Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20)

(Originally delivered at Prince of Peace Church, Hopewell, PA on August 29-30, 2009)

Last week John talked about our rental bodies, how this flesh is just a tent, and how we shouldn't worry about death. This week we're going to talk about protecting these tents while we're still on earth. We all know about protecting ourselves, right? We wash our hands, we're supposed to, all the time to keep from transferring germs. Riding a bicycle or a motorcycle, we wear a . . . helmet. We have airbags in our cars & smoke detectors in our homes. If you're a police officer you have your bullet-proof vest. And we all know what equipment we need when we bungee jump, right? You're not into bungee jumping?

I've got a new baby! Four daughters now, but for the first time we have two under two years old. This means double protection. This means two car seats in the minivan at the same time. The infant has to be facing backwards and the toddler forward. It's really complicated, but we know how to do it.

So, we know how to protect our bodies in this world. What about our spiritual bodies, our souls? The apostle Paul says there is protection for that, too. It's called “Spiritual Armor.” Soldiers wear armor. They wear armor today. They wore armor back in Roman times.
Paul was a prisoner, watched over by Roman soldiers. When he wrote today's Bible passage, he was probably looking at his guard's armor. Armor has 6 main pieces: helmets, breastplates, belts, shoes, and they had shields and swords.

Paul attaches spiritual protection to each of these things: The helmet of salvation. The breastplate of righteousness. The belt of truth. The shoes of peace. More importantly the gospel or good news of peace. The shield of faith. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Why do we need this spiritual armor? Well, we needed it this week, didn't we? When we saw that pretty girl walking down the street and we thought about taking a second look. When we started gossiping about someone behind their back. When we began to doubt that Christianity is even true. With all the stuff we go through each week, temptations, doubts, guilt, fear, unexplained sickness. We should put that armor on every morning.

All those temptations, doubts, fears come from spiritual attack! Paul says in today's passage that we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” “Spiritual forces of evil” - that's Satan, our enemy. If you're a Christian, the enemy uses the sins of our pre-Christian life to tempt and confuse us. Ever see those old cartoons where a little devil pops up on the shoulder and whispers in the ear? And an angel is on the other shoulder whispering the opposite advice of the devil. It's kind of like that but waaaaay less cute. In the real spirit world, there are spiritual armies clashing in another dimension for our souls.

There's a great example of this in the Old Testament. Every time the king of Syria tries to attack Israel, Israel knows the plan and foils the attack. How can this be? Well, the prophet Elisha is praying to God, and God is revealing Syria's plans to Israel. The King of Syria finds this out and tries to capture Elisha. He surrounds the city with horses and chariots. Elisha's servant sees the ambush and cries out, “what shall we do?” Confidently, Elisha responds, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elisha prayed for his servant's eyes to be opened, and behold he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around. This was not a “flesh and blood” army! These were angel warriors fighting devil warriors. Spiritual armies clashing in another dimension!

Another reason why we need the armor: It helps us worship properly. We all worship. Every single one of us. God made us to worship. Even people who aren't religious. We all worship something. But are we worshiping God? Outside of America, in the third world countries, they know this. They know everyone worships something. The question there is, who or what are you worshiping? In these poorer countries, the spirit world there is not behind the scenes – it's out in the open! But here in America, we don't see much spiritual attack in the open – it's all behind the scenes. The armies of the enemy don't need to come out of the shadows. Because we're already worshiping the wrong things. We've got our Internet, our video games, our TVs, our massive amounts of pornography. We can barely get to church once a week – or just on holidays. Our focus drifts away from God.

For example many people are glued to entertainment. “We can't miss our shows.” The fall season is coming up. Let's see, I've got House on Monday, Hell's Kitchen on Tuesday, CSI New York on Wednesday, CSI Las Vegas on Thursday, Hmmm. I need to find a show for Friday. That's at least four hours of worship at the TV each week. And the national average is much higher. We get our focus off God with all these false substitutes our culture offers. So, the armor of God helps us focus on the one who gave us the armor in the first place. We worship God.

