The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Meet My Friends: Dr. Edward Sri

Episode Date: February 22, 2019

In today’s episode, Jeff tries something new. He wants you to meet his friend Dr. Edward Sri. Dr. Sri is a theologian, speaker, author of several bestselling books, and also hosts a podcast. He just authored a brand new book entitled “No Greater Love: A Biblical Walk Through Christ’s Passion.” In addition to the book, he went to Israel to film videos that allow you to meditate on Christ’s passion in a much deeper way. Jeff and Dr. Sri also answer tough questions such as: * If God is going to wipe away our sin, couldn't there have been another way besides crucifixion? * Was Jesus abandoned by the Father when he called out “My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?” * Did Jesus have second thoughts about dying for our sins when he asked God to “let this cup pass from me?” Snippet from the Show: “You will never see God’s love more beautifully shine than in these accounts of Christ’s passion.” For the full shownotes, go to ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow or email us at [e-mail] to get them delivered stright to your inbox.

You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show, episode 103. Meet My Friends, Dr. Edward Sree. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavans. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show.

And welcome to the show this week. I am so glad that you joined us, as you know, On the weekly show, we talk about topics and topics related to the Bible, to discipleship, growing in Christ, and topics that relate to issues of the day. Today, this week, we're starting something new. I have so many wonderful friends, and when they do things out there that I think you need to hear about, I want to introduce them to you. And so today is the beginning of a new type of episode that we're going to be doing on the show, and that's Meet My Friends. and it's a real privilege for me to introduce to you. Dr. Edward Sri, he's a theologian, a speaker, an author of several bestselling books, including a biblical walk through the Mass

and Walking with Mary, two of the series that I know many of you have listened to and you've benefited from greatly. He's the presenter of several faith formation programs and the host of a weekly podcast. Check it out, All Things Catholic. It's a privilege for me to introduce, Dr. Edward Sri. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Jeff, for having me. Yeah, it's great to be with you. You and I have known each other for, I don't know, over 20 years maybe now. And, you know, we've worked together. Our paths have crossed. And I'm always amazed at the things that God is doing through you. And it's a privilege to have you on the show. And really the purpose is I want to introduce you and the work that you are doing to what I consider the finest podcast audience on earth. And that's the people we're talking to right now. But before we get into your new project, which is very exciting about the passion, the passion of Christ. What have you been up to over these last few years? I know you, I know you were with the Augustine Institute, and what are you

doing now? So now I, as of this past year, assumed a new role with Focus, the Fellowship Catholic University students. I've been involved with Focus from the very beginning. I was there when it was launched at Benedict and College. I've been involved with their training, served on the boards. It's always been a part of my life, but it was always something I was doing more part-time. But as of this last year, I've assumed a new role with them. It's my main work in Apostolic endeavors, and it's to be the vice president of formation for Focus. So I think many people know Focus.

They just did their big Sikh conference with 17,000 college students coming to Indianapolis. It's amazing. It gives a lot of hope for the church, especially in these troubled times, to know that when the gospel is being preached, young people will respond to the fullness of truth. and they do so much with missionary work around the world.

They're the largest organization. I didn't know this actually until this last year. The largest organization sending young people on mission trips. They send thousands and thousands of people all over from Papua New Guinea to Africa to Calcutta to the streets of New York, you know, to serve the poor. So there's a lot happening there. And then they, you know, at this conference, they had thousands of parish leaders and volunteers and Bible study leaders and just people of good will that want to make missionary

disciples in their parish and they were there as well. So it's a great blessing working with these young people who give up, they give up a couple of years of their lives to do this work of evangelization on college campuses and in parishes. Well, I know that I was there at the beginning, not as a member of the team, but I witnessed the beginning of this incredible ministry focus with Curtis and you and several others. And I've got to tell you, this is, I think, one of the most exciting ministries in the church today. And you're having a major, major impact.

A little bit about that Sikh conference. Is that every year? You know, Seek is a conference they do every, there is a focus conference every year. And the Seek conference is the big one. That's the one that's really just, it's open for everyone. We invite, you know,

so this is where a lot of college students will invite their friends, people who may not be believers. They may be Catholics who've fallen away from the church, not really involved in their faith. And it's a great opportunity for them to come and encounter the fullness of the faith with great joy. And you just see amazing things happen. Like 17,000 college students falling on their knees during euclistic adoration. They've got, you know, it was amazing to see just about, you know, I don't know, six, seven thousand of them going to confession.

