The Crucifixion with Pastor Ryan Braley

Rome didn’t just rule with soldiers, it ruled with stories. One of its loudest stories was the Roman triumph: a victory parade that crowned the emperor, filled the streets with incense, and trained everyone to believe that real power looks like dominance, spectacle, and control. We’re at the penultimate week of our Journey To The Cross series, and we argue that Mark wants you to see Jesus’ crucifixion through that exact backdrop.

We walk through the triumph step by step, then watch Mark 15 echo the same images in startling ways: the Praetorium, the purple robe, the “crown,” the procession, the offered wine, the place of the skull, and even two figures at the right and left. What looks like humiliation becomes a deliberate subversion of empire. The moment that lands it all is not a cheer from the crowd but a confession from a Roman centurion: “Truly this man is God’s son.” Mark’s Gospel reframes Good Friday as the real victory parade.

From there, we press the question into everyday life. If the cross is triumph, then power is not power-over. It’s power-under, expressed through self-giving love. That has consequences for how we handle conflict, politics, relationships, and the temptation to organize life around winning. As Holy Week approaches, we end with a simple invitation to respond to God, even if you’re unsure where you stand.

Subscribe for next week’s resurrection message, share this with a friend who’s wrestling with faith and power, and leave a review to help others find the show. What’s one area where you feel pulled toward “power-over” right now?

