Archive for Sacrifice of Jesus

“No pain, no gain.”

September 11, 2009 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged ,

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Mark 8:27-38

A Family Service at the Brecon Presbyterian Church

Talk  (A)
(Illustrated with felt board figures and scene.)

Jesus left Galilee and went to the area known as Caesarea Philippi. It was in Gentile territory – a pagan place. The town had been built in honour of Caesar by Philip, the ruler of that area. It was a place were they worshipped Caesar as a god. It was also been a place where, in the past, people had worshipped the god Ba’al.  As well as this, the Greek god Pan was worshipped here -  he was said to have been born in the area.

As they were going along the road to this place Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

“Some say you are John the Baptist brought, back to life. Others say Elijah the prophet has returned. Others say you are one of the other prophets who has come back,” they replied.

“Yes, but who do you say I am?” Jesus asked.

Peter said, “You are the Messiah, God’s Anointed One.”
Jesus then told them them to keep this knowledge to themselves for the time being.

 

The Messiah

But who was this Messiah Peter spoke of? The Jews were waiting for him to come. He was the one who was going to solve the nation’s problems. They had been under the rule of foreign powers for centuries but they believed the Messiah was going to come. He would restore the kingdom and bring new life to the nation. This was the hope of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus.

They had all sorts of ideas about what he would be like. But most of them thought of a mighty conqueror who would drive the Romans from the Holy Land and then reign as king in Jerusalem. Then they would defeat all the Gentile nations and rule over them.

No doubt Peter thought in these terms when he said, “You are the Messiah.”

But Jesus’ idea of the Messiah was very different. It was more like the “suffering servant” we read about in Isaiah.

 

Suffering and Sacrifice

Jesus started taking about the Messiah in these terms: “The Son of Man will suffer many things. He will be rejected by the religious leaders and he will be killed. But after three days he will rise again.” All this was very different from Peter’s ideas of the Messiah and Jesus emphasized it a great deal until it was too much for Peter.

“No, Lord, don’t talk like that! These sorts of things wouldn’t happen to the Messiah. You’re not going to be rejected and die.” (Peter  didn’t seem to have cottoned on to the bit about rising from the dead.)

Jesus must have felt then he was being tempted to turn away from the path God had set before him  – the way of the cross. It was just like on that previous occasion when he had been tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Then Satan had proposed ways of avoiding the suffering and sacrifice.

Yes,  it would have been easy for Jesus to do that. People were willing to follow him as a military leader. By using force and supernatural power he could have overthrown the Romans. But his way is not the way of force and military might.

“Get behind me Satan,” he said, “these are not God’s thoughts, but men’s.”

 

Talk (B)

 
Song written by Larry Norman in the 70’s

Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of Unschooled ruffians and a few old fisherman.
No one knew just where he came from, or exactly what he’d done.
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run.

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery,
He could walk upon the water, he could make the blind man see.
He conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread
And he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead

Some say he was a poet that he would stand upon the hill
And his voice could calm an angry crowd, or make the waves stand still.
He spoke in many parables that few could understand
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee.
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree
They feared his strength and power, so they nailed him to a tree.
Some say he was the Son of God, A man above all.
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin And that’s who I believe he was,
because that’s who I believe.

 

Talk (C) 

[Show various crosses - gold necklace, wooden, palm cross, etc.]

Take up your cross

Every day we see crosses all around us. People wear them as jewellery, they hang them on the wall, and they use them as key chains. When you pass by a church, it is not unusual to see a cross on the steeple. We even see many people who wear the cross as a tattoo. What comes to your mind when you see a cross? What does the cross mean to you? Is it just a piece of jewellery or a work of art?

For Jesus the cross was not a piece of jewellery or a work of art. It was the instrument on which he was going to be executed. When he said to his disciples that they would have to take up their cross and follow him they didn’t think he was talking about wearing jewellery or carrying an ornamental wooden cross. He meant that, as his followers, they would have to be prepared to die for their faith, if necessary.

 

Deny yourself

Jesus also talked about denying oneself in order to share  in eternal life. What does this mean? In the Middle Ages people thought it meant becoming a monk, treating yourself harshly, fasting for long periods, whipping your body and wearing hair shirts! But Jesus didn’t mean this. By denying yourself he meant forgetting yourself – letting go of selfishness and thinking about other people. Most of all, thinking about God and what he wants for your life. It’s about submitting to God’s will and living for others.
You know the saying: “If you want JOY in life then put Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last.”  J.O.Y.