Many of them for the first time since they were kids probably. I spoke at one of the conferences, I think a couple of years ago. I walked into that, about knocked me over. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Yeah, it's so moving to see. I remember a couple years ago they did this conference in San Antonio, and it was just so moving to watch these young people, and you'd see, like, their friend accompanying them in the line of confession.

Like, I remember watching, many times I saw this where there'd be, like, a Bible study leader, and she was taking one of the women in her Bible study to confession, walking arm and arm, the girl and going to confession was in tears and her sister in Christ was there just arms around her supporting her, bringing her to Jesus in confession. It's just, you know, I get to her every time thinking about it. So that's the C conference. That happens every other year. So that was just in Indianapolis this last January. And then in the off years, they do something that's still a pretty big event. It'll have like 10,000, 13,000 people. But this is more targeted for are student leaders, the ones that are leading Bible studies, doing the work of evangelization on

campus. This thing is on the work that you're doing, and it's such a privilege to be a friend of yours. And you've done such a great job with formation programs, and that's what we're talking about today, is that you are announcing now a brand new formation program based on a book that you wrote called No Greater Love, a biblical walk through Christ's passion. And this is going to be a powerful, powerful work. And I think you did part of it over in Israel, the video part of it. We can get into that. But I'm curious, of all the topics that you could do, you chose this and to do an entire formation program just on the biblical walk through Christ's passion.

What was stirring in your heart to choose this topic? Yeah, you know, I was blessed to work with you all in Ascension Press with the biblical walk through the Mass and then the biblical walk with Mary. And, you know, for many years on my heart, I've been teaching, you know, I teach the Gospels, you know, for 20 years, both at Benedict College, then at AI. And so I've always been teaching that. And I was always fascinated by the passion narratives. And I've given talks on it throughout the years.

And every year, I'd say the last three or four or five years, when we get to Holy Week and we're going through the passion narratives, you know, on Passion Sunday and Good Friday, I'm always like, oh, I want to write a book one day on this, you know, because this is the climax of the story. Right. You know, this is where all of salvation history comes to its pivotal moment, right? And we know these stories. You know, most of us have heard these stories from our childhood.

Jesus was scourged. He was betrayed. He sweat drops of blood. He carried a cross. He said, I thirst. You know, we know all these stories, but do we know what they all mean? Do we know the biblical prophecies behind them? And as you know, Jeff, because you've taught these passages so many times,

all of the Gospels are constant. making references to the Old Testament, but man, when you get to the passion narrative, it's like every word is just charged with so much meaning. And to be able to unpack that and show God's plan coming to fulfillment, but also what was Jesus going through? What was he doing for me? And there's so many spiritual lessons. I think that's probably when you, you know, now they think of it, when you ask the question, what was in my heart? Like, why did I want to do this the most? I think it's because something John Paul II says about the passion narratives, is that there we encounter the fullness of God's revelation of his love for us.

It's the fullness of love right there. I mean, you can look anywhere in Christ's life, but especially the passion narratives. And our whole lives are supposed to be conformed to Christ's passion. And there are just so many practical lessons we can learn for daily life, for forgiveness in a marriage, for persevering through difficult tasks, through trusting in God in the midst of darkness and suffering, or friendships that have broken down and you feel, let down. You feel not treated well. You feel mocked or you feel betrayed. You know, like so much of what

happens in daily life, you can find your source of comfort, encouragement, and guidance in Christ's passion. And so it is a biblical study, you know, and we're walking through all of the meanings of the key words, historical background prophecies. But what I'm trying to do every step of the way, though, is then say, well, what does this mean for you today right now in your life? Sure. It's relevant. It's relevant. It's not just theology, but it's actually will affect your marriage, your raising of your children, your work, everything. I love that. You know, you mentioned in the last couple of minutes one word, and it's actually in the title, Passion. And I find so often, you know, as teachers, sometimes we use terms and words that

are kind of meta-language. We assume that everybody knows what we're talking about. And years ago, the Passion of the Christ movie came about. But rarely did I hear anyone say, what is the word passion mean? Why is it called Christ's passion? Fill us in on that. Yeah, that's actually the topic of the opening introduction to the whole book. So basically the word passion, Paseo in Latin, is suffering. And so that's the tradition is, we call it the passion of Christ because it's about the suffering endured for our sins. But, you know, in our modern world, passion has more meaning that. You know, someone's very passionate, they're determined, they're driven. And I think that sheds light on what Jesus is doing on the cross. He's determined to die for our sins to help us be