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Transcript

Journey To The Cross Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are at the end of our almost end of our journey. We've been doing the journey to the cross, is the sermon series. And we are at the uh what the fancy folks call the penultimate week, the second to last week, and we're gonna talk about the crucifixion. Um, the the secondary title of the sermon could also be called The Triumph. Everyone say triumph. Now, if you can open your Bibles or your phones to your gospels, just promise me you won't open anything else but your gospel Bible app, but uh to Mark 15. I forget what page it's on, but Mark 15, uh let me know what page it's on when you get there. But we're gonna end there. I promise you we'll get to Mark and Mark's telling of the crucifixion of Jesus, which is the final stage of our journey to the cross. Not final, the second to last one. Next week will be the resurrection, but um, this one's the crucifixion. And uh we'll come to Mark's telling of the crucifixion in a minute. So have it open, but I want to take you on a quick journey before we get there. Is that cool? So we've got some work to do, some ground to cover. We're gonna begin with some Roman history, and I need you to stay with me. Can you do that? Okay, okay. Sort of confident, like half confident, maybe mostly confident. Okay, I promise you we'll get to Mark, but I need you to hang with me uh for the time being as we do some some Roman history work. Now, if you didn't know, during the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire was sort of this massive monolithic empire that ruled all the way from Britain to the west, to the east, as far as you know, modern-day Iran, down into North Africa, and it was in charge of this entire area when Jesus comes onto the scene in the first century in Palestine, which is kind of in the middle there. And uh and the Roman Empire ruled with force and might, and it was this military economic superpower in every way that dominated the region for many, many years, and especially in the time of Jesus. And you felt it everywhere you went. When you were in Palestine, where Jesus walked around, you would see the presence of the Roman imperial guards everywhere you went, and it was undoubtedly true that the Roman Empire was in charge. Now, the Empire had rulers they called the Caesars. And you guys maybe have heard of the Caesars. The very first Caesar was a guy called Julius Caesar, and Julius Caesar was a Roman general and the inventor of the popular men's haircut. I didn't know if that would work. I'm glad it did. But uh Julius Caesar, uh true by the way, but Julius Caesar, uh, at the uh when he was assassinated, which happened at the end of his life, he Okay, you're tracking. Okay, good. That was a slide joke I just threw in there. Um but he was assassinated at the end of his life, and it was a question of who would reign next. There was some some tumult and some violence, some wars that kind of broke out. Ultimately, though, his adopted son Augustus takes the throne. And Augustus becomes the first official emperor. Julius was kind of around when the Republic was still around, if you know your Roman history, but either way, Augustus comes onto the scene. Now, at Julius, you know, his father, when he was assassinated, at his funeral ceremony, uh, a comet appears in the sky. This is true, though. You can Google this. It's actually true. That this comet appears in the sky at this great uh funeral ceremony for the great Julius Caesar. Now, his son, Augustus, and the Senate, the Roman Senate, say, ah, that's a sign from the gods. That's the soul of Caesar, uh, Julius Caesar ascending to the heavens to take his proper place among the gods, his rightful place. This is, of course, a sign that Julius has been invited to be one of the gods by the gods themselves. So in this moment, the Senate defies Julius Caesar. Ah, Julius is now divine. He's a god. And Augustus is like, great, because if you're Augustus, you're Julius' son. That makes you not a god, but the son of God. So Julius Caesar is now a god. Augustus Caesar, who's now in charge, the emperor of this vast empire, in charge of this incredible military uh army, and you know, it goes from Iran to Britain down to North Africa. Uh, this guy now calls himself the son of God, later God incarnate. By the way, he also said this about himself, he said, I'm the son of God, and I've brought peace and prosperity into the world. Now, he did. He was, of course, responsible for the pox Romana, and he brought peace to the empire mostly through the sword. But nonetheless, you have this man who says, I am the son of God, I'm the emperor, the king of this whole land, in charge of all these armies and these people and these regions, and I brought peace and prosperity into the world. Does that sound familiar to anybody else in the room? Uh, around the first century, a young baby was born in a little town called Bethlehem named Jesus. Uh, he also was said to be the son of God who brought peace into the world. Now, Luke tells it this way. I love Luke's gospel, Luke's 2, and this is the Christmas story. So I know we're jumping ahead of holiday or back of holiday, whichever we look at it, but Luke says, In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all should be registered. Now, Luke is telling you, this baby who's about to be born, which is Jesus, uh, he is going to be a king that you ought to read in comparison to this other king, the Caesar. Luke is very clearly framing his gospel story by using this king over here, the Caesar, the emperor in charge of this incredible empire that stretches as far from the east to the west down to North Africa. That's this military might, economic superpower. And then over here you have Jesus, and Luke says, hey, from the jump, watch these two kings. I'm going to lay out two different ways to be a king. Two different ways to order an empire, two different ways to be in charge of people, to lead people to be a king, two different ways, if you will, of being a human, of being alive. There's the way of the Caesar and the Empire, and there's, of course, the way of Jesus, and whatever movement or kingdom that he might, in fact, be bringing. So watch and pay close attention, Luke and the other gospel writers would say. Now, it wasn't long after this, with Augustus and the following emperors, that emperor worship became the norm. Many of them began to deify