So it's been a week. If you've been with us, we've been studying this four weeks. This is the holy week, the passion week, and we've been breaking it down day by day by day. If you've been with us, it's been quite a ride. I'm gonna tell you, today's gonna be a ride. Okay? We're gonna look at some things together and we'll, we'll be encouraged, and I think maybe even confronted by some things today. And I'm just so glad you're here. Um, I, I, I said this on, on the socials this week, gave you a little, uh, sneak peek. But, uh, I think the best way for us to look at this week that changed everything is for me to tell you a tale of three trees that might not be the three trees you're thinking of. I don't know, maybe it's, but let's look at three trees that show up in the story. Now, the first of these is the palm tree. I can't think of a better place for us to start on Palm Sunday than to hear what the gospel writers have to say about Palm Sunday. The next day, the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, who is this? The crowds answered. This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee. Oh, well, thank you, Rachel. Uh, so here's the thing. When, when, when this day happened, when, uh, when, when you see what's going on here, it's just more than we can imagine, really, this, there was like a, when Jesus entered the city, there was a, there was a kind of a, almost a, is this it? It's, it's like, wow. Finally, finally. 'cause there was this promise in the Hebrew scriptures of one who was coming an anointed one in the Hebrew. And so that's Messiah. This Messiah is a king who's gonna, he's gonna fight the Divis, the decisive battle. He's gonna win. That's gonna be it. The enemy's gonna be defeated, and we're gonna be free. And I promise you, people wanted freedom. That whole Palm Branch thing, we talked about it a few weeks ago. It's symbolic and it's defiant. They're breaking off, probably date palms that were in the region there, and they're waving them. And it was like, it's hearkening back to when they had their own freedom. I mean, palms were on their own currency when they, when they could make their own coins. So there's a little bit of that going on there. And then we get to this idea of hosanna. Hosanna is a word that is connected with the Passover feast. Now, Passover was why everybody had come back to Jerusalem. One historian tells us that there could, could have even been hundreds of thousands of people jammed into and around the city of Jerusalem. That's what's going on. That's why there's a crowd that day. But that word, Hosanna could also have a little bit of a, mm, like a, I don't know, a, a, a defiance to it, because it literally means save us, deliver us. And so it could have been a kind of a save us from our leaders, save us, deliver us from the corruption of our religious and political leaders. Please save us. But it really goes back to a verse in, uh, Psalm one 18, verse 25. It's, it's, uh, it's, it's the, the, the, the verse is, Lord, save us. I mean, the first phrase is, Lord, say, oh Lord, save us. Now in the Hebrew, there's a little bit more to it. Y'all ready to speak some Hebrew? Okay, so here it is. Uh, let's just look at it and, uh, just give it a go. What do you think? No, here's the thing. And and we're not gonna go through and break this whole thing down. I will just tell you that when you're, when you're looking at this, you, you start to see all sorts of things, uh, like, uh, this, this first word is anah, and it means, oh, it's kind of an emotive, like, oh, this, this is the, uh, sacred name of God. Now, the Hebrews out of reverence would get to a place where they wouldn't even say Yahweh out loud. What they would say instead is, Lord, they would say, Otai. And then you get to this word, and this word is gonna sound familiar to you, Oceana. That's where we get our word hosanna. Oceana means, and we won't get into, uh, Hebrew verbal stems. I'll get way out over my skis quickly. Like, I'll end up in the woods and we'll have to call ski patrol. Okay? So let's just say, if you look at this, there's some real beauty here, because what it means is that, uh, God is causing this salvation. So what it means is, oh, Lord, you gotta make it happen. Lord, please bring salvation to us. You're the only one who can. And then that little thing at the end, na, is kind of like an exclamation point. So there's a lot of oomph to it. Now, you ready to speak some Hebrew? I'll, I'll, uh, I'll spell it out for you. But anah means, oh, and then we'll say, Adonai Lord, an aai Oceana, oh, Lord, bring salvation. Deliver us, rescue us. Y'all ready? Yes. So let's just practice anana an Adonai Adonai Oceana. Let's say it together. Anah aai, Oceana. Now you say it. This was a cry for deliverance. This was a cry. God, please save us. This is what they're crying out. As Jesus now enters the city, you see, they wanted a king to come and to rescue them. And a king did show up, and God did deliver them. It's just that most people, they missed it. They, they didn't see it. They were expecting something else. Okay? I want you to note that a king did show up, and he did fight the decisive battle, and the enemy was defeated. And the king is victorious. But I'll go you one further. The king is returning. And when the king comes in glory again, there will be no doubt and no one will miss it, because he is the king. But I think on this day, in this moment, it just seems to make a lot of sense to me that we