Social Media and Unhappiness

Father, it is very easy, far easier for us to see sin in somebody else's life than it

is to see sin in our own life.

And Father, we confess before you that most of the time we are not aware of the fact that

we are doing this.

We ask, Lord, that as part of your grace to us, as you make Jesus and what he did for

us on the cross and who he is more real to our hearts, that you would, Father, help us

to change this, that you would help us to see the sin in our own lives and deal with

it rather than fretting and being angry and resentful over the sin in others' lives.

So we ask, Lord, that you would do this work in our lives this morning.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Saviour.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So, this text that I had to read this week convicted me of sin.

I don't know if it will convict you of sin, but it convicted me of a sin in my life that

was unrecognized, and it's been unrecognized for about a year and a half.

And it was a bit of a shock to realize that I was guilty of this sin.

And I'm not going to go into all of the details of the sin, but the text is going to, we'll

see what it does when we have a look at it together.

But I want to begin by that word of testimony.

And I thank you for those of you who pray for me throughout the week that I can preach

God's word well.

Part of that, preaching it well, is that I also will be convicted by the scriptures.

So thank you for praying for me.

So let's look.

What sin was it that God convicted me of this week?

Well, we're reading, we're preaching through the whole book of Mark, and we're getting towards

the end.

We're at Mark chapter 15.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

And if you would turn to that, Mark chapter 15, verse 1, if you're using these little

Mark 15:1

booklets, it's on page 96.

And Mark is an ancient eyewitness biography of Jesus written while many eyewitnesses were

alive.

And what's just happened before this in the story is that we're still part of the 24 hours

that changed the world because Jewish days begin on sundown, not midnight or not when we

wake up, but it's sundown.

And so the very first day of Passover began.

And this is now just before dawn.

And we're still in the first day of the Passover celebrations.

And what's just happened two episodes before this is the Jewish leaders have brought Jesus

to the high priest's house.

And one of the most profound statements of who Jesus is is made by Jesus's enemy, where

the enemy says to Jesus, aren't you the Messiah, the God, the Son of God.

And that's the most profound, precise description of Jesus in the Gospels made by his enemy.

And Jesus says that's true.

And that's just happened.

And now we've moved to a slightly different part of this.

Then after that, we have Peter's denial of Jesus three times.

And now we come to this story before us.

And here is how it goes.

And as soon, verse one, and as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation

with the elders and scribes and the whole council.

And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.

Now, just sort of pause here.

If you're not that familiar with the Bible, Pilate is the Roman governor of this region.

He has the power of life and death.

He has the, he in a sense rules as the emperor's representative and is in charge of the armies

as well that subjugate the Jewish people.

And this is not an unusual time for this to happen.

Just to give you fair warning, my wife and kids will tell you I am not an early riser.

I aspire to be an early riser, but I rarely reach what I aspire.

And if you came around an hour before sunrise to have me talk to you, I would be grumpy.

I would try to cover it, but it would make me grumpy because I wish I was still in bed.

But for Roman men of this rank in those days, you began the day just as it's during the skies

getting a little bit light.

That's when you begin your day.

You get everything done by noon.

And then you, I don't know, you read poetry, you drink wine, you feast, you, I don't know,

you do whatever a Roman gentleman can do.

That's how your days were structured.

So this is not an unusual time.

And the Jewish leaders needed and wanted Pilate to sentence Jesus to death.

And so that's why they brought him there.

Because, and so what the charge is actually is very, very interesting.

And some of you might have heard his odd answer and I'll explain it to it.

Let's look what happens next, verse 2.

And Pilate asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

So the Jewish people, the Jewish leaders have given the charge.

They said, Pilate, you need to condemn this man.

He claims to be the king of the Jews.

And Pilate then in verse 2 asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus answered him, you have said so.

And so what's happened here is the Roman authorities don't give a, don't give,

they don't care the least whether or not, I mean, Jewish religion is just a superstitious fable

that for some odd reason is tolerated by the Roman Empire.

In fact, it's only tolerated by the Roman Empire because it's ancient.

And Romans loved old things.

And so because the Jewish people could say their faith goes way back, over a thousand years,

1400, 2000 years, the Romans gave it lots of space because they respected that.