themselves, and the people around them did the same thing, the Senate and the people, the general populace. And they viewed them all as gods, divine beings. And they were worshipped as divine beings while they were dead, of course, but also while they were still alive. And they deified them in a number of ways. One was they put their faces on coins. Check out the nose on that guy, huh? Look at that. That is a strong Roman nose. Look at that man. He's a handsome dude. But they put them on coins while they were still alive. This is often reserved for when you would die, but when they were still alive, they would deify them when they were still alive and worship them as Lord and God. Also, they had statues and sculptures made out of these men. And lastly, one of the most dramatic, spectacular things they would do is they would have a Roman triumph for these emperors. Now, here's what a Roman triumph was. A Roman triumph was initially reserved for Roman generals. A general would come back from war after having conquered a local land or a faraway land, and he would bring back his armies, the spoils from war, all that he captured, even some slaves and captives, they'd bring them back in shackles and in chains, and these men and women would use later for all kinds of purposes as servants and so on. And they would parade this victorious general through the streets of Rome in this incredible, like spectacular way to put on display this Roman general's might and victory. And uh they would parade them, and here's another example of it. Uh, and the people would shout, Triumpe, Triumpe, which means sort of triumph in Latin. They would shout, Triumph, triumph, and the people would go mad, and there was frenzy. And these Roman generals would be paraded through the street with their spoils from war and their captors and their armies, and they would be on full display. Well, around the time of Augustus, Augustus said, Hey, we want to do these triumphs, we want to keep doing them, but we want to observe them just for emperors, no longer for generals, but just for emperors. So they began to have these Roman triumphs just for Roman emperors. And they would parade these emperors through the streets of Rome. You can imagine Rome if you've ever been there, and they would parade them through the streets of Rome, and they would shout, Triumpe, Triumpe, and put on display not just their uh victories and their power and their might, but that these men in fact were divine, and they'd be worshipped as Lord and God during these triumphs. Now, if you were a first century Roman, let's say a Roman Christian, even, living around 50 or 60 or 70 AD, uh, this is of course maybe a few decades after Jesus, and you lived in Rome, you undoubtedly would know all about the Roman triumph. You would be familiar with all the images and all the movements of it and the symbols and what it meant and what it was like to watch that emperor be paraded through the streets of Rome and what to expect at every single turn. And if you lived in Rome as a Christian in that time, you would know exactly what a Roman triumph was. So hold that thought. But here's where they would begin. They began the Roman triumphs in a place called the Praetorium. And that's on the far top left corner there, and it would follow this yellow line down around Palantine Hill and back in like kind of like a circle that would end up in Capitoline Hill. They also called that Head Hill. And it would follow that route called the Via Sacra, the Sacred Road. And this was the path it followed. Now, the Praetorium, where it began in the upper left, looked kind of like this. These are the ruins, of course, of the Praetorium. So here's like a recreated image of the Praetorium. Now, the Praetorium was a place where the highest governing officials lived, the magistrates, sort of the highest, most important people. Not the emperor himself, but sort of the ones right below the emperor. And uh so it was like this magnificent palace, this palatial mansion where they would live. It was a residential house, but it also doubled as a legislative building. So they would have trials. There was a courtroom in this place where the governor would uh sort of house these legislative dealings. And uh so it sort of doubled as like a house and this um this uh this sort of uh courtroom. And that's where it began. It began at the praetorium. So you can imagine this crowd, massive Roman crowd gathering at the Praetorium. Also present there would have been the Praetorian Guard. And these dudes were bad dudes. They were tough. These guys, if you can imagine the Praetorian Guard, they were like elite, feared, uh, fierce guards. They were like something like if the Secret Service had a baby with uh a TSA agent and also uh a super overhyped mall security guard. And that baby, if you gave that baby a sword, that would be the Praetorian Guard. And these guys protected all the highest ranking officials. And these dudes were not to be trifled with. They were bad dudes, never feared. Uh these guys were also kingmakers because they controlled the armies. And and Rome knew whoever controlled the armies, uh, this is true today in many places, too. Whoever controls the armies controls the throne. So these guys would be the ones who would often dictate who could be emperor and who couldn't be emperor. And so if you were an emperor, you would do well to get these guys over on your side. You would bribe them with gifts and all kinds of other goodies and sort of advantages that others didn't have. But the Praetorian Guard were feared, fierce bodyguards for the highest-ranking officials, and they're incredible. So imagine this gathering out in front of the Praetorium, and there's people everywhere chanting and crying and shouting out, and the Praetorian Guard standing there in like this military line, very official and dignified, and they're waiting as the emperor comes out and is paraded, is beginning to be paraded as Lord and God. Now, I I need a I need a volunteer this morning. I want to have uh an emperor on hand. I need someone who's tall, tall-ish. I need a handsome lad, maybe a younger lad. Give me one of the Duchesne boys. Josh? Give Josh some love this morning. Can you help me? Okay, come on, yeah. Now, if you've ever seen the Duchesne boys, you are Josh, right? Yeah. Okay. They all look a little bit similar. What am I gonna say? Okay, come up. Uh actually, no, stand right here. Yeah, you're good, yeah, yeah. How tall are you?