would declare that Jesus is the world's one true Lord. Like, like right now, if you're ready, what if we harken back to that ancient word, Hosanna. What if we in our own way, sang an I? Father, we come before you now, and we are asking for your help. I'm asking for your help. We're going to tell your story and the story of your son. And I know there are people here who are so eager, they're ready to take the next step. And other people, not so much. Some of us, uh, are eager to learn more. Some of us might even think that we've heard it all before. The Lord, I, this is your church. This is your story. And so for your glory, I'm asking that, that your son will be lifted high. And that we'll hear your voice even as we end this service in silence. I pray that as we leave here and head into the week, that, that your voice will echo loudly in our ears. We pray this, I pray this now in the name of King Jesus. Amen. So that was Sunday. And uh, you know, the week progresses and we talked about that. But as the week progressed, there were some people that became disillusioned because it wasn't actually going the way that they thought it would go. If Jesus is the kind of king that they're expecting, well then they're expecting him to confront Rome, like Rome's the bad guy. And yet Jesus really isn't taking on Rome. He's talking more about the corruption of the religious leaders and, and, and about building his own kingdom. And so people are confused and they've got questions. And frankly, some of them, uh, are less interested now. In fact, the gospel writers tell us that one of his own gives up on Jesus and agrees to betray him. This Judas of carry off this Judas is scary. It agrees to betray Jesus. Now, it's Thursday night, we talked about this last week. It's the Passover meal. And you know, at some point Jesus just says to Judas, Hey, you know, and I know, get on with it. Whatever you're gonna do, go do it. And then Jesus continues this meal, this symbolic meal that tells the story of Israel's rescue from slavery. But the meal wraps up. Jesus still isn't finished. He shares a lot of words, but part of what he shares is he connects through the bread and the cup. These are elements that are there at the table. He connects his story to Israel's story, to our story. You see, he's been saying that he's gonna give his life as a ransom for many. He's been talking about the cross. And all throughout the Hebrew scriptures, we've seen that there's this hint, this clue of a blameless substitute. We've seen images and metaphors and symbols that for centuries have been pointing to somehow some way there will be a blameless substitute that steps in and makes everything right. And Jesus says, it's now and it's me. And it's the cross. The meal wraps up. They sing a hymn. This is traditionally what you would do at the end of Passover. The hymn they sang, uh, would've been a series of Psalms. The halal, the last of those is Psalm one 18, which you just spoke in Hebrew. A part of that, those words would have been a part of how Jesus would've wrapped up the meal. But now they leave and the conversation continues. They're out of the upper room, they're moving through the streets. There's a darkness that's growing. They could sense it. It's almost as if this darkness is trying to find them. It does. But first, they're now weaving their way through the streets, and Jesus takes them to a favorite spot of his to pray. So the first tree was the palm tree. And this now leads us to the second tree, which is the olive tree. Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side, there was a garden, and he and his disciples went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that the hour might pass from him. Abba Father, he said, everything is possible for you if you are willing to this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Now, we don't know where the upper room was. There are people that will suggest where they think it is. If you have taken a tour of Jerusalem, your tour guide will take you to where the upper room was. We don't know if that's where it was. Okay. It's a, it's a guess, but most people will guess that it is in the upper city. It's a little bit of a newer part of, of the city. But eventually, Jesus is going to have to get to the eastern edge of the city. So he leads his disciples one way or another, probably through the lower city, and he's gotta find one of the gates that would've been open at night. He takes them through the gates, and then they go through what's called the Kidron Valley, and they cross over. They get to the road of Jericho. He's leading them up to something called the Mount of Olives. Now, when you get to the Mount of Olives, it is one of the highest locations in Jerusalem. It sits opposite the city, and you get a great view of the city and of the temple. That's the tall structure that you see there. Now remember, this is a daylight representation. This would've been nighttime because it's Passover. It would've been a full moon. So who knows how much they saw. But Jesus takes his disciples to a favorite spot where he liked to pray. It was called Gethsemane. It was a garden. There were olive trees. It was a grove of olive trees. We've all heard this, many of us. And so you take these elements of olive trees, garden, Gethsemane, and if it's the first time you've heard it, it can be confusing if you're an adorable little girl. The name of The garden was called where Jesus went to pray. So the garden