Crucified

Introduction

Well, good morning!

If you have your Bibles and I hope that you do, keep ‘em open with me to the Gospel of John. We’ll get into those accounts in just a moment. But of course, before we do that, let’s recite our memory verse together.

Acts chapter 2, verses 42 and 43.

Acts 2:42–43 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

[Prayer]

Alrighty…well, if you’re keeping up with your calendars, today, it marks Palm Sunday…its the day that starts Holy Week…the day that Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey…knowing how the rest of the week would end for Him.

If you’ve been with us the past several weeks, we’ve been digging into the final moments of Jesus’s life, according to the Gospel of John…of course, we’ve looked at Thursday night of Holy Week, Jesus’s betrayal…His arrest…Josh gave us a powerful sermon last week, giving us the accounts of what early Friday morning looked like for Jesus as He suffered on His way to Cavalry and as He was nailed to the cross…which if you’re keeping up, that’s gonna bring us to His death this morning. It brings us to those famous words Jesus said just before He died, “IT IS FINISHED.”

But listen, hopefully you’ve caught the major theme throughout each of the previous messages…which was that Jesus, He was sovereign. He was sovereign through every bit of His betrayal…He was sovereign over His suffering…and what we’ll see today, its that Jesus, He was sovereign over His crucifixion…which means that as He entered into Jerusalem, on that first Palm Sunday, almost 2,000 years ago…it means He was sovereign even then as He entered the city, preparing Himself to be our sacrificial lamb.

The accounts we’re gonna dig into this morning, it shows Him as our sacrificial lamb. And guys, these accounts, understanding its implications on our spiritual life, it’s crucial for us. The Bible tells us that in order to receive eternal life, we must repent and believe. That belief part, it involves recognizing Jesus as Lord…and listen, it involves believing that His work on the cross was enough to pay the penalty of our sin.

Listen, this week, as I was studying for our message, I came across an interview between a man named Christopher Hitchens, whose a self-proclaimed antithesis, and a Unitarian minister named Marilyn Sewell. Well, in that interview, Sewell tells Hitchens that she’s a Christian but that she doesn’t believe the Bible literally and that she doesn’t believe Jesus actually died for our sins.

This is how Hitchens, the antithesis, responded:

I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

According to this antithesis, in order to be considered a Christian…you must look on Jesus’s death and actually believe in Him as the Messiah who takes away the sin of the world. Meaning, at the heart of Christianity, faith in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross, it’s absolutely critical to our salvation and identification as God’s children.

Later in that same interview, Hitchens gave a response to someone who claimed to have that kind of faith. He said:

Wait a minute, you just told me you’re prepared to accept an enormous amount on no evidence whatsoever. Why are you thinking that would impress me? I have no use for it, when I could be spending time looking through a telescope or into a microscope and finding out the most extraordinary wonderful things.

And so, in the first quote, this self-proclaimed antithesis, He really does an amazing job articulating the heart of Christianity, right? It’s faith in Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. But listen, in his second quote, when it comes to describing that faith…saying that faith’s accepting an enormous amount on no evidence whatsoever. Is he really right?…No, biblical faith, its not a fool’s journey. It’s not the search for the fountain of youth. It’s not a willingness to shut the brain off and embrace some kind of ancient mythology. Faith, it means you’ve found the truth and you’re confident in that truth.

Faith’s not fueled by fantasy. Faith’s informed by revelation. It’s the work of God in opening our eyes to truth. We don’t believe in Jesus of Nazareth because we’re gullible, because we don’t care about thinking deeply about life anymore…we don’t believe because somehow we hate truth. We believe on Jesus because God’s revealed Himself to us…God’s opened our minds to understand truth…He’s delivered us from our gluttonous addiction to lies and He’s given us this new appetite for what’s true. The Christian faith, its not uninformed or unreasonable. The faith we profess, its informed by the Word of God…and its confirmed by the Spirit of God that dwells in us.

And listen, the point of this morning’s passage…the reason John wrote it…it was to strengthen our faith in this Jesus and what He actually came to do.

And so, if you’re there with me in John chapter 19, I have three points for us this morning, considering those things…number 1, the pain of sin was finished…number 2, the plan of redemption was achieved…and then finally, number 3, the path to God was made possible.

And listen, the reason all these points are true…its because of Jesus’s crucifixion. Without this painful, horrific event…we have no foundation as Christians. Everything we do…everything we believe in…its all in vain without the work of Christ on the cross. And listen, that’s what John’s showing us this morning. And its not some fruitless faith we have…its grounded with prophecy from the Word of God…and its grounded in evidence of what we know to be true outside the Word of God.

