Watch It Again | 13 Reasons Why (Part 2)

Last week, we began for the very first time a brand new series only for the 5pm called “What It Again” based entirely upon the most popular and most influential Netflix series among youth and young adults.

Last week, we kicked off this series with Season 1 of 13 Reasons Why. If you missed it, then I highly commend it to you on our Christ Journey App. Simply download it from the App store on any device, open it, click on the Messages tab, and then click on 13 Reasons Why, Season 1.

Today, we will discuss Season 2 of 13 Reasons Why, which just aired last May. Next week, we will continue with “Bloodline," and then "Stranger Things" on the following week, and then finally, the one and only, the man, the myth, and the legend himself, Andrew Ling will offer reflections on the series, “Lost in Space.”

We’re calling this series “Watch It Again,” because after we discuss these shows, I want to encourage all of you to watch these shows again - or for the first time - but this time, with the mind of Christ and ask yourself this question: How does the Good News of Jesus Christ intersect with the popular stories of our culture?

Stories help us talk about the difficult and intangible, those things unseen that we can’t touch or feel or hear. Stories bring to life the very witness of our faith. In fact, Jesus coupled a story with nearly every teaching that he gave.

For example, It’s one thing to teach directly that God saves the lost. We believe that, but how often are we compelled by that? It’s another thing entirely to say, “A shepherd left a flock of 99 to find the one missing sheep.” That conveys an entirely different perspective on the same meaning.

This series is designed to help you talk about your faith using the visual novels of our culture.

The author of the great fiction classic, A River Runs Through It, Norman Maclean once wrote, “The nearest anyone can come to finding himself at any given age is to find a story that somehow tells him about himself.”

Great stories help us find the language to identify and express ourselves.

Have you ever read a great novel or watched a great film and afterward said, ‘I saw myself in that character.’ Perhaps in doing so, you found new words and new meaning to a season of life or a circumstance.

Stories can help connect us to the deeper undercurrents of our human experience. Jesus knew this and used story as a means of transporting the listener to a greater depth of understanding.

Each one of these Netflix based series is giving meaning to someone’s life right now. Perhaps you found meaning to your life’s circumstances from 13 Reasons Why, and the question we must ask as a church is: How does the Good News of Jesus Christ intersect with the popular stories of our culture?

For we believe that all truth is God’s truth, but not all truth is saving truth, so how may we as a church not respond with fear to the most influential stories of our culture, especially those that raise up difficult or even taboo issues, but instead, how might we engage these stories and help others identify their truth into God’s truth about us?

Because "Today is a day of Good News” 2 Kings 7:9, and we must share it with everyone.

We’re here at the 5pm so that our church can Help young adults and young families live for God’s Kingdom.

As we live toward this end, together, we believe that all of us here can be:

1. Known freely

2. Loved unconditionally

3. Successful ethically

4. Productive meaningfully

5. Fit holistically

6. Redeemed fully

7. Forgiven wholly

8. Sent Purposefully

Imagine your friends living into that kind of reality for their lives. That, my friends, is what good news looks like.

And so the question I want to pose today to help us get there is: How does the Good News of Jesus Christ intersect with the second season of 13 Reasons Why?

After its debut on May 18, more than 6 million viewers watched on average 4 shows per day within its first 3 days of release. Only the second seasons of “Stranger Things” and “Bright” garnered more Netflix viewers.

That’s astounding!

6 million viewers - 75% of whom were 34 years old or younger - watched 4 hours worth of television per day for three days in a row in the first 3 days of the second season release. In total, more than 100 million people have tuned into both seasons.

Friends, these stats beckon us to understand this show’s influence. Though it’s controversial and some argue that it sensationalizes suicide, you be the judge. This is art, not a documentary, and it’s meant to be provocative. We shouldn’t fear it, although, if it raises unhealthy thoughts and emotions within you, then by all means guard your heart.

I don't recommend this series for anyone who has experienced sexual trauma, abuse, or bullying, because the content concerning these issues is graphic. In fact, I applaud those who have chosen to prioritize their own health over watching a television series. You are more important than pop culture.

Thus who better to lead the conversation concerning the issues raised in this series than the church?

So, for those of you who have not seen the second season of 13 Reasons Why, then take a look at this preview:

PLAYTRAILER - 1:59.

In season two, five months after Hannah's suicide, Clay along with the other students mentioned on Hannah's tapes become embroiled in a civil legal battle between Hannah's parents and Liberty High School.

Alleging negligence on the part of the school, Hannah's mother pursues her perception of justice. As the season unfolds, the viewer comes to learn that her lawsuit is seeking vengeance cloaked in justice in an effort to understand why Hannah committed suicide. Hannah didn’t leave a note for her parents, only questions. Her reluctance to acknowledge these circumstances eventually breaks up her marriage with Hannah's father… Just one more illustration from the show depicting how everybody pays when one person pursues vengeance.