was, the garden was called Olive Garden. And the garden of this gu, you had two names? Yes. And what were they called again? Olive Garden and Guin. Okay. So I'm, I'm just saying whether you're an adorable little girl trying to get the details right, or you're brand new to the story, you don't even own a Bible yet, and you're going, wait, I'm confused. There's olives, there's a garden there, there's Gethsemane. What's the deal? Let me tell you what you wouldn't find if you were walking up the hill that night. You would not find unlimited breadsticks being served. What you would find is some dozing disciples, Jesus parks all but three of them on the side of the hill. He takes three of them, Peter, James, and John A. Little bit further. And then he says some things that are actually as vulnerable as you hear Jesus speak. He's, he began to be deeply distressed and troubled that word distressed. Some translations will say, depressed. Let that one settle in and troubled. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Guys, stay with me. I, I watch, pray. I don't wanna face this. Stay with me. And it wasn't long before they were asleep. Now, before we keep going with the story, I want us to talk for just a minute about, uh, one of our favorite, not favorite words around here, okay? Depending on where you are in your journey, you either love this word or uhuh you. Ready? I want you to talk to each other about what surrender sounds like. Like what does surrender sound like? Describe it to each other. Come on, go ahead. Talk to each other. This is when we have conversations, All right? Uh, I, I want to hear what some of you guys have to say. Anybody got like, like what does surrender sound like here at Chesterfield? Anybody Letting go of control? Oh, letting go of control. Yikes. Okay. Uh, anybody over here? I thought I heard an answer. Relief. Relief. There is a relief to it. It's scary when you let go of control, but if the surrender is something that you're supposed to do, it's like, ah, okay, let me see what the sites have said. 'cause we asked them and, uh, uh, oh, here's one from Fenton. Um, forfeit like, okay, you win, um, Grant's Trail. I love this. I can't, you can't. That'll sound familiar to some of us. I can't. You can't. And then, uh, let's see, mid River said, I'm all yours. Any anybody else? Like, what does surrender sound like? Giving up, giving up, which could have like a positive or a negative, right? I don't wanna give up. I'm gonna win. I'm gonna give up. Or it could be I give up, which brings us back to relief. Anybody else? How about you guys up there in the, in the, in the rafters? Anybody? You are the opposite of the rafters. Hang on one second. I heard it and then you get the last word. Okay, I heard it up there. Where? Letting, letting go, letting go. Letting go. Okay. And then what? Sacrificing something you have right now for something better Later down. Okay, so I'm gonna give up something now that for something better later. So there is that. What keeps us from this ego pride. Ego pride. Ooh, that one's coming through loud. When she says letting go or, or, or, or, or how, what was your answer? Letting go. Control. Letting go of control. How about the flip of that? Anybody here love to be in control? Yeah. Don't look at me that way. I know you do. I know. We love to be in control. Okay? So let's just put a pin in that for now. Let's keep the story going. So if you'd have gone a little bit further, you saw these three disciples, now they're dozing to, but if you'd have gone even further, you would've seen Jesus facing the dirt, begging, pleading with his father. Just go back and look at this verse again. Abba. Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Now, some people are uncomfortable with this Jesus. Some people are like, I don't like my Jesus being vulnerable. I don't like seeing this in Jesus. I want you to know this is a moment that we cannot look away from. So what is he so like, uh, undone by, I mean, when we, when when we start thinking about it, he's been talking about the cross for a long time, and now we're here. What's so what, what, what is it that's that's, that's crushing him with grief? It says here that, that he was praying maybe for hours if you put all the details together and an angel has to minister to him in the middle so that he can get through it all. What is going on? What is it that is, is so horrifying? Is it the physical nature of the cross? Well, let's not minimize that he is fully God and fully man, and that means fully man, Jesus experienced something, the grotesque torture of a Roman cross. And I promise you, in those days, everybody knew what that was. Jesus, by that time, as a young man, had probably maybe seen at a public execution or two himself. But I can tell you this much history says that in four BC not far from where Jesus grew up in Nazareth, there was a Roman general named Veris who puts down a rebellion. And in that rebellion in the city of SRIs right next to Nazareth, 2000 people were crucified on one day. I want you to think about that. 2000 people, 2000 crosses littering the roads, 2000 lives screaming. I promise you, the people that were near there never forgot it. And I'm just guessing now. But I'll bet you they warned their kids growing up. I was there that day. I'll bet you those, I'll bet your parents warned their kids of the brutality of Rome. I think Jesus knew about this. But it wasn't just that. It was the, it was the