Sermon for CATM – February 8, 2009 – The 7 Last Sayings of Christ on the Cross – Father, Forgive Them/This Day in Paradise
Today we begin, at Church at the Mission, a journey to the cross. Now, later this month with Ash Wednesday we merge our journey with the annual trek to Good Friday that the church universal has marked for millennia.
And for those of you who want to enter in perhaps in a more focused way to this time of preparation, this upcoming season of Lent, I do encourage you to take the course that we’re offering, starting today, on the “7 Last Sayings of Christ on the Cross”. Those who do will receive regular feedback from Ronda and me.
This course, and the sermons and services surrounding it, are designed to help us grasp in a fresh way, in a current way and in a profound way just what it is that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, and how this impacts and forms our very own lives and futures.
And so we begin. In the next weeks we’ll be looking at the specific events that lead Jesus to the cross in some detail. We’ll be reliving his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, his arrest and trial before Pilate and his personal journey to the cross.
Right now though, we begin with Jesus already at the cross, already arrested and tried and convicted. Already having carried his cross to Golgotha, His place of execution. We join Jesus and the few disciples who did not abandon Him, we join Mary.
Most importantly we join Jesus as He enters His darkest hour. We join Jesus to listen to the first two of the last 7 sayings of Christ.
Here’s the first:
33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals--one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
What’s going on here, really? Let’s for a moment try to break this down to its simplest elements. Let’s for a moment cut past all that good theology and the liturgy that we hear about every time we celebrate the Eucharist.
All those neatly constructed prayers, those time-tested ways of explaining the crucifixion.
Friends, this is Jesus being murdered. As we read these passages and as we enter in to the story of Jesus, we are in sense witnessing His murder. This is Jesus who is the quintessential perfect human, without flaw, without sin, without ever having done anything, actually… ANYTHING…wrong.
And He is here dangling from a cross, having been beaten and mocked and humiliated and scorned. Having been made fun of, ridiculed, after having His acts of healing judged as the work of Satan. After being accused of breaking the laws He made in the first place.
This is Jesus, dangling from a cross. This is the Son of God being murdered. A very simple but very good question is this: Why?
Why does Jesus choose to endure this suffering? Why must an innocent be murdered? What reason? Why in this way?
And what does Jesus in this state do? How does He relate to his captors? How does He interact with those who with malice and hate and evil intent have nailed Him to the cross?
Those with the malice (priests), with indifference (soldiers who did this daily), those involved in the conspiracy with Judas, those who nailed his hands to the cross, his feet to the cross.
What words might you have in a similar situation? What words does Jesus have for His murderers?
What words does Jesus have?!
[PPT] “Father, forgive them”. WHAT!?! Hunh?!? For…give….them? He prays for forgiveness for them. He asks the Father to not hold them accountable for their sin. What could be more undeserved? What could be a more generous act?
And why does Jesus say they “don’t know what at they’re doing”?”
Did they not know what they were doing? Did they not, with malice aforethought, falsely accuse and try Jesus, have Him beaten and flogged.
Did they not watch Him carry his cross while being scorned and ridiculed, and the way to the place of the skull? Is that not the definition of complicity? Is that not what the word ‘guilty’ means?
But what does Jesus say? "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
In order to understand this, we do need to move into the theology of Scripture. This moment in time, this first act of forgiveness toward sinners that flowed from the cross…this was the beginning of Jesus priestly ministry.
I encourage you to read the book of Hebrews, and if you’re taking the course that has started today, it would be good supplemental reading to read about Jesus’ priestly ministry in the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as…a faithful high priest who makes atonement for the sins for the people; who sympathizes with human weaknesses because He was tempted as a human, and yet was without sin.
A faithful High Priest who remains a priest forever; a priest who enters the holy of holies in the temple not with the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood by which Jesus offered Himself unblemished up to God as for all time a single sacrifice for sins. A priest who is a mediator between us and the Father.
So as Jesus asks for forgiveness for His murderers, we are witnesses of His priestly ministry as it begins.
Now Jesus had a habit of only teaching what He Himself did. Once, in quieter and better times, Jesus was talking to His friends who we know as the disciples.
He said this: “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”. Luke 6:27-28
“You who hear me. You who hear me. You who hear me”. What are we to do with this, now that we’ve looked for a moment at the stark picture of Jesus on the cross and as we’ve listened to his first words on the cross.
Jesus directed what He had to say at “You who hear me”. That suggests that Jesus knows that some will hear Him, some will not, or at least that we find different ways that suit us to listen to the words of Jesus, to respond to the acts of Jesus.