There's another reason we need the armor. We get distracted too easily. The enemy attacks us through our thoughts. You're trying to tune me out right now! Don't tune me out! I remember a time when I was sitting in rush hour traffic, and I was lost in thought. And then I start thinking about an argument I had with Cathi years ago. We got over that! We forgave each other. We gave it to Jesus. Why am I thinking about it now? Little devil on my shoulder. “Hey, remember that argument?” Or I'll just start thinking bad things about people. “You know what his problem is?” “Here's where he's going wrong. What a jerk!” Why am I thinking this? Lil' Devil again.

“Schadenfreude” is a German word. It means to take pleasure in the misery of others. Ever hear on the radio about some arrogant celebrity getting theirs, and you smile? Good! They deserved it! A friend of mine almost got a job that would allow her to travel the world. I think, “no fair!” She's never worked a day in her life! She didn't get the job after all, and I think, “good!” What evil thoughts to have! Lil' devil on the shoulder again. There are many other ways the devil sends his attacks into our life. And so God gives us armor to protect us. Do we all agree that we need the armor?

So, now how do we use the armor? We know how to use the everyday protective devices in our lives, right? During Flu Season we wash our hands more often, so that we don't transfer the germs to our children. We wipe down the toys in the nursery with anti-bacterial wipes. We properly strap the helmet on when we bike ride, because the head is the part of the body that can really get messed up on the sidewalk. We know how to properly use a seatbelt. We know the importance of buying a car with airbags. We know how to test our smoke detectors each year. We test ours every time I cook. When we're on an airplane, and the flight attendants begin the lecture, we usually tune it out. Why? Because we've heard it all before. We know what to do if something happens to the plane.

So if we know how to use protection in our physical world, how do we use God's protection in our spiritual world? When we ask Jesus into our lives, the Bible uses several images to describe what it is like. We put on a new skin. We clothe ourselves in purity, kindness and patience. We put on the armor of God. It's a way of recommitting to Jesus.

So, let's run through the armor again and think of how each of these things can help us. The helmet of salvation. Notice it's on the head, because it's something you have to keep in mind. You are saved. Lil' devil is right there on your shoulder, next to your head. He whispers in your ear, “Why would God want you? You're not really saved.” The helmet comes down, over the ear. Blocking the devil. I am saved. I accepted God's gift. Jesus died for me. It's one of the hardest things to keep in mind. God saved me from destruction. He wants me to live. He sent his son to die for me, so I could live.

What about the breastplate of righteousness? It protects your heart. You've heard the old saying, “follow your heart,” right? Well, it has a couple of different meanings. To the world, it means, "if it feels good, do it." To the Christian, it means listen to Jesus, who is in your heart. Righteousness means doing what is right. Christian freedom is freedom to do what is right, not just anything you want. When we have the freedom to do whatever we want, our sin encourages us to do what is wrong. We become slaves to our sinful nature. That's the result of, “if it feels good, do it.” God sets us free to do what is right, even if we don't want to do it. We do it because it is right. It may even hurt us. Put us at a disadvantage. But we do it because it is the right thing to do. Righteousness.

The belt of truth. I'm thinking of Batman's utility belt here. He had every gizmo and gadget on it possible. When you are confronted with lies, you've got to find the right piece of truth to counter it. Usually these truths are in the form of questions. We get lies about life from the culture all the time. The most prominent lies are when the world tells us how to raise our children. Here's a question from the utility belt: If the world knew so much about raising children, why are so many of its children wandering far from God?

The shoes of peace is a tough one, until you realize that Paul says you need feet prepared with the gospel of peace. It means we need to be able to share the good news of Jesus with someone at a moment's notice. Being ready, listening, ready for that opening. When I'm given the opportunity to share the gospel with someone, I usually find that my ready feet are running the in opposite direction. But every now and then, God makes it easy. I had a friend who complained about everything. He would go on and on about how people are so awful. My shoes of peace suddenly started itching. I jumped in with, “well, you've got the sin thing down! All you need is the salvation part, and you'll be a full-fledged Christian.” It was beautiful, only God could have pulled that one off.