relational, uh, the, the, the relational aspect of what's gonna happen here. It would've been so he would've been gutted by this, I mean, betrayed and abandoned by his friends. It would've been emotionally wrecking for him. Jesus history would tell us that these, these people that are crucified on the cross, they're stripped completely naked as they're nailed to this cross. Imagine Jesus now. He's, he's bleeding out, he's gasping for his next breath. Enemies are coming close, spitting, mocking on him, the injustice of it all. But there's even more in this dread. And the cue is in the word cup when Jesus says, let this cup pass from me. Now we're back in the Old Testament. You see, throughout the Old Testament, the word cup is a metaphor for, for something you see at the cup of desolation, the cup of ruin, the cup of wrath. It's a metaphor for God's judgment on sin. Now, that's a central concept to the Bible. I can't think of a more unpopular thing for us to talk about than sin. So let's just, let's just figure this out for a second. The Bible says that at the beginning of human story, the human story that we rebelled against God and we've been doing it ever since, and it's this rebellion, it's this turning our own way. It's this sin that is wreaking havoc in the story. I'm gonna go on ahead and guess that most of us are willing to admit that we don't bat a thousandth in life. Yes. Yeah. But what gets us is the God's reaction to sin. It's like, oh man, you just, it seems like it's a really big deal to you. One author tries to explain it this way when you see, uh, when you see a read of a child that's been shot or a woman raped, or the holocaust, or the slave trade, or global sex trafficking, it doesn't take us long to get to outrage, does it? I mean, it's just some of you're outraged that I even mentioned such a thing in church, but it doesn't take us long to say no. There's a thing screaming inside of us that says, that's not right. That needs to be made right? And justice needs to be served. Now imagine God seeing all things throughout all time and seeing how it all connects. What we are feeling, by the way, the reason you're feeling that is because you're made in the image of God. It means you have this moral sense of right and wrong. Pay attention to that. But it's a fraction of what God sees. And some of you're like, hang on a minute. Do not put me in the same bucket with all of those horrific things. Just don't. And, and I, I want you to hear that. I understand those are like some of the worst things we could imagine. And I will tell you that they will be dealt with and evil will be dealt with, and justice will be served. It is the only way that life makes sense to me. God doesn't look away from that. I've got questions. I really do. How does this happen? But God will have the last word on that. But what I have to do is to like, I gotta step a, I gotta sidestep that and see how this becomes personal for me. You see, the Bible says that I'll be accountable for my sin. God sees it all. God knows it all. And God sees how it, it all corrupts, it all infects, it all destroys. And there will be a day when God deals with all of it, because God has a plan for his creation and his created. And he will not look the other way. But what the Bible says is, I will give an account for my life to a holy God, not for the horrors that I just mentioned. I'll give an account for my life. And I'm telling you, there will come a day in each of your lives where we will stand before a holy God and after give an account for our life. And if we haven't batted a thousand, then we've got a decision to make. Do we wanna stand before a holy God alone? Or do we wanna stand with a holy God with our savior saying, Abba, this one's one of mine. You see, that's the heart of the gospel here. It is something that we have to make personal. And I know as soon as I start talking about different sins, some of you're like, well, wait a second, I still don't think I'm that bad. Compared to, you know, he's like sitting three rows back. I used to work with him. Whew, I'm good. Compared to him, I'm probably okay, let's try it this way. Quick raise of the hands everywhere. So whether you're at Fenton, whether you're at Mid Rivers, grants Trail here at Chesterfield, online, someplace around the world, those of you in overflow here at Chesterfield, everybody, and now all together, uh, how many of you would con consider yourself above average drivers? Go ahead, just raise your hand. Yeah, look at you. Look at you. Yeah, you don't need to defend it. Just raise your hand. Yeah. Are you familiar with the term illusory superiority? You can figure it out. It's the illusion of being superior. Let's try it again. How many of you would say you are above average in intelligence? Oh, yeah, I heard over there. Now some of you're having a problem because you are above average in humility. So it's just, it's so hard for you to, but you're also above average in telling the truth. So you're really struggling. Listen to me, uh, Stanford University did, Stanford University did a, a, like a a a, it, it was really just a, a famous study years ago now where, uh, they found that when they poll people, um, 93% cent of people said they were above average drivers. Yeah, just let that settle in for just a second. All right, so now it's not just them. Like, uh, like they, they surveyed a million high school students and said, so how are you with like, people skills? How are you with, you know, interacting with your peers? No one rated themself below average. In fact, 60% said they were, um, in the top 10%, right? 