Remembering Jesus

Luke chapter 22, we continue to speak about the Lord's Supper, the Lord Jesus' last supper with the disciples, and we got halfway through that last week, and we're going to read from verse 14, Luke 22 from 14 through 23. When the hour had come, he sat down on the twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. Then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing. So Jesus is, I'm not sure if you were here last week. If you weren't, let me just recap very quickly. Jesus sends two of the disciples, Peter and John, into the city of Jerusalem to go and prepare the Passover. They find the man who's carrying water. He leads them to a house. The owner of the house gives them an upper room which is furnished, and they go and prepare the Passover. They buy the lamb. They sacrifice the lamb in the temple. They buy the bread, and the bitter herbs, and the wine that they need for the meal, and they gather together in the upper room. It says specifically that the twelve apostles were there, so Judas was there amongst them. And as we saw in the last verse, one of the last verses, that the hand of my betrayer is at the table or on the table with me. And so Jesus then takes the cup, and remember this is the third cup of the Passover. So remember again, just very important for us to remember that this is a transition from the Passover to the Lord's Supper. So what they were doing was the normal Passover Seder, the Passover ceremony, which they still do today. In fact, I have in my office one of the little books that they use which has all the scriptures and the songs that they sing, and so they go through. And there are four cups, and so the third cup is the one that we saw last week. Now this is a transition from Passover to the Lord's Supper. As Gentile Christians, we no longer celebrate the Passover, but we celebrate the Lord's Table, or Communion, or Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper, Lord's Table, different names for the same event. And so most of what Jesus is doing is part of the Passover, but there are certain things that he's instituting which are now part of the Communion, and specifically the cup and the bread is part of the Communion. Now when we look at the way that the Apostles met together, and Paul's teachings in 1 Corinthians 11 particularly, which is the scripture we normally read, when we come to the Lord's Table, we can clearly see what makes the heart of the Lord's Table. So we no longer have all the different cups. We have one cup. We don't have the whole meal. Although, just by the way, the first church for the first century or more would have what they called a love feast, a potluck, basically. And so they would have a whole meal, the whole church together, and then at the end of the meal they would, just like Jesus did with the Passover, they would then celebrate the Lord's Supper. Now, some churches still do that, and that's fine. There's no reason why we should or should not do it. It's a personal preference. The point is that the central elements need to be there. And again, there's a lot of debate, and let me just deal with that before we get into the details here. There's a lot of debate as to the nature of the cup. There are churches that divide over whether you have one cup or whether you have little cups like we have. And I know that probably being American you think it's strange that there could be one cup, but in fact in most of England and the United Kingdom, South Africa, similar churches to ours would have one cup. Now, if the congregation is big, they may have two or even three or four, but not little cups. And in case you're concerned about the hygiene aspects that they take care of, and that's the way I've done it all my life until I came to America. Just by the way, normally the cup will be silver, and the silver is antimicrobial. There's a napkin that goes with a cup, and you wipe the cup before and after, and young people are taught not to backwash. Just by the way. But some people think that, in fact I have one of those cups in my office that we used to use in one of the previous churches. But some churches will divide on that, and they will say, no, if you have many cups, Jesus took one cup and they all drank. And that's true, that's exactly what happened. And so if you have many little cups, you're violating the scripture. And they will cite the principle of saying that by taking one cup, we're saying that we are one body, and that's true. But I don't believe that these are things that we ought to divide on. If you choose to have many cups or one cup, I don't believe that that's important. Some will divide over whether the wine or the juice is alcoholic or non-alcoholic. There are churches that are adamant it must be alcoholic wine because that is what Jesus used. Again, there is no scripture that says it needs to be alcoholic or non-alcoholic. In fact, at the end of the day, it doesn't even have to be grape juice if you don't happen to have grape juice. I think it's ideal because that's what they used. And of course, there's a whole symbolism attached to the crushing of the grapes and the grape vine and all of those kinds of things. But I've had communion in times when we were hiking up in the mountains with Christian friends, with water or with Gatorade. At the end of the day, it's what it represents that is important. It's not what is physically in the cup that is important. It's the fact that we are partaking of Christ that is more important than whether we have one cup or we have many cups. Others will divide over the issue of the bread being unleavened. Now, what Jesus ate that night was unleavened bread, but there is no instruction, particularly in Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 11, that it must be unleavened bread. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's... There are churches that take a whole loaf of... I forgot, you can't buy a whole loaf of bread, can you? No, you can still. A whole loaf of bread that's not sliced, and they send the bread around and everybody breaks a piece off. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not better, it's not worse than unleavened bread. Now, during the time of COVID, we have changed from having bread that is physically broken, and I think we ought to get back to that, to having these prepackaged cups with the little wafer attached for hygiene purposes. It seems that that's really not a big deal with COVID anymore, and so we'll talk about that. Maybe when we run through the stock that we have, we'll go back. But it doesn't matter whether... And again, I know there are Christians who have a major problem with the fact that we've been using these prepackaged cups with a little bit of... with some juice and with a wafer at the top. Again, that's not what's important. It's what we're remembering that's important. It's what these things speak about that is important. Whether it's leavened or unleavened, whether it's a wafer or whether it's bread is not important. All right, so let's have a look at the text then. So, verse 19, he took bread and he gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me. And so he took bread and he gave thanks. Now, Luke does not say he gave thanks for the wine, for the cup, but it seems by looking at the other gospel writers that they gave thanks for the bread and gave thanks separately for the wine. And so they would have given thanks for the meal to begin with, but now there's a special thanks for the bread and for the wine. And of course, the purpose is to remind us, to remember what we're doing, and to be reminded of what these things speak of. I think the bigger danger, when you talk about whether we have one cup or many cups, or whether we have leavened or unleavened bread, that is not the problem. The problem is familiarity. The problem is that it becomes custom, and we do it week after week, month after month, and we just do it without understanding what we're doing. And I believe that what we need to do is there needs to be a moment to pause, and a moment of giving thanks. Now, while we have someone who prays on all of our behalf at the communion, it's important that each one of us prays individually, that prayer of thanks. Because as we said last week, that yes, he died for the whole world, but he died for me personally, individually. And this is a personal thing. While we do it as a body, and there's that symbolism that speaks of the fact that we are one, because we eat one bread, one cup, we have partaken of one Christ, we don't all get our own individual Jesus Christ. I think that many people are so individualistic that they think that they get their own Jesus. No, we get one Jesus, and you don't have a different one than I have. Unfortunately, the heretics want to create their own version of Jesus, and they do serve their own, and he's not the real one. But we have one Christ, but at the same time, it is personal. Yes, he died for the whole world, but he died for me. And so there's always this tension that we must hold, that it cannot become just a personal thing. And we're not going to deal with that because it's not in the text this morning, but in the context of 1 Corinthians 11, there's this problem of division in the church, and he says you can't come to church and say, well, I want nothing to do with those people because they're rich, or they're poor, or they're educated, or whatever. So there is a recognition of the unity of the body, but at the same time, there is this need of coming and saying, Lord, thank you, Jesus, that you died for me. Not just he died for us. Obviously, the one who prays for the bread and the wine prays on behalf of the congregation, and so can use the words we and us, and so say, we thank you, Lord, because he's praying on our behalf. But there needs to be that personal prayer, maybe not vocal, but silent. Thank you, Jesus, that you died for me. I want to remember and be reminded that it was my sin that sent him to the cross. And so he gives thanks, and he broke the bread, and he gave it to them. Now, obviously, the breaking of the bread has a practical application, because each one needs a piece. So you can't each get a piece unless you break it or cut it. So he breaks it, but there's a symbolism to it, obviously, because it speaks about the fact that his body was broken at the cross of Calvary, that in the breaking of his body, the blood came out. Now, remember that we spoke about the order, and you'll see that the order throughout all of the Gospels and in Paul's teaching is the bread first and then the juice. Now, again, if somebody messes up—and I've been in communion services where whoever's leading gets it