This is the setting for Season 2.

Everybody wants justice, but nobody wants to pay for it. Several students even begin a campaign called #justiceforHannah, but of all the students picketing, only Clay Jensen chooses to pay the cost to stop the bullying at Liberty High School.

Justice rights wrongs. Atonement pays for wrongs to be made right. Atonement is the ‘reparation of a wrong.’

Justicewithout atonement is vengeance.

This single idea connects every episode of 13 Reasons Why… From Hannah Baker to Hannah’s parents to Clay Jensen.

The reason why this single idea matters so much right now - so much that I am investing two weeks into our discussion about this show - is because among our society right now, Everybody wants justice, but nobody wants to pay for it.

Justicewithout atonement leads to vengeance.

Salvation is a free gift. But Doing justice and showing mercy to another requires your time, your talents, and your treasures.

The myth behind vengeance is that it doesn’t cost you anything. Eye for an eye. You hurt me, I hurt you, we’re even. But in reality, vengeance costs you everything that God promised to give you. You can’t have vengeance and satisfaction… or vengeance and peace… or vengeance and joy.

Vengeance is incompatible with these qualities.

Rather vengeance only yields anger, anxiety, isolation and an insatiable appetite for more vengeance.

Vengeance is frontal, but it’s also subtle. It flares up in traffic... when someone dings your car in the parking lot... when someone cuts you in the grocery line… when you catch wind of someone speaking ill about you… all kinds of subtle ways.

And when you give these little seemingly benign but important situations power, they become like toxic cancerous cells that mutate in your mind and heart leading to the death of your satisfaction.

When we choose empty vengeance and meet rage with rage - whether someone dinks our door or does something worse - then we play god when we seek our pound of flesh.

This is every human being, by the way, and the single idea connecting every episode of this show.

This is the human experience, and if you are living it, then the good news of Jesus says that you don’t have to. The Apostle John, Jesus’ beloved disciple, wrote in his first letter to the early church, saying:

‘We have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.' 1 John 2:1-2

To describe the freedom verdict of the cross, John used courtroom imagery and the phrase ‘advocate who pleads our case,' which assumes something about our lives that very few of us want to admit: that we need justice done on our behalf and atonement for our ultimate debt of playing god.

I think this acknowledgement stops a lot of people at the door, especially within a highly sensitized blame-shifting culture, because it’s really hard to admit that we’ve been seeking vengeance and not justice, and living in the wrong.

At what point do we get honest?

You know, you don’t have to hit rock bottom to get honest with yourself about your circumstances.

Fear doesn’t make for a good driver. Typically, fear wants to fit in and stay close to our perceived notions of power.

Fear is a survival instinct within all of us that keeps us living as gods and goddesses of our own lives and therefore keeps us separated from the actual source of all life itself… of all power… and all freedom.

The moment when you can get honest about your powerlessness and the debts you owe - not financial, but personal and spiritual - and turn from your insistence on controlling them to the Christ who has already atoned for them, then that is the moment you will find freedom and fear will stop being the primary voice in your ear.

The word ‘atone’ in the Greek is this great word ‘Hilasmos,’ which literally means to satisfy an angry party. It is only used twice in the entire New Testament, both times in 1 John, and both times in reference to Christ’s atoning work on the cross.

John’s use of the word hilasmos gives us a particular insight into God’s character, and that is: God isn’t angry with you. God loves you. Jesus has hilasmos’ed - atoned - on your behalf, making way for you to come home to a God who loves you. God isn’t out to get you. God wants to live alongside of you and be your God now into eternity.

We’ve all done things that we hate and regret, and it’s right to question whether or not God could accept you - or continue to love you - for having done those things. Vengeance doesn’t mystically go away once you place your trust in Jesus. Even Jesus followers still wrestle with this question.

Hear how God thinks about you, though, according to the what the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Ephesus:

"God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son." Ephesians 1:5-6

Your waiting Father not only atoned for your sin through his son, Jesus Christ, he adopted you into sonship and daughtership as heirs to his kingdom and co-regents on his throne, meaning we will reign in God’s kingdom alongside of him, even having done the things we have done, even having done the things we will do.

That’s called grace, and this should compel us all the more to live righteous lives with the Spirit living inside of us so that our lives... maytell the story. And the best part? We get to tell this story as sons and daughters.

No one forced God to adopt us. God chose to do this because God wanted to do this long before you and I ever walked this Earth. God chose to pay your debt and then bring you back into the family. Only a close God whose motivation is love would do that.

Paul continued his letter, saying:

"Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan." Ephesians 1:11

This is for you. It’s already done. The question is do you want it?

