SPEAKER_00 0:00

When I was in college working at a Christian sports camp, I was dared to jump off of a 30-foot tower into a river, fifty-two degrees at the time, in the dark. And uh having something to prove, I climbed to the top of the tower and for an hour contemplated my mortality. Although now I would say I was mostly just contemplating my stupidity. And at one point, uh the words just jump gave me some courage. And come on, we'll catch you. We'll reach and grab you by the water. Finally did it for me. And I looked out, could not see the water. The moon was shining on the mist above the river, but I couldn't tell how far down it was, and I jumped. And core memory, obviously. I will never forget what it felt like to fall. And I will never forget what it felt like to fall into 52 degrees water. And I'll definitely never forget what it felt like to have a hand reach out and grab me when I hit the water and pull me onto the dock. I want to take us tonight back to the beginning of Lent, six and a half weeks ago. You are my son, my beloved. I'm so pleased with you. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. It was a time of trial, a time of temptation, a time of testing. I don't know what that looked like. I don't know if that came in the form of a being. If there was an internal wrestling and struggle while he felt truly alone. I don't know, but we're told in the Gospels that when the enemy came to him, the enemy started with, if you were the son of God. And we can hear that two ways. We can hear if you are the son of God, like you need to prove if you're really the son of God. But we can also hear it another way, and it has traditionally been read this way: more, if you are the son of God, prove what kind of God you are. I want to read to us from Luke 4. In Luke, this is the final temptation. The devil led him all the way to Jerusalem and had him stand at the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. Jump. For it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands, so you'll not even strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered, It is said, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. The enemy came to Jesus and said, Give me a spectacle. Give me something to believe in. This is not much different than what was asked of Jesus multiple times during his ministry. And it's not that different sometimes what we say. The enemy offered Jesus a chance. Prove God's faithfulness, prove the dependability, the protection, and the salvation of God. If you are the Son of God, save yourself. The enemy had taken Jesus to Jerusalem, where the temple was, literally and metaphorically the highest point for the people of God. The temple was the place where the people of God went and knew the presence of God, most believed in God there. It was a place where sacrifices were made, where you entered one way and you came out another. So with this backdrop, let's fast forward to now what we're celebrating Holy Week. Three years after that time in the wilderness, Jesus made his way again to Jerusalem. Been to Jerusalem many times in his life, but this time was different. A day or so after the famous entry into the city that we talked about just this past Sunday on Palm Sunday, just a couple days later, there were some people looking for Jesus. And one of his disciples brought them to him. And at this point, Jesus says, and this is I'm reading from John 12, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Because I tell you that unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. He went on to say, now my soul is troubled. But what should I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. It's for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And when I'm lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people unto myself. And the gospel writer says, Jesus said this to show the kind of death that he was going to die. Remember the wilderness. Throw yourself down and have the angels catch you. Well, guess what? Jesus threw himself all the way down. Here he was, the highest point of his ministry. Of all of the work that he had done, his miracles, his teaching. He was becoming a threat to many and the highest hope to so many more. And he's arrested. He's betrayed. He just left. That night he was interrogated multiple times, moved all around the city like a criminal. There were people there who were accusing him of things to his face. He'd never done. He was hit many times. And mocked at the same time. Who hit you? Tell me who hit you. Hey Jesus, who hit you? They took off his clothes. He was whipped. And then after all that, the soldiers whipped him, hit him, mocked him, dressed him in military garb, and then undressed him again. And by this point, he was looking quite inhumane. Disgusting to look at. All bloody, who's made to carry his cross out of the city, didn't even get to die in Jerusalem. While everyone walking by on the busy road could see how shameful this criminal is. Look at that disgusting person who probably did disgusting things. Good. I'm glad he's dead. But while he's making his way carrying these heavy beams, he's dehydrated. He's lost so much blood, he's exhausted, and he's literally falling down in the streets. He couldn't even carry his own cross. He had to have help. And once he's nailed to the wood, he's gasping for breath, he only lasts a few more hours, eventually crying out, My God, my God, why have you left me? And he dies. He throws himself all the way to God. Tonight I'd like to invite us to consider why did it need to be this way? Why this way? What was there to prove? Let's go back to the question. If you are the son of God, if you are the son of God, how many times was that said to him during his ministry and even multiple times in his passion and crucifixion? Well, if you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, if you are the son of God, I think there are two reasons why it had to be this way, at least two. When Jesus threw himself all the way down in this way, a death of this kind, Jesus proved his power, his choice, his authority as the Son of God. I'm reading from John 10, where earlier in his ministry, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Don't be fooled, no one takes it from me. I lay it down on my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I received from my father. So no, Satan, I don't jump when you say jump. I jump when my father says. And guess what? When I jump, I'm taking sin and the devil and suffering and grief and pain all the way down with me. You're going with me. But I think secondly, Jesus meets that second reading of if you are the Son of God. Well, what kind are you? When he threw himself all the way down, he proved the love of God for us. When our kids were little, um, a parenting therapist that we needed to meet with helped Jason and me when we weren't sure what to do with our kids in their overwhelm or their tantrums or whatever. I was tending to try to get bigger over them. And the therapist encouraged me to kneel down at their level and look them in the eye. But if you can get a little lower, why? It's disarming. There's something that happened in that power shift that caused them to go, what's happening? There's a softening. What if Jesus was telling us that we will never fall farther? In our despair. In our doubts, in our grief, in our sin, in our suffering, we will never fall farther than he has been. We will never fall farther than he has been. He went further. And when we fall, we fall on him. So I want to transition um to just reading from the scripture, the final piece from the gospels of how he died. And I want to invite us to look at him. Another core memory of when I was in college is that I was in a mass media journalism class, uh, literally sitting in that class when the first of the two towers fell during September 11th. And I remember going back to class either the next class period or the next week or whatever, and the professor brought the front page of a newspaper. And the whole front page was an image of one of the towers burning. And there are people jumping. And we talked about whether that was okay. Should we look at this? Should we gape at this image of people falling to their death? Maybe not. But tonight I would invite you as we read the scripture to look at Jesus. To watch him falling, throwing himself all the way down for you, for me, for us. After we read the scripture, we're gonna turn off our candles and we're gonna hold silence. I also invite you, if this is helpful to you, to enter into this imaginatively, to close your eyes, to allow the scene to take place in pictures in your mind. Mark fifteen twenty five through thirty-nine. The written notice of the charge against him read The King of the Jews. They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, So, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself. In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. He saved others, they said, but he can't save himself. Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe. And those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? When some of those standing near heard this, they said, Listen, he's calling Elijah. Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said. With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. From top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, surely, this man was the son of God. Invite you to turn off your candles and hold silent.