But they wouldn't believe for a moment their odd superstitions.

And if they were said, you know, by the way, just Jesus claims to be the Messiah, God,

the Son of God, Pilate would have yawned.

So what happened is they translate the Messiah part into a different title that will have to get Pilate's attention,

which is the king of the Jewish people.

And so Pilate hears the charge.

He asked Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

And Jesus' answer, it's literally translated.

But what it functionally means is this.

It's really like Jesus saying, well, I wouldn't put it in those terms, but yes.

That's what Jesus says.

I wouldn't put it in those terms, but yes.

He's not going to get into a bit of a quibble.

He's not going to take out his Old Testament and show Pilate from the Bible,

all the Bible texts and all of the theology of what it means to be the Messiah.

He says, well, I wouldn't use that descriptive term, but yes.

Yes, that's what, in effect, Jesus does.

Now, the next bit seems a bit odd to us,

and that's because of the great cultural distance between Canada and this time period.

Although it's not a great cultural distance in many, many, many parts of the world,

in fact, most of the world.

I think a couple of weeks ago I was sharing how,

when I was still part of the Diocese of Ottawa,

I got called into the bishop to see the Bishop of Ottawa on a Saturday afternoon to be fired.

And I was needlessly, not needlessly, I was obviously very worried about this,

and I'd asked lots of people to pray about it.

And one of the people who gave me some last-second advice was a lawyer.

And she said to me, when you go into this meeting,

first of all, she said, you know, foil them by not going alone,

but bring in a couple of people, and I did.

But the main piece of advice, she said, George, just remember,

they have to prove you're guilty.

You don't have to prove you're innocent.

So what you do, if you're in there,

you just say the same thing over and over and over again.

They make this, say, George, you've done blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You just answer,

I am a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada

who is faithful to his ordination vows.

And then they could say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

you know, why you're a terrible, evil person.

And my response is, I am a priest of the Anglican Church of Canada

who is faithful to my ordination vows.

And they have to prove that what you've just said isn't true.

You don't have to prove that you're not guilty of those offenses.

And, of course, in Canadian law,

you don't have to testify at your own trial.

The crown has to give sufficient evidence of your guilt.

And you don't have to prove your innocence.

They have to prove your guilt.

But it's the complete opposite here at this time period,

just as it is for most of the world in the world today.

And so that explains what happens next,

which is very odd and Pilate's amazement.

Look at what happens next, verse 3.

And the chief priest accused Jesus of many things.

And Pilate again asked him,

Have you no answer to make?

See how many charges they bring against you.

But Jesus made no further answer,

so that Pilate was amazed.

You see, in those days, he had to prove his innocence.

And they're successful.

What you see between verses 5 and 6,

in a sense it leaves a bit out,

but it's obvious from the context,

is that they're successful.

Between verses 5 and 6,

Pilate has come to the conclusion

that there's grounds for the capital offense,

against Jesus,

that he is king of the Jews.

At least there is until there's more evidence,

or something else happens,

but he's guilty.

And now it's going to be a matter of having

some type of sentence.

But here we come to something in the story

which is deeply human,

but maybe just for a couple of us.

How many of us occasionally like to do something

just to piss a person off?

I might be the only person in the room

who's like that.

But you all might know somebody

who just occasionally does something,

or maybe, you know the phrase,

yank someone's chain?

You do something to yank their chain,

to get a reaction, right?

To get them all hot and bothered.

And that's what happens next in the story.

Pilate yanks the chief priest's chain.

Look what happens in verse 6.

Now at the feast,

that's the Passover feast,

they're still in the first day of the Passover feast.

At the feast,

Pilate used to release for them one prisoner

for whom they asked.

And among the rebels in prison

who had committed murder in the insurrection,

there was a man called Barabbas.

And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate

to do as he usually did for them.

And he answered them saying,

do you want me to release for you

the king of the Jews?

So just a couple of things.

So here's the thing.

First of all,

some of you,

if you're using different Bible translations,

you see a different word there than rebel.

You might see the word robber.

And as I've explained before at different times,

and those of you who speak multiple languages,

when you speak multiple languages,

you know that sometimes

there's no perfect translation

from one word,

from one language to another.

And in a book like this,

they can't put all of the different options.

