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Matthew 26:36-68
00:30:01
This week Dr. Tim Gray and Dr. Michael Barber, professor of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School, continue their study of the Gospel of Matthew by diving into 26:36-68.
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- [00:00]
Tim Gray
Welcome to our form now, Bible study on the Gospel of Matthew. Last time we started chapter 26, and now we're midway through that. So we're going to pick up here in verse 36 of chapter 26 of the Gospel of Matthew. So open your Bibles, join our Bible study here. I'm Tim Gray, president of the August Institute. And Joining me is Dr. Michael Barber, my dear friend and professor of scripture here at the August Institute. And we're going to open up here right in the middle of chapter 26 with verse 36, Jesus is in Gethsemane. So we're going to talk about what happens here in Gethsemane. And as we before, we just jump into the text. You know, Michael, we've been in the Holy Land together. I love. I love going to the Holy Land. And when I got a chance to spend a summer studying back in the mid-90s, and I think it was 95 in Jerusalem, I remember we would learn to go down to Gethsemane because it was my favorite places to pray. And I love the church and the cave there in the Garden of Gethsemane. And I remember I would try to go there at about 5pm, 4pm after all the tourists were gone, and it was quiet and I could just go. And that was the great thing about living in Jerusalem, is to go down. We would do daily Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. That's hard to beat. You start our mornings off in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for daily Mass, but oftentimes ending that day with the Garden of Gethsemane was pretty special. And so there's eight ancient trees in the Franciscan garden there. And those eight trees are a symbol. They were planted over a thousand years ago. They've done some testing on three of the trees. And three of those trees, other ones are just as ancient. Came out to be probably about 1100 years old. And so they're very ancient olive trees. But they represent the eight apostles that Jesus brings to the garden. And he has the eight stay, and then he takes three Peter, James and John a little further. And so those eight trees represent the eight apostles who are.
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Dr. Michael Barber
I didn't know that.
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Tim Gray
That's cool. Who are to be stationary there. And then where the Church of All nations is, that's where Jesus is going to take Peter, James and John. And he'll go a little further to where the altar is and that rock under the altar in the Church of All nations in Gethsemane.
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Dr. Michael Barber
I got some pictures from our Trip. And you can see that rock. Why don't you say a few things about that?
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Tim Gray
So where the altar is built is this rocky area. And that's the rock where Jesus prays in agony and intensity here in Gethsemane. And he's going to pray, you know, father, not my will, but yours be done. And it's a really holy place in that it's always been reverenced since the time of the early pilgrims. In fact, this church was built, I think, in the 1960s, the Church of All nations, but it was built over a church that was built in the 4th century, you know, about 326 AD. So pretty ancient church. And you can see some of the ancient mosaic in glass plates. And you can see that when Barluzzi was the great Italian architect who built this church, he had the mosaics in the church model, the same pattern of the ancient church, which I just love. It's just so, so powerful. Yeah, it's a great place to pray. One of my highlights of all of our pilgrimages usually is having a holy hour in the Church of All nations in Gethsemane at night and having an hour of adoration there and to pray with our Lord for an hour. And he says to Peter, can you not pray with me one hour? And I was like, I want to make that hour with our Lord, because I just love that.
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Dr. Michael Barber
And inside the church, the ceiling is spectacular. And it's supposed to remind you of nighttime, even in the daytime, right?
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Tim Gray
Yeah. Because stained glass windows are alabaster and they're dark hued. And so you don't get much light in the church. And what Barluzzi, the architect wanted, Antonio Barluzzi, he wanted you to experience what Jesus did at night. So even if you're there during the daytime, it feels like night in the church. He wants. He wants to fill that darkness and to pray with our Lord. Really powerful.
- [03:51]
Dr. Michael Barber
All right, so we read that they go out into the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus went with them. Gethsemane means oil press, the place of the oil press.
