Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Journey to the Cross :: Fractured Friendship" | Sunday Service | February 22, 2026

Transcript

"Journey to the Cross :: Fractured Friendship" | Sunday Service | February 22, 2026 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start a new series this morning called Journey to the Cross.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason for that is because over the course of this next 40-ish days, we started on Wednesday, but this next 40-ish days, we're going toward what is the real purpose in our life, which is Easter.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Easter is what defines all of Christianity.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity doesn't exist without the resurrection and also the crucifixion three days before.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, is like Jesus went on this journey through the to the crucifixion, and a lot of us just kind of skip to the good part.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I'm saying?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of us have this tendency just to skip right to Easter, and we don't actually go along with Jesus on the journey.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not here every week during the time of Lent because of spring break, uh, poorly designed.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna take as much of a chance as we can to be here and journey with Jesus on the road to the cross.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully, my my hope is that over the course of the next several weeks, you might see a story or or uh an event that you might have heard before in Jesus' walk toward the cross, but you might hear it in a different way.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes it's helpful to hear a story in another context of your life, in another place in your life.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I've tried very carefully to choose some places that are a little out of the ordinary, like maybe, maybe not the traditional interpretation, but might be helpful to point to one piece in that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna start this morning uh with the story of the Lord's Supper.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But before we read it, I gotta tell you that I've noticed in ministry that meals have this kind of amazing presence to them.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You ever notice that like when you go sit down with somebody and you share a meal with them sitting across the table, some of the most like magical conversations happen during those times.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed this?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually some of you know this because you've taken full advantage of this.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I do this a lot in my uh ministry here.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to spend as much time with you as possible.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you can do that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like to do that, you can go to fsuwesley.com and click on meet with the pastor and you can schedule a time.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are into March right now, so I'm just headed, heading, giving a heads up because there's really only one week left of February.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it would be great if you want to spend some time with me.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I've noticed is when I sit down with somebody, a student, especially sometimes, because this never happens, a student who might be upset with me or frustrated with something that happens all the time.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um I've noticed that when I when we do it over a meal, that there's a little bit of a disarmament that happens in that moment.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's something about it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if it's the rhythm of eating.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's the fact that like I'm gonna pay for your meal, so you're happy about that.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that when when you're in a situation with a friend or or even uh an acquaintance and you get to sit down with them for an extended period of time while you're eating, you learn a little bit something about them that you hadn't otherwise?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's why coffee shops exist, dude.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just for you to sit there and like, you know, pretend like you're writing your paper on Chat GPT.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like it no, it's it's actually like a chance for you to converse with people.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: When we were uh when I first got here, we started talking to Lucky Goat.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Any Lucky Goat fans in the room?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not a coffee fan, that was not enough for Lucky Goat.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: They are a hometown hero, bro.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you've never experienced Lucky Goat, it's a great local coffee shop that's now expanded way past local.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but we were talking about uh some options to put them in this building.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't end up working out, darn.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But in that process, uh we were discussing, I was discussing with them, like, hey, you guys would sell a lot more coffee if you just did what Starbucks did and you got a drive-thru, you know?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they told me from the get-go, they said that the whole premise is that we would never have a drive-thru because what we're aiming for is for people to converse in community in our coffee shops.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh yeah, I get it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something um special about sharing a meal sitting down with somebody in this.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to have that premise before we talk about the Last Supper.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because this story you probably have heard.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a portion of this story, this scripture that we're gonna read that you're gonna literally, you literally hear repeated every week here.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to hear it with the premise of like they're sitting down at a table to converse with each other.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just like, oh, we're gonna share something as we're going.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is a very intentional time.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And having said that, we're gonna turn to Mark chapter 14.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, uh, you can pull it in Mark chapter 14, and it'll also be on the screen.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here now the reading of God's word, starting in verse 17.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: That evening, Jesus arrived with the twelve.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And during the meal, Jesus said, I assure you that one of you will betray me, someone eating with me.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And deeply saddened, they asked him one by one, it's not me, is it?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, It's one of the twelve, one who is dipping bread with me into this bowl.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: The human one goes to his death, just as it is written about him.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But how terrible it is for that person who betrays the human one, exclamation point.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for him if he had never been born.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, he blessed it, he broke it, and he gave it to them, and he said, Take, this is my body.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Stop me if you've heard this before.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: He took a cup and he gave thanks, and he gave it to him, and they all drank from it.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, This is the my blood of the covenant, or the new covenant, which is poured out for many.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I assure you that I won't drink wine again until that day when I drink it in a new way in God's kingdom.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: And after singing songs of praise, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, your word is a lamp into our feet, and it's a light into our path.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: May it speak to us and speak through us, so that your kingdom might be established on this earth.