“You shall be with me”
Luke 23:32-43
During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would sweep into town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived, except the Zen Master. Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was. When he wasn’t treated with the deference and submissiveness he was accustomed to, the general burst in anger as he reached for his sword, “You fool! Don’t you realize you are standing before a man who could run you in with a sword without blinking an eye?” And the Zen Master calmly replied, “And don’t you realize that you are standing before a man who can be run through with a sword without blinking an eye?” In our Scripture today, we see three very different men who are facing death and react very differently. There is the man who is dying in his sin, a man who is dying from his sin and a man in the middle, Jesus, who is dying for sin. Three men and three very different circumstances.
Today, we continue looking at the last words of Jesus, seven sayings that he utters as he hangs there for six hours slowly dying. Now it’s been said that a man can be known by the company he keeps. And that’s true. A lot can be known about a person from the people he associates with. Even Paul says, “bad company corrupts good morals.” 1 Corinthians 15:33 Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus spending time, not with the religious elite or faithful but with bad company like sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. Things didn’t change in the last moments of Jesus’ life either. Luke describes the men on either side of Jesus not as thieves but as people who do very bad things. They are more than petty thieves. They are the worst of the worst who didn’t care about others and would do anything to get what they wanted. without blinking an eye.
Roman tradition always put the worst criminal in the middle. As a result, he always received the worst of the jeers from the crowd. Why is Jesus there? In all truthfulness, Jesus was the one who bore the most sin that day. Though he has no sin of his own, he was baring the sins of all. The thieves on his left and right were carrying their own sins and hanging on the cross for them. But Jesus, the sinless one, was carrying the sins of the world.
It been said that in these two men on either side of Jesus we see the two responses to the Gospel. The first is hostile. The unrepentant thief asks, “Are you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” He’s thinking that if Jesus is the Messiah and he’s dying on the cross, what a failure! And this type of response to the Gospel is very real today. People can’t believe a faith which calls you to deny yourself, love your enemies and serve others. And they can’t believe in a faith which they don’t see being lived out by its followers. Polls continually find that the unchurched don’t see any difference between their lives and the lives Christians lead. Many people today are skeptical at the very least and hostile at worst to the Gospel.
Now the unrepentant’s thief’s question was asking Jesus to live and the consequence of that would be that we would die. But Jesus has committed from the beginning of his ministry that he would die so that we might live. Remember Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness? Satan takes Jesus to the top of the mountain and shows him all of the kingdoms and and says, “If you bow down before me, all of these kingdoms will be yours.” That same temptation of power, influence and comfort would confront Jesus through his ministry and even on the cross. Jesus could have saved himself and those thieves. As this question is posed in the midst of him dying on the cross, all of heaven must have been on its toes waiting for Jesus’ response. Will he, in the moment of his greatest pain and anguish, loneliness and darkest decide to take an out. No, Jesus decided in the Garden of Gethsemane that there was no other way than the cross and he reaffirmed it in his response to the unrepentant thief.
The second response to the Gospel is a recognition of sin and a confession of faith. The other thief turns to the unrepentant one and says “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” In other words, “We deserve this. We had it coming to us.” Most of us will do almost anything than admit we’re wrong. I have seen husbands driving the family on vacation completely lost and unwilling to admit they have no idea where they are. Three hours and many wrong turns later, he finds the place and acts as if he knew it all the time. Men are not alone in this. We’re born with an ego which says I’m not at fault. But there is something about the cross which tames the ego when we realize our own sin. This is the key to salvation. In Rembrandt’s etching, “The Three Crosses” you immediately notice the center cross on which Jesus died. Then you see the crowd gathered at the foot of the cross and the varied expressions of the people involved in crucifying God’s only son. At the edge of the painting, there’s another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Art critics say this is a self portrait of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized his sins. He helped nail Jesus to the cross. You too must come to understand that it is your sins which put him on the cross as did mine. And every sin that has ever been committed placed him on the cross. The first thing the second thief realizes is his sin.
Most of us wouldn’t let hardened criminals like him into heaven. We Christians are experts at deciding at who’s in and who’s out. We have our list and look at other people and see if they believe the right things, do the right things, say the right things, vote the right way, think the right way and live the right way. And we’re great at telling others what they’ve done without ever taking a critical eye and looking at ourselves. We have our list of whose in and who’s out. Lloyd Prator writes, “Take Adolph Hitler or better Joseph Stalin because he killed more people. What if, at the last minute, as Stalin lay dying, he turned his heart to Jesus and confessed his sins? Suppose he repented at the last minute, repented of the 14 million Russians Stalin killed… Would he have a place in the kingdom of God? Perhaps he might. The scandal of Christianity is precisely this: no matter what we have done, how much we have stolen, how many deaths we have been responsible for, no matter if we come to the moment of our death and now it is too late to remedy any of the suffering we have caused, no matter how great our sin, we can be forgiven if we truly acknowledge what we have done.” It’s a terrible thing when Christ followers have become known as judgmental rather than grace filled. What if we, like Jesus, offered people grace and welcomed them into the kingdom, no matter who they are or what they have done. What if we were known by our love rather than our hate? What difference might that make in our community. What difference might we make in people’s lives who would recognize that even they could come to Jesus and receive grace because we have extended grace? How many lives would we touch? How many eternity’s would be changed?