The last two pieces of armor are the big ones. Paul even describes how to use the shield of faith: Use it “to ward off the slings and arrows of the evil one.” It's our first line of defense. The shield is there when the other pieces or armor aren't working too well. We need to buy time, so we throw up that shield and run. Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." This is how we combat doubt. Those mornings when we wake up and completely doubt that Christianity is real. We pick up that shield of faith and say, “I know that Christianity is real.”

Then we pick up the sword of the spirit. The Word of God. That's the Bible. We need to know that book inside and out. We read it, and it tells us why Christianity is true. The Holy Spirit points out verses that speak to our lives. The more familiar we are with the Bible, the better all the pieces of armor will work for us. If we only know a handful of verses, what good is that? Would we root for a football team that had a quarterback who knew only a couple of plays? We want a quarterback who knows as many plays as possible. When Jesus was in the wilderness, and the devil was tempting him, what happened? The devil would use scripture against Jesus, and Jesus would fling scripture right back. Lil' devil knows the Bible very well – how about us?

Finally, Paul says “Pray at all times in the Spirit.” He doesn't attach this to a piece of armor, but I think we know that prayer covers all the pieces of armor. We pray as we put on the armor. We pray before doing anything. Prayer is the way we talk to God. Reading our Bibles is how God talks to us. We've got to keep that communication line open. We've got to maintain that relationship. Through prayer and God's word we put Jesus first in our life. Through prayer and God's word we use the armor God gives us to fight spiritual battles. Let's not get defeated because we are unprepared. Put on the spiritual armor every day, and look forward to more victory in our Christian life.

Amen.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The World Hated Him First (John 15:18-25)

(Delivered at Trinity School for Ministry Chapel, Ambridge, PA on April 15, 2010)

Did you know that Christianity caused the economic crisis? It's true! According to the secular journal The Atlantic. People who had bad credit and were given loans anyway rushed into church and praised God. “I had bad credit and I got a loan anyway and now I'm a homeowner!” And they encouraged others to use God's magical power of blinding loan officers to bad credit. It's all Christianity's fault.

Other recent news: An Atheist Rapist successfully had his Christian cellmate evicted from the cell. The Christian inmate made the Atheist Rapist uncomfortable. The warden was happy to oblige.

Other news: Mother Theresa is going to be on a postage stamp this August on her 100th birthday—maybe. The Freedom from Religion foundation is trying to make sure that doesn't happen.

Finally, a British publisher has just forced a young adult writer to remove Christian references from his new book before it could be published. The publisher was reluctant to publish a book with an overtly Christian hero. Here ends the depressing news.

Well, what's the first thought that came into our minds? My mind? I thought: Ouch, what did we do wrong? How can we make it up to them? Obviously some Christian screwed up somewhere.

That's why this passage in John 15 is so comforting. Jesus says, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.” The world hates Jesus first. Did Jesus bumble through his ministry, screwing up left and right? Like Jerry Lewis? No. He did everything perfectly. And yet the world still hated him.

We gotta stop beating ourselves up. I'm not saying we don't screw up, but the World is going to hate us. Actually it sounds like that's how we can tell if we're doing it right. If we're living the Christian life correctly. Does the world hate me? No? Now, what am I doing wrong?

Also, we can't strain ourselves trying to figure out why the world hates us. At the end of our passage, Jesus says the world hates without reason. Without cause. Irrationally. Well my news stories had reasons, didn't they? Political reasons: separation of church and state stuff. No, that's the excuse. The hatred is irrational.

Here's an example: my Atheist buddy. I love my Atheist buddy. Everyone should have one. He pads my sermons nicely. Atheist Buddy is really into board games. I'm into board games, too, but he is REALLY into them. He likes those big sprawling games that take ten days to play, they have a thousand figurines on the board, and you move one at a time and roll dice and spin a wheel and flip a card... Board games are his idol. He worships them. So, he's online and finds this game he really wants, and it's an expensive game, but he finds it really cheap. He is so excited. He is ready to make his purchase. Then he suddenly sees something in the seller's logo. It's a little fish. The Christian symbol. No! I really wanted this game! Awww. He cancels his order. And then he writes a lengthy, vitriolic email to the seller, telling him that he just lost a sale because he was a Christian, etc. etc. etc.