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in your sight alone.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, you are a rock and you're our redeemer.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we love you.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about Mark's gospel?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you read it next to John, especially next to John, but you read it against Luke, like we've been doing it in Bible study, something like that.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Mark, Mark spares no words.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: He is very direct.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's this whole kind of thing when Jesus is in his ministry where he just says, immediately he did this, and then immediately he did this, and then immediately did this.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Mark is just very straightforward.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have those friends in your life who just tell you like it is, you know what I'm saying?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have those friends who just say it like it is.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: They don't, they're not trying to sugarcoat anything, they're just as brutally honest as possible.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You have these people in your life?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: That that's kind of who Mark is.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: He's just trying to detail what's happening, period.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I read particularly his telling of this story, I get very uncomfortable.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Can I remind you of what he said before he did the whole blessing of the food thing?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, one of you is gonna betray me, someone eating with me.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And deeply saddened, they asked him one by one.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not me, is it?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, can you imagine that?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're all like, uh, for sure, it's definitely Judas.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like it's definitely him.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely not gonna be one of us.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for sure, it's not me, but you gotta imagine Judas is probably saying the same thing.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, I have that story, I have the I have the knowledge of that money, but I don't know if I'm gonna actually do it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not me, is it?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus answered, it's one of the twelve.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, it's one of you guys, ones who dipping bread with me into this bowl, like as if you couldn't be more direct.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, The Son of Man, the human one, goes to his death just as it is written about him.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: But how terrible it is for that person who betrays the human one.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for him to have never been born.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bro, that's a hit you in the gut.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Betraying Jesus would have been better if you had never been born.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think Mark tells the story this way, not to sugarcoat it, not to anything.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think Mark's telling the story maybe because it actually happened that way.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it did.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But there's like, he's not telling it because of that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's telling it because he wants to make you uncomfortable.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because in that space, you should feel the awkwardness.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been at a Thanksgiving table when politics got brought up?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And like the immediate, like you can cut the awkwardness with a knife, you know, like you can just so feel it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think Mark's trying to put us into that place where he goes, Hey, one of you, one of you is gonna screw this all up.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: One of you is going to betray me.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not me, is it?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, it couldn't be, it couldn't be me.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm telling you, it's one who's sharing the bread in the bowl right now.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's one of the 12.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: You guys know I like to say this, especially when he's talking to the disciples.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: It it's one of you, morons.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're like, no, it couldn't be me.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely couldn't be me.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, the the I have to go to my death because it's been written about me, but how terrible it is for him, how terrible it is for the one who betrays me.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for him to have never been born, makes us super uncomfortable.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that really the story of the Last Supper, when they're sitting at a table together, is not just about betrayal.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the betrayal is about to happen.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you know this story, they go to the Mount of Olives, they pray, and then Judas turns him over.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's definitely going to be a betrayal there.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I actually think the first stop on the road to the cross, I actually think the first stop is not just betrayal, it's relationship fracture or friendship fracture.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the cross doesn't begin with just Roman violence, it begins with a broken friendship, and that should be unsettling.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So here's where I want to frame this story in friendship, trust.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this is both assuring to you and uncomfortable, kind of like those guys sitting at the table.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to frame this in in two different ways.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: I want to look at two different types of friendship, what I would call transactional friendship and then covenantal friendship.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of us have examples of both of these in our lives.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: You might refer to them by different like nomenclature, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You might refer to them as best friends, you might refer to them as like people you can count on, your confidants, your covenant group, whatever.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think everybody has examples of that.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I think all of us also have examples of transactional friendships.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to find an example of a transactional friendship in your life, think about all the people that you're kind of half friends with right now.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're just in your circle and they're you're friends with them because they're in your circle, right?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't necessarily maybe have a long-lasting uh friendship with them, but you have this kind of transactional nature.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you might ask the question if they were to wrong me, would I still be friends with them tomorrow?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think all of us have friends like that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Transactional friendship.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: When someone hurts us, they disappoint us, they fail to meet our expectations.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that we have a cultural script for that?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: What we do, we distance ourselves, we ghost them.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's real popular among Gen Z, you know.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like we just totally ghost them and then we move on, right?