reconciled with the father. But Pope Benedict brings out another level of meaning that's so beautiful. And his first encyclical, Deos Caritasest, God is love. He talks in there about how God's love, he has a passionate love for us. He loves us with all the passion of a lover, he says. But he's very clear what he means by this, though, isn't like just kind of like a self-centered passion, like you give me feelings, you give me pleasure. It's not like that. It's a passionate love, he's so in love with us, it drives him to make his passionate love as eros love manifested in agape, which is that total sacrificial love that Jesus manifests on the cross. And I think that's, you know, for our world today, it's a very poignant image for us to see

what this is really all about is it's got, you will never see God's love more beautifully shine than in these accounts of Christ's passion. It's his passionate love for us, so driven to want to bring us back to the Father that he was willing to die for us. Well, I've got several things I want to talk about as far as some details that took place there that are, I think, on people's minds. And I know you're going to go through a lot more in this great series that's coming out. But the one big question that I get from people, and you probably do too, is that if God is going to take care of our sin, God's so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for us. Couldn't there been another way that he could

have done this? Why? Why this way? Yeah. God's God. And so in a certain sense, you could say he's all powerful and he could do anything he wants. But what he wants is always the best thing. And the best way for him to save the world was this. He could have just snapped his finger and said, okay, it's all done. Sure. But when you think of it, you know, in terms of just, you know, because of sin, because of the injustice of sin and the gravity of that situation, we find ourselves separated from God. There's nothing that we as human beings can do to fix that problem on our own. We sinned against the infinite Almighty God,

it's sin against his infinite glory and honor. And so there's an infinite kind of debt we have or a gap between us and God. And while I might say, God, I'm sorry, and I'll do some kind deeds to make up for our sins. But there's nothing we can do because we can only perform finite actions as human beings. So this is the great insight of great St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Anselm, is that it makes sense that then God would become man, become one of us, so that he can offer a gift

of love that truly represents us. Jesus is representing the human family when he offers his life and love. But the difference between Jesus and you and I, if you and I were to go like find a tree and nail ourselves to it, it's not going to do any good because we're not God. Whereas Jesus, when he sacrifices his life for us, gives his life up for us, because of who he is, he's infinite. His act of love takes on infinite value. And so he represents us. It's an act of love on our behalf on behalf of the human family, but because he's God,

it's an infinite act of love that can reconcile us with the father. And so I think that's part of it. Aquinas also says it's that kind of what GP2 is getting at is that there's no greater place to see God's love for us, and it just beautifully shines. You know, I can tell like when my kids did do something, like recently, when my kids broke something, and I, you know, I could have just said, oh, don't worry, I'll pay for it, and, you know, he'd be grateful. But, you know, he had to actually solve the thing that he broke and try to fix it and repair it, but he couldn't do it on his own, but when dad gets down on the knees and he's with him and buy him and trying to help him,

you could just tell that he was being punished, but dad was with him. helping him solve the problem. And it just, I, I pray that moment will be etched in his mind to remember, no, I really love you. I'm holding you accountable, but I love you so much. I want to help you fix the problem. Well, that's a beautiful way to, that's a beautiful way to look at it. We're talking with Dr. Edwards III about the new series Adult Faith Formation Program coming out of Ascension Press, no greater love, a biblical walk through Christ's passion.

We're going to take a break when we come back. I've got some questions about things like, why have you? You forsaken me, and Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass. Maybe there's another way. And we're going to get into that a little bit deeper. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. And if you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out the Ascension Presents YouTube channel.

You're going to find tons of free videos featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Leodero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go to YouTube.com slash ascension Presents. That's YouTube.com slash ascension presents. and if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show talking to one of my good friends. It's that time of the show where we're meeting friends. And one of my great friends is Dr. Edward Sri,

and he's got this new adult faith formation program coming out, which I highly recommend that your parish go through, particularly prior to Easter, a great way to prepare you for Easter. It's called No Greater Love, a biblical walk through Christ's passion. Edward, I do have a couple of questions about, and I like to ask these tough questions. You know that during this passion, it talks about Jesus, you know, sweating great drops of blood. And he said in the Garden of Gassimony, which I find very interesting that at the beginning of the Bible, you see the first Adam in a garden, in the first Eve, and here now in the Garden of Gatsimony,

at the end of this amazing story, you find a new Adam, you know, in the garden. And he says, he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is on the cross where he actually says this in the passion. And I'm curious, was Jesus abandoned by the Father? This is something that is argued by people. Yeah. When it comes to the cross and Jesus, yeah, when he makes that line, it sort of sounds like, wow, he's just forsaken. But what Jesus is doing there, he's quoting the first line from a famous song that everybody would know. It'd be kind of like if you asked me when we're watching the Olympics, hey, did the United States, who won the gold medal?