I asked him what happened next? Well, the seller sent an email back. What did it say? I don't know. I just deleted it. I didn't care. Irrational hatred. I still wonder what the seller said. You know what the email probably said? It probably said something like, “What did we do wrong? We're so sorry. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?” We can apologize all we want. The world will still hate us without reason.

Why does God let this hatred of us go on? Today's Psalm (18) answers that: so we will call on him. So that in our distress we will cry out to the LORD. He rescues us from our powerful enemies, because our foes are too strong for us. The Lord is our strength. The Lord is our rock. Our fortress. Our deliverer. Our shield. Our salvation. Our stronghold. We need to stop apologizing and call on Jesus' name. He is worthy of our praise. And he saves us from our enemies. He knows what we are going through.

The world hated him first.

Amen.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Two Prodigal Sons (Philippians 3:8-14)

(Delivered at Prince of Peace Church, Hopewell, PA on March 20-21, 2010)

I want to tell you about two prodigal sons. The first we heard in the gospel reading last week. Young man asks his father for his inheritance. Father says ok. Kid runs off to the Big Apple. Blows all the cash on women and booze. Ends up in a pig pen with the pigs. Realizes he's eating worse than the pigs. Scripture says, “He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.” But then he “came to his senses.” Decides to return to his father and repent, saying, “I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” So he made the long journey back to his father. It was like he was running a marathon, away from his old, worthless life and toward his new life with his Father. Then we read, that “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son repents to his father, and his father brings him the best robe, puts a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet. And they had a feast and celebrated.

In Paul's letter to the Philippians, Paul confesses to being the second prodigal son. You can find his story in Acts: Paul is traveling all over, persecuting Christians. Acts 9:1 says that he was “breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.” He was on his way to Damascus to take Christians prisoner and bring them back to Jerusalem. He's what you'd call a “super villain.” He probably had a cat that he would constantly pet. And an evil laugh. Mwa ha ha ha. He was in his own pigpen, going in the wrong direction, away from his father in heaven, and wasting his talents on the wrong things. Then suddenly, on that road to Damascus, he meets Jesus in “a light from heaven that flashes all around him.” He goes blind, and when he is filled with the Holy Spirit later, scales fall from his eyes, and he could see again. He could actually see for the first time in his life, because he now belonged to God. He began preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. He was running back to the father, and the father ran to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

In his letter to the Philippians, he testifies: “I consider everything as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish.” Rubbish is a nice proper British word for “trash.” But Paul's Greek word is closer to what's in that pig pen. Think excrement. Think of of the worst substance you know about.

Think of your past life before finding Christ. Before Christ, we did all these things that we thought were important, but when we look back...waste. Maybe we wanted to be famous and wasted our time trying to “make it big.” We want to be a famous actor or a famous writer or a famous singer or just famous. Or we bought a lot of stuff that became obsolete real fast, and now we look around our basements and think to ourselves, how did I end up with all this useless stuff? Or we thought we were witty and funny and said something hurtful to someone. That happens to me. I'm so funny! Hey, why are you crying? Or maybe something happened to us that wasn't even our fault, but we have that guilt just hanging over our heads all these years. Once we find Christ, all of that becomes rubbish.

All this rubbish is really heavy to us. That's when we stop calling it rubbish and we start calling it what it really is—sin. And that sin is just weighing us down. We can't take it anymore, we're about to collapse. Then Jesus comes along and he says, put your sin up here, on my back. I can handle it. And we throw our sin on Jesus' back, but it doesn't feel like anything to him. It has no weight to him. That's good, because he's got the sins of the whole world on his back, too.

Paul says that when we give the garbage of our old lives over to Jesus, we gain Christ, and are found in him, gaining a righteousness that is through faith in Christ—a righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. This righteousness changes us. After gaining this righteousness, Paul says: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” This is a description of our marathon journey from the pigpen to the embrace of the father.