If we are going to enter into God’s Kingdom then there are certain things we might have to let go of. Of course, we must renounce sin and turn away from all that we know to be wrong. We have to repent and ask forgiveness for our sins in the name of Jesus. But even after that there may be some things we have to let go of. They are not things that are wrong in themselves; it’s just that they might get in the way of eternal life.

Jesus said: What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses his soul?    ( v 36)

 if we don’t let go of these things we might miss out on the most important thing of all – a relationship with God and the sure and certain promise of being with him for ever.

This is how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage in The Message:

“ … But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works! Calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat;I am. Don’t run from suffering, embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self Help is no help at all. Self Sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an ever greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”

 

Choices

It’s true that in life we make all kinds of choices.

  • Will I look for wealth and power: or will I look for ways to help people?
  • Will I care for the people around me: or will I just selfishly seek my own pleasure?
  • Will I concentrate on money, fame or fashion: or will I work hard to develop my talents to use for the benefit of others?

 
At a most basic level it could be a simple as:  ”will I go to church this morning, or will I do something else?” For the grown-ups that “something else” might be playing golf, or washing the car.  For young people it might be going our with your friends. The point is that there will always be clashes in life. We often have to make a choice between one thing and another.  We have to decide our priorities. So, how much priority do we give to following Jesus?

 

Following

Jesus never said it was going to be easy to follow him. In fact he used the most stark image to describe it. “You’ve got to take up your cross”, he said. And he wasn’t thinking of a gold cross, or one ornamented with jewels. He was thinking about the cross carried by the condemned man -  the cross he was going to be crucified on. Some people have literally done that – they have died for their faith in Jesus.

Clarence Jordan was a well known preacher, scholar and farmer in the USA in the mid 20th. century. (He was one of the founders of  Habitat for Humanity.)  Once Jordan was invited to preach at a magnificent church. The pastor showed him everything and pointed to a beautiful cross on the steeple: “That cross alone cost us $10,000.’

Jordan said, “Time was when a Christian could get one of those for free.”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

It’s unlikely that we will be asked to die for our faith, but we must be prepared to live for it. To give it the top priority in life.

Clarence Jordan also founded a Christian community of both black and white people in South Georgia in the 1940s. This was revolutionary thing to do and the congregation were severely persecuted.  Jordan asked the help of his brother who was a lawyer. “Having political aspirations, the brother refused. Clarence suggested that his brother should go back to the rural church where they had both walked the aisle to accept Christ and explain something. ‘Tell them,’ said Clarence, ‘what you really meant to say was that you ADMIRE Jesus, not that you want to FOLLOW him.’”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

Do we just admire Jesus, or do we want to follow him?

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Christ our Passover

April 13, 2009 at 12:29 am · Filed under Jesus Christ, Old testament, Sacrifice of Jesus, Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

 

Passover ceremony

Have you ever wondered why the date of Easter jumps around so much. There can be as much as a month’s difference from one year to the next. Easter is what is known as a “movable feast” – but why?

The simple answer is that it is connected with the Jewish Passover, and that varies from year to year because it always occurs at full moon. Jesus died and rose at Passover time, and so Easter is always held a this time of the year. But it does not always coincide with Passover. For some reason the Church leaders in the Middle Ages decided to use a different method of calculating the date to that used by the Jews. Possibly they were motivated by anti-semitism – I don’t know. I think it would be a very good idea if we kept the same time as the Jewish Passover, or alternatively  kept a fixed date for Easter. This year Easter does coincide with Passover, and so I thought it would be a good thing for us to see the parallels between the two.

Jewish passover rituals

The Passover has been celebrated for thousands of years by the Jewish people. It is a retelling of how God rescued his people from a life of slavery in Egypt. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in a hurry after the last plague fell  ( the Death of the Firstborn). The original Passover ceremony involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the  daubing of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. Then the lamb was roasted whole and eaten by the members of the family. They also ate unleavened bread as a reminder that, when they fled Egypt, they had not had time to wait for their bread to rise,  but ate it without yeast.

In the modern Passover ceremony there is no lamb – for since the destruction of the temple in AD 70 there have been no animal sacrifices in Judaism. A shank-bone of a lamb is always present on the table as a reminder of the sacrificial lamb but no lamb is eaten at the modern Passover meal.

 

Christian significance

“Well,” you might say, “that’s all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with us as Christians?”  A lot actually!

In the New Testament Christ is spoken of as the sacrificial lamb of God through whom the sins of the world are take away. John the Baptist  spoke of him in this way and Paul spoke of Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. It is very likely that his Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover meal. His use of bread and wine in the Sacrament he instituted comes from the Passover.

