The Three Crosses On Calvary
In the latter half of the 1800’s there was a small man with a huge voice who was a master of the stage. His name was Edwin Thomas. At age 15 he debuted in Richard III, and from then on he became well known as a premier Shakespearean actor. He performed Hamlet in New York for 100 consecutive nights. The British critics in London sang his praises. Edwin Thomas was a master of tragedy on stage.
Unfortunately, his life was all too similar to his stage persona. Tragedy was his trademark. Edwin had two brothers who were also actors, John and Junius. In 1863 the three brothers performed Julius Caesar. The fact that brother John portrayed the role of Brutus, Caesar’s assassin, was an ironic twist that foreshadowed what would happen just 2 years later.
You see, in 1865, John became a real life assassin. On a crisp April night, he stole into a rear box in Ford’s Theater and fired a bullet at the head of Abraham Lincoln. Edwin Thomas and John Wilkes both shared the same last name, Booth.
After that night Edwin was never the same. Shame from his brother’s crime drove him to an early retirement. He likely would never have returned to the stage if it weren’t for a twist of fate in a New Jersey train station. Edwin was awaiting his coach when a well-dressed young man, pushed by the swell of the crowd, lost his footing and fell between the platform and a moving train. With little regard for his own personal well-being, Edwin locked a leg around a rail, grabbed the man and pulled him to safety. Amid the sighs of relief, the young man recognized the famous Edwin Booth. But Edwin didn’t recognize the famous young man he’d rescued. It was only weeks later, in a letter from the chief secretary to Ulysses S. Grant that he learned that He had saved the life of Robert Todd Lincoln, the child of an American hero, Abraham Lincoln. Booth carried that letter in his vest pocket to his grave.
Isn’t it ironic! Edwin Thomas and John Wilkes Booth. One killed the president, the other saved the president’s son. Same father, mother, profession and passion-yet one chooses to give death, the other to give life. How could it happen? I don’t know exactly, but I can offer at least a broad overview. It wasn’t only one choice that made the difference, but a series of choices, a pattern and direction for each of their lives that determined how they would turn out. For everything they had in common, the one thing that marked their differences was the path they chose to take with their life. It was the difference between life and death.
This morning I want us to think about a choice that each of us must make. How you choose will determine the course of your life. Even more importantly, the Bible clearly portrays that the choice you make will determine your eternal destiny. It is a life or death matter that we ponder this morning, and the difference in where we end up is determined by the choice we make concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Text: Luke 23:32-43
Most of the time when we think of the cross of Calvary, we are pretty much focused on the cross that held Jesus. However, there wasn’t just one cross that day, not only a solitary death by crucifixion. Have you ever wondered why there were two other crosses next to Jesus on the hill called Golgotha that day? Have you ever pondered the significance of the fact that Jesus was placed in the center, between two thieves sentenced to death for their crimes against society?
Well, I can’t say for sure, but it seems to me that the crosses on each side of Jesus in a very real way represent the ultimate choice that you and I must make. How you choose determines not only the way you will live your life on earth, but where you will spend eternity.
On one side of Jesus stood what we might call the cross of rebellion. Notice verse 39, "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ’Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!’" It wasn’t enough that Jesus had been convicted of crimes he didn’t commit. It wasn’t enough that he had been beaten to within an inch of His life. The fact that his clothes had been divided up among the soldiers and he had been nailed to a wooden cross seems too much to bear. But now, hanging between the earth and the sky, with insults flying from the passers by, even one of the men being crucified with Him is hurling insults his direction.
Have you ever been amazed at the depths to which human beings can sink? How many times have you watched the news or read the paper and found yourself shaking your head at the evil that is going on in the world. Listen to the commentators describe the school shootings, random violence, and pain that is going on around the world. People frequently treat one another terribly, and bad circumstances are all around us.
We live in a world where pain and suffering are regular fare. Violence and tragedy are an ordinary part of this world. And if you think that today is any worse than the past, then read your history. Read about the pioneer days of our country, or the middle ages, or the first century, or the time of the patriarchs in the Old Testament and you will find that there has always been violence and tragedy.
The Bible offers us good reason for the way things are. We live in a fallen world. Since the Adam and Eve chose to disobey God in the garden of Eden, human beings have been living in open rebellion to the will of God. The Bible tells us that human beings are sinful creatures. In spite of what politicians and contemporary philosophers say, humans are not basically good. Paul wrote in Romans 3 that every one of us has sinned, and that sin mars us at the very core of our being. The result of sin in our life is that we become objects of the wrath of God. The very nature of God requires that he pour our his wrath on sin.