Receiving it means that you own it, and no one or nothing can take away your salvation by grace through faith. Jesus atoned for your debt on the cross once and for all.

On the issue of suicide raised by this series, I want to address our church’s pastoral response on this issue. As Jesus followers, if we believe everything that we just read from Ephesians and John’s first letter, which states that God chose us in advance, and we cannot do anything to earn God’s salvation or work for this good gift in life, then that also means for those who have placed their trust in Christ, then no one can do anything to lose this good gift of salvation in death.

The Apostle Paul wrote elsewhere in his letter to the Romans:

'I amconvinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Romans 8:38-39

I don’t pretend to understand the mystery and motivation of God’s choosing of Heaven and Hell. I believe in those places, but even Jesus tells us not to get caught up in playing god and speculating on who goes where. Rather, from what we know about God's character is:

'The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.'Psalms 34:17-18

God is on the side of the suffering and promises rescue. In a flash of faith, even in the last breath of life, we believe that God still rescues.

How much light does it take to get out of a dark room? Just the slightest shimmer of light from a cracked door, for as Paul wrote a couple of chapters later in his letter to the Romans:

For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”' Romans 10:13

Period.

Friends, I believe you can place your trust in Jesus and still receive all of the inheritance that Jesus promised to give you, even in your last breath of life.

That’s called grace, and it’s still true for you, but you can miss Jesus’ promised satisfaction because your faith didn’t progress any further. I want to challenge you to live a kind of faith that risks something!

To really experience the life for which you long, you need to put your life into it.

Live the kind of faith that’s worth dying for!

In this series, one of the only characters who hit rock bottom and got honest with himself was Justin Foley, the very first young man mentioned on Hannah’s tapes. In so doing, he turned from his destructive habits and shed his desire to live as the god of his own life to reconcile his friendship with Clay Jensen. Take a look at what happened next…

PLAY SCENE 2 - 2:34.

I love Justin’s face, sitting on the other side of Clay, his arch enemy, shedding tears of joy to call his new family home.

To see Justin healthy again, Clay did justice by paying a price for accepting Justin into his family. This decision cost Clay. He had to make space for Justin in his home. As an only child, he now had to share his parents with another young man.

In Christ, God did the same for you. God moved Heaven and Earth for you. God forsook all of his rights as God to enter into our world as a servant. What a mind boggle?! God left Heaven and entered into your pain for you. Live the kind of life that demonstrates that kind of sacrifice to others.

At the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement a few years back, a good friend of mine called up an African American acquaintance of his and invited him to lunch in order to better understand the issue. That lunch turned into multiple lunches over time, and what started as activism turned into transformation.

Be a transformer! Go make a friend. You want to do something tough that challenges your life, then go and meet someone on the fringes who has actually been affected by the injustices of an issue. Give your time to that person. Put your hands to good work and offer your resources.

Some of you know our good friend, Michelle Mlacker, sister to another one of our good friends, Ashley Mlacker, who left for Student Camp today. A couple of years ago, Michelle sat across from me at my office and wanted to do something about the injustices of international sex trafficking. I told her you can only do so much from your home in Miami reading about it. You need to go see it, so she contacted some good friends of mine in Kolkata, India, and went to the epicenter. For a month, she lived in it, and now as a law student, those real stories from real women have changed everything about how she understands this issue. But she didn’t just keep it there in India. She brought those experiences to the Glory House and serves there faithfully.

Once at Disney World, my wife and I saw a plane writing the name “Jesus” in the sky. (show ‘Jesus in the Sky’ pic) I recall leaning over to Stacy and saying, “If only that worked.” If only that was all we had to do.

Perhaps someone’s life changed that day because someone looked up at the sky and saw the name of Jesus. Yet, if I knew the guy who had paid for that, I would tell him that he probably could have better used his money elsewhere. Because if a name written in the sky could change lives, then God would have most certainly chosen that method to save us.

But God chose a different way. He chose to enter into our world and our very lives to atone for our sin and satisfy our debt of death so that our very lives may tell the story of God’s forgiveness and grace.

The Psalmist wrote, "Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.” Psalm 107:2

The good news of our salvation and the goodness of our God only becomes known to others when we share our story, which requires an investment. It demands something of you.

In God’s economy, justice is spelled, L-O-V-E.

Your life is God’s love story. Your life is the witness by which the Holy Spirit calls others to the Father’s saving work. Your life doesn’t save others. But your life in Christ can help others to see a different reality than one fraught with vengeance and dissatisfaction. Your life can help others find their story in God’s love. Much like Clay Jensen, even those with whom you might not ever expect.

A name in the sky cannot do that. Only you can do that, as you tell your story… as you pay for justice with love… as you choose to do right... as we become more like Christ, who paid for all of our wrongs to be made right.

Would you pray with me?