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Tim Gray
And we actually know there's a cave there in the garden where they found a first century olive press and all of that for the olive oil, to hold the oil. So we know this place. I mean, archeologically, it's marked out. And I love that cave where that's kept because that's known as, in the tradition was known as the cave of betrayal, where Judas is going to take the chief priests, guards and soldiers, and he's going to betray Jesus and people.
- [04:26]
Dr. Michael Barber
Will point out that, of course, Christ means anointed one. And the reason Jesus is the reason you call someone anointed is because, well, there's been an anointing of oil. Now, of course, Jesus is anointed in the truest sense because the oil is meant to symbolize the coming of the Spirit on you. But. But it's appropriate that it's the oil press. I mean, here is the place where Jesus is quite pressed, right? You see him in agony, in prayer. So we go out and we read. Jesus says to the disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
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Tim Gray
There's so much we can say here. I mean, one thing. He asked them to watch and to pray. And that's part of the key Passover background. So In Exodus, chapter 12, verse 42, 43, Moses says, this will be a night of watching for all generations to. To watch him pray. And so after you eat the Passover meal, you don't head in early for bed because the angel of death is passing. So you pray. And so Israel was alert, and they couldn't sleep that night. And so Moses says, it'll be a night of watching as we observe this for all generations. And so Jesus is asking them to do the vigil, watch and praying. And of course, what's interesting is that they're supposed to watch and pray and keep vigil. That the angel of death doesn't come, the disciples are going to fall asleep. And who's going to come?
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Dr. Michael Barber
Right?
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Tim Gray
Judas.
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Dr. Michael Barber
To take Jesus to his death.
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Tim Gray
Yes.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Right.
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Tim Gray
So Judas will play the role of the angel of death.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Right. And we might also point out here that this was challenging, though, for these disciples to stay awake. I mean, we don't want to just demonize them. You know how hard it is to stay awake for midnight. I don't know if you're like me when it's New Year's. I'm really struggling to stay awake. I'm supposed to stay awake and celebrate or something. But I want to go to bed.
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Tim Gray
Unless there's a Dodgers game, there's that. Stay up as long as it takes to watch a Dodgers game.
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Dr. Michael Barber
This is true. But in the first century, you would celebrate the Passover meal. But there's strong evidence that, in fact, before you ate the Passover meal, you would actually eat another meal because you had to finish the whole lamb. So you wanted to make sure you had enough people at this meal. So the Passover meal really wouldn't fill you up. So you would eat a meal and then you would eat the Passover meal. And all throughout these meals, you're drinking wine. And then finally, the Passover meal is, as you pointed out last time, it's celebrated late at night. And of course, they didn't have electric lights back then. So you're eating a lot, you got a lot of food on your stomach, you're tired, you're up later than you normally are. This is not just any ordinary request. So stay awake with me. This is after you've eaten, you've been tired. And this is deliberate, I believe, on the. On the high priest and temple leadership's part, because they know that what people would do from Galilee is they'd come in and they'd eat the Passover in the city, and then they'd go outside the city at night and they'd go either to Bethany or we know that they would sleep in tents just on the hillsides because there wasn't enough room for them to stay in the city. And so it seems like what the high priests really want to do is arrest Jesus before Jesus, Galilean followers. And we know he arrives in Jerusalem with a lot of followers who are yelling things like hosanna in the highest. They want to get to Jesus while everybody's out of dodge. And so Jesus is obviously the only one aware of the plot that's about to unfold. He tells the disciples, stay watch with me. They do not stay awake. He comes back to them and he says to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. And here we have her reminder of what Jesus said in the eschatological discourse. In his announcement of his second coming, Jesus warns to watch and to pray. And so what is going to happen in the final tribulation before Jesus is coming? It's happening kind of in anticipation, a proleptic way, here in the garden of Gethsemane.
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Tim Gray
Now, one of the images that Jesus uses here in Matthew's Gospel is the cup.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Yeah.
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Tim Gray
And he'll talk about this cup passing, if it's possible, Father, you know, and again, he'll talk about, you know, not having to Drink from that. This cup. Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. In verse 42, Matthew of all the gospels repeats this with that specific wording.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right.