Listen to what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-3 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our [flesh] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
On one side of Jesus stood the cross of rebellion. The thief on that cross refused to acknowledge who Jesus truly was, and the word of God gives us every reason to believe that this man died in sin. Jesus said in John 8:24 "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
Another criminal flanked Jesus on the other side. Really, there isn’t any reason to believe that this guy was any better a person than the thief that hung on the opposite side of Jesus. Matthew tells us that both of the criminals were hurling insults at Jesus as they made their way to the place of the crucifixion. But something must have happened to cause this man to change his mind about Jesus. Maybe it was Jesus’ words of forgiveness to those who were crucifying him, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Maybe it was something that isn’t even recorded for us to know, but this man came to believe that Jesus was who he said he was. When the first criminal hurled insults Jesus’ way, this man responded, "’Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ’since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ’Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’"
While the first criminal hung on the cross of rebellion, this one changed his mind. His cross might be considered the cross of repentance. While the first criminal died in his sin, the second criminal died to his sin. Based on Jesus response to this man, the dark past of this criminal was forgiven. "Jesus answered him, ’I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’"
You know, it is easy to get confused about what it is that gives us an opportunity for a relationship with God.
· Sometimes we give in to the thought that if only we can keep our nose clean and be good boys and girls, God will love us.
· Other times we hope that our family connections will endear us to God. "Grandpa was a preacher so I hope to get into heaven," is a very common way of thinking.
· At times probably all of us fall into the trap of believing that by doing good things God will take notice of us and let us into heaven.
The criminal on the cross of repentance reminds us that it’s not who we are or what we’ve been like that gets us into heaven. We are given passage into heaven based on how we are related to Jesus Christ the Son of God. No other standard is applied. Trust in Jesus and you get to go to heaven. Reject or ignore him, and the wrath of God remains on you. It really all boils down to that.
Now over the course of time you might have heard this passage referred to by people who try to tell you that baptism isn’t important because the thief on the cross wasn’t baptized and yet Jesus promises him salvation. That is unfortunate. At this point, Jesus had not yet died. Technically, the church wasn’t established and the new covenant wasn’t initiated until the day of Pentecost nearly two months later. But besides all that, honestly, I can’t understand why all the fuss about whether a person needs to be baptized or not.
You see, when a person is rightly related to Christ, when they have submitted themselves to the Lordship of Jesus, the only thing they want to do is please him. My guess is that this criminal would have gladly submitted to baptism if he had the chance. If a person is looking for a loophole to get into heaven on a technicality, then perhaps this passage looks appealing. But if your looking for a loophole then you’ve missed the point. If you’ve made Jesus Christ your Savior and Lord, if he told you to stand on your head clap three times you would do it or break your neck trying.
Even though we’ve spent a lot of time this morning talking about the cross on the right and the left, don’t forget the cross in the middle. While the one cross is the cross of rebellion and the other the cross of repentance, it is the cross of Jesus that is the cross of redemption. While the one criminal died in his sin, and the other died to his sin, only Jesus was able to die for sin. And he was willing to do that for your and my sake.
In John 10:17-18 Jesus said, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again." You see, it is possible to mistakenly believe that Jesus was just some poor stiff caught up in a bad situation. An innocent man who was killed for crimes he didn’t commit. That is a false idea. The Bible teaches that Jesus willingly submitted to death in order to accept the penalty for our sin. If Jesus really was who He said he was, nails couldn’t have held him to that wooden cross. But if Jesus was the Son of God with all the power in the universe at His disposal, He gave His life, it wasn’t taken from Him.
Listen to Scripture’s testimony.
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,
Hebrews 9:27-28 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
2 Cor. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We gather together this morning to celebrate and sing about the good news that Jesus Christ loved us enough to give Himself on the cross of redemption. Because of that cross, the one in the middle nearly 2000 years ago, we all are faced with the same choice that those two criminals had. So which one can you identify with?
Are you among those who can identify with the cross of rejection? Maybe you’ve never been openly belligerent toward Jesus, but you have never submitted to His Lordship. The Bible clearly states that those who don’t have a saving relationship with Jesus will suffer the consequences of that rejection for eternity. The result of being in sin is receiving the wrath of God. The Bible portrays that as a painful eternity, marked by weeping, gnashing of teeth, and fire. The cost of facing death without a relationship with Jesus Christ is dreadful.
Thankfully, because of Jesus love for us we have a choice. It is a choice that will not only fill our days with meaning, but will fill our eternity with joy and privilege. It is not something that we deserve, but something offered freely by the love of God for those who will repent, confess and obey Jesus.
The question now is, which response to Jesus have you chosen, rejection or repentance?