Like if you were translating for somebody on the fly,

you could do that.

But when you're just writing,

you can't.

And so it could be robber,

it could be rebel.

But the point is this.

The chief priest would have hated

both robbers and rebels.

Why?

Well, it's a little bit like Robin Hood.

And Robin Hood, the story,

you know, he robs from the rich

to give to the poor.

Now, unlike Robin Hood,

Barabbas would have robbed from the rich,

kept most of it himself,

and given some to the poor.

Now, who are rich?

All the people who've accused Jesus.

They loathed guys like Barabbas.

They were all probably throwing a party,

saying, good, I'm so glad Barabbas

and a couple of his buddies,

they're going to be,

they're getting executed.

They won't be robbing us anymore.

And so then,

what does Pilate do?

Pilate says,

well, I'm going to give you guys two options.

And the options are,

you can let Barabbas free,

and you can let Jesus free,

but the chief priest hated both of them.

See, Pilate has a bit of a smirk.

He's pulling their chain.

He's trying to both piss off,

am I allowed to say that in church?

I just did.

Anyway, it's an English phrase,

you all know what it means.

It's a metaphor.

And he wants to do that.

And he also,

as we're going to see in the story,

he wants to curry favor with the crowd.

And in fact,

that's the whole thing

about why he's going to release

somebody like Jesus to the crowd.

Now, some of you might be familiar

with the fact

that there's this big controversy around this,

because lots of skeptics say

that there's no record

that Pilate ever did something like that.

Now, just,

I want to translate that for you.

If I was to say

that something happened

10 years ago on Parliament Hill,

I have people here in the room

who were working on Parliament Hill

10 years ago.

And lots of people here

know how Parliament Hill works.

And if I was to say something like that,

there's literally hundreds and hundreds

and probably thousands of people

who could tell you

how Parliament Hill works

and what I just said was nonsense.

How many sources do we have

for what happened

at this time period

with Pilate outside of the Gospels?

Well, it's actually not zero,

but it's just one,

Josephus.

There's another small,

a little bit by a Roman historian

that talks about

some of these types of things.

But the fact of the matter is,

is that Josephus didn't write

about every single thing

that Pilate did.

Like, it's a foolish type of charge

to say that unless Pilate,

unless Josephus talked about it,

it didn't happen.

Well, that's like a ridiculous thing to say.

And the other thing about it is,

what Pilate does here

is as ancient as the hills

and as contemporary to today.

Would any of us be surprised

if we heard that Putin

had pardoned one of his allies?

No.

And I'm not being political here.

What do we all know

Biden is going to do

in the last week in office?

He is going to pardon his cronies.

And I'm not being political.

If Ron DeSantis

becomes president afterwards,

he's going to do it

when he comes to an end

of his office as well.

If AOC becomes the next president,

she'll do it.

It's as modern

as the contemporary world

and it's as ancient

as the hills

that people in power

do things like this.

And it's a very simple type of thing.

It's no skin off of Pilate's nose

and it makes him look generous

and full of, yeah,

just generosity.

The city of Jerusalem

has, you know what,

five, eight, ten times more people

than usual.

He does it at this time

and he can sort of feel good

about himself.

It's good PR

and it's just,

it's a completely

and utterly believable

type of thing

that Pilate says,

he foils

what the Jewish leaders want.

He gives them

heart palpitations.

They're now sweating

from their armpits

and all those other parts

that can sweat.

First of all,

they are really bothered

that Pilate's made that offer,

those two people,

and they're worried

that Jesus is going to go free.

But the fact of the matter is

they want Barabbas dead

more than they want Jesus dead.

And by the way,

there's one other

very important thing,

just not important,

but it's an important thing

for you to know about.

Barabbas literally means

son of the father.

That's what it means literally,

son of the father.

And it is,

it is one of those ironies

of history

that the choice

between the crowd

is between two sons

of the father.

One son of the father

who is a murderer

and the other son of the father

who is the creator

of all things,

who is the source of life.

Now,

so there's another thing

if you're familiar

with the literature

on these texts.

On one hand,

there's lots of controversy

about from skeptics

that this is just invented,

which I think is sort of

a ridiculous comment.