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Tim Gray
Now, what does this cup mean? And, you know, this is a term that's used in the prophets in the Old Testament when some of the psalms. You want to talk a little bit about what this means?
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Dr. Michael Barber
Yeah, it has lots of different connotations. One connotation is judgment, right? It's the judgment cup of the Lord. And Jesus is going to receive that cup of judgment. He's going to drink that cup of judgment on us. You know, at the Last Supper in the upper room, Jesus says, this is the blood of the covenant. And as you mentioned, that reminds us of what happens in Exodus 24 when they enter into the covenant. Well, the blood of the covenant was actually not just a symbol of their, you know, communion with God. It's also a symbol of the punishment that would happen if they failed to keep the covenant. Right. You kill the animals to symbolize. This is what will happen to you if you fail to keep the covenant. Well, Jesus is going to be the one that bears the consequences of covenant sin and covenant infraction. He drinks the cup of judgment. He takes on that punishment on himself. There's something else I also want to point out. Jesus says at the Last Supper that he won't drink of the cup again until he drinks it in the kingdom. Well, when does the kingdom come? In the Gospel of Matthew, I think normally we imagine the kingdom is Jesus coming in glory, right? And he's going to come in glory and he's going to take names and he's going to mete out the sentence. But in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus, we read, is given to drink on the cross. In Matthew 27, it says that they gave him to drink. And, you know, scholars are not sure, did Jesus actually drink of it or not. I think an argument can be made that he does drink of it here. This is really significant because it would show us that the kingdom comes on the cross. And it relates to what Jesus says earlier in the Gospel, right? The mother of James and John says to Jesus, let my son sit one at your right and one at your left when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus comes into his kingdom on the cross, where there's one, can you.
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Tim Gray
Drink the cup that I'm gonna. That I am deserving.
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Dr. Michael Barber
He says, can you drink the cup? And so Jesus is on the cross between two people, one on his right, one on his left. The only other time in the Gospel Jesus uses that is with the story of the mother of James and John. And then Jesus drinks the cup. And now the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who we're going to see, she's there at Calvary. She sees what it was she was asking for her sons.
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Tim Gray
Yeah, there's a great irony in what she was asking for. And I think, you know, Jeremiah gives a clear usage of this in a couple places. And Jeremiah talks about taking the foaming cup that's mixed with narcotics, basically, and different things, and that would be given to a criminal before their execution. And that's what the Roman soldiers do with Jesus, you know, in some way to dull the pain of the execution as an act of mercy or compassion. So this idea of giving a criminal who's condemned to death a cup of wine, maybe with some other narcotics and other things in there to dull the pain, is an act of mercy for someone who's going to be executed. But then it becomes a metaphor for drinking from the cup of judgment.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right.
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Tim Gray
And wrath. And Jesus is using this idea of all the sins of humanity are now weighing down on him, and he's going to drink of that cup. He's going to take the punishment upon Adam and Israel upon himself.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right. Bear it redemptively. And so Jesus is fully aware of what is about to transpire. There's no question about it. And so he prays again, my Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done. And here we see Jesus modeling what he teaches us to say in the Our Father, not my will be done, but thy will be done. For the great church, Father Maximus the Confessor, this is a pivotal moment, if not the pivotal moment in the Passion narrative, because it's here in Gethsemane that the cross is turned from an instrument of execution to a sacrifice. Because it's at this moment that Jesus subjects his human will to the divine will. Of course, Jesus has a human nature and a divine nature. And so that means Jesus has a human will and a divine will. And what he's doing here in this prayer is he's subjecting, submitting his human will, which does not want to suffer. Right. It would be unnatural to want to suffer, to be killed, to be tortured. Jesus submits his human will to the divine will, and it gives us all an example to follow. This is the crux of the Christian life. Am I willing to do what God wills, or am I going to insist on having it my way?