unknown 12:13

Six, two.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Okay, so you're not as tall as me. I thought, okay, yeah, your brother's taller than me, I think. Yeah, the other one, yeah, maybe a few of them, actually. Yeah, there aren't many guys that are taller than me, but you guys are, so you're getting closer. Okay. So here's okay, so they would parade this emperor. So stay right there. Yeah, hang tight. Uh, they would parade the emperor through the Roman streets, deifying him as Lord and God, and he'd be worshipped. They would shout, Triumpe, Triumpe, and the crowd would be in this big frenzy. And it began with the Praetorians at the Praetorian Guard, uh, the Praetorian Guard and at the Praetorium. And that's where this whole uh official parade would begin. And they would start by wrapping the emperor in a purple robe. Now, purple was this color, uh the dye was extremely expensive. And so not just anybody could wear purple, only the very wealthiest people could wear purple. In fact, purple was outlawed to wear unless you were one of the highest-ranking citizens in Rome. You couldn't wear purple if you were poor or lower than the equestrian level of society. And so they would take this purple robe that was often on the god Jupiter at the Jupiter Temple, uh, because the Romans would dress their gods up, and they would take this Rome, uh, this purple robe, which signified royalty and uh something like divinity, and they would drape the emperor in this purple robe, signifying his royalty and divinity and his wealth and his vigor and his might. Then they would take this wreath, uh, this wreath, usually made of laurel, like wood and and uh and leaves, or of uh um yeah, this one's made of 24 karat gold. At least that's what Amazon told me. But uh, and they would they would take this wreath and they would put it on the emperor's head, and a wreath would symbolize victory. They would often give these to their Olympic athletes and uh as a sort of a crown or like uh you know one of their medals. And they would take this wreath and put it on the emperor's head and signify that he is incredibly victorious in all that he does. So you had this thing made of laurel and oak, or in this case gold, and they'd put on the emperor's head, and they would begin this processional known as the Roman triumph. Now, the emperor at this point would begin to give out gifts to the Praetorian guard, because he knew if I don't have them on my side, uh, then I all could be lost. He'd give them gifts. So, did you bring any gifts this morning, Joshua? Okay, uh, well, use your imagination, okay? So he would give out gifts, he would shower the crowd, or really the Praetorians with these gifts in order to win them over. And the people would acclaim him Lord and God, and they would say something like, Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar! Emperor, Emperor, Emperor, or Triumpe, Triumpe, Triumpe, the crowd in this frenzy yelling at the emperor. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be this man, the leader, the king, the emperor of this vast empire, and these huge, fierce guards that are standing guard for you, taking care of you, and the crowd shouting your name and saying, Hail Caesar, who's Lord and God. And they'd parade him again down the Via Sacra, this road here, all the way around Palantine to Capitoline Hill in this city. And all throughout this pathway, they had these altars that had incense on them, and they would light incense throughout the whole city to the point where the whole city would smell like incense. Like Nero was said to have spent uh millions of dollars on incense, and then it draped the whole city in incense. There was an incense burned everywhere. You couldn't go anywhere in the city without smelling this incense. The whole city smelled like incense. And this also was a sign of divinity, and it just made the whole thing an incredible spectacle. And they lit incense every few, you know, a few feet along the pathway here as a sign of this man and his divinity to be worshiped as Lord and God. Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar, hail Caesar. So they prayed him around. Keep an eye on this, Joshua. I'll put it right here. They'd prayed him around. Along the way, they also brought a bull to be sacrificed later. Towards the end, they would end up at the Temple of Jupiter and they would sacrifice a bull, a real live bull, and they would drag this bull along the way at the end of a rope. So they had this bull they dragged along. Use your imagination. And they would they would drag this bull along along the route, and everyone knew, oh, that's the bull that will be sacrificed in honor of the new emperor, our Lord and God. And there was somebody that would carry along the way, alongside of the bull, they would carry an axe, this instrument of death to be used later on the bull. And there'd be a guard or someone who just would walk alongside the bull carrying this axe as an instrument of death to be used later on to sacrifice this bull. And so every few feet they would smell more of the incense. They would hear the noises the bull would make, the crowd still chanting, Triumpe, Triumpe. The sacrifice there, ready to be led to the final slaughter there at the end. And they would finally arrive at Capitoline Hill, the end of the whole thing. They would walk all the way around Palatine Hill. They would end here at Capitoline Hill. This is the Temple of Jupiter in Rome. It was this beautiful, ancient building. These are the ruins, of course, of the Temple of Jupiter. And at Capitoline Hill, by the way, it was called Head Hill. And the reason it was nicknamed Head Hill is because the legend goes that when they were excavating to build this city, they found an entire intact human head with the skin, uh, the skull, the hair, the eyeballs all fully intact. And so they say, hey, we've got to name this place Head Hill. So Capitoline Hill is also known as Head Hill because they found this entire uh intact human head. Now, at this point, too, they would give the emperor a glass of wine. And uh, how old are you again?

unknown 18:26

23.