And then the next thing

is that people spend pages

and pages and pages

in commentaries

arguing over who's responsible

for the death of Jesus.

And one of the reasons

there is this controversy

is because there is a,

an evil stain

on much of the history

of Christendom.

And that evil stain,

not on Christianity,

but on Christendom,

that ugly stain

is anti-Semitism.

Throughout the history

of Christendom,

there have been people

who've called themselves

Christians

who hate Jewish people

and want to see Jewish people

hurt and killed

and robbed.

and it is a terrible stain

on Christendom's history.

And so because of this profound,

because of this legacy

for parts of Christendom,

there's a big debate

about whether or not

the Jews are responsible

for the death of Jesus.

Now, the text is going to show us

that that is false.

I'm not saying that it's false

just because I don't want

to have anti-Semitism.

The Bible itself

actually shows

that it's not anti-Semitism.

And just a bit of a time out,

those of us

who've experienced prejudice,

those of us

who've experienced prejudice

in any form,

what we know,

or what we should know,

is that when a person

is prejudiced against you,

they look for evidence

to justify

their prejudice and hatred.

if you have a prejudice

against a particular people group

and you see them

doing something odd,

you say to your friends

who share your prejudice,

look at that person.

That's what they all do.

But if one of your friends does it,

you say,

oh, that's just Joe.

Well, we look for evidence

for our prejudices,

to feed our prejudices.

And so those who have

an evil hatred of Jewish people

look for reasons in the text.

They don't want to listen

to the text.

They want superficial reasons.

And so they look at this

and so now even today

there's lots of writing

about whether or not

who's responsible.

But the Bible itself

says who's responsible

and this is actually

where I was convicted of sin.

In a sense,

the text says

I was responsible

for the death of Jesus.

Look at it in verse 10.

It's a verse,

if you're going to memorize

something from this text,

verse 10 would be

the verse to memorize.

For Pilate perceived

that it was out of envy

that the chief priest

had delivered Jesus up.

I'll say it again.

For Pilate perceived

that it was out of envy

that the chief priest

had delivered Jesus up.

So it doesn't say

for Pilate perceived

that it was because

they were Jewish

that they delivered them up.

If that was the case,

then maybe there'd be

something to it.

But it says for envy.

Now,

if you could put up

the first point

and leave it up

for a moment.

Envy is sorrow

or sadness

or resentment

at seeing someone else

enjoying a good

or some other

enjoying a good.

Envy is experiencing

sorrow or sadness

or resentment

or resentment

at seeing someone

enjoying something

which is good.

Now, the older Christians,

if you go back

in Christian history,

there's been a long

established

series of books

and meditations

around something called

the seven deadly sins.

Christians.

And they've been developed

to help Christians

examine their conscience,

to look at their lives,

to try to see

whether there's things

in their lives

that are wrong.

And the ancients

usually ranked

the seven deadly sins

in order from

the most deadly

to the least deadly.

And the most deadly

is pride

and the least deadly

is lust.

Now, if

some of you say,

oh, lust

is the least deadly

of the sins,

well, the word least

is there,

but the word deadly

is still there.

You might say

this snake

will kill you

within one second

when it bites you

and this one

will kill you

five minutes

after it bites you.

But both of the

different snakes

will both kill you.

But one will just

kill you in a second

one in five minutes.

Actually, I don't know

if there's any snakes

that do either of that,

but that's a whole other...

This isn't a lesson

on snakes.

It's a lesson on envy.

But believe it or not,

envy is the second

most deadly

of the seven deadly sins.

This experiencing

of sorrow

or sadness

or resentment

at seeing someone

other enjoying

a good.

Part of the reason

the sins are

deadly

is because

they're unrecognized.

So one of the things

that I was convicted

of this week

is that for at least

a year and a half

I've been guilty

of the sin of envy.

And I was very

self-righteous

about my sin,

which is often

how we deal

with the sin of envy.

I wouldn't have said

that what I was doing

was the sin of envy.

I would have said

that I was giving

insight

into the situation.

That I had

the right explanation

for the situation.

But the fact of the matter

is it was the sin of envy.

There was another

or a group

having a good thing

and seeing that good thing

made me resent them.

Made me sad.

Made me unhappy.