And so, if you’re there with me, let’s look at this first point together.

I. The Pain of Sin was Finished (vv. 28-30)

The pain of sin was finished…it was finished because of Jesus’s death on the cross.

Look at verse 28 with me again. It says, “28 After this, [after the things Josh talked about last week…after all those horrific events] Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”…He gave it up…it was on His terms.

Now listen, there’s a couple of things here…but there’s two main things I want us to hone in on…Jesus’s statement, “It is finished” and where He says, “I thirst.” Both of these things, they’re showing us that the pain of our sin…not just the things Jesus physically experienced…it’s showing us that the pain of our sin, it was finished.

And so, what’s those things mean?

Listen, after Jesus had been beaten and mocked…after He was lead to Calvary in the events that we looked at last week…after they nailed His hands and feet to the cross…after He’s hung there for hours, struggling with every single breath…His work of dying a sacrificial death, its nearly complete…and its at that moment, Jesus utters the words, “I thirst.”

Again, remember that in these moments, Jesus, He’s sovereign over everything that’s happens. He’s completely in control…He knows what’s happening, He knows what’s gonna happen…and in this moment, He feels death coming. It’s like how we feel when sleep comes over us as we lay down at night. Jesus feels that wave of death crashing toward Him…and in that moment, just before He gives His Spirit up, just before He dies…He says, “I thirst!”

The phrase, “I thirst,” it reminds us again of the incredible physical suffering Jesus suffered on our behalf. The God of Creation…the Great I AM…nailed to a cross, limited to the physical conditions of man, thirsting.

But listen, there’s a much deeper meaning to this. John, he tells us plainly here that Jesus says this to fulfill Scripture. And while Jesus really did physically suffer, there’s a beautiful spiritual meaning to this that’s meant to give us even more security and comfort as we reflect on the cross.

First, in Psalm 22…Matthew and Mark, in recording the same events, they actually record Jesus crying out and quoting the opening lines of Psalm 22, “1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Which of course, would’ve brought to mind the rest of that Psalm, showing Jesus to be the fulfillment of the psalmist’s words. In verse 15 of Psalm 22, the psalmist writes, “15 my strength is dried up like a pot-sherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.”

The psalmist’s experience of suffering and this sense of forsakenness, it’s described as a loss of strength, an unquenchable thirst…this feeling of death.

Listen, Christ fulfills this Scripture as the one who’s strength really was drying up, who’s tongue really did stick to His jaws, who really was laid in the dust of death.

Second, we see Jesus fulfill Psalm 69.

The psalmist writes in verses 1 through 3, “1 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”

Ironically, the psalmist here describes himself as sinking in deep waters with a flood sweeping over him…but pay attention to the details…he does that with a parched or thirsty throat. He goes on to say that he looked for pity, for relief for his thirst…but was only given sour wine to drink. Verse 20, “20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

Jesus, He fulfills this psalm as He’s the one that actually drowns in the deep waters of God’s wrath…that’s what its describing here…that’s the spiritual element…the floods are referring to God’s wrath…just like during the times of Noah, where it was poured out on the world…just like it’ll be poured out at the end of times on those that haven’t turned to Jesus…Christ, He’s experiencing the floods here…He’s experiencing God’s wrath against sin…and as He experiences our sin…it makes Him thirsty and so He asks for something to drink and he’s given bitter wine.

Listen, to understand this point…we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve. Jesus created them in a perfect garden that provided for every single need they had for life, for food, for enjoyment. And if you remember when we went through that last year, God provided great rivers that was the source of their water. They had it all. They had God’s presence. They had pleasant food. They had a beautiful scenery…plentiful water. There was no death, no hunger, no thirst.

It wasn’t until they disobeyed God by eating of the tree in the middle of the garden…the tree of knowledge of good and evil…it wasn’t until then that they experienced all the effects of sin which bought on hunger and death and pain and sorrow and sickness and even thirst. All of these things, it pointed to their broken relationship with Him, it pointed to what they had lost.

But if you remember, even in the midst of their rebellion, in Genesis 3:15…God promised to send someone to save them from that sin. He made a promise to Abraham later on to make him into a great nation and to bless the world through his seed. He promised to be their God and them, His people. They were given commands and they were required to be faithful to God and worship Him and Him alone…but in His promise, if they disobeyed, it would lead to covenant curses.

Listen to this…Deuteronomy 28:48:

Deuteronomy 28:48 (ESV)

therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

In Hosea 2, God commands Hosea to plead with the people of Israel to turn from their idolatry lest He afflict them with thirst:

“Plead with your mother [to Israel]…to put away whoring from her face, and her adultery from her breasts…lest I make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.”