25% said they were in the top 1%. And if you think I'm just picking on, on students now, let's go to professors. Professors, uh, came to as basically saying that 94% of them said that they were above average teachers. And by the way, this just keeps going no matter what the industry is. Uh, medical residents, same mistake. Business managers close to 100% of business managers said, oh yeah, I am above average. Okay. Okay. So just to say the, the the obvious out loud gang, these numbers don't work. Mark Mcma, a psychologist puts it like this. We think better of ourselves than we really are. We see our faults in faint black and white rather than in vivid color. And we assume the worst in others while assuming the best in ourselves. Ooh, that, that could explain a lot these days. The spiritual parallel is striking, though. If we systematically overestimate our ability in something like driving, is it possible that we could overestimate our moral standing before God? Is it possible when somebody says, you know what? I think I'm in pretty good standing with God. Is it possible that they're making the same mistake of the 93% that say they're above average drivers? You see, when you have a blind spot, the only way to help the blind spot is if you have objective reality that can tell you the truth from a different angle. That's how you see the blind spot. And this brings us to the beautiful, powerful, difficult, frustrating, healing, liberating, challenging, comforting word of God because it's all of those things. But I'm telling you in his word, he speaks the truth to us. What if God's character was so completely different? What if his holiness was so much more than we can imagine, that we just can't even, we can't even understand how offensive our sin is to him. I want you to know that in the blind, blinding, majestic glory, that is God all have sinned. And his infinite justice says, I'm dealing with all of it. 'cause I'm not letting it have the last word. Right? You see, God's not gonna look away. And that's sobering. Here's the good news. I mean, it's the biggest plot twist ever. God found a way out of his infinite love. God found a way to satisfy his justice without separating from us forever, without destroying us forever. You see, this is the plan. This was always the plan. And the only way it happens is if Jesus drinks the cup and all of it we're almost to zero hour. I mean, we're right there. And Jesus is so close to the cup, he can look into it, and it is so vile. He gags, he's facing the dirt. How about, please know, and where does this happen? Do you remember Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives? Now, olives are a big deal in Middle Eastern culture. Even today. Olive oil is something that was used in the ancient world for a bunch of things. It was used for, uh, like fuel for your lamps. It was used, uh, to lubricate things. And if you were working with something, it was used medicinally. It was, it was even used as food. And you would, you would take the olives and, and in the really old days, you would crush them. You would push them down. Sometimes you would kind of do, you've seen that same thing with grapes. You would just stomp 'em with your bare feet, you know, and just really crunch 'em down, which is fine. I You can put that oil in my lamp. Don't put it on my salad. I'm just saying. So, um, where were we? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so there was technology that happened, uh, uh, a little bit earlier than Jesus. And you had, well, here it is. You would like a, a huge thing. You'd dump these ripe olives and that's what's in there. And this, this big wheel would crush them down. And then you would take the pulp and put it into these, these kind of, these, you know, burlap bags. And then you would stack them up. This is the ancient way of doing things. You would put that on a piece of limestone, you'd stack 'em all up there together, and then you would put a weight on top of it. It could have been a limestone, it could have been like right here, a, a huge piece of timber. And you would squeeze it down and you would press it down and the oil would come out and drop into a pit. This is how you made olive oil. Now, olive oil was almost sacred to the Hebrew people because it goes back to the idea of Messiah anointed one. You anointed priests and prophets and kings, and some of you're like, well, cool, thanks for the history lesson. You know, Reverend trivia, what does that have to do with me? Anybody know the name for an olive press A Gethsemane? Now, maybe nobody ever told you this, but from now on, every time you read this story, every time you hear the word Gethsemane, I want you to know that it is the picture, not just of olives being pressed, but this is the moment when Jesus is being squeezed and pressed. Isaiah would say, crushed for our iniquities. He is now begging his father. Please. Is this the only way? But at the end of it, on, on that hill, in that grove of olive trees, Jesus says, yes. He wakes up the disciples, he sees this mob coming up the hill with torches and weapons, and he's betrayed by an unholy kiss. He's arrested, he's dragged back into the city. It's now early Friday morning. Things bounce back and forth. He bounces between a religious trial and a political trial. It's all full of injustice. It is illegalities everywhere he's beaten, he's