There are many responses to all this, but let’s look at just three responses that have to do with how we choose to interact/engage with Jesus. Truth be told, we deal with Jesus differently at different times.
Sometimes we keep Jesus at quite a distance, even though we believe. And so, at a distance, we may say that Jesus was able to do this thing…this astonishing act of grace, forgiving his murderers, because He is divine. He is God, we are not. That’s why.
Also, He was just a really, really good person, so that’s also why. What’s good about this response is that it shows that I’m paying attention somewhat.
What’s not so good is that it really has no impact on my life. It actually lets me off the hook.
But when we draw a little nearer, we may say that His action of praying for those who crucified Him confounds convention and even human nature. “I must try to be nicer”, we might say to ourselves.
The good thing about this response is that it shows we’re thinking a little harder about human nature, our nature, and we’re let ourselves be motivated by Jesus who in this response serves as an ideal. Again, the not-so-good thing is that there is more to it than this that we end up missing if we don’t go a little further.
A third response is to choose to live as those who hear …who listen to and practice what Jesus taught; to be a Christ-follower. What does that mean? A Christ-follower sees herself or himself as the guilty one who knows they’re guilty, who looks to Jesus, the spotless Lamb, and who comes to Jesus hungry, needy.
Who cries out to Him for mercy, who sees His holiness and who aspires to heaven on the merits of Jesus only. A Christ-follower responds to the challenge from Jesus to love my enemies by recognizing that it’s an impossible challenge on human strength alone.
This means that, by cleaving to Jesus, by immersing myself in His Word, by committing myself to His Kingdom and by committing myself to other Christ-followers, I seek to nurture a grace in my own life, so that I can perhaps see even maliciousness as an expression of ignorance; if I can do that then I can see neglect as ignorance as well.
Where does cultivating such inward grace lead, really? If leads us to a place where we CAN forgive those who have harmed us, are harming us now by their actions. Not so we live as victims. Forgiving others must always be accompanied by setting boundaries so that the hurt will not continue. That’s just common sense.
And forgiving them, we are able to move forward in life minus the resentment, minus the bitterness in our spirits, minus the tension, minus the ulcers that NOT forgiving can give us. Developing this grace leads us to live free, as Jesus was free. Developing this grace by God’s Spirit enables us to love. Jesus is known by His love. And his desire is that we be as He was and is: Free
And all of this…the brutality of the cross, and the absurd and radical grace of Jesus’ prayer lead me to humility; and it leads me to commit my life afresh to His way.
Let’s look at our second passage today:
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
OK. So what’s happening here? Three men are dying, side by side. The One in the middle is Jesus. The one on one side of Jesus has one response to Jesus, the one of the other side of Jesus has another response.
One of the men has a pretty simple response to Jesus: "Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!". To break it down just a bit, reading between the lines, this fella is saying to Jesus: “Aren’t you suppose to be somebody? Don’t you have the power to save our lives? Then just do it!”
On the one hand this guy is straight-to-it, right? Don’t you appreciate people who get to the point rather than dance around the point? On the other hand, this fellow is clearly viewing Jesus as a get-out-of-hell free card. No interest in Him personally. No clue as to Who He really is.
The other fellow has another response. “Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom”.
Let’s break this down. He’s really saying: “I deserve the punishment I’m getting. Clearly, Jesus is here with us, so this is not really looking good for any of us; Jesus is entirely different from us. We did something wrong. He did not.
“We were justly condemned, beaten and are being crucified; but everything that is happening to Jesus here is happening to a complete innocent. Jesus…You, Jesus. Please, Please. Don’t let me be forgotten when you are enthroned. Remember me. Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom (sing it). Remember me”.
That’s all this fellow asks of Jesus.
I get the sense that Jesus is moved by the difference in this one man over the other. He tells the repentant criminal that he will be WITH Jesus in heaven, right away.
Two responses to Jesus:
At any given point in our day, we have varied responses to Jesus that we can muster. One way of responded to Jesus is in our prayer life, in our reading of the Word of God, in our worship…that is one very important thing.
But, you know, that’s not the only opportunity we have to respond to Jesus. If you read the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25 (please do read that chapter especially if you are taking this course) we see that the way we respond to others….particularly the way we respond to those who Jesus calls ‘the least’ is ALSO the way we respond to Jesus. And if you’re like me, sometimes you fail in that regard.