- [14:11]
Tim Gray
And I think Jesus gives us the model in prayer. We go to our Father. That's right. Here we have Jesus in a garden, Gethsemane. And he prays to the Father, Father, and he seeks the Father's will. And Adam begins the whole story of humanity in a garden. But he does not beseech God the Father. He does not pray and ask the Father's help. And he will fall. And here is Jesus recovering humanity from the fall of Adam as the new Adam. But he shows us the way again, praying to the Father. Going to the Father is the key to finding faithfulness.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Absolutely. We could just mention the way the narrative is going to play out now. It's going to remind us a lot of what we already saw in Matthew 24:25. So in the Passion narrative, Jesus tells his disciples, watch. And of course, this is what he said to the disciples in the eschatological discourse. Watch. You do not know the day or the hour. Jesus says, in the garden of Gethsemane, the hour is at hand. Which parallels what he said in the eschatological discourse of that day or hour. No one knows. Right. So the disciples are like those who aren't prepared for the hour. Jesus is betrayed and handed over. Jesus says that the disciples will be betrayed and handed over. And then we know that Jesus talks about. Well, we could talk about other things as it shows up in the narrative, but here we have lots of echoes to what Jesus warns will happen to the disciples. What is going to happen to all of us? Jesus already goes through. He doesn't ask us to do anything he isn't willing to do himself.
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Tim Gray
And then he finds in that third time, sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise. Let us be going. My betrayer is at hand.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right.
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Tim Gray
And that idea of betrayer at hand, the word for betrayer is literally the one who hands over.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right.
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Tim Gray
And that's important to understand that literal phrase, because it's going to echo a key prophet in the Old Testament. You want to speak about.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Well, one of the key passages that I think about when I hear that language of handing over is what we read about in Daniel 7, where we read about the Son of Man. And in Daniel 7, it talks about how the Son of Man will be given the kingdom. But this only happens after the saints, after the righteous are handed over into the hands of the wicked. And so what Jesus is doing in himself is. He is embodying. What happens to the righteous, they are handed over, they are betrayed and into the hands of the wicked so that the kingdom of God as Daniel describes can be realized.
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Tim Gray
Yeah.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Is that the Old Testament?
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Tim Gray
Yeah, yeah, that was exactly. Daniel seven is what I was thinking of. Yeah. And so here again we see Jesus is fulfilling the scriptures of Israel. And as the son of man, he's going to be handed over to the fourth beast. And the fourth beast in Daniel is going to end up being Rome here.
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Dr. Michael Barber
That's right.
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Tim Gray
And of course, his betrayer will be Judas. So while he's still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the elders and the people. Now, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man. Seize him. And he came up to Jesus at once and said, greetings, Rabbi. And he kissed him. And Jesus said, friend, do what you came to do. Now, Matthew gives us different details than Mark does, you know, And John, he's telling us he gets right to the point that Judas comes up and then he says, friend. And that highlights the betrayal that Jesus can call Judas friend. Right. And then he came and laid hands upon them and seized him.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Now, there's so many important Old Testament echoes here. Where is Jesus? He's at the Mount of Olives. And if you know the story of the Old Testament, if you know. If you know the story stories in the Old Testament, you'll remember that King David once went to the Mount of Olives. And it was there that it was revealed that David had been betrayed by one of his closest friends, Ahithophel. And so, just as Ahithophel's deception is revealed at the Mount of Olives, so too Jesus's betrayer is revealed at the Mount of Olives. We might also point out that the language here that we see in the garden reminds us of this sacrifice of Isaac in the book of Genesis. The very first verse of the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. And so we have Davidic echoes. Jesus is like David. We also have echoes of Isaac. Jesus is like the son of Abraham, Isaac. And in Genesis 22, we read that story of how Abraham was asked to offer his only beloved son. What's interesting is in Genesis 22, Abraham says to his young men, he goes to the place where he's supposed to sacrifice his son. And. And he gets there and he says to his young men, stay here and I will go over there with my Son, and we'll worship. This is exactly what happens in the garden. Jesus says to the disciples, sit here. It's the same word in the Greek that's in the Greek version of the Old Testament of story of Abraham. Jesus says, I'm going to go yonder to pray. And then the crowds come in Matthew's Gospel with swords and clubs. And the words in Greek for the swords and the clubs are the same words that appear in Genesis. And Abraham takes the wood, same word for club, zula. He takes the wood and he takes a knife. The Greek is actually a sword. It's the same word that's used for sword in the Gospel of Matthew. So Abraham goes to take his son to be sacrificed, just as the crowd comes to take Jesus with wood and clubs. And then we read in the garden of Gethsemane. Well, we'll read that Peter tries to defend Jesus and he stretches forth his hand and he draws out his sword. And this is exactly what happens to Abraham, right? Abraham stretches out his hand and he's about to draw his sword to kill his son. And so Jesus is being presented in multiple ways as the true Isaac. So he is the Davidic messiah. But many people thought the Messiah was going to come and just conquer all the enemies, defeat them in some kind of military. Here, by being the son of Abraham, he shows us that he comes to be the sacrifice. Isaac was supposed to be offered as a sacrifice, but he never was actually presented as a sacrifice. Jesus is going to do what Isaac did not and offer in his life.