And I said, oh, Jose, can you see? I'm not asking about your eyesight. I'm quoting a song you know, the Star-Spangled banner, the national anthem. I'm saying basically the US one. Or if you asked me, oh, hey, what bands did you listen to when you were growing up? up, and I told you, oh, I don't know, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. And I'm going to just keep talking like this, Jeff, with or without you. You know, I'm quoting lines from Bono in the band YouTube, right?

You catch the cultural reference. Well, that's what Jesus is doing. He's quoting an oldie here. You know, he's quoting Psalm 22, which people would know. And that Psalm has that opening line. It's about a righteous man going through great suffering, great persecution, and he feels, as if he's been abandoned by God. But what's very clear in that psalm is the psalmist goes on to say things like, you know,

oh, and you, God, our fathers trusted. They trusted and were not let down, you know. And so he has, it's like a back and forth, like I feel I'm suffering so much. Where are you, God? But then he also comes back and says, you know, but yet I know you took me from my mother's room. You've kept me safe all these years. Be not far from me, God, for troubles near.

and there's no one I can turn to for help. So it's expressing the emotions of someone that feels abandoned, and yet they're remembering their story, remembering no, God. You've always been there for our ancestors. And at the very end of this Psalm, it ends in this beautiful, triumphant climax, where in Psalm 22, verse 27, he says, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of nations shall worship him.

Dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over all the nations. He has a sense that this suffering is going to make a difference. Yeah, it starts off with, you know, why have you forsaken? He kind of ends with triumph. Exactly. And that's what Jesus is saying. I'm that man. In fact, some other things about this Psalm is it describes how the people are wagging their heads

and mocking this man. They pierce his hands and his feet. They divide the garments and cast lots for the garments. It's a prophecy about Jesus' suffering on Good Friday because all those things happen. to him. And he's trying to say to the people, yes, this is intense suffering, but it was all part of the father's plan, and the father's going to raise me up on the third day. Well, it's a great example of Jesus' in-depth teaching style, you know, Rames in Hebrew hinting at things. And he's speaking to an audience that I think is a little bit more sophisticated than the average person

today, where if you hint at part of a text, that people are going to know the surrounding context of that, and it's going to mean an awful lot. But you're explaining all of that, and I love that about your teaching. There's one thing that Jesus says in the garden where it sounds like he's having second thoughts. It's like maybe I might back out of this possibly, even though I know he's not going to, but it sounds like it when he says, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass. You know, it's almost like if there's another way, let's go down that road. Yeah. I think what what Jesus is doing here, we have to remember he's truly human. He's truly human. And, And what he's doing is he's expressing in his humanity the intense suffering that he's going to face.

Like, in other words, he knows he's about to be betrayed. He's going to be beaten, scourged, crucified. Like, that's not something any ordinary human being would look forward to. Oh, I can't wait for this to happen, right? So if he's truly human, this intense suffering he's about to face would be repugnant to him. So that's what he's expressing in that prayer. But in the same breath, he says, but Father, not my will, your will be done. And that's expressing his divinity.

He's showing us that, yes, it's going to be intense. He's acknowledging how much suffering it's going to be in his humanity. And yet his human will is perfectly united to his divine will. Aquinas has this great analogy about this. I love this one. He says it's kind of like taking bad tasting medicine. You know, if you ever had to take just really awful tasting medicine, you don't go, oh, I can't wait to watch the Super Bowl and drink this horrible medicine, you know?

No, no, no, no. You drink it, but you're doing it because you know it's going to bring healing, right? And that's what Jesus is doing. He's acknowledging, this tastes awful. I'm acknowledging it, but I'm not going to hesitate. I'm going to drink this to bring healing to the human family. Well, that's really beautiful because I think it gives hope to all of us in the midst of our suffering that a lot of people feel guilty, you know, well, I don't really like this.