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's what we do with transactional relationships.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: If they wrong us, if they say something we don't like, if they say something we disagree with, we just wrong them.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Social media has made this so much worse.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: So much worse.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because now I don't even have to engage with that person who just said something against me, or the person I like, or the politician, or whatever.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like I no longer have to do that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: I just unfollow them or I just block them.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Easy peasy.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Never had to deal with anything.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see how transactional that is?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: We have been invited into a world in which most of our circles, most of our feeds are filled with transactional relationships and friendships versus covenantal friendships and relationships.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Transactional.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do I get out of this?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in graduate school, I had uh I worked as an intern at the Duke Wesley Foundation at Duke University.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, we freaking beat Michigan last night, and that like a huge, I know that, okay, yes, USA, gold medal, but for me, like that Duke Michigan game last night, that was like, you should have heard me screaming in the car because I was trying to drive here because I was doing premarital counseling with somebody before I was trying to get there.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is really bad timing, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I was at Duke, I had this um really close connection with the seniors at Duke.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: We had a senior small group that we ingeniously called finally.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: We ingeniously called it, we ingeniously called it senior small group.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't thought of finally yet.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: That would have been awesome.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have a better one though.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Steel.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I look at Hannah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have a better one.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: We just are not unveiling it yet.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Senior small group.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Most of these people had been in the organization since they were freshmen, sophomores, somewhere in that range.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had become really good friends with each other.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you would think that's a great example of a covenantal relationship if you've been there three, four years with each other.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: But there started to be some of these grumblings that often happen in college, where like your friend circles are starting to shift and change.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden, I start making some assumptions because grown-ups like me, uh, we don't often know what's going on on the ground here.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't know all of the ins and outs of the relational stuff.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: We get to hear that later over a meal sometimes.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had a conversation with one of them, his name's William, and uh I was talking to him about his friend, who I won't name, but he he was like, I was assuming that they were best friends still, you know, and so I made a lot of comments like you ever you ever said comments about especially about somebody who's just broken up from a relationship and you didn't know?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of that sort of thing.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Oh, well, we're not talking anymore.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Oh, like when's when you've been friends with somebody for that long, you think there's gotta be a reason.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be something that happened, right?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, what is it?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: What happened?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Oh no, I just realized like that's wasn't getting anything out of that relationship.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's justn't getting anything out of that friendship, it's just there.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's like heartbreaking.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody you've known for three, four years, and all of a sudden the only thing you think is like, oh, well, what am I getting out of this relationship?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: But can we just be honest with each other?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us have relationships like that?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we would just kick that person to the side, we'd kick that friendship to the side if we had to, because like it's the truth is like if we don't get anything out of it, then why am I putting the time into it?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not against that.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: I hope everybody's still alive up there.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh all right, we got a thumbs up.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Only one thumbs up, and there's three humans up there, so I hope there's still all three of you alive.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they're laughing there, tails up.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, isn't it true that we all have transactional relationships like that?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Or at least there are relationships that should be covenantal, but we look at them as transactional relationships.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: The friendship, and I would use that word, that Jesus models at the Last Supper, it operates under entirely different rules than most of the friendships that we have in our world today.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that they're gonna betray him, he knows that they're gonna wrong him.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: He knows that Peter's going to deny him, he knows that the rest of them are gonna flee, and he still goes to the cross for them anyway.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's a different type of friendship.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's not as transactional, and it may have been transactional for Judas, but do you see how Jesus saw that relationship differently?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the story here.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're called to stay at the tables, we're called to extend grace and apologies.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love the the disciples' response because they're the ones that are like, well, it couldn't be me.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't be me.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us do this when we're faced with this kind of would you would you wrong that person?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: No way, no chance would I ever write that that is one of my favorite people in the whole world.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Would I ever wrong them?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: No chance, no chance.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: What I will do though is I will gossip about them behind their back for sure, for sure, for sure.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not gonna call it gossip because that would be bad, you know.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say that it's gossip, but I am gonna say some things behind their back for sure, for sure.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is all a competition and I get to win, not them.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I've realized in my life how many times I've done that with people.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: When we get called out on our stuff, we're all like, couldn't be me, no chance.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: No chance.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us have approached a situation like that where we've somebody said something really untrue and it hurt really bad?