Envy is unrecognized

and part of envy

is that it leads you

to want the others

to know disaster.

That you're actually

going to be really happy.

if it all blows up

on them.

If you discover

that it's revealed

that there's something

really bad,

it causes joy.

Those of you

who follow controversies

in the church world,

when either properly

or improperly,

somebody who's

a high-ranking

Christian falls

and the Twitter verse

and the Facebook verse

goes crazy,

that's the sin of envy.

Look at that

Matt Chandler.

That's what they're saying.

We always knew

he was bad.

We always knew

that whatever,

pick your person.

We want others

to fall.

It leads to hatred.

It leads you

to feel dissatisfied

with your own life.

It leads you to say

things like,

I'm just as good

as that person.

But nobody

who ever says that

feels pleasure

from that statement.

It's fueled

by your envy

of them.

And I'm going to suggest,

I mean,

I made a bit of a,

not a risky thing,

but before the service

began,

almost every single

one of us

in this room

is regularly

guilty of envy

because you look

at social media.

And how many

of you look

at social media

and after looking

at it for a while

feel discontented

and unhappy?

And if you do,

it's because

you're experiencing

the sin of envy.

And you don't

recognize it.

And you come away

from watching

Facebook or Instagram

and your own wife

or husband

seems inadequate

your family

isn't as good

as it should be.

Your life sucks.

And whether you're

completely aware

of it or not,

you also don't really,

you sort of wouldn't mind

if you end up

hearing through

the gossip thing

that that other person,

their life got

turned into a big mess.

And even to make it worse,

we engage

in Instagram

and Facebook

to create envy

in others.

to cause them

to sin.

Now,

not everything

exactly is done

that way.

I don't want to make it

that all Christians

should flee social media,

but,

and not every single thing

you do is like that.

I'm not saying that.

I think we need to take it

seriously

that it creates

within us

discontentment

with our lives.

And not in a way

that helps us,

but only in a way

that makes us,

that hurts us.

So it's envy,

not Jewishness,

that led to the death

of Jesus.

You know,

in a sense,

envy is the great

human sin

along with pride.

It wasn't just

that human beings,

Adam and Eve,

wanted to be like God,

but they,

in a sense,

envied God,

his position.

And they would like

his position.

They didn't mind

if he fell.

You know,

I didn't put it up

as a point,

but most Canadians

will say,

most very,

very good Canadians

will say,

you've got to look out

for number one.

And in a sense,

what the Bible says

is that's actually

really true.

You've got to look out

for number one.

But the bad news is,

you're not number one.

The bad news is,

the triune God

is number one.

And for most Canadians,

they'd say,

well,

that sucks big time.

And they'd resent it.

The fact of the matter is,

you know,

there's a very profound

statement by Augustine

that says,

God has made us

for himself

and our hearts

are restless

till they rest in him.

And that's,

that is the most,

one of the most profound

statements made

outside of the Bible

that explains

human psychology.

God has made us

for himself

and our hearts

are restless

till we rest in him.

And that means

that God has made

human beings

so that there's

a throne

in each of our lives.

And when we

cast off God,

we thought we would

step onto the throne

of our own lives.

But the fact of the matter

is,

is that God did not

design human beings

to sit on the throne

of their own life.

And so what happened

is we cast God

from the throne,

but instead what happens

is idols sit on the throne,

sin that sits on the throne.

In some cases,

demons sit on the throne.

And they all push

and pull each other,

one sin after another,

one idol after another,

and our hearts

are unbelievably restless.

And we keep thinking

that we can climb

onto the throne

of our own lives.

But all we do

is replace one idol

with another

or try to put

six different idols

all on the throne

of our life

at the same time

in four different sins.

And then we wonder

why our lives

have periods

of great discontent.

So what can be done

and does the Bible

have any type of remedy

for this?

Well, actually it does.

And it does in the guise

of something

that at first seems

to illustrate

why the gospel is foolish.

Look at what happens

immediately after

in verse 11.

So Pilate has found

Jesus guilty

even though he knows

he's innocent.

His statements here,

no, he knows he's innocent

but Pilate isn't motivated

by justice

and he's not motivated

by love.

Pilate is motivated

by making himself

look good

and furthering his power.