He looked at Jesus and said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What courage! What faith to dare ask this of the Son of God while dying on the cross next to him. When you get into heaven and all the angels are rejoicing, would you remember me? Jesus teaches us four things. First, Jesus delivers. To be remembered is more than just think about me. Any time God remembers someone in the Old Testament, he delivers them. In Genesis 8, Noah’s ark is drifting in the ocean and then God remembered them and sent a breeze to take them to land. When God was about to condemn Sodom and Gomorrah, he remembered Abraham’s faithful son and delivered Lot and his family from destruction. When Rachel was barren, she cried out to God for a baby and God remembered her. When the Hebrews had been slaves for 400 years, their deliverance started when God remembered them. Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, today, you shall be with me in paradise.” He didn’t just remember him, he delivered him.
Second, salvation is by grace through faith. Jesus turns to a man who had been a violent criminal all of his life and grants him eternal life from one request of faith. If you are going to enter God’s kingdom, you are not going to work for it. You’re never going to be able to earn it. This thief deserved nothing from Jesus but Jesus gives him the gift of eternal salvation. You won’t go to heaven because you come to worship. You won’t go to heaven because you go to Sunday School. You won’t go to heaven because you serve in a ministry. You and I will go to heaven because Jesus died for your sins and you believe in him, period. The thief who realized that he deserved to die asked that he be remembered and thus delivered. He didn't deserve it. He didn’t earn it. He never went to church. He never sat in a Sunday School class. He never served another person in his life because he was too busy serving his own needs. But now he is given eternal life, because he knew Jesus could save him, saved by grace and grace alone.
Third, Jesus promises eternal life. Now Jesus uses an interesting word in response to the thief. “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Why didn’t he just say heaven? Clearly, he means heaven. To make matters worse, paradise has developed a stigma in our minds today. Suicide bombers commit their acts in the hope of receiving paradise. Paradise originates from the Persian language which means a beautiful garden but the ideal paradise is the King’s garden. Kings had beautiful gardens with exotic animals you wouldn’t see in that part of the world. It had flowing water and trees and was a place of serenity or peace. And when someone had done something heroic, they were invited to the King’s garden. When Jesus speaks of paradise, he gives us an image of heaven. Not something hard and sterile like streets of gold or pearly gates. Jesus says heaven is paradise, the king’s garden, a place of beauty, peace and rest. And even more than that, it brings to mind the very first garden in the Bible, the garden of Eden, where God would come in the cool of the day and walk with Adam and Eve and enjoy being in the presence of God, their Creator. Can you just imagine what that must be like. This is why Jesus says, “Today, you will be with me….”
Fourth, grace is offered to all who call on Jesus. The thief asked just to be remembered and delivered and Jesus said, “Yes!” Even though Jesus was dying, he stopped the icy fingers of death itself to do what he had done his entire ministry, forgive another person allowing them to be reunited with their Creator. Even in his death, Jesus is reaching out to people who are far from God. We stop being the Church when we stop doing the things that Jesus did. We need to offer grace. What about you? Are people who are far from God comfortable around you? Do they feel smaller or do they feel valued? Do they feel judged and unloved or do they feel loved unconditionally? Are you willing to associate with bad people so that you might offer them grace and give them hope?
Ron Smith was in law enforcement for 20 years. After he retired, he was asked to join a prison ministry of his church. He scoffed at the idea knowing he had put a lot of those guys in prison and he above all knew what types of people. But eventually he broke down and joined and God softened his heart to them. He met a young man named Rob who was violently abused by his step father and at one point was thrown through a window shattering it. By the time he was 14, he had moved out to escape what was happening in his home. Not able to support himself, he turned to crime. He started with petty theft but then got caught at 16 stealing a car. He was punished and when he got out at 17 he graduated from stealing cars to robbing banks. He robbed 16 banks in 4 states over 120 days. He was found to be a hopeless cause and was sentenced to 20 years. He tried to escape and that put him in supermax. Now Rob joined the Arian Nation while in prison and Ron was African American. A year away from getting out of prison and Ron woke up one day and realized what a mess he had made of his life. He felt like he was a hopeless cause. Not having anywhere else to turn, he turned to Jesus for hope. One day, he prayed and gave his life to Jesus. Ron was assigned to become his mentor. Ron showed such compassion and love to Rob and that he wasn’t a lost cause that he became a completely different man, a new creature in Christ. This is the opportunity Jesus gives the thief on the cross and it’s the opportunity you can give others as well. Amen.