Let's quickly break these three things down, so we know what this marathon race is like. First, to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. What does it mean to “know” Christ. We can find the answer in the first chapter of John: John 1:10 says, “He, Jesus, was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not know him.” Verse 12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” To know Christ is to receive him, to believe in him. And when we believe in Jesus, we are called to be children of God. I think of my own children. When I get home from the seminary, they all rush to meet me. Daddy's home! Daddy's home! Even the two year old will come over and hug my shins. The 7-month-old will start shaking with joy in her little bumbo seat. I didn't train them to do that. They know their father. If another guy came in the house and said he was me, they wouldn't buy it. They'd probably just stare at him. Juju would twirl her hair, looking concerned and then either hide or run back to mama. When we know God, when we receive him as our father, we know that we are his children.

The second part of Paul's description of the journey from the pigpen to the father is sharing, sharing in Christ's suffering and death. When we were living in the pigpen, these are the things that we avoided doing, because they were too uncomfortable. Oooh, I'd never start a conversation with a stranger! I'd never give up my cable and Internet, so I could tithe! I'd never volunteer to do that! I don't have the time. These are minor sufferings we take on, like Jesus did. Jesus was lonely. He said that he had nowhere to lay his head. He was surrounded by people! As the world gets more and more hostile to Christianity, we may be called to live lonelier and lonelier lives. But it's never lonely, because we have Jesus and the Christian community. We are like a salmon swimming upstream, against the tide of this culture and this world. And at any time we may be asked to die for the sake of Jesus. Sharing in his death.

Finally, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Hope for heaven. A vivid image: being resurrected in Christ! This is an easy description, because we can just picture heaven in our minds at any time. Everything that is good, everything that is right. I think of all the people that I'm going to meet. Loved ones: family and friends. Famous people like the saints and Moses and Abraham. Not only them but Jesus—the center of it all. The life of the party.

So, Paul describes what this journey is like, from the pigpen to the father's embrace. As we pursue God, run back to the father, we are knowing Christ, sharing in his sufferings, and hoping for heaven. As we take this journey we experience these three things by reading our Bibles and praying. How do we know Jesus more? Read the Bible, pray to him, asking him to give you more knowledge of him. How do we share in his sufferings? Read our Bibles. Learn about Jesus' sufferings. Pray that God will put us in difficult situations, so that he can show his glory to the world. How do you hope for heaven? Read our Bibles. Learn about heaven and the resurrection. Pray that God will give us peace and hope about the world to come. It's tough. Even the most learned seminarian or pastor has difficulty reading his Bible each day, or getting on his knees and praying for a long stretch of time. But, like exercise, once we make it a habit, we find that we can do it more, and it's very rewarding.

One of the things that makes it hard is sin. Our sin keeps reminding us of the rubbish of our past lives. We keep turning back. We keep returning to the pig pen. Paul's final words in this passage are those of encouragement. “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” The father. He's pressing on for that loving embrace of the father. And he then says, “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” What happens when a marathon runner looks back? He slows down. He trips. He stumbles. He loses the race. The good marathon runner presses on toward the goal, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

I won a marathon once. It was elementary school, and it was a couple of laps around a blacktop. Look at me. I'm not the fastest. I'm not the most limber. I don't have the best stamina. The other boys were much better runners. But I pressed on toward the goal, forgetting what was behind and straining toward what was ahead. At one point a big dog ran onto the blacktop and distracted all the other runners. They looked back. They forgot what was ahead. I pressed on, not being distracted by the dog, and I strained toward what was ahead. I won the race.

Now, think of what a finish line looks like. The crowds cheering. The judges. The banners. The water coolers. Now, think of what a Christian finish line looks like. While we're still a long way off, our father sees us and is filled with compassion for us; he runs to us, throws his arms around us and kisses us. Our father brings us the best robe, puts a ring on our finger, sandals on our feet. And we have a feast and celebrate. And all the angels in heaven rejoice.

Amen

Good Friday Sermon (John 19:5)

(Delivered at Prince of Peace Church, Hopewell, PA on Good Friday, 2010)

Behold the man!

Pontius Pilate said these words as he presented Jesus to the Jewish people. The soldiers had flogged and beaten Jesus. They had put a robe on him, a crown of thorns on his head. Pilate said he found no basis for the charges against him. Yet here stands Jesus, dressed up in a robe and crown, looking like a king. If the Jews saw him like that, they would go nuts! And then Pilate has the nerve to say that he finds no fault. Such contempt for both Jesus and the Jewish people. What a clever, clever Roman you are, Pilate. Because he doesn't believe Jesus is God.