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And our first response was screw that person.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us have done that?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: It feels so transactional.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Someone says I feel hurt by what happened, and immediately everybody starts replaying those conversations in their head.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Did I do that?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't be me.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Was it me?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't mean it that way.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Surely I wouldn't have done that.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we all have that defense mechanism.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is, is we focus on Judas at that table, and for for right reason, Jesus, Judas turns over Jesus to the authorities.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's it's not a great thing.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter flees.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Peter denies, the rest flee.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're not willing to stand up for Jesus, and yet here he is.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says it's one of the twelve.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ones who's dipping bread with me into this bowl, the Son of Man goes to a death, just as it's written about him.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: But how terrible is it for that person who betrays the human one?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It would have been better for him if he had never been born.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hear how harsh that is?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a couple ways we could look at this as Jesus just like calling out the hard stuff.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true, he does do that.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think maybe what's more helpful is to look at this as Jesus saying that there is gravity to betrayal.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, don't do it.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: You betray somebody else, you write off somebody else, you block somebody else, you cut off that relationship right there simply because that was just the easiest way of seeing it.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: You do that in that moment.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying there's gravity to that.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Surely it would be better for him never to have been born.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: You should hear that, like Mark wants you to hear it with some heaviness and grief in it, which is good for us.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because how do we get from transactional relationships?
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Relationships to covenantal relationships.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: May I suggest to you the only way to do it is with trust.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Just absolute trust.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the people in your life.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Those people who you were not gonna just shy away from, move away from.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: If they wronged you, that you would be very inclined to forgive them.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that bonded you with that person?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have an experience with that person?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have a moment with that person?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that built that, what I would call trust?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that what you do as the recipient of that trust absolutely matters.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: What you do with friendship matters.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: What you do with this table matters.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I love about communion, especially the way that we do it.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there's, you know, if we're being honest, there's not really a wrong way to do communion, okay?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of church people that would be mad at me for saying that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a wrong way to do communion for seeing the body and blood of Christ.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have at it, brother.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like go for it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I love about the way that we do communion here is that we do it as one body.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: We take a loaf and a common cup.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just like Jesus did with a covenantal relationship.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Even though they saw it as transactional, he was trying to instill a sense of trust.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear this, particularly during the Lenten season.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in Lent, when you're, especially if you've chosen to give up something, and you know, Ash Wednesday, we put ashes on your forehead and you're reminded of your brokenness and the fact that you're going back to dust and all of this.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it can be very easy for us to focus on the negative.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you gotta hear the other parts of the verses.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Where Jesus, knowing all of the things, knowing the way that Judas saw this as transactional, knowing all the ways that these people were gonna run from him, he still took it upon himself to come into this with trust and say, Hey, I have your back, even if you don't have mine.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And he did it with bread.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is the thing that they were eating together.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he took this bread and he gave thanks to God for it.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then he broke the bread, and then he looked at the people who would betray him, the ones who would deny him, the ones that would flee for him, the ones that would not back him, the ones who only saw his relationship with them as transactional.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: He looked at them all in the eyeballs.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said, This is my body, and it's broken for you.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the ultimate moment of self-sacrifice and a friendship and in a relationship.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then they took the common cup that they had.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: He did the same thing.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: He gave thanks to God for it.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then he said, Take, drink of this, all of you.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is my blood of the new covenant, and it's poured out for you, for you, Judas, for you, Matthew.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: For you, Peter.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: He says, as often as you drink this, remember me.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Remember me.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, as often as you partake of this meal, remember me.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Last week we were taking communion, and uh, you know, it's it's covered beforehand.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing magical about it, it's literally just to keep the like dust and bugs out.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's more of a safety thing than anything else.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, you do the unveil, and everybody goes, Oh, is it the good bread?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually love that metaphor because this meal, it's a good meal.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: This meal is a covenantal meal.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: This meal shows you that you can trust the Lord even when he can't trust you.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a power in this meal, in the same way that when we sit and we disarm ourselves over the course of a meal.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's power in this meal.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray over these elements.