mocked, he's abused. The religious leaders want him to die, but they keep having to try to encourage the Romans to do it. They don't want to do this. But in the end, the fellow who's over that region punches Pilate doesn't want trouble. So he agrees to crucify Jesus. Now it's early Friday morning, he's been beaten. He's been abused, he's been mocked. He's been spat upon a, a crown of thorns has been jammed onto his head. He has been scourged. Now listen to me. When the Romans whipped somebody body, many times that person died in the process of just the whipping. All of this has now happened at its early Friday morning. And that leads us to the third tree. It's what Peter refers to as the tree. Then they led him out to crucify him. They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 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 at noon. Darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out and a loud voice, eloi elani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me later knowing that everything had now been finished and so that scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus said, I'm thirsty. And when he had received the drink, Jesus said, it is finished. He called out with a loud voice. Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. When he had said this, he breathed his last. I want you to know, as we now start to wrap this up, my words will fail me. Okay? I cannot adequately describe for you what happened that day. Six hours, the gospel writers tell us between nine and three o'clock, six hours, and somehow this pays for the crimes of all humanity, of all the horrific things that we have seen throughout the ages. How does that even work? Let's start with the logic. If there's this idea and the promise that a blameless substitute would be there, if that substitute is going to somehow, uh, be the one that steps in for all of us, they have to be blameless. They can't have any sin. They can't have something that they have to explain to God. Second thing is they have to do it voluntarily, otherwise it's an injustice of its own. And thirdly, whoever or whatever is going on here, this, this life, this life has to have so much meaning and so much weight that, that it reaches out and covers all, all of history. Well, we're describing God here. God is the only one who who, who satisfies this. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. But still, some of you're saying, Greg, no disrespect, but how does, like, it sounds horrible, but how does six bloody hours on a cross, how does that fix things? I want you to understand we're talking about God here. This is an eternal being. And that means this is an eternal moment. We're gonna wade into the deep water for a second. Jesus is going to deal with stuff that you, and I don't wanna even, we don't even wanna even talk about it. In fact, some of you are, are gonna be tempted to, to get up and walk out of this. And if this is too much and if it's too personal, I understand If it's like, man, I don't wanna hear this at all. I understand, come back, talk to us. But Jesus is going to deal with our sin. Paul says later, he says that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us. It doesn't mean that he becomes sinful, but I want you to understand this is kind of the deep water. This is the theology of it. In that moment on the cross, all of the consequence and effect of all the sin throughout all of history now starts to pile up on him. When we talk around here about the effect of sin, when we talk about like what it does and how it messes up your friendships, how it messes up your heart, how it destroys you, how it haunts you, how there is regret and shame. I mean, we could go on, right? There's all of these things that we know when we're not right and the weight of it, oh, we don't even want to think about it. It's all now stacking up on Jesus in that moment. It's a transcendent difficult to describe moment, but it's all now weighing down on Jesus. No wonder Peter looking back, says that he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. Only God could handle that kind of weight. And we're in the mystery now because we're, we're trying to comprehend what was going on, uh, between these eternal persons in that moment. You see, one of the things sin does is it separates us. And there's about to be a separation between these eternal beings that has never been there since before there was time. This is a part of God now paying the price. You know, when we talk about how, when we forgive each other, I've said this to you in recent days, when you forgive someone, you have to absorb that wrong. You have to absorb that hurt and, and then choose to not pay that person back. That's a part of forgiving. God is now doing that. He's absorbing all of that and choosing to not pay back. He is absorbing all of this on the cross. This is what is going on. This is what is happening. This is what makes things right. Listen, if you go and you study any other world religion and those of you in explorations, you are about to do that. You'll find, I've looked, I've studied. There is no other world religion with a God who is willing to suffer for us. This is the creator sacrificing himself for the created. And now we're back to the garden. When Jesus is praying and it says that he's deeply distressed right after that, and you might have just missed it, it said, and troubled that word troubled. I want you to understand something. That