the wrong way around and forgets and does the wine first and then the bread—it's not the end of the world. But at the same time, we want to remember that these things are symbolic. They're representing certain very real things, and they're representing the breaking of his body and the coming forth of the blood. Now, the breaking of his body was for us, again. And so the point is that we need to remember that this is for us. He was broken, and he was broken that I might be healed. Now, how are we healed? Well, I believe that we might be healed physically, because I believe in healing, but that we may be healed emotionally and spiritually, that we may be healed in every way. Now, remember that that healing may not necessarily happen here and now. We're not into the name-it-and-claim-it thing, where we can command God and say, well, you must heal me, because clearly we can see from the New Testament that there were many who were sick, and Paul wasn't able to heal them, didn't heal them. Paul couldn't, in fact, fix his own thorn in the flesh. And so there are times when God allows people to be sick. But what we're looking forward to is the day when we get to heaven, when Roger and I will be able to hear without help, when Mickey will remember. We're looking forward to that day when we will be healed. And we can only be healed because he was broken and suffered in his body the affliction of a broken, tormented body. And so he was broken that I might be healed. His relationship with the Father was broken that my relationship with the Father might be healed. And, folks, we need to remember. We need to remind ourselves. The problem is that we do these things, as I said, and it becomes a ritual. And we just do it, and we don't remember what we're doing. And there needs to be a discipline upon our own minds of saying, please help me to remember what this is all about, what this speaks of—the fact that he was broken upon that cross in every way. And obviously we understand that not one bone of his body was broken, but the rest of his body was torn apart. His back like a plowed field, and he died. And so this is my body, which is given for you. Given for you. And so, again, it's a personal thing. He didn't die in that sense just for the world in general. He died for us personally. It is given for you. Now, I must speak for a moment on these words, this is my body. We do not believe—there are those who believe that at some point the bread turns into the literal body of Christ and the wine turns into his literal blood. We don't find that idea in Scripture. If that were true, then what do you do with the fact that Jesus said, I am the water of life, or I am the light of the world, or I am the way? Clearly he is speaking about these things as symbolic of who he is. And so Jesus is not the literal light. And so we say, in fact, he will be in the New Jerusalem. There is no need, the Scripture says, for sun or for light, because he will be the light. But he is not the literal light in the world today. He is spiritually the light. He lights up every man who comes to him, intellectually and spiritually and morally. He brings light into our lives. But he is not a physical light. He is not physical water. He is—and the bread does not physically turn into his body or the wine into his blood. They are symbols. Some people use the word elements. They are simply there to remind us of spiritual truths. You know, the problem—and we say, well, why—if it's not important, if it's not—if it doesn't matter whether it's leavened or unleavened bread, and if it is not physically his body, then what's the importance? Well, the importance is that it's simply an aid to our lack of faith. Unfortunately, as human beings, we need physical reminders to be reminded of certain things, because otherwise we forget. And so, remember, Israel had many reminders. There were twelve feasts. What they were doing here was two of the twelve feasts. In addition, they had all sorts of other things that God had instituted, never mind the ones they'd instituted. And the purpose of all of these things was to remind them over and over and over not to forget God, not to forget his law, not to forget that he brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And so these things are simply symbols that remind us. We spoke about baptism in water on Thursday, and the same thing. The water does not wash away the filth of the flesh. The water does not wash away our sins. But the water is symbolic of the blood, in fact, that washes away our sins. And so the water that we baptize in is not holy water. When we're done with it, we let it out onto the garden, and we water the garden with it. Now, maybe I just need to say a few words in that connection concerning the reverence or lack of reverence for the bread and the wine. We need to find a balance. While we do not believe that the bread and wine are—and I use the word wine, whether it's juice or wine, that's not the point, as I said. But while we do not believe that that turns into the literal body and blood of Christ—because if it does, you have a real challenge how to deal with what's left over. And, in fact, in the churches that hold to that tradition, they have a whole ritual how to deal, a series of steps how to deal with that, just in case you flush part of the body of Christ. Now, we don't go