In Isaiah, God warns His people that if they don’t turn from their idolatry they’ll be “like a garden without water” (1:30).

But listen, in that same book,God promises in Isaiah 44:3

Isaiah 44:3 (ESV)

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,

and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,

and my blessing on your descendants.

Listen, here’s the point....thirst, its a picture of judgement. It’s a sign of our broken relationship with God. Our sin, its a physical representation of our spiritual dehydration. You understand? It’s a sign of our need for salvation…our need for someone to bear our thirst…our need for someone to give us living water…which is why Jesus calls Himself the living water in John chapter 4. Jesus is who Isaiah prophesied about…that’s who Jesus is.

His statement, back in our passage…it’s showing us that He took on God’s wrath fully. He’s thirsting…He was forsaken by the Father because of us and for us…He physically and spiritually felt the entire weight of God’s wrath and that’s why He says, “I thirst” and “its finished.”

It’s proof that He fulfilled the Scriptures as John mentions here…and its proof that His sacrifice was fully satisfying to God because His thirst shows us He took on God’s wrath fully.

And so, the pain of our sin, it was finished because of Jesus and His work…we no longer have to thirst…we no longer have to fear the physical consequences our sin brought on…because Jesus bore it all.

That’s the first point.

II. The Plan of Redemption was Achieved (vv. 31-34)

The second point…the plan of redemption was achieved.

Back in the Old Testament, if you’re familiar with the Exodus accounts. God saved His people from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians…and on the final night of the plagues, the plagues that God brought upon Egypt, He sent out an angel to kill the first born son of every family. But for the Israelites, He instructed them to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts and the angel that God sent, he would pass over their home…hence why it’s called Passover.

Well, in Exodus chapter 12, God gives Moses and Aaron some instructions on how the Israelites were to remember this saving work of God by sacrificing lambs.

He tells them in verse 5, “5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.”

Listen, there’s a lot there, with the Passover…but remember that as Jesus hangs on the cross…its Passover for Israel…they’re literally remembering the event where God delivered them from their oppressors in Egypt. And listen, the significance here…its that on this Passover…God provided a lamb…a perfect lamb…one without blemish…one who was perfect in every sense of the word. And He would die to provide His people with ultimate deliverance from their real oppressor…sin and death, separation.

Look at verse 31 in our passage with me again. It says, “31 Since it was the day of Preparation (this was the day before Passover…it was the day that they slaughtered and sacrificed their lambs for the meal that took place that evening), since it was the day of Preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”

Listen, there were many reasons for the bodies needing to be taken down before the Sabbath, which of course was on Saturday. One, being that it was the Sabbath and no one could do any kind of work on that day…and so these bodies would just be left up there, rotting, the whole day. The second reason was the fact that it contributed to uncleanliness…but regardless of the reason and because it was the Sabbath, the Jews, they asked for the soldiers to break their legs as they hung there on the cross.

As Josh mentioned last week…the main reason for death on the cross, it was suffocation. And so, if the legs were broken…it made it impossible for the individuals being crucified, to lift up with their feet (which of course would’ve been the leverage that came from the nails that had been driven through their heels), it would’ve been impossible to lift up and it would’ve made it impossible to now breath…and so, death, it took just a few minutes after the legs were broken.

But as the soldiers got to Jesus, John tells us that Jesus was already dead…they didn’t have to break His legs…which if you know your Bible, this fulfills the prophetic words of David in Psalm 34:

Psalm 34:19–20 (ESV)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous,

but the Lord delivers him out of them all.

He keeps all his bones;

not one of them is broken.

Jesus, the Messiah…righteous…afflicted…He would suffer, but not a single bone would be broken. Though the soldier approaches Jesus with a hammer in hand to crush the bones in his legs, the promise of God’s fulfilled…and listen…because its the Day of Preparation where the unblemished lambs of Israel were to be sacrificed…this event, this detail…it ensures that Jesus would remain our perfect Passover lamb…one without blemish or imperfection.

John goes on and he tells his reader that the soldier, because Jesus appeared to be dead, the soldier pieced Jesus’s side with a spear…and he tells us that blood and water come out.

The combination of blood and water, it shows us, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus died a real human death. Those combinations, the blood and water, gushing out together from His side, its confirmation that He’s really dead…that’s why the soldier did it…to confirm it.

But listen, this was also about prophecy being fulfilled, right? That’s what John writes over and over again here in our passage.