word troubled according to one scholar, s Lewis Johnson, it's comes from two words away home. You getting it. So it means you're weighed down. It means you're disturbed. It means something's going on inside your heart because you are homesick. I want you to understand in the garden, Jesus was already homesick for the Father. He's already anticipating what we've seen on the cross when he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a quote from Psalm 22, but he's also living this out. I want you to understand when he says Abba in the garden, Abba, Abba, I don't want this Abba, that is such an intimate term. If you go to Israel today, you will see little ones just Abba. Abba. Rob and I were at a, uh, at a Shabbat meal, a Sabbath meal in Jerusalem a while back with some friends. And it was a, it was a, it was a crowded room and we were their guests. Uh, but in, in a traditional Sabbath meal, after the lighting of the candles, the father will bless his children, right? And I'm thinking, wow, how are we gonna do this with all these kids? And there's so much going on, and I'm, I'm telling you, if you'd have been there, you'd have seen all these kids lining up. 'cause they knew it was their time. Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba, bless me, Abba, my turn. Abba. Now me, Abba, I don't want to do this. That's the prayer in the garden. Because Jesus knows that this is the moment that the Father separates from the Son. This is the moment when the Father has to turn away because all of the sin has poured onto Jesus. Philip Yancy says, we know what Jesus cried out. We do not know what the Father cried out. But between the two of them, they are experiencing a separation. This is when the father's heart breaks. This is when the sun cries out, and this is when the spirit is grieved. But all gotta hear me. This is when the price is paid. No wonder the earth shook. Amen. And there's victory there. But I need y'all to know that the victory began in the garden. Remember the prayer, ahah, please, I don't want this. But how does the prayer end here It is, yet not as I will, but as you will, you know what that is? That's what surrender sounds like. That's the language of surrender. You see, this is where the victory happens. Praise God, when Jesus cries out, it's finished. It's paid in full. I'm telling you, the king did show up and the king did fight the decisive battle against the enemy and the blood of only one was spilled and it was enough. And he says it's finished. Do you have any idea how much you matter to God? Do you have any idea like the, the relief, the freedom that comes when we surrender to that love? We're now about to enter into the end of our time together. I wanna just tell you how this is gonna work. First of all, we get to bring our worries, our hopes, our dreams, our regrets. We, we get to bring all of it to the God who loves us enough to die for us. And that means we will now use those two elements, the bread and the cup. And for those of you who are ready to take communion with us, I'd say have those out. We're not taking it yet. But I just wanna say to those of you who now go into kind of autopilot because you were trained well growing up in whatever church you were in, and you're about to not just say, yep, this is what you do. It's Palm Sunday. Boom. Get it done outta here. If this isn't something personal to you, uh ooh, I'm gonna ask that you not participate. Not because we don't want you to, but because I wanna say this as clearly as I can. You don't need a ritual, you need a savior. You need Jesus. Listen, some of you, that's why your friend brought you today. That's why your family prays for you. That's why some of you're watching online, because God has brought you to this moment. You need Jesus in your own way, in your own words, right now, you could surrender. You could say, I don't have it all figured out. I've still got questions, but Jesus, I trust you. Forgive me. Lead me. Move in close. And this is the beginning of the new life. But for the rest of us, it's a chance to remember now how much we are loved. So I'm gonna ask that you respect the people around you. I'm gonna ask that you not leave, we're just about done. But I'm gonna ask that you give everyone a chance to, to consider this. And if you're not ready for this, then consider how much you are loved. And then if you can stand it, I'm gonna ask at the end that you not applaud, that you not clap. I don't think you would, but I know how encouraging we are at each of our sites. When you hear these musicians do their thing, I'm just gonna ask that we end in silence. You see, I'm gonna ask that if, if you have a question, you can come up and and find a pastor later. But I, I'm really gonna ask if we could just let this truth settle in. It might even mean we take a breath before we leave and then come back next week. Like if we leave in silence, what do you get a load of next week? It's gonna be loud. You will hear the sound of hope. But now when we take communion, we'll do it on our own. You pray, you confess, you consider you. Listen to this song, wash over you. Take the bread. This is my body, which is for you. Take the cup. This is my blood poured out for you. And you remember, this is what we'll do. But one more time, do you have any idea how loved you are? Do you have any idea the relief and the freedom that comes from your surrender? God, we thank you. God, help us. God. We need you, Lord Jesus. We remember oceano Ocean.