlooked,
to be spat on, to be misunderstood, and

1006
00:59:46,660 --> 00:59:49,390
still not lose an ounce of their dignity.

1007
00:59:51,610 --> 00:59:54,340
Servanthood is defined by
Christ is not niceness.

1008
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:57,550
It's not passive
aggressive self-sacrifice.

1009
00:59:57,820 --> 01:00:00,790
It's not living through your
children or your job or your cause.

1010
01:00:00,940 --> 01:00:04,630
It's not the servitude that quietly
resents everyone in the world for not

1011
01:00:04,630 --> 01:00:08,680
appreciating your 3:00 AM active folding
laundry or donations to the bake sale.

1012
01:00:09,505 --> 01:00:12,325
It's not even the kind of
servanthood that expects to be

1013
01:00:12,325 --> 01:00:14,425
celebrated for being a servant.

1014
01:00:15,115 --> 01:00:19,075
In fact, the real servanthood, the
servanthood, born of cleanliness

1015
01:00:19,255 --> 01:00:21,535
does not announce itself like Christ.

1016
01:00:22,435 --> 01:00:24,385
It is to borrow Cs loose phrase.

1017
01:00:24,385 --> 01:00:27,265
The sort of humility that
does not think less of itself.

1018
01:00:27,595 --> 01:00:29,395
It simply thinks of itself less.

1019
01:00:30,895 --> 01:00:34,135
Are you a barbarian or are you timid?

1020
01:00:34,885 --> 01:00:35,245
We are.

1021
01:00:35,245 --> 01:00:37,795
Most of us both at times.

1022
01:00:37,825 --> 01:00:40,855
I've known the barbarian, who
at the job site, devours the

1023
01:00:40,855 --> 01:00:42,475
week, makes sport of humiliating.

1024
01:00:42,475 --> 01:00:42,715
Others.

1025
01:00:42,715 --> 01:00:46,765
Sometimes I've been the one to do
that, but who at home becomes fragile

1026
01:00:46,765 --> 01:00:49,765
and afraid in the presence of his own
children because he does not know how

1027
01:00:49,765 --> 01:00:52,045
to love without being controlling.

1028
01:00:53,065 --> 01:00:56,185
I've known the timid who at every
social function takes up the least

1029
01:00:56,185 --> 01:00:59,485
space and apologizes for existing
runs, errands for others, but who in

1030
01:00:59,485 --> 01:01:03,445
the privacy of their own mind nurtures
deep resentment and slow burning anger

1031
01:01:03,655 --> 01:01:07,075
that sometimes erupts in passive ruin.

1032
01:01:08,470 --> 01:01:10,480
Both of these are forms
of self-absorption.

1033
01:01:10,900 --> 01:01:13,960
Both of them are symptoms of
a life under bad management.

1034
01:01:14,530 --> 01:01:16,810
Both are healed only by
the true king of your soul.

1035
01:01:16,810 --> 01:01:20,710
What would it look like if the
cleanliness of Jesus invaded your life?

1036
01:01:20,740 --> 01:01:23,890
It would look like your home or
your office or your relationships,

1037
01:01:24,250 --> 01:01:26,995
uh, with your own body being
placed under new management.

1038
01:01:27,190 --> 01:01:30,100
It would look like the strength of
a boss who makes the hard choice

1039
01:01:30,100 --> 01:01:34,510
for the good of the team, but also
has the capacity to apologize and

1040
01:01:34,510 --> 01:01:37,300
take criticism and say, I was wrong.

1041
01:01:38,170 --> 01:01:40,810
It would look like the mother who
never had a break, never had a day

1042
01:01:40,810 --> 01:01:44,710
off, who nevertheless could say no
to her child, could set a boundary,

1043
01:01:44,710 --> 01:01:49,660
could permit herself rest without
feeling that she has failed as a mom.

1044
01:01:50,530 --> 01:01:54,310
It looked like the artist who instead
of creating for fame, creates beauty

1045
01:01:54,430 --> 01:01:58,510
for its own sake, out of the same joy
that led the king to create us all.

1046
01:01:58,510 --> 01:02:01,000
But what then does that service mean?

1047
01:02:01,480 --> 01:02:05,140
It's one thing to listen, and
this is the kingly royal service

1048
01:02:05,230 --> 01:02:07,180
that, that he births in us.

1049
01:02:07,270 --> 01:02:09,640
It's one thing to listen
to help at the margins.

1050
01:02:09,850 --> 01:02:10,600
We all do that.

1051
01:02:10,600 --> 01:02:11,890
Everybody does that a little bit.

1052
01:02:12,160 --> 01:02:16,360
They'll give money to the guy on the,
on the, uh, divider lane to offer a hand

1053
01:02:16,360 --> 01:02:20,230
to the neighbor who needs a strong back
to lift a couch or a moment's kindness.