And I wish this didn't happen. And I know I should. I know I should enjoy this. you know, but no, no, suffering is suffering. And just like Jesus, we're saying, man, there's another way, but, okay, here goes the medicine, you know. And I think that that's actually a point of hope that you're bringing up in the series, and I think people are going to get that out of it. You know, one of the questions they have, Edward, is when Jesus was on the cross, and he said, into your hands, I commit my spirit, and he died, what happens between that dying and the

resurrection. Yeah, so he dies. And then we know the story that he's buried in the tomb, right? So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, there's a tomb that Joseph's family had and he generously gives it to Jesus. Nicodemus splurges and gives us tremendous amount of ointment to active generosity for Jesus there. So he ends up being buried. So I don't know if you're asking about like what happened between Good Friday and Easter Sunday or more about the narrative itself. Yeah, I mean, you know, But people will say, well, where did he go? What did he do? Did he go to, you know, someplace in the underworld or exactly what happened? Yeah, well, we say in the creed that he descended into the dead. And so this is one of the beautiful, one of the most common early depictions

of Christ is him going down to the dead. Like there's one of my favorite churches in Rome is the Basilica of San Clemente, and they've got this. I think it's like a sixth, seventh century fresco that was discovered down there. And it's beautiful. It's Jesus going into the land of the dead and he's pulling out, not just any man, he's pulling out Adam. So it's a wonderful thing. The new Adam reaching out to the old Adam, bringing him out of the tomb, bringing him out of the land of the dead, the first of many that are going to be coming with him to heaven. Wow. That's beautiful. You know how people will say oftentimes when they're looking at a study or a book or whatever it might be, it's that old question. What's in it for me? What am I going to get out of this? You know, when people go through

this amazing formation series that you have put together, what is, what's our response? Your response? What's my response? What's our response to the passion? Because I think sometimes people think, well, he did everything. You know, he suffered. He died. He's the king. He's the intercessor. He's the judge. He's the good physician. He's, you know, counsel and everything else. Well, what's our role? I mean, once this is done, what is our response? Yeah, I think the key is sometimes we sit back and we go, wow, that's amazing what Jesus did for us. And I have this line in the introduction that it is amazing. This is, there's no greater love, as Jesus says, than when a man lays down his life for his friends.

But Jesus doesn't want our applause. He doesn't want us to go, wow, that was cool. He wants our hearts. He wants us to respond with gratitude, with love. But I think most of all, he wants to change our hearts. He wants our hearts to be conformed to the cross because that's where we find our fulfillment, right? We're made for self-giving love.

We're made to give our lives totally to our God, to our spouse, to our children, to the people in our life, to the poor, to the church. And at every step of the way, that's what I'm trying to do, hopefully by unpacking the biblical background, is to then make the point, well, then how do I conform my life to this part of Christ's passion?

What difference is this make for me in my sufferings? What difference does this make for me and the troubles I have in my workplace or the troubles in my marriage or whatever? And I think that's what Jesus wants. He wants to do that work in our hearts so that we can live this total self-giving love and then share his love with the world around us. Yeah, I'm reminded of what Paul said to the Colossians in chapter 1 in verse 24, that I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and I fill up that which is lacking in

the sufferings of Christ. So I think after going through this series, people are going to have a much clear perspective on what is lacking. And St. Augustine said, what's lacking is the sufferings of the mystical body of Christ. And you're going to give us, I think, more context in which our suffering can mean something, what to do with it. You go to Israel. I go to Israel every year, and I just got back a couple weeks ago. And every time we do the Via Dolorosa, and we actually pick up wooden crosses, and we walk through the stations of the cross in the old city of Jerusalem. And on this recent trip, this lady came up to me when we got to the Holy Sepulcher, and she said, this was different than I thought it would be. She said, I wish the people would have

been quiet and honored our devotion as we were walking through the streets and praying the stations of the cross. How has your series changed? your view of the stations of the cross because anybody who's been there knows that when you do that that walk it's anything but quiet it's chaotic it's stinky it's dirty it's and it's not in it's not in a chapel out in the country is it oh no yeah it's utter chaos when you're walking through there there's like you know first of all there's many other pilgrims there and then you have all the other you know ethnic religious backgrounds that are there selling things on the streets and taking your pictures and trying to sell your pictures and so it's very hard to to concentrate. I've done it sometimes. I bet you've done this too where you can get up really early and try to reimagine it, you know, like when, you know, like, but you're up at like five in the morning to try to get a quiet, prayerful stations in, you know. But, you know, I would say that's one of the things we wanted to do with the study is, you know, we wanted to open up a little bit for, you know, to help people to see the places where Jesus lived his passion. So we go to Gessimini,

