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. The Bible teaches us that 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 today 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 service for a criminal, but remembering in the biblical sense—Jesus is with us TODAY, remembering me, remembering each one of us 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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