I was at the ATM at Carlton and Parliament the other day, in a rush to an appointment to get my hair cut [Yes, I know…’You need a hair cut?’].
As I was withdrawing money to pay for the haircut, I could sense someone watching me. I looked to my left as I was waiting for the ATM to give out the money, and a tall, thin fellow asked me, quite aggressively, for money. I was unsure of his mental state and offended by his very abrupt manner.
As I was deciding whether or not to give him something he continued to beg aggressively. I was very put off. The instant I decided to not give him anything, that I wasn’t going to reward that type of aggressive begging, he stated something very true. “Come on. You have a million times more than I do”.
I walked away, unnerved more by my reaction to this aggressive beggar than I was by his manner. I still wish I had had or made time to stop to listen to his humanity, to listen to his story. To take him for lunch perhaps, but I didn’t.
And I have to wonder…was that somehow an opportunity to respond to Jesus? Struggling with those questions, my friends, is a huge part of what it means to be a Christ-follower. And sometimes failing, but always learning from our failures, is also a huge part of what it means to belong to Jesus.
Now back to our two criminals hanging beside Jesus and what they can teach us, perhaps about improving our attitude toward God.
An attitude we can have that can parallel the 1st criminal is that we feel we can command God; that God being God owes us; if you’re God, stop this war, stop this tragedy, reverse the effects of this or that.
We can have, as did apparently the 1st criminal, an underdeveloped sense of our own complicity and responsibility; an unwillingness to face our own sinfulness, a blaming reactivity to the things that go on around us.
We can do all that instead of stopping to take stock of who we are, what we’ve done, how we’ve gotten off fairly scot-free a lot of the time and how we’re just not accustomed to dealing with the consequences of our actions.
A wiser approach is suggested in the words of the 2nd criminal. It begins with a healthy fear of God which shows up in a genuine awe of God. The trick here is that for us to truly have this fear or awe of God, we need eyes that are opened to His grace-drenched world.
It begins with a healthy fear of God, but it doesn’t stop there.
"Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Perhaps a healthy fear of God IS necessary for this next step. The next step is genuine humility mixed with a true understanding of the nature of sin. The wages of sin is death. We need to understand that this is true, but also why it’s true. Why it’s true is found in James 1:14-15:
“14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death”.
Desire points to enticement which when conceived gives birth to sin, which when it goes unchecked and is allowed to grow (like a cancer) gives birth, when it is full-grown, to death.
Sin leads to death, and away from life (Jesus). Sin can’t live in the presence of Jesus. [Pause]
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Then we look to the innocence of Jesus…we behold the sinless lamb of God; perfect, spotless. Without fault. Who has done nothing wrong. Yet, there He hangs, on a cross.
He is not dying for his own wrong. He is not dying in futility. His dying is purposeful. But what is the purpose? He is dying for my wrong. He is suffering for my sin. He is taking on himself my guilt…the Bible says the guilt of the whole world was upon him. He who knew no sin became sin for us.
This is heavy stuff, my friends. But as we continue this journey through the 7 last sayings of Christ on the cross, this is perhaps a good place to begin, having a chance to take in, in stark terms, what it is that God has done for you and for me.
Now, we’re not done, but I want to ask you to stand up for a moment. Stretch for a moment. Now I want you to close your eyes…breath in a deep breath. Open you eyes and have a look at this statement:
“This day I choose to commit my life in its every detail to God in Jesus Christ.
I choose to live for Him, I choose to live my life through Jesus Christ, our great High Priest.
I renounce all spiritual compromise; I will no longer sit on a spiritual fence
I no longer delay my personal, wholehearted commitment to Jesus Christ.
I will live out this commitment within my faith community.
I embrace the deep challenges of the Christian life.
I will be a person of justice.
A person who makes room in my life for ‘the least of these’;
I will be a person known by my love for others.
I commit myself to be a Christ-follower, an active member of His Church universal, and an agent of His grace”.
If you’ve had a chance to read this, and if it reflects something of your own desire, please read it aloud with me. [Read with congregation].
And we’ve had a chance to consider our responses as well. May we choose the better response. May we reflect the humility and awareness of the man who looked to Jesus and found his way to heaven. And may we grasp that to follow Jesus is to live as He lived and love as He loved.
Let’s pray. God, we adore You. We worship You and we humble ourselves before You. You are truly great and Your grace is beyond any human measurement. Your love knows no limit, save the limit of laying down Your life. May we be such friends to others. May we reflect your radically amazing grace in our lives to others. We love You, Lord Jesus. In Your name we pray. Amen.