to that extreme. But at the same time, I believe that while it is not wrong, it is dangerous to give it to the kids. And I'm not going to talk about children taking communion this morning. We don't believe that children should take communion until they have been baptized or until at least they're adults. But there is a tradition in some churches that when communion is over, all the kids rush up and they finish off the rest of the juice and the rest of the bread. Now, some people say, well, that's cute, you know. No, we've got to find a balance between what we call transubstantiation, between believing that that is the literal body and the blood of the Lord, and at the same time saying, well, they're just symbols. It's just plain bread and wine that you can buy in any store, and we will dispose of it any which way we choose. After, we'll throw it in the trash. And that's not disrespectful. But at the same time, in the context of the fellowship of the saints, we don't want to deal with these things in a disrespectful way because it conveys a message of saying, well, these things are not important. The same way as we spoke about respect during the time of the service, where one speaks at a time because we're showing respect to one another, we're showing respect to the house of God and to the presence of the Lord. And so it's just a matter of the same issue with wearing caps or wearing hats in the church. And I know that tradition is changing and culture is changing, but most of us have grown up in a culture where you take your cap off when you go into church, and it's just a sign of respect. It's no big deal. Nobody's going to go to hell over it or not. But what we're saying is we recognize that we've come into the fellowship of the saints and that God is in a midst where two or three have gathered in his name, and we want to show respect. That's all it is. We need to be careful of getting to a ritualistic thing on the one hand, and on the other hand, getting to a place where nothing matters. We all talk at the same time. We dress any which way. Some people have been in services where people, while the emblems are being sent around, people are having conversations and joking. That's not what this is about. This is the most solemn and the most serious moment in the history or in the calendar of the church, if you will. We've come to be reminded, and we don't need to be distracted by somebody having a conversation over there or somebody doing this or doing that. We want to have one focus, and that is on the Lord Jesus. So this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. We spoke about that last week. 1 Corinthians 11, do this in remembrance of me. We do it to remind ourselves of him. I said last week, we don't just remember him, but we also remember that he saved us. Remember, the Passover was a looking back to the day that God brought them out of Egypt and took them to the promised land, delivered them from the bondage of Egypt. While we remember Jesus, we remember that we were crucified with him and that he delivered us and set us free from the bondage of sin and brought us into the marvelous light. So we remember him. Now, here's another thing. You thought we'd get to one verse quickly. I'll warn you about two hours. Nowhere does it say, do this in remembrance of my death, and yet that's what we all assume. No, he says, do this in remembrance of me. It's not just, yes, the broken body and the shed blood speaks of his death, but it's more than that. It's remembering Jesus, all of him. And as we saw last week, there's a looking forward to when he comes again and when in the new Jerusalem, we will, or in the marriage feast of the lamb, we will sit at that table and we will remember him. So it's not just remembering the death. Remember that what Paul taught, teaches in 1 Corinthians 15, his death without resurrection is vain. It's empty. It's no good. We need the death with the resurrection. So when we remember him, we remember his life, his death, his resurrection, his coming again. Now, obviously, our small brains can't cope with all of that in one go. But at the same time, we need to be open to allow God by his Spirit to remind us of various aspects at various times. I've come across Christians who've been greatly offended because somebody emphasized his second coming at the Lord's table. But as I've shown you, it's very much part of the Lord's table, because he says, I'm not going to do this until I do it anew in the kingdom. So it's looking forward as well. So we don't want to get so narrow that it's just his death. No, it's his resurrection. It's his coming again. It's all of him. But obviously, the emphasis is on his death. Now, verse 20, likewise, in the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. Now, the new covenant. Covenants or agreements, we call them agreements today, although in some legalese, they still speak about a covenant. I think in property transactions, it says these parties covenant. In those days, they used the language cut, were sealed with blood. Remember, when God made the first covenant with Abraham, Abraham had to kill some animals, and they had to be cut in half. And that was the more complete way of dealing with the making of that covenant. And then they would cut the animals in half and make a pathway between the two halves of the various