The world did not know him, as John chapter one tells us. Jesus came into the world and it didn't know him. Friday is all about the world. Sunday is all about the truth. Friday is all about lies, the lies that the world tells itself, to avoid believing.

Behold the man!

Remember the Mel Gibson movie, “The Passion of the Christ?” It's all about “beholding the man.” Sure we see Jesus rise at the end, for a brief second. But the movie is all about beholding the crucified man and about all the horrible things the world can do to a man when it thinks that he is just a man. I asked a friend of mine if she had seen Mel Gibson's movie. She said: I don't want to see a man get tortured for two hours. She didn't believe in Jesus' divinity. She didn't know him. Jesus could be standing in front of her now, and all she would see is a man.

Behold the man!

This is Good Friday. Tonight we see what the world did to the man, Jesus. Tonight we celebrate his humanity. Tonight in our passion reading, the Jews tell Pilate that Jesus claimed to be the son of God. And Pilate got very afraid. Why are you superstitious now, Pilate? He's just a man, right? Behold the man, you said. Do you regret dressing Jesus up like that? Pilate even tries to free Jesus and the Jewish leaders blackmail him. And the whole time, he keeps insulting everybody: continually mocking the Jews and Jesus by calling Jesus a king. He even puts it in writing on a sign above Jesus' head on the cross. All this infuriates the crowd. But still Pilate does not believe. Behold the man, not the God. Beat him, torture him, taunt him. Crucify him. He's just a man, so why not do these things?

So, the world didn't know him as a king. They thought he was just a man. There's another way the world doesn't know him: thinking that he's just a God. I have a friend who says that Jesus played a trick. He pretended to die. He was God, he says, so he didn't really die. He was God. God cannot die. He pretended to die. It was a trick.

No.

If he was only God, he wouldn't get thirsty. Jesus was a man. Fully human. He did not pretend to die. He died. He was killed. Dead. His body was flogged. He was beaten. He was hung on a cross. He suffocated to death. He died. No trick. He died.

That's all we have tonight. That's all we have until Sunday. Luckily we know what happens. We know that Jesus died. No trick. He died because there had to be a sacrifice. We were doomed. Eternal death for all of us. That was the only option. But God does not want that. God wants us to live. So there has to be a sacrifice. All of humanity must be sacrificed. All of sinful humanity. Or! Or one perfect man. Jesus was that man.

Behold the man.

Crucified. Died. Buried. He is dead tonight. No trick. Not a game on us foolish mortals. Not a sly wink, and when our backs are turned, Jesus runs and hides. They pierced his side and he didn't flinch. He is dead. No life is in him. He breathes not. They carry his lifeless body to a tomb, put him in the darkness, and roll a stone in front of the door. Jesus is dead. He has been sacrificed. We can now live, because he has died. Justice is satisfied. The scales that justice holds are balanced. They are even. All is now right that was once wrong.

And Sunday, “dead Jesus” comes back to life. No trick. He was dead. As dead as the nails that pierced his hands. But Sunday we'll see that Jesus lives. He does not bring himself back. He's not hibernating. He's not a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. He was dead. And we know that the Father is the one who will raise him. Is that a parlor trick? If it is, then we should consider ourselves lucky. Because the Father does it again and again. And the Father will do it again and again. Jesus was the first, and we are all the rest.

This was the way to beat death. This was the only way to satisfy God's sense of justice. And yet he loves us so much that he wanted us to live. Forever. With him. That's why Jesus had to die. That's why that perfect, sinless man had to die. My friend who refused to watch the Passion is right. He had to be a man. Only a man could be tortured for hours in the place of all men. So Pilate is right. He had to be a man. Only a man could die in the place of all men. Jesus was fully man.

Behold the man.

But this is just Friday, and we'll find out on Sunday that he wasn't just a man. He was God. In three days we'll say “Behold God.” Behold the one who was and is and is to come. Behold the first and the last. Behold the Alpha and the Omega. Behold the one who holds the keys of death. But it's Friday, so all we can say right now is:

Behold the man.