Not one bone broken

When the Passover Lamb was sacrificed it was important that none of its bones were broken. Its blood was poured out, but its bones were not broken, and it was roasted whole.  In Psalm 34: 20 it is prophesied of the Messiah that “not one of his bones will be broken”. During the crucifixion the soldiers came to break the leg bones of the victims as a means of hastening their death. (It prevented the man on the cross from being able to push up with his legs to take a breath. With their legs broken the poor victims could not breath and were soon asphyxiated.) But when the soldiers came to Jesus they found he was already dead, and so they did not break his leg bones. Thus the prophetic words of the Psalmist were fulfilled.

Passing over

The original Passover lambs were slain so that their blood could be daubed on to the door posts and lintels of the houses of the Israelites. It was said en that when the destroying angel came to strike the firstborn of that house he would stay his hand when he saw the blood on the door posts. God and his destroying angel  would “pass over” that house. Hence the term Passover.

It is from this incident in the Old Testament that we gain our Christian understanding of the work of redemption which Christ did for us. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His blood was shed for us. When we trust in him and in the power of his blood we are, as it were, putting the blood on the doorposts and lintel of our lives.  God passes over our sins  and refrains form punishing us. Instead the punishment falls on Christ the sinless victim on the cross.

First fruits

As part of the Passover festival the Israelites would take some of the first fruits of their barley harvest and bring it to God’s Temple to offer as a sacrifice.
(There were two grain harvests in the land, one a barley harvest, which began at the Passover, and the other a wheat harvest, which began at Pentecost.)

They brought the first fruits ( i.e. the first sheaf of barley they harvested)  to show that they trusted God to provide for the rest of the harvest. How appropriate it is that it was at the time of the offering of the first fruits of the barley that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul tells us that Christ became the first fruits of those who are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:  20 ) -  i.e. the first one to rise from the dead and a guarantee that we also shall rise on the Last Day.

Resurrection

In the Passover ceremony today there is a fascinating ritual carried out by the head of the household. Three matzos ( pieces of unleavened bread) are taken and placed together. After a while the middle one is broken, wrapped in a cloth and hidden away while the ceremony proceeds. Later it is brought out and shared between the participants. It is thought that this was the unleavened bread which Jesus  broke and shared with his disciples saying, “This is my body which is broken for you”.

If you ask a Jew what is the significance of this part of the ceremony they will not be able to tell you. But Jews who have become followers of Jesus see a great significance in these actions. For them the three matzos represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The middle one is the Son, Jesus, whose flesh was broken on the cross. It is hidden in away, just as the body of Jesus was hidden in the tomb, and it is “resurrected”  just as he rose on the third day.

 

Christ our Passover

In the Passover ceremony four cups of wine are drunk. The third one, which is taken just after the meal, is known as the Cup of Redemption. It was this cup which Jesus raised when he said “this cup is the New Covenant in my blood”.  For his followers it represents his blood shed on the cross so that we could be forgiven. The New Covenant – the New Agreement – between God and his people, sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ. Through his Death we are cleansed of our sins and through his Resurrection we are raised to newness of life. So this is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. But every Sunday is a kind of mini Easter, a celebration of his Resurrection on the first day of the week. And every time we share in Holy Communion we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. In the worlds of the Apostle Paul:

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.      

 (1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 )

[Sermon preached at Brecon Presbyterian Church, Easter Sunday 2009 ]

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Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged , ,

Palm Sunday

Just five days before he died, Jesus came riding on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. Crowds came out to meet him and his followers from the country came behind him in procession. The crowd was ecstatic: they waved palm fronds, they carpeted the ground beneath his donkey’s feet with branches and with robes, they shouted his praise.

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The little children also joined in the praises. Later that day they were seen running around in the Temple courts, shouting excitedly “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

All this happened to fulfil the words of the prophet Zechariah: “Fear not, O daughter of Zion. Behold your King comes, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

The disciples at the time didn’t understand the significance. But later, after Jesus had returned to the Father, then they remembered how they had done all those things the prophet had spoken of.

 

Now, what does Hosanna mean? Isn’t it just a shout of praise – a bit like hallelujah? True, there is that aspect of it – the word Hosanna by the time of Jesus had come to be used as a general acclamation or praise to a conquering hero. But originally the word had a very specific meaning: Hosha-na – “save us, we pray”. It was a cry for help, a plea to be rescued from their enemies.