go to those ancient olive trees, you know, whose root systems go back to the time of Jesus. And you can kind of imagine, okay, here we are. We're really on the Mount of Olives. And somewhere near here is where his passion was, here's the rock, you know, since the third century. People believed he prayed in his agony right here. And you've seen this so many times. I've seen just grown men weep, like at these moments where they're just, wow. All of a sudden, like this is, my faith is real. Jesus isn't a picture on my wall. He's not just a line in the creed. I mean, he really came to this mountain. And he really sweat, drops of blood. for me right here, you know, and then to go to Caiaphas's house, to retrace, you know,

steps remembering his journey to Calvary, and then it's always so moving when you go and you touch that stone under Calvary, people like, especially their first time doing it, you just see they're just, they're in all. Yeah. And that's what we wanted to do. So it's biblical teaching, but wanted to give people a visual as well to start to begin to imagine these are the very places where these events unfolded. Well, I know the video is adding so much to the study because not only are you talking about the passion and bringing people deep into the meaning of it, but the accompanying video is just an added bonus where you get to actually see these places. I mean, not everybody gets to go over on a pilgrimage, and so in a sense,

you're taking them on a pilgrimage through the passion of the Christ, and I love it. So it's a book, just to recap, it's a book, and people can read that book, and then it's also an online study that includes the videos filmed in the Holy Land for small group studies. right? Yep, yep, that's it. Yeah, so the idea is, you know, obviously I think the ideal is when you study, as you know, in a Bible study, a small group, you're learning from the other people, you're talking about it, you're going on a journey together. That is what most deeply impacts your soul, you know? So I think that's wonderful. But we know that there's people that just want to read a good book and use it for their Lenton journey maybe and for their own devotions. And that's why, so I wanted to have the book that can stand on its own as well. And you got a number of other people helping you in the presenting. You got Jen Fullweiler, you got Father Mike. Schmitz, Teresa Tomio, and others. Yeah, and some guy named Jeff Kavins, I think, helped as well. I think I snuck in there. I think I got you in there a couple times, so that was great.

I got to work with Deadward's Three. This is a good thing. So people can get this at Ascension Press. It's through ascensionpress.com. You can go highly suggest that people make this their Lenton journey. You know, it's a wonderful time for you to study the passion of the Christ, and then it all culminates in the Tritium. and I think it's going to be a different year for you.

It's going to be a year of meaning thanks to this type of formation program. And I love it when formation programs work with the liturgical calendar. And so we're kind of laying our life down on the life of Christ during the liturgical calendar. And I think it's going to be a great plus. And people can learn more about you at your own website, edwards3.com, right? Yep, they can find me there. I've got a number of free articles, videos. My podcast is there, pilgrimages, things like.

that, they can just go to my website, just my name, Edward's 3.com. Sure, and we'll put all that in the show notes as well. As we say so often, I know you're driving in the car right now. Do not try to write all this down. I don't want to get a call saying you're in an accident. So we've got it all in the show notes. And if you are not getting the show notes right now, all you got to do is write, send an email to the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com.

In the subject line, just say show notes, and we'll put you on the list and we'll send them to you every single week. The study is no greater love, no greater love, a biblical walk through Christ's passion, deep, deep stuff, practical stuff, great teacher, Dr. Edward Sri, and he's going to give you a glimpse of Israel, so that's going to be really, really good. One last question before we go, Edward, what's your big hope and prayer that people are going to get out of this? Yeah, my prayer is that they really encounter Jesus and you, that these aren't just stories,

and they're not just, you know, stories from a long time ago that we all know, but like come to really meet Jesus in the passion narrative. That's my real hope that this will help them in their Lenton journey to take that next step of faith, whatever it may be that the Lord's calling them to. And every Sunday, you can renew it and just go deeper. It's fantastic. Hey, good talking to you, and thanks for being the first of my friends to be on the Meet My Friends segment. I appreciate you coming on the show. Oh, thank you so much, Jeff. Thanks for having me. God bless. God bless. That is Dr. Edward Sri. And again, you can find all of his information at Edwardsfree.com. And as far as the study goes, no greater love, you can get that through

ascensionpress.com. We'll put it in the notes. Let me pray for you, my friend, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Lord, I thank you for my friends who have gathered here together today and are meeting my friends. And I pray for those that are struggling in their life right now that they would come into a deeper knowledge of the passion of Christ and to know his love in a deeper way. I pray that their suffering will take on new meaning as they understand the passion of Jesus Christ. And I pray all this in your mighty name, O Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, my friend, I want you to know, I love you. I'm praying for you, and I'm asking you to continue to pray for me. You have a fantastic week. We'll see you.