Mark 15 As Counter Triumph

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Oh, perfect, okay, yeah. That's what I thought. Uh they gave him some wine. And at this moment, though, the emperor would refuse to drink the wine, he would pour it into the ground. So, Joshua, come on over here. I'm gonna pour it over here. I was gonna drag this over to you, but it's actually quite heavy. So he would refuse the wine, and then instead of drinking, he would dump it into the ground, signifying his divinity and is soon to die and then rise again. So we go ahead and pour it into the ground there. And he refused the wine, he would pour it into the ground. Awesome. You can just hang on to the cup too. Thanks, buddy. Come on over here. And then just in front of the temple, there were these beautiful ornate stairs, these massive stairs. I brought my own, so I hope you don't mind. They're not quite as ornate or beautiful. I think we figured out this way, so we'll do it. Uh yeah, how's that look for you? Here, I'll take the cup from you. Perfect, I'll put this right here. And before the emperor ascended the stairs, they would take the bowl to the uh altar, and they would sacrifice the bowl and slaughter the bull, and take the blood from the bowl and pour it out over the whole altar or onto the ground, similar to the wine and signifying, you know, that this man is divine. Then the emperor would ascend the stairs very slowly and magnanimously. Perfect, careful. Uh, and often he got really tall, man, all of a sudden. Often, as a symbol of his authority, it was customary to grab two people, either that he knew or were out of the crowd, that were also kind of important but a bit less important. So, hmm. Emery, Kaiu? All right, stay right here. I need one more. Ken, Kaibaru. Kaibar you. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it. So they grabbed two men that were uh less important, but also kind of important. So these guys will do. So Emery, and they would take their place on either the right or the left of the emperor, and uh as a display of his authority over and above all. In fact, most of the emperors did this. So Claudius had his two sons-in-law when he became emperor on either the right or his left. Woo! The Flavians also did this. So Vespasian, Emperor Vespasian, had his sons Titus and Domitian on his right and on his left, as a way to simulate, hey, he is Lord and God, to be worshipped above everybody else. But also these guys are kind of important. But he'd have one on his right or his left, also signifying his authority over all of these people, including these two men. All right, would you give him some love this morning? Awesome, thank you, dude. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I'll take that. Thank you, Joshua. Awesome, thank you, thank you. Beautiful. Actually, I'm gonna put these down here. And the last thing that would happen, by the way, too, is when they were on those stairs, everybody would wait for a sign from the gods. They believed if the gods showed this emperor favor, if they were making the right choice, the gods would give a sign. There would be a comet or a flock of birds or some kind of divine sign that would indicate that this emperor was in fact Lord and God. And so everyone waited and they watched the skies. Again, you have to use your imagination. And they waited for a sign from the gods. Now, Mark and Mark's gospel was written, most scholars believe, to Roman Christians. And most will place the time of Mark's gospel around 57. 6070 AD. If you're Mark and you're gonna tell this story about the death and resurrection of Jesus and what it meant, because these folks lived miles away from Jerusalem. They weren't there at the crucifixion. How would you tell this story? What would you say? What kind of images would you use to tell the Roman Christians the story of the death of Jesus? What kind of allusions would you make? How would you tell this story? Well, remember the triumph. The triumph began at the praetorium. Mark begins his story like this.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace that is the praetorium, and they call together the whole cohort.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

And then they take the emperor out from the praetorium, and they drape him with a purple cloth, a purple robe around him, to symbolize his divinity, his royalty, his wealth, and they placed a crown, a wreath on his head.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

And the people, as the Roman Emperor was dressed in this way, acclaimed him. Hail Caesar! Hail Caesar!

SPEAKER_00 23:16

And they began saluting him. Hail, King of the Jews!

SPEAKER_01 23:22

And they marched a bull down the streets, the Via Sacra, to be sacrificed. And they had somebody carry along with them this instrument of death to be used later to sacrifice this bull.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Then they led him out to crucify him. They compelled a passerby who was coming in from the country to carry his cross. It was Simon of Cyrene.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

And they marched the Roman Emperor up to Capitoline Hill, also known as Headhill.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

And they gave the emperor a bowl or a cup of wine. They refused to drink, and instead poured it into the ground to symbolize his own death and rising again.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

And they took the bowl up to the altar and they sacrificed the bowl with the axe.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

And they marched the emperor up the stairs, and had on his right and his left two other people who were important but not as important to symbolize his own divinity and authority over the whole empire.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

And with him they crucified two rebels, one on his right and one on his left.

SPEAKER_01 24:45

And the people acclaimed him, Lord and God. Hail Caesar, Emperor, Triumpe, and they shouted his name.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

In the same way, the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, He saved others, he cannot save himself. And they waited.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

The people waited for a sign from the gods, approving that this one was in fact divine.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