I’m sure many of the people in the crowd on Palm Sunday were thinking that Jesus had come to rid them of their enemies, the Romans. So they were very pleased to welcome him. But they didn’t seem to notice he wasn’t riding a war horse with armed men marching behind. He was on a humble donkey, the symbol of peace! Yes, Jesus was coming to save his people, but it wasn’t to save them from the Romans. It was to save them from their sins and from their spiritual enemy, the Devil. Jesus wasn’t going to bring in the Kingdom by force. No, he was going to die on a cross for the sins of the whole world. And even as the crowd was crying Hosanna there were some in Jerusalem plotting to destroy him. Already they were planning to bribe one of his disciples to betray him.

 And so Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. On Monday he cast the money changers out of the Temple. Then he spent time in the Temple courts, teaching about God and his Kingdom. In fact, many of the parables and teachings of Jesus we are most familiar with were given at this time – during the last week of his life. On Thursday he shared his last supper with his disciples and washed their feet. Then Judas went out into the darkness to betray him. And so, on to Good Friday:

 

Good Friday

 

 When Jesus was nailed to the cross the sun was darkened for three hours – even the world of nature was affected by the great events that were happening.

 

Criminals

Alongside him were crucified two other men – criminals who had committed violent offences against the state. Jesus had done no harm in his life but was punished and died the death of a criminal. One of these men reviled Jesus and mocked him: “Are you not the Messiah, save yourself – and us!” But the other said: “Don’t talk like that. Aren’t you afraid of God? We are being punished because we deserve it, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Enemies

Now there were other people by the cross that day – the enemies of Jesus were there. Many of the passers-by mocked him. “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” they said. And the Chief Priests were also there mocking him. “He saved others but he can’t save himself! Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we might see and believe!” Such cruel mockery. But it was not weakness that kept Jesus there on the cross. It was his love for these very men, and for all the world, that kept him there.

 

Friends

But it was not just the enemies of Jesus who were present. Thankfully some of his friends were there too – particularly the women among his disciples. There at the foot of the cross were Mary, his mother, and John, his beloved disciple. Jesus looked down at Mary and said to her, “Behold your son!” You might think he was referring to himself and to the terrible plight he was in upon the cross. But he then looked toward John and said, “Behold your mother!” Thus he indicated that, after his departure, John should be like a son to Mary, and Mary like a mother to John. And we are told that from that time John took Mary into his house as a member of his family. Even in his deepest pain and sorrow Jesus found time to think of his mother and to make provision for her after his death. It must also have been a comfort to him to see some of his friends watching at the foot of the cross.

 

Believing

And even some of those who were supposed to be his enemies were drawn to him at the foot of the cross. They found themselves believing in him. The Roman Centurion, for example, and some of the other people there. There were awe-inspiring occurances when Jesus breathed his last. There was a mighty earthquake and, in the Temple the veil separating between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. When the Centurion and some others with him felt the earthquake and saw the way Jesus died they were filled with awe. “Truly this man was the Son of God!” So even the Centurion and the other Roman Soldiers began to see who Jesus was. After he died his body was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. There he rested until the third day, the day of Resurrection. And we shall celebrate that next Sunday. Amazing love Meanwhile, in the coming week we shall reflect on the amazing love of God that brought his Son into the world to be our Saviour.

“How deep the Father’s love for us,

How vast beyond all measure,

That he should give his only Son

To make a wretch his treasure. “

 

[ Address given on Palm Sunday 2009 at a service of all-age worship at the Brecon Presbyterian Church. The talk was illustrated with felt board figures.]

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A terrible plague

July 3, 2008 at 8:10 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, New Testament, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged , ,

A terrible plague

John 15:9-25, Ps 32

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”
(Jn 15:13)

Introduction

In September of the year 1665 a terrible fear gripped the little village of Eyam ( pronounced “Eem” ) in Derbyshire. A parcel of cloth had been sent to the village tailor from London. When George Viccars, that  tailor, opened the parcel he was infected with bubonic plague. Within a short while he was dead and plague spread through the village. The first instinct of everyone in Eyam was to flee the village – but that could be disastrous. It could have been fatal to the people in the neighbouring villages, as it would have spread the plague.

The sacrifice of Eyam

The village church was closed so that the disease would not be spread among worshippers in the enclosed space.  Instead, the congregation met in the open air, under the Cucklet Delf, a natural arch in the limestone rocks. There they cried out to God to give them wisdom, and there the Rector William Mompesson ( pronounced “Mumpson” ) strengthened them from God’s word.