carcasses. And then the two parties would walk up and down between these carcasses. And remember that God puts Abraham to sleep because it's a unilateral covenant. God makes the covenant with Abraham. Abraham is just the beneficiary of the covenant, and God walks between these carcasses in the vision. So the covenants in the Old Testament had to be ratified, sealed with blood. And obviously, it would be the blood of an animal. But here, Jesus is introducing a new covenant with new blood. All of the covenants that God had made with Israel—and there are many different ones, and we're not going to go into all of those. They're all essentially the same one that are just ratified or modified as time went on. But all of those covenants were ratified by animal blood. Jesus now ratifies the new covenant with his blood, which is a completely different thing. Now, if we go to Exodus 24 verse 8, here's just one example. Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. So you can see the same language. This is the blood of the covenant. That was the old covenant. Essentially, the new covenant was that the laws would no longer be external, written on tables of stone, but it would be written upon our hearts. And so, the old covenant required some performance on the part of Israel. They needed to obey God, and he would bless them. If they disobeyed him, he would curse them. The new covenant is not dependent on our performance. It is dependent on what Jesus did at the cross of Calvary. And so, we have a new covenant. The old covenant is not done away with. The old covenant is fulfilled. And I don't want to get into those details, because then I'm going to run out of my two hours. So, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to his words. And so, Jesus now—let's go back to verse 20 of Luke. This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. There was no other way that that covenant could be entered into. Because, as I said a moment earlier, God's covenants are irrevocable. God's covenants are not like our covenants and our agreements. And we know that you can enter into whatever agreement you like, whether it's a marriage agreement, or a bill of sale, or a property deal. And if you get a clever enough lawyer, you can get your way out of that agreement. God's agreements, God's covenants cannot be broken. When God has given his word, God is not a man that he should lie, nor the Son of Man that he should say and not do it. So, God is bound by his covenant. So, how does God get to make a new covenant? By Jesus fulfilling the requirements of the old covenant. Now, having fulfilled the requirements of the old covenant by his death, he is now able to make a new covenant. And the new covenant does not contradict the old covenant. It simply makes it easier for us. In other words, the old covenant said, here's the deal. I will bless you if you keep my commandments. I will curse you if you disobey. The new covenant says, I know you can't do the right thing, but Jesus will do the right thing for you. Now, obviously, it doesn't mean that I can do whatever I like. We understand that side of the teaching as well. So, the covenant still stands. In blessing, I will bless you. And all of God's blessings are ours. But it doesn't require me to do anything except to believe and to accept his offer of grace. And so, he offers a new covenant, and it is in my blood. And his blood is shed for you. Now, remember, these disciples are standing on the other side of the cross. They don't have a clue what Jesus is speaking about. They have an inkling that he may be going to suffer because he's spoken so much about it. But that he would actually be shedding his blood and that his blood would be for them, I don't think they understood that. And here's our challenge, because we're on the other side of the cross. We're able to look back, and hindsight should be 20-20. We should be able to understand all of this because we have it all fulfilled, and yet we don't. And so, there needs to be a cry on our heart when we come to the Lord's table and say, Lord, just open my eyes. Help me to understand what Jesus did for me, the price that he paid. And folks, it's not something that a weak preacher like me can do. I don't have the words. I don't have the vocabulary to be able to impress on you the magnitude, the greatness of the work that he did for us, the price he paid for us. This is a work we need of the Spirit that will deep down in our hearts just make us aware of the tremendous price that he paid, and the tremendous grace that he has bestowed upon us, that he would save a wretch like me. And so, we need to pray that prayer when we come to the Lord's table. In fact, we need to pray that prayer every day and say, Lord Jesus, help me understand. Help me appreciate what it is that you've done for me. And so, it is done for you. Now, verse 21, and behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. We touched on this three weeks ago when we spoke about Judas, and I'm not going to get into Judas, but whenever I read these passages, I'm struck by the jarring note. Jesus is speaking about these elevated truths, about his body being broken for us, his blood being shed for the new covenant, and obviously for the remission of our sins. And then, right in the middle of that, but my betrayer is on the table. His hand