It's a very profoundly

human situation

that we might say

that we're looking

for justice

but really what we're doing

is looking to

further and cement

our own position.

And so in verse 11

but the chief priest

stirred up the crowd

to have Pilate

released for them

Barabbas instead of Jesus.

Verse 12

and Pilate again

said to them

then what shall I do

with the man

you call the king

of the Jews?

And they cried out

again crucify him.

And Pilate said to them

why what evil

has Jesus done?

But they shouted

all the more

crucify him.

And so Pilate

said well Jesus

is innocent

I'm going to let

Barabbas get killed.

No that's not what happens.

Pilate wishing

to satisfy the crowd

released for them

Barabbas

and having scourged

Jesus

that's

you have

leather whips

and embedded

in the end

of the whips

are pieces of bone

or pieces of

lead

or pieces of glass.

and Josephus

records that

cases of people

being scourged

and they

often people

die from being

scourged.

They can't be crucified

because they die

and it wasn't

unusual for the Romans

to scourge a person.

They would tie

your hands up

above your head

so your body

is completely

defenseless

and

they would

scourge you

until the bone

could be seen

through the skin

and through the muscle

and through the

everything

until your bones

could be seen.

And they scourged

and having scourged

Jesus

he delivered

Jesus to be

crucified.

Now some people

would say

George

this

this shows

the problem

with the gospel

right

because you know

on one hand

if you look at this

there is something

of the gospel

in this text.

Jesus

dies

in Pilate's

in Barabbas'

place

and Barabbas

goes free.

In fact

you could even

imagine

a dialogue

an internal dialogue

with Pilate

as he's

walking outside

he's talked

privately inside

with the chief priest

he's heard the

accusations

Jesus has been

silent

and he's thinking

through

and maybe even

one of the things

he's thinking

through

is he's thinking

you know

dang it all

I got

I went to the

bother of having

the lads

make three crosses

and it would be

a shame

to have to try

to find a fourth

and it would be

a shame

to put one of them

to waste

the lads

might be a bit

upset

that I had them

do some work

and I let

and it all

just had to

go for naught

it was a hot day

I had lots of bother

so I'm going to

pick one guy

and another guy

and the result

of my thing

which I'm going

to do in a few

moments

is that cross

will not go to

waste

somebody will

die on that

cross

I don't want

to have the

bother of making

a fourth

and I don't

want to waste

the third

so in some

ways the story

is you know

people would say

George I mean

aren't you saying

the story of

Pilate and Jesus

is unjust

so how is it

just that you

say that Jesus

died for our

sins

and George

doesn't it just

seem unjust

even if you

say that

well Jesus

dies on the

cross instead

of Barabbas

but Barabbas

goes free

and just does

more evil

and those are

the reasons

why the cross

makes absolutely

no sense

whatsoever

and we as

Christians would

have to say

yeah but that's

not what's going

on here in the

story

you do get a

pointer to the

cross but the

differences

are matter

a lot

if you could

put up the

second point

Claire that

would be very

handy

I see what

Christians would

say is that

love triumphs

over justice

not by

cancelling

justice

but by

satisfying

justice and

going beyond

it

so the

death of

Jesus is

unjust but

what happens

in the

death

and in a

sense all

of the human

beings and

they desired

harm to

come to

Jesus but

God used

our desire

to harm

Jesus to

bring good

good for

us that

in the

cross you

see the

profound love

of Jesus

a profound

particular love

for human

beings for

each one of

us who puts

our faith and

trust in

him and

and Pilate

just

autocratically

chose this

up in

Jesus to

him and

love

to

die on

the cross

two of

those

times he

prophesied

two of

them specifically

that he

would die

on the

cross

And so what's happening is that it's only Jesus' love that holds him to the cross.

And it's a love offer.

Well, it's something like this.

My wife is present.

I was going to use this as an analogy about me,

but then I thought it would make it look like I'm trying to be very virtuous.

So I'll use my wife as an example, but it's not a bad example, dear.

Imagine for a moment there's a horrible future that scientists figure out a way

that they can hook a person up to a machine,

and there's a transfer of the blood and of the fluids and everything from one body to another.

But what happens, maybe it's designed in an evil autocratic country like many of them that we know in the world,

and we hear about it in the West later on.