This piercing it actually fulfills a prophecy Zechariah gave in his book. Of course, that book, its a message about the coming Messiah…he says this Messiah, He’ll rescue His people from captivity…He’ll be both a priest and a king…and as a King, He’ll perfectly obey the will of God.

But listen, near the end of that book, the imagery of the Messiah, it changes from the perfect King to a Good Shepherd. And God says the people, they’ll reject the Shepherd and they’ll follow evil shepherds into destruction. However, it says God’ll deliver His people through this Messiah.

Zechariah 12:10 (ESV)

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

The Messiah, the one who brings salvation…He’ll be pierced by the nation of Israel. And notice it says as they look on Me…and then immediately it says as they look on Him…showing the oneness of the Father and the Son, even in the Old Testament.

Again, John’s purpose here, it was to show that Jesus fulfilled what the Scriptures foretold. It was showing us that Jesus was in control the whole time…that He was sovereign even over His death…that it would happen exactly as He wanted it to.

And so, everything John shows us here…its to point us back to the Old Testament…to show us that God always planned for our redemption…And because it happened just as He described hundreds and thousands of years prior…we can have confidence that God’s plan of redemption, it was fulfilled with Jesus’s work on the cross…perfectly.

But listen, before we move on into the final point…I think its important to also recognize the other argument here. There’s many out there that say that Jesus didn’t actually resurrect from the dead because he wasn’t dead to begin with when the Romans removed Him from the cross. Therefore, that’s the reason why He’s seen after the crucifixion accounts (because whether you’re a believer or not, you have to recognize that non-Christian sources, they affirm that Jesus was a real man and that He was crucified at the hands of the Romans and that He was seen in the flesh after that crucifixion…there’s plenty of secular resources that show that)…and so, this idea that Jesus wasn’t dead, its been around for thousands of years.

But listen, John, he combated all arguments here to show us that Jesus is exactly what He said…He’s God and He died and He rose from the dead. Not only does the mixture of blood and water show us that Jesus was dead…but the fact that the Romans were the executioners…the ones to perform the crucifixion…its another reason this has to be true. When an order was given for one to be crucified, it couldn’t be reversed. And as Josh mentioned last week…Rome, they perfected the crucifixion. In fact, the soldiers at Jesus’s crucifixion, this wouldn’t have been their first one…these guys were most likely tasked with only performing crucifixions, that was probably their main job…they were experts in crucifying people. And listen, written accounts show us that if they didn’t perform their task to the very end…not only would they also be sentenced to the same kind of execution…but their family would as well. And so, for that reason…people didn’t come off the cross alive. The lives of these Romans soldiers, the lives of their families depended on a successful crucifixion, every single time. Its the reason why the Jews pleaded with the Romans to crucify Him. They knew they’d do it perfectly and to its very end. Jesus came off the cross dead.

And listen, this is important because Jesus, who is God, He became fully man…and He experienced a real, physical death. And for that reason, by the standard presented in God’s Word for sacrificial lambs, all throughout the Old Testament…the things it says about atonement and substitution…and listen, because Jesus was God, who is Holy and perfect and truly righteous…for those reasons, God’s plan for our redemption was truly achieved. Our sin was satisfied because of Jesus’s death. Jesus took on the consequence of our sin…which was our death. And for those reasons, His sacrifice, it fully and entirely covers every one of our sins…past, present, and future. He was our perfect sacrificial lamb…our atonement. We see that all throughout the Scriptures…we see that in how it fulfills prophecy…how it points to the Passover and what God did through Israel…we see it with every single detail even outside of Scripture, like the Roman soldiers ensuring He was dead. God didn’t leave a single detail to question…He wanted us to know (confidently), that by simply repenting and believing in the Son of God, our debt is paid in full…God’s plan of redemption was achieved.

That’s the second point.

III. The Path to God Made Possible (vv. 35-37)

And then, real quickly…the third and final point, which I’m gonna tie together with our closing…the path to God, it was made possible because of Jesus’s crucifixion.

Look at verse 35 with me again. John writes, “He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

And so, why’d John write down these accounts…why’d he give us so much detail about the events of Jesus’s crucifixion? He says it right here in our passage…to show us that everything Jesus did…it was to point to everything He inspired in His Word. Every prophecy about the coming Messiah, it was fulfilled to the exact letter through Jesus…through His life and through His death. That’s the purpose…its why he writes that exact phrase “to fulfill Scripture” over and over again. He’s giving us proof that Jesus was the promised Messiah and that Jesus was God. That’s the whole purpose of John’s book. In fact, it was most likely the last gospel written…and it was written to push back against some of other gnostic gospels being written at the time…like the Gospel of Thomas. These were false gospels. John wrote it to remind the church who Jesus was and what He came to do…and He used the Old Testament to show them that. Jesus couldn’t have been anyone else except for the one God promised.