1054
01:02:20,230 --> 01:02:23,980
It's another thing to enter the reality
of another human being, to bear their

1055
01:02:23,980 --> 01:02:25,300
burdens as if they were your own.

1056
01:02:25,300 --> 01:02:31,150
To sit in the ashes, in the sweat, and
the laughter and the grief of a world not

1057
01:02:31,150 --> 01:02:34,600
yours, and make it for a moment your own.

1058
01:02:35,230 --> 01:02:41,140
The world resists This kind of service
doesn't build a brand or a legacy

1059
01:02:41,140 --> 01:02:42,700
or even a record of accomplishment.

1060
01:02:42,700 --> 01:02:46,030
It's the quiet valor of a
person who without thought of

1061
01:02:46,030 --> 01:02:47,500
reward or even acknowledgement.

1062
01:02:48,160 --> 01:02:50,620
Bends down to pick up what
others have left behind.

1063
01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:52,990
The King's service is
a service that risks.

1064
01:02:52,990 --> 01:02:59,980
It risks disappointment in boredom
and the long un heralded years of

1065
01:02:59,980 --> 01:03:02,770
not being thanked or even remembered.

1066
01:03:03,970 --> 01:03:08,860
It is a service that bleeds sometimes
because the world can be rough and

1067
01:03:08,860 --> 01:03:14,020
the objects of your love will bruise
you, and you cannot serve without

1068
01:03:14,020 --> 01:03:15,640
being drawn into the wounds of others.

1069
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:20,650
Still, it's as contagious as it is silent.

1070
01:03:21,550 --> 01:03:25,510
Have you ever watched a person who
truly serves not from codependency,

1071
01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:29,950
not from self-hatred, but from a deep
overflow of a heart that has been

1072
01:03:29,950 --> 01:03:32,920
served to its morrow by Christ himself?

1073
01:03:33,430 --> 01:03:35,650
Such a person is magnetic
without even trying.

1074
01:03:35,770 --> 01:03:36,640
There's a weightiness.

1075
01:03:36,640 --> 01:03:37,660
We call it cavo.

1076
01:03:37,900 --> 01:03:38,680
It means glory.

1077
01:03:38,680 --> 01:03:41,350
It's the old Hebrew word for weight.

1078
01:03:43,300 --> 01:03:45,010
Such a person is magnetic without trying.

1079
01:03:45,010 --> 01:03:47,500
They draw the lonely, the wounded,
the abrasive, the forgotten.

1080
01:03:48,070 --> 01:03:50,620
They create a circle of dignity
and others step into it.

1081
01:03:50,620 --> 01:03:55,150
Almost involuntarily the king
service begets more service.

1082
01:03:55,180 --> 01:03:56,620
That's just as simple as it is.

1083
01:03:57,160 --> 01:04:00,190
Paul would say in Second Corinthians five,
one of the best chapters in the entire

1084
01:04:00,190 --> 01:04:02,650
Bible, the love of Christ compels me.

1085
01:04:03,910 --> 01:04:04,660
I can't help it.

1086
01:04:05,110 --> 01:04:06,880
It's like a, an eruption.

1087
01:04:08,740 --> 01:04:10,960
Kingly if you let him in.

1088
01:04:11,320 --> 01:04:14,620
If you allow the king to take the high
seat of your heart, it is not just

1089
01:04:14,620 --> 01:04:18,580
gentleness or a lowly servants touch that
begins to pulse through your veins, but

1090
01:04:18,940 --> 01:04:20,890
also a boldness that is otherworldly.

1091
01:04:21,820 --> 01:04:22,750
Oh, how we need that.

1092
01:04:23,080 --> 01:04:25,750
Remember the apostles when
they were under persecution,

1093
01:04:25,750 --> 01:04:27,100
early churches like Acts three.

1094
01:04:27,370 --> 01:04:28,180
What was their prayer?

1095
01:04:28,630 --> 01:04:29,590
It wasn't for deliverance.

1096
01:04:29,590 --> 01:04:31,150
It wasn't for a change of circumstances.

1097
01:04:31,150 --> 01:04:32,260
It wasn't for power.

1098
01:04:32,470 --> 01:04:33,490
It was for boldness.

1099
01:04:34,779 --> 01:04:35,650
And this boldness comes.

1100
01:04:35,650 --> 01:04:36,550
That's almost otherworldly.

1101
01:04:36,550 --> 01:04:38,470
There's so many versions of
strength in the world, but

1102
01:04:38,470 --> 01:04:39,820
most of them are counterfeit.

