1.
Grace, mercy, and
peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Good
Friday is taken from Luke 23:39-43, and is entitled, “Remember Me,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
One of the songs
often sung on Good Friday is, “Were You
There” (LSB 456). That title is a lot like the titles of 36 children’s
books written from 1955 to 1963 called the We
Were There series. They were fictional but historically accurate accounts
of an event with children as primary characters in the story. Young readers
could identify with the child in the story, so it was like you were there with
them. We could imagine We Were There at
the Battle of the Alamo or We Were
There at the Boston Tea Party or We
Were There on the Oregon Trail. So, when we sing, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” we could say, “We were there at the cross of Calvary.” It
wasn’t other young children, but sinners like us . . . criminals on their
crosses . . . who were primary characters in the story.
3.
Thinking that we
were there would capture another aspect of the rich meaning of the word
remember in the Old Testament. We’ve been talking a lot this Lenten season
about how remembering is a thought in the mind plus an appropriate action that
takes place. But there’s even more. To remember something is as if you were
brought back to that event, experiencing it with the original people. For
instance, the Passover wasn’t just a
memorial celebration remembering what God did in delivering those people from
Egypt. It was as if you were right there, being delivered with those people.
4.
Could it also be
that when God remembers someone or something, it’s just like it’s happening
right now? That’s what we want to consider tonight when we look at one of those
criminals on his cross asking, “Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). This isn’t a
memorial day service for a criminal, but remembering in the biblical
sense—Jesus is with us this very evening, remembering me, remembering each one
of us tonight and promising paradise. Jesus Remembers a Criminal So That People
Know Pardon in Paradise.
5.
In the verses we
read, the two criminals are sounding quite different. One mocked & jeered
at Jesus. He was taunting the Lord to do something about their situation if he
really was the Christ. The other rebuked him . . . told him to knock it off,
because Jesus was innocent. But, if you read Matthew’s account of the
crucifixion, it’s clear that they were both giving Jesus a hard time at first.
“And the robbers who were crucified with
him also reviled him in the same way” (Mt 27:44).
6.
I imagine that a
lot of criminals tend to downplay their crimes or deny them altogether. But,
these criminals would have had a hard time defending themselves. The Greek word
used to describe them in Luke’s Gospel isn’t the word used for petty thieves. The word is kakourgoi, which means, “one
who commits gross misdeeds and serious crimes, it’s a word that’s also used for
pirates, an evildoer.” These were really bad men! Though we translate the
word for them as “criminal,” it was
used to describe only the most evil enemies of the state, like we might reserve
the word “terrorist” for those
committing the worst kinds of crimes against society.
When
forced to admit their crimes, such convicts may try to excuse them or justify
themselves and their actions. When criminals—or as we would usually say it,
when sinners—try to justify themselves and their actions, the excuses can
sometimes be ridiculous. For instance, when Moses was delayed on Mount Sinai
and everyone thought he wasn’t coming back, they made a golden calf to worship.
When Moses came back, this was how Aaron explained the obvious idolatry: “So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold
take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came
this calf” (Ex 32:24). How could it be sinful? It was a miracle! Sometimes
the excuses for sin were more reasonable. There was a time when the future king
David vowed to kill an ungrateful man. The man, Nabal, enjoyed protection from his enemies just because David was
in the area, but he refused to give David any kind of thank-you present. So,
David felt justified with his anger. How could it be sinful? The ingrate
deserved to die! See, it’s not just criminals on a cross that rail at God.
Sinners do it all the time.
7.
But, one of the
criminals on the cross changed his mind. He rebuked the other criminal,
recognized that Jesus was innocent, and believed that Jesus really was a king. He
had heard what everyone was saying about Jesus. He had read the sign above
Jesus’ head that identified him as a king. When people hear and read things
about Jesus and those things cause them to change their mind, what’s that
called? Repentance! The criminal
repented based on what he saw and heard. Instead of justifying himself, he
asked Jesus to remember him. Jesus did. He made a promise nobody deserves, a
promise a bad man certainly didn’t deserve. “Today you will be with me in paradise” (v 43). Jesus Remembers a Criminal So That People
Know Pardon in Paradise.
8.
What about us?
Can we really say, “We were there at the
cross of Calvary” because people just like us, those criminals, were there?
Do we really compare to criminals so bad that they have a special word to
describe them? We’re sinners, but no worse than anyone else . . . probably
better than most. As soon as we would say that, would we be trying to excuse
our behavior and justify ourselves? Are we right with God because our sin isn’t
as bad as others’ sins? Are we good because someone else is worse? Not
according to the Bible. “For whoever
keeps the whole Law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it”
(James 2:10). St. Paul knew this well. He could both confess Christ and confess
his own sin: “The saying is trustworthy
and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim 1:15). Well, move over, Paul. We
were there too! You might not have the “foremost
sinner” position just yet. Anyone who says he or she is just a little
sinner has it wrong. We’re each the foremost. We’re the criminal. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Even worse, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is
not in us” (1 Jn 1:8, 10). God’s Word brings us to repentance, just as it
did for that other criminal. Jesus Remembers a Criminal So That People
Know Pardon in Paradise.
9.
While both
criminals started out mocking Jesus, one of them changed his mind. What brings
about repentance or change in anyone? It’s God’s Word. That thief heard God’s
Word right from Jesus in the few words he spoke from the cross. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do” (Lk 23:34). The criminals on the other crosses knew criminals.
What criminal ever called God “father”?
What criminal had ever asked God to forgive the soldiers who were torturing and
killing him? What criminal ever understood forgiveness at all? What person of
any sort ever understood undeserved forgiveness? And even though the criminals
were with Jesus on the cross, did they understand that they were really “with Jesus”? Jesus substituted himself
for all sinners, even the worst, so that they could have life and so paradise
could be open to them. Jesus also gives power to his Word to bring the worst
sinners to repentance—to change their
minds regarding sin and to change
their minds regarding the forgiveness of sins.
10.
Consider another
famous criminal who heard Jesus and repented—was changed because he heard God’s
Word. It was St. Paul. He was trying to destroy the Church, even assisting
those who stoned Stephen. No wonder Paul considered himself to be the foremost sinner. But, like the criminal
next to Jesus who was changed through repentance and faith, Paul also knew
pardon and the promise of paradise. He wrote in 2 Cor 12:3, “And I know that this man was caught up into
paradise.” He mentioned paradise only that one time, but wrote over and
over about the many words for God’s pardon so that other sinners, criminals,
could read, repent, and be pardoned.
11.
What changes our
minds? What gets us to stop defending our actions, downplaying our sins, and
justifying ourselves, and moves us to ask Jesus to remember us? The word of
Jesus. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, telling them their sins and how far
they were from God, those hard words caused them grief. But Paul didn’t
apologize for that because “godly grief
produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Cor 7:10). Hearing God’s
Word leads us to this “godly grief”
that also produces repentance in us, followed by forgiveness.
12.
Christ took our
place under the Law. The word is written as though “we were there at Calvary” because we should have been there. Jesus
took our place. Now, God still puts us in Jesus’ place. Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn
14:3). God’s powerful Word brings us to repentance to forgive us, to open the
door of paradise to us. Jesus Remembers a Criminal So That People
Know Pardon in Paradise.
13.
From now on, the
grace and power of God working through his Word enables us to look at other
people as people for whom Christ died. It’s like looking over and seeing a
fellow criminal . . . someone else who is being crucified. But they are also
crucified with Christ. They are ones for whom Christ died. In union with
Christ, together, God makes us look at one another with a much greater degree
of understanding and compassion. “Be kind
to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave
you” (Eph 4:32). Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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