- [20:44]
Tim Gray
I think it's amazing how Matthew tells this story in such a manner. Unlike the other gospels where it really highlights these echoes to Isaac. Jesus is the new Isaac, who is the beloved son of the Father, who will be offered up for atonement, for sin. And so it's really. And then, you know, Jesus will tell Peter, put Peter, put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels?
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Dr. Michael Barber
Right. And so what was it that stopped the sacrifice of Isaac? An angel came, Right. And so Jesus said, I'm greater than Isaac. I mean, at just a command, I won't just be, you know, my death wouldn't just be prevented by one angel. Legions of angels?
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Tim Gray
Yes. 12. 12 legions. What do you think the significance of 12 is?
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Dr. Michael Barber
Well, obviously the 12 tribes of Israel, there's lots of. Yeah, I mean, the angels were understood to be heavenly and there were it was understood that there were 12 signs in the zodiac that correspond to the 12 dimensions of the heavens. So there are lots of things going on here. Yep. And then we read how Jesus says, but how could it be? If the angels were to prevent my death, how should the scriptures be fulfilled?
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Tim Gray
Yeah. And then he comes on, then he's going to tell him, you know, at that hour. And this is now verse 56. Jesus said to the crowds, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place now. So even before that, Jesus is showing, look, I'm not a revolutionary, I'm not a threat to you. And the meekness of God. It's really extraordinary how God hands himself over to us. But all this has taken place. The scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him in fled.
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Dr. Michael Barber
And all of this is taking place so that the scriptures will be fulfilled. Every detail. Right. So Matthew's being very deliberate about naming the swords and the clubs and naming the, you know, the way Jesus stretches out his hand, or, I'm sorry, Peter stretches out his hand and draws his sword. All these little details are there for a reason. This is why Bible study is so fruitful and it's so exhilarating. At least for me, every detail has some significance.
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Tim Gray
And this is what makes Bible study different than any other study. Only God can author like this.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Right.
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Tim Gray
Only God can design providence and history so that he makes history have meaning. Right. You know, Aristotle thought history couldn't be a science because it's accidental things that happen that you can't control. And yet what we see in Scripture is salvation, history, that there is an author to creation and an author to history, and that God is ultimately in control. And the story of these connections are so beautiful. And what God wants us to reflect on is study the story of Abraham and Isaac. And you get the sense of. And in that narrative, it's Father, Son constantly. And in the Gethsemane and the arrest here, it's Father, Son. It's Jesus crying out, abba, Father. And we see Abraham's heart and how it's wrenched by this idea that his son must die. And that's to remind us that God the Father experiences the sorrow of his son having to suffer and die. And yet God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
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Dr. Michael Barber
Beautiful. Yep. Now, do we want to try to move into the story of Jesus before Caiaphas or should we save that for next time?
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Tim Gray
I think we should probably cover right now. All right, I think we can. All right, let's get into it.