1103
01:04:41,050 --> 01:04:44,980
They are strength that barks the
loudest when afraid that gathers

1104
01:04:44,980 --> 01:04:48,520
armies because deep down it's terrified
of being alone, of being ignored,

1105
01:04:48,520 --> 01:04:50,080
of being found out as ordinary.

1106
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:53,710
There is a kind of kindliness,
forged in the heat of comparison,

1107
01:04:54,130 --> 01:04:56,950
ambition, and insecurity.

1108
01:04:56,950 --> 01:04:59,920
A brittle, anxious thing that
often wounds more than it rolls.

1109
01:04:59,920 --> 01:05:03,820
But the kindliness of Christ, once rooted
in you, is a different animal altogether.

1110
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:08,080
It is the courage that can face ridicule
and scorn and call them brothers.

1111
01:05:08,200 --> 01:05:12,070
It's a heart that can walk in the
darkest rooms and bring no flash of the

1112
01:05:12,070 --> 01:05:14,050
sword, but still leave the room changed.

1113
01:05:15,010 --> 01:05:18,370
It is the lion's heart, yes, but
the lion you find in the book of

1114
01:05:18,370 --> 01:05:24,820
Revelation, the one who conquers not by
roaring, but by bleeding, the one who,

1115
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:30,760
when all the squirrels of history
are unrolled stands at the end,

1116
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:32,800
not with a mountain of skulls.

1117
01:05:33,685 --> 01:05:35,245
But with a crowd of the redeemed,

1118
01:05:37,404 --> 01:05:42,535
the healed, the rescued, and
the man knew, and Jesus can

1119
01:05:42,535 --> 01:05:44,215
put this person into a person.

1120
01:05:44,215 --> 01:05:44,935
Now he doesn't.

1121
01:05:45,325 --> 01:05:49,105
By taking the apprenticeship of your
soul seriously, he begin a good work

1122
01:05:49,105 --> 01:05:50,575
and you will be faithful to complete it.

1123
01:05:51,745 --> 01:05:54,535
You know that you are the
poetry of Christ, the poema.

1124
01:05:56,785 --> 01:06:01,735
He does not just ask you to serve, but to
be so secure, so deeply loved, so fiercely

1125
01:06:01,735 --> 01:06:03,745
known that there is nothing left to prove.

1126
01:06:05,005 --> 01:06:06,654
You do not have to outshine other candles.

1127
01:06:06,654 --> 01:06:08,605
You do not have to accumulate trophies.

1128
01:06:08,785 --> 01:06:11,785
You do not have to grasp that through
the world stage because you know in

1129
01:06:11,785 --> 01:06:16,855
the marrow of your bones, your name is
already scribed on the granite of heaven.

1130
01:06:17,515 --> 01:06:18,775
You are secure.

1131
01:06:18,805 --> 01:06:19,885
You are free to love.

1132
01:06:20,005 --> 01:06:23,335
You are no longer enslaved to the verdicts
of the mob, the boardroom, the family

1133
01:06:23,335 --> 01:06:26,035
table, or even your own self-condemnation.

1134
01:06:26,620 --> 01:06:29,920
That is why when Jesus sent out the
70 disciples and granted them power

1135
01:06:30,040 --> 01:06:34,210
to heal and exercise demons, he was
not at all impressed by the miracles.

1136
01:06:34,540 --> 01:06:37,900
He did not seem to care about their
sudden celebrity or the attention that

1137
01:06:37,900 --> 01:06:41,590
followed them back to camp, and the
crowds that came with it, he was not

1138
01:06:41,590 --> 01:06:43,960
keeping a tally of their exploits in to.

1139
01:06:43,990 --> 01:06:48,640
Instead, he told them, rejoice not
in the fire they could call down or

1140
01:06:48,640 --> 01:06:52,120
the power at their fingertips, but in
the knowledge that their names were

1141
01:06:52,120 --> 01:06:56,560
already written In another book, a
record kept in a place untouched by

1142
01:06:56,560 --> 01:06:59,470
war or failure, or by a Google search.

1143
01:06:59,890 --> 01:07:03,850
They had been known and loved and chosen
from before the beginning of things, the

1144
01:07:03,850 --> 01:07:09,670
foundation of the world, and that was the
only source of their real kingly power.

1145
01:07:09,670 --> 01:07:10,600
He points out.

1146
01:07:11,050 --> 01:07:12,490
It is such a strange reversal.

1147
01:07:12,490 --> 01:07:14,890
We're conditioned to believe that
status comes from accomplishment,

1148
01:07:14,890 --> 01:07:17,950
that our authority is built on the
mountain of our victories and the

1149
01:07:17,950 --> 01:07:19,870
clever manipulation of our enemies.