And why’d he care so much that Jesus was viewed in this way? Verse 35, “…[so] that you may also believe.”

John wrote in John 3:16

John 3:16 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Paul wrote in Romans 10:10

Romans 10:10 (ESV)

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Listen to John and Paul’s words here…whoever believes, they receive eternal life…by simply believing. Paul he affirms this…he says, “Belief that originates from our heart…it justifies us.”

Guys, in our passage, John, He’s making an important statement here. He writes all the things he writes because our belief isn’t simply just believing in Jesus. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe in Jesus and that they tremble. That kind of belief, its not enough.

After giving the account of Jesus’s life throughout the Gospel of John…after detailing the Last Super and the garden accounts…after showing his reader exactly what Jesus went through on His way to the cross and as He hung there…John says, I wrote these things so that you might believe. He’s saying, “This is what you have to believe in…this is what we’re telling you in Scripture.” It’s a belief not only in Jesus as God…of course that’s important…but even more, its a belief that Jesus died a real, painful, physical, human death…its believing that this was always God’s plan from the beginning…its believing that on the cross Jesus fulfilled what the prophecies foretold about Him…and listen, its believing that His sacrifice, His blood, it covers you entirely…its believing that His death fully paid the price of your sin.

Mark 1:15, Jesus tells us to “repent and believe in the gospel.” That’s how we receive eternal life…that’s how we’re saved and reconciled. The gospel, its simply the good news about Jesus.

But as John emphasizes throughout his book…as Paul affirms over and over again…repentance always begins with belief in the right things. It’s impossible to fully repent…its impossible to turn from yourself, if you don’t believe what John’s showing us here. It’s impossible to turn to Jesus when you don’t have confidence in His death and what it accomplished.

But listen, when you do…when you have this kind of belief that he’s talking about here…it causes you to turn to Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit. That belief it begins to change you…it changes your desires, your passions, your wants, everything!

Because of Jesus’s death, the path to God was made possible…He took on our sin…He received the just punishment meant for us. He died the death intended for us…He bridged the gap. And because of that death, He satisfied God’s wrath against us. And when we repent and believe…or believe and repent…God no longer looks on us as enemies of righteousness…but instead, He sees the work of His Son in us…and it pleases Him. We’re viewed as righteous because of Jesus.

But guys, it starts with belief in the person and work of Christ…and it ends with a complete confidence in His power.

Closing

Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

Listen, if you’re here today and you already know Jesus as your Lord and Savior…does your belief in Jesus’s person and work, does it cause you to wanna share that news?

Listen to John’s words here…he believes what he’s writing and there’s this sense of urgency. He wants us to know its all true…he wants us to know that this information, its crucial for life.

Guys, I don’t about you…but the things I place that much confidence in…it defines who I am…it radiates out of me. When I believe something to be this true, I can’t help but be consumed by that thing. I can’t help but talk to people and persuade them that what I know, its true. Listen, that’s what John’s doing here.

Some of us, we do that…we just do it with other things. We do it with politics…I can’t tell you how many people over the last several weeks who’ve adamantly tried to persuade me on political issues or candidates…they believe in those things so deeply…it convicts them…it drives them…and they can’t help but talk about those things in every single conversation. Some of us, we do that with sports or a hobby. When we believe in something so greatly, it just pours out of us…no matter the people around us.

Guys, what’s your conversations with others say about your belief in the person and work of Christ? Does it consume you? Because if you truly believe that Jesus’s work on the cross actually paid the penalty of your sin and defeated death, if you believe that…why on earth wouldn’t you be telling everyone else about it?

And so listen, where you’re at, would you just seek Christ this morning…ask Him to reveal what your belief in Him says about you?

But listen, if you’re here and you don’t know Christ as your Lord and Savior…just as John shows us here, its easy to change that this morning. It’s as simple as believing in what we’ve read and discussed and confessing that with your mouth…and listen, allowing that belief to turn you toward Him.

If that’s you this morning, I just want you to tell Jesus that you believe…He hears you! And I want you to tell Him that because of your belief, you’re gonna repent this morning…that you’re gonna turn from yourself and turn to Him. And listen, if you do that, He’ll save you…He’ll give you eternal life.

And so, our praise team’s gonna play…this is your time to seek the Lord this morning. I’ll be down front if you need me…you take this time, and I’ll close us in just a moment.