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Dr. Michael Barber
All right. So of course, they take Jesus before Caiaphas, the high priest. And it's interesting, Peter is following from a distance. And now we're going to have this really interesting dynamic in the narrative where on the one hand, we have the high priest questioning Jesus, and on the outside, we have, if you will, the high priest of the New Covenant and the vicar of Christ, Peter, on the outside. And there are some deliberate things happening here that are meant to remind us of what. What Peter's role is. We'll flush some of this stuff out. So we read that they bring forth false witnesses to accuse Jesus, and it is remarkable that Jesus doesn't protest. They say, you have no answer to make what these people are testifying against you. Origin beautifully pointed out that Jesus doesn't seek to offer defense for himself here. The reason for that is his whole life has been a defense, right? His whole life has been an explanation. And so if Jesus were to hear say, all right, now I'm going to defend my life, it would somehow imply that everything he's been doing up to this point has been insignificant or insufficient. And it's not. One of the chief charges that they make against him is that Jesus said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. Now, it's really hard not to think about the Gospel of John when we hear that, because in the Gospel of John, we do have a similar statement of Jesus, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. What's interesting is Jesus doesn't claim, I will destroy the temple, right? Which is what the false witnesses want to accuse Jesus of saying, because they know that this would be a punishable offense to speak against the temple this way. Finally, the high priest has had enough, and he says, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. What's really interesting, earlier in the narrative, Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. So Caiaphas is asking the question in the exact way Peter, who's now cowering outside, vigorously affirmed Jesus identity. And Jesus says, you have said so, which basically means that's true. But I tell you, from now on, you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And then at this, the high priest says blasphemy. And a lot of people are Puzzled by this. Why is this a blasphemy charge? What has Jesus done? Well, he's identifying himself as the Son of man. But notice he's the Son of man seated at the right hand of the power. But also coming. See, normally when you're seated, you're not moving, right? When you're seated, your chair doesn't go anywhere. There's only one chair, or there's only one seat that ancient Jews would have recognized was mobile, and that was the throne of God, which was understood to have wheels on it. And so what Jesus is doing here is not just identifying himself as the Son of man, he's identifying himself as the one who sits on the throne of God. Jesus identifies himself with God and that or as God. And that is why the high priest says blasphemy.
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Tim Gray
And then they'll condemn him to death. And here we see. And then they spit upon his face and strike him and slap him. I mean, it's just amazing how God humbles himself and makes himself so vulnerable. And they mock him, saying prophesy to us, you, Christ, who is it that struck you? And of course, what we're going to see is what's happening in the next stanza is that Peter's denying Jesus, which fulfills Jesus prophecies, which prove Jesus is a prophet. So as they mock Jesus as a prophet, his prophecies are actually being fulfilled. And we'll start with that next time. We'll pick up here at the end of chapter 26 with Peter denying Jesus, and then we'll move into the heart of the Passion narrative in chapter 27. So that's where we'll start next time. I think this is a good place to.
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Dr. Michael Barber
It might just be good to say real quickly, what should we be thinking about here? Well, Peter was willing to profess Jesus was precisely what Caiaphas asked Jesus about. He is the Christ, son of the living God. He was willing to do that in secret. But when the chips were down, when the consequences might be serious, Peter denies it. Are we willing to confess Jesus as Christ when the consequences may not be all that appealing, when it may be dangerous?
- [29:16]
Tim Gray
And it's becoming. It used to be easy for us as Christians in America, but now our culture is becoming more and more hostile to Christianity. And we're going to be challenged, and some people are already challenged in their workplace and in the public square. And that challenge is going to grow for all of us Christians. And so we need to read this Passion narrative and grow in strength through prayer, because our strength has got to be in the Lord so that we can be faithful. And that's where Jesus models for us in Gethsemane, praying to the Father in the time of our trials. So let's go to our Father and pray to him in our trials. And I want to thank everybody who prays for us in the mission circle to support the Augustine thank you for praying for our mission. It helps us to be faithful and we're grateful for you and wish the Lord to bless you and keep you.