1150
01:07:19,870 --> 01:07:24,760
But Jesus says, no, your authority
comes from your belonging.

1151
01:07:26,710 --> 01:07:28,300
Guys, I just learned something.

1152
01:07:29,260 --> 01:07:33,340
You know when Jesus says to
the thief on the cross, today,

1153
01:07:33,340 --> 01:07:35,080
you'll be with me in paradise.

1154
01:07:35,410 --> 01:07:41,529
Do you know that what we did in Greek,
it's literally the word is perio.

1155
01:07:42,070 --> 01:07:46,240
All we did is just take that
Greek word and make it English.

1156
01:07:47,860 --> 01:07:54,970
In the step two agent, the people who
spoke Hebrew, the rabbis, Aramaic and

1157
01:07:54,970 --> 01:07:59,230
Greek, who were translating the Old
Testament into the Greek, when they

1158
01:07:59,230 --> 01:08:03,760
came across this word, they took the
Greek word paradisio cio Paradise.

1159
01:08:03,880 --> 01:08:07,240
Do you know what that
word means in Hebrew?

1160
01:08:08,830 --> 01:08:09,760
It means garden.

1161
01:08:11,830 --> 01:08:12,340
Garden.

1162
01:08:16,359 --> 01:08:21,279
So Jesus is saying to the thief on the
cross, today we're gonna walk in the.

1163
01:08:22,390 --> 01:08:25,990
The whole point walking with
God in the cool of the day,

1164
01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:33,550
we're gonna be together just
like it was supposed to be.

1165
01:08:35,680 --> 01:08:37,710
Today we're gonna walk
in the garden, guys.

1166
01:08:37,770 --> 01:08:39,359
That is what he's after.

1167
01:08:41,399 --> 01:08:45,809
He loves you and he's made, done it all.

1168
01:08:46,710 --> 01:08:47,850
So that guess what?

1169
01:08:49,050 --> 01:08:53,160
He's removed every distraction from
you taking a walk with him tonight.

1170
01:08:53,160 --> 01:08:53,225
And I,

1171
01:08:56,100 --> 01:08:56,880
nothing to prove

1172
01:08:57,120 --> 01:08:59,430
from the fact that I have
written you into my story.

1173
01:09:00,015 --> 01:09:03,075
And it's a story that cannot
be erased by your mistakes or

1174
01:09:03,075 --> 01:09:04,755
your enemies or even your death,

1175
01:09:09,944 --> 01:09:12,375
but there's a promise to all of this.

1176
01:09:12,465 --> 01:09:15,225
A shimmering behind the
humility of that first arrival.

1177
01:09:15,225 --> 01:09:16,785
The next time he comes, listen carefully.

1178
01:09:16,785 --> 01:09:21,404
The next time, it will not be as
the overlooked or the ridiculed.

1179
01:09:22,665 --> 01:09:26,024
The next time, the world will not be
able to spit or mock or ignore him.

1180
01:09:26,925 --> 01:09:32,265
The next time he'll come, not on a
donkey, but on a cloud, on a warhorse.

1181
01:09:33,285 --> 01:09:36,165
The next time the crowd will
not wave palm branches and mock

1182
01:09:36,165 --> 01:09:37,965
coronation, but tremble and awe.

1183
01:09:38,684 --> 01:09:41,505
The next time he comes,
he will not be torn.

1184
01:09:42,434 --> 01:09:44,325
He will tear apart all evil.

1185
01:09:45,135 --> 01:09:49,365
He will set all things right that are
wrong, put together the world that is

1186
01:09:49,425 --> 01:09:53,774
right now, so fragmented and unfinished,
and longing for a better ending.

1187
01:09:54,104 --> 01:09:57,495
And every knee will bow, and every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

1188
01:09:57,495 --> 01:10:00,825
But today, when the king comes, when
he steps off the donkey and into

1189
01:10:00,825 --> 01:10:02,835
your heart, this is what he does.

1190
01:10:03,015 --> 01:10:06,345
He gives you a royalty that is not built
on the bones of your enemies, but on

1191
01:10:06,345 --> 01:10:09,855
the bedrock of his own self giving love.

1192
01:10:09,855 --> 01:10:14,205
He gives you a heart that not only
bows to the weak and the suffering,

1193
01:10:14,385 --> 01:10:20,055
but can also look every tyrant in the
eye and call them in love to repent

1194
01:10:20,475 --> 01:10:22,305
with some John the Baptist fire.

1195
01:10:22,635 --> 01:10:27,465
He makes you into something
impossible, guys, a servant and a king.

1196
01:10:28,530 --> 01:10:36,105
He makes you into a lion
and a lamb all at once.

1197
01:10:36,465 --> 01:10:36,885
Let's pray.