is on the table. Remember, we spoke about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, in the night in which he was betrayed, not the night before he was crucified. You know, I've never been able to grasp that, because every one of us, if you had to write the history of Jesus in the last 24 hours, like Paul was writing concerning the table in 1 Corinthians 11, every one of us would write the night before he was crucified, he took the bread and the cup. But that's not what Paul writes by the Spirit. It was the night he was betrayed. And again, there's that need for us to look in our own hearts, as we'll see in a moment. And truly, the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. So, he goes as it has been determined by the Father. Remember that while Judas did this terrible thing, and the Romans nailed him to the cross, and the Jews sold him or gave him over to the Romans, and everybody had guilt in that whole process. At the end of the day, it was the Father who determined that Jesus should die in our place. And there's that verse that I don't understand in Isaiah chapter 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And obviously, God took no perverse pleasure in crushing his Son upon that cross, but he did it to save us. And so, he goes as it's been determined. Nothing could persuade or could dissuade Jesus from going to the cross. Remember, he set his face as a flint. And if Judas didn't do it, it would have happened some other way, but he would have ended at the cross, because that was God's determined will. And I thank God that it doesn't matter what the devil tries to do, it doesn't matter what the world tries to do, God's will will be done in the end. And the best thing that I can do is to align myself with the will of God, to not be the Judas who is the instrument, if you will. And I don't believe that, I'm not suggesting for a moment that God used Judas. The devil used Judas. God just allowed that to happen, to run its course. But the best I can do is to make sure I'm on the right side of God's will, of what God is doing, and not on the wrong side, like Judas. And then the last verse, and then they began to question among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing. Now, when you look at the other Gospels, all four of the Gospels speak about this. They seem to indicate two different things going on here. The first is that there is a question as to, Lord, who is it? Is it Matthew? Is it Peter? Who is it? But there's a second thing going on, because some of the Gospel writers say they began to question, and say, is it me? The second is the valid thing. The problem is we so easily do the first thing. In other words, Lord, just tell me who it is, Lord, I'll sort them out. Lord, who here is the troublemaker? That's not the question. The question is, who is it? Is it me? And in that is a confession, as we said when we dealt with Judas three weeks ago, there is that confession that potentially every one of us has the potential of betraying Jesus. And so there needs to be a question. It's not a matter of looking around saying, well, Lord, I think it's him. I think maybe it's her. No, Lord, it could be me. Let me make sure that I'm in the right place. And I believe that as we come to the Lord's table, there needs to be this question. We've said many things that we need to do as we come to the table. But one of the things that we need to do is, Lord, am I right with you? Is there something in me that can cause me to betray you? And if there is, Lord, I want to deal with that. I want it out of the way. I want to be like John who lay on Jesus's chest. I want to be the one who's close to you, not the one whose hand is on the table, but in my pocket is the money that I sold him for. Father, we pray that you'd help us to understand. Lord, in the words of that hymn writer, help me understand it. Help me take it in, what it cost you, the Holy One, to bear away my sin. Lord, we can't understand. We cannot begin to understand the great price that Jesus paid. And yet we thank you, Lord, that you've instituted this memorial that we do every month in this church, some churches weekly, some even daily. But Lord, you've instituted this that we might be reminded of what Jesus did, that we may be reminded of Jesus. And Lord, I pray that you would help us because, Lord, we are human. And when we do the same thing more than once, it becomes habit. It becomes instinctive. We speak of muscle memory. We just do things because that's the way we do it. Lord, I pray that as we come to your table in a few weeks' time again, Lord, that it may be new and fresh, not just this time, but every time. Lord, that we may be reminded of Jesus, that we may be reminded of the great price he paid for us, that we may be reminded of his brokenness, but also that he will and does heal in every way. We may be reminded of his blood that washed away my sin, and that we may be reminded that he's coming again. And so, Lord, I pray, make these things real. Forgive us, Lord, for getting into ritual and tradition that is empty and meaningless and simply route, but Lord, that it may be real and fresh every time. I ask this in Jesus' name. I pray that you'd go with us now, Lord, keep us and protect us, bring us together again safely on Thursday, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.