Power Under And Self Giving Love

Invitation To Say Yes To God

SPEAKER_01 25:33

And standing nearby is of all people a Roman centurion, a Roman guard, a Roman Marine. And he's the first witness to declare, surely this, this man was the Son of God. Bark says this way. Now, when the centurion who stood facing him saw that this saw that in his last breath he breathed, he said, Truly this man is God's son. Can you see what Mark is doing? He's laying out once again, hey, there's two ways of being in the world. There's two different kinds of triumphs. There's the Roman triumph. And there's this, the true, the real triumph, the true victor. It looks like defeat, but I'm telling you, Roman Christians and modern-day Elk River Christians, it's not a defeat. This is the real triumph. And there's two different ways of being in the world: the way of the empire, the way of the Caesar, or the way of Jesus, the way of the cross, the way of victory, the real triumph. This, Mark would say, this is a triumph. By the way, Paul writes it like this. I love this in Colossians. He says this. He says, hey, Jesus disarms the rulers and authorities and makes a public example out of them by now. The Greek word here is the word that's used for the Roman triumph. By having a triumph over them. Yeah, that triumph, this triumph is how Jesus conquers the evil powers and authorities that rule the world. It's actually a victory for Jesus. It looks like defeat, but it's not. Also, Paul writes us about you and I, the church. Paul says in 2 Corinthians. He says, But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads who? Us. Christ leads us in a triumph, this procession, this parade, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance. Can you still smell the incense burning? In every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. When you know Christ, there's a fragrance that you sort of emit wherever you go. Friends, you and I have been invited, maybe co-opted. Paul uses the word captured by Christ into his triumph. You know how the emperor would parade his spoils of war behind him? That's us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's us. It's already been won, it's already over, it's finished, Jesus said. There you are. You're in the parade. The question, Mark or Luke, or Matthew asked, which king, which way do you want to live in? You've already been bought, you've already been purchased. Now, how do you want to live? How do you want to respond? Do you want to live in the triumph or this triumph? Which triumph is real? By the way, have you been to Rome? What's left of the Roman Empire in those Caesars? I've been there. Nothing but ruins. Just ruins. Nothing. What's left of the movement that Jesus started 2,000 years ago in the Middle East, somewhere far away? What's left of that? Look around. It changed the course of human history, and you and I are part of it. Yeah. Which triumph is the real triumph? Blah, but here's the thing. Most of us still live as though the Roman triumph is the way. If we're honest, we organize our lives, our politics, our views, our behaviors, as though the Roman triumph was the real triumph. As though power over, top-down, winning arguments, proving I'm right, being on display, look at me, that's the way. That's how we live a lot of our lives. Most of the time. But if Mark is right, if Mark is right, then real power is not in dominance, but in self-giving love. If this is a triumph, I'm just telling you, then real power is not in dominance, in top-down military might, might is right, oppressive power over. It's not that, it's power under. And self-giving love. That will change the world if Mark is right. Now, listen, I'm not telling you it's easy. That's not easy. And on a geopolitical level, good luck. But here's what I'll say the church is called to be a light on a hill, a city on a hill. When the machine has gone mad, and friends, the machine has gone mad. Have you watched the news lately? I don't care which side you're on either. The machine is out of control. The church, you and I, the captors in the parade of the triumphant Jesus, we are called to be salt and light and show a different way. In the midst of madness, we need a different way. We're gonna sing a song and we're gonna pray, and then we'll go. But before you go, I want to invite you this morning. I don't know why you're here, what brought you here this morning. I don't know where you thought you are with God, or how far or close, or whatever you feel like with God, but I want to invite you to consider one thing this morning. Uh, if if Jesus, if his death was truly not a defeat, but a victory, it changes everything. And by encouragement, you might as well just opt in. As Paul, right, you've already been sort of, you've already been captured, so you might as well just, let's go. And if you've never just on your own way said, I don't know, some kind of a yes to God, I encourage you to just try it this morning. Maybe just now, if you can just close your eyes. Just close your eyes this morning, if you're willing to. If not, it's okay, but and even now, I don't know. Whether you believe in God or not, just try it. If you're willing. If you feel like a tugging on your heart, if you feel like your heart is racing, your stomach is sort of like doing flips, or you're like, no, that guy's talking to me, man. I believe the Spirit of God, which is alive and well, woos us and comes after us in this mysterious, fascinating, strong way. So this morning, if you feel that, I just encourage you to just hash things out with God right now. And in some way, in your own way, just say yes. And see where it takes you. Who knows? And this Holy Week, as you go into this holy week and we experience Monday Thursday and Good Friday, and the moment when all seems lost, may you remember that if Mark is right, real power is not about dominance, even though the world says so. But the Roman Empire and the Caesars are just ruins. Real power that will change the world, that will change your life and my life, is in self-giving love. Amen.