After much prayer he, and his Nonconformist colleague, Thomas Stanley, came to a decision. They called the villagers to a heroic act of self-sacrifice. To prevent the plague spreading to other villages they would seal themselves off from the outside world. They would shut themselves up with the plague. The people agreed, even though it would be a death sentence for many of them. A circle of stones was set up around the boundaries of the village and arrangements were made for food to be left at certain points by people from outside. The people of Eyam paid for the food by leaving coins in the spring. It was believed that the running water would purify the coins.

A 'plague' cottage with plaque commemorating some of the deaths

During the next 15 months the people went through a living hell. 260 out of 350 died. One was the Rector’s own wife Katherine Mompesson. They had sent the children away at the very beginning of the outbreak but Katherine had refused to leave her husband’s side. For the whole village it was an act of sacrifice, and it worked – the plague did not spread beyond the bounds of the village. 

Today, after more than 340 years, a service of commemoration is held annually in the Cucklett Delf where the people used to meet to worship.
The sacrifice of Calvary

In August of 1989, Jane and I visited Eyam. It was a meaningful experience indeed to stand in the very place where those brave people had worshipped God centuries ago. The whole story reminded us of a greater sacrifice – one which indeed had been the inspiration for that of Eyam.

On the cross at Calvary Jesus Christ made a supreme sacrifice for the sins of the world. It was not a sacrifice made to limit the spread of an earthly disease but to counteract  a far more dangerous sickness – sin.

In Eyam church you will see a stained glass window which quotes these words in connection with Mompesson: “He stood between the living and the dead and the plague was stayed ” (Numbers 16:48 )

In their original context these words spoke of Aaron the Hight Priest, the brother of Moses. Numbers 16 tells how the people of Israel had grumbled and rebelled against Moses and against God. The plague came upon them as a judgement of God. Aaron, as High Priest, grabbed a censor with red hot coals and incense and ran into the midst of the Assembly. There he offered incense to God as a symbol of  their prayers, pleading for the Nation. God relented of his punishment and stopped the plague. It was thus said of Aaron  that,  “He stood between the living and the dead and the plague was stayed ” .

These words, as quoted in the stained glass window, are applied to Mompesson who also stopped a plague.

But we can say that Jesus Christ did a far greater thing – he stayed the terrible plague of sin. On the cross he hung “between the living and the dead” as it were.
He offered himself in our place:

“In my  place condemned he stood.
Sealed my pardon with his blood.”

He stopped the plague of sin dead in its tracks – he defeated death itself. And the sacrifice of Calvery was the inspiration for that of Eyam. It was the Christian faith of the villagers and their ministers which enabled them to behave in such an unselfish way.

The sin plague

The Bubonic Plague was terrible – it is now thought that it was spread by flea bites. The bacillus injected by the flea invades the lymphatic system. It causes painful swellings in the neck, groin and armpits, shivering, sickness, headaches, inflammation of the lungs and delirium. Recovery was sometimes possible but usually the patient died. In the later stages of the illness a rash broke out on the chest. In such cases death was inevitable.

We shudder as we think of such things, but do we shudder at the thought of sin? It is a far greater plague. Bubonic Plague leaves its marks on the body, but sin stains the soul. It causes great suffering – with lives ruined by war, violence, abuse, addiction, break-down of relationships. The pain caused by sin is not just physical but mental and emotional as well. It makes people suffer – and not just the guilty. Often the innocent suffer for the sins of others. Ultimately sin leads to death:  not just the death of the body caused by bubonic plague, but the death of the spirit. 

“The wages of sin is death”  (Romans 6:23)  -  separation from God, from life, from joy, from love. This is what we mean by the word “Hell”.  If the people of Eyam went through “a living hell” it was nothing compared to the Hell spoken of in the Bible . This is not a popular topic – indeed I do not like to speak about it, but we can not avoid it. Jesus spoke about Hell more than any other person in the Bible.

We know that God is love and that he does not desire the death of the sinner but we also know that God is holy and righteous. His wrath burns against sin. But his love has found a way of salvation from sin. If we trust in Jesus we are saved. Nonetheless, if a person rejects the forgiveness of God offered in Jesus Christ then there can be no salvation that person will have to face the consequences of sin.

Do we shudder when we think of sin? Do we regard its consequences as dreadful? Do we seek the remedy as quickly as we would seek that of a physical illness?
Conclusion
As Jane and I stood at Cucklett Delf in Eyam we felt we were, in a sense, standing on holy ground. People had worshipped here in the midst of their tribulation. In that village some had died that others could live. 
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)

Jesus died for us  – let us live for him.

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