And what they do is they take a completely healthy, innocent person,

and they hook them up to a rich or powerful person who has a terrible disease.

And when they hook the two people up and they move the fluids and everything through the two of them,

all of the things which are causing the death of the one, of the rich, powerful person,

are transferred to the healthy person.

And the health of the healthy person is transferred to the rich person.

And at the end of it, the rich person walks away in the full health of the healthy person.

And the poor one who's forced to do this by an evil government has now the cancer or whatever illness it is,

the host of illnesses that was killing, that's now in that person.

But then we realize that maybe that technology could be of use in North America,

but how could it ever be used without creating huge injustice.

Well, let's say my granddaughter, one of my granddaughters, let's say Bria or Sophie,

were the ones who were sick and were going to die.

And there's the conversation amongst the family as to whether one person who might be a match

would go in that machine so that the thing which is killing the young six-year-old or the 14-year-old

would go into the healthy one and the health of the healthy one would go into the sick one.

And it turns out that maybe Bria's mother or Sophie's mother would be a match.

But it also turns out that my wife would be a match.

And I think my wife would take that.

It would be very sad.

There would be tears.

But I think she would hook herself up to that machine

so her granddaughter would have her health.

And so whether it's Lizzie or whether it's Victoria,

they could see their daughter grow up

and maybe see a granddaughter themselves someday.

That's what's happening on the cross.

There is no one a better match for you or closer to you

than the creator and sustainer of all things than God, the Son of God.

And God, the Son of God, takes your place on that cross.

The health in him goes to you.

And the sickness and death and illness in us go to him.

And he does it not because it's imposed upon him,

but he, in a sense, looks you and me in the eye and says,

I am willing to do that for you because I love you.

I am willing to do that for you because I love you.

And you know the thing about love?

The thing about love, and we all know this,

is that when we love, whether it's just friendship

or the love of a mother for her daughter

or a friend for a friend or a husband and a wife,

it's as if they come into you in some way.

There's a place for them.

That's why we get so sorrowful when they die.

It feels as if part of us is gone.

And you see, love is the big difference between what happens.

I mean, on one hand, it does have a bit of an inkling.

The guilty goes and Jesus dies.

But it's not that.

It's love that explains what Jesus is doing.

It's love that keeps him to the cross.

It's love looking at you.

And we feel the other person in our lives in a small way.

But in Jesus, it actually is a real thing

because he's the creator and sustainer of all things.

And he comes within us.

And we now have his love within us.

The Bible describes it as being born again, born from above.

And then what is different is that as what Jesus has done for you grips you,

as it becomes more present to your heart,

a deeper parts of who you are,

that that's what he has done for you,

that becomes, in a sense, a story, an image of how you are to live.

And it becomes something that pushes you into looking at new ways of living.

It pulls you and draws you into new ways of living.

And it pulls you and draws you to do the opposite of envy.

Because in envy, we feel sorrow that another person has a good that we desire to have.

But love is being willing to sacrifice for the other to know true good.

There is no true solution to envy other than love.

And that is what we see in the story before us.

That is what grips us.

And it's in the security of his love that I can come to realize that I was guilty of the sin of envy.

And I need to pray against it.

I need to repent of it.

Invite you to stand.

Invite you to bow your heads in prayer.

Father, for some of us here watching for the first time,

it's really struck us what Christ has done for us on the cross.

And Father, I ask that you would bring that truth home to them,

that they might truly know that Jesus in a way of saving faith.

And for others, it's just been brought home to us anew in yet another way.

And we ask, Lord, that you bring the truth of who Jesus is

and what he has done for us and his great love for us into our hearts more and more,

more and more deeply.

That it would become more and more deeply the ground that we stand on.

That that which pushes us and pulls us and draws us and shapes us and forms us.

And Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would do that wonderful, gentle, needed work

in each one of our lives.

And not just us as individuals, but for us as a congregation, Father,

that we would be marked not by envy, but by love and generosity

and a love for our city and a love for people groups

that still need to hear the gospel here in Ottawa and to the ends of the earth.

That, Father, the gospel would not just shape us as individuals, but us as a church.

That we would be a gospel-shaped people and a gospel-shaped church for your glory.

And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.