LUKE 23:33-43 NRSV
33When they came to the place that
is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his
right and one on his left. 34Then Jesus said,
"Father, forgive them; for they do not
know what they are doing."
And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And
the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He
saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen
one!" 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up
and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, "If you are the
King of the Jews, save yourself!" 38There was also an
inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews.” 39One of
the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are
you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other
rebuked him, saying,
"Do you not fear God, since you are under
the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been
condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this
man has done nothing wrong."
42Then he said, "Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43He replied,
"Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
***
Sitting around the tables in Lectionary Bible
Study, it was as if someone had died. Someone we knew so well, a loved one, a
leader for our community, for our lives, and our world. In fact, we had studied
him, and he had shown up in our midst more than once. In the Noah Room, reading
the passion of Christ, we carried with us a heaviness of the death of our
Savior. “It is just so sad,” I said. It is sad, in the same way, as when an
innocent child dies. It is sad in the same way, when a young parent dies, or a
national leader dies. It is sad, in the same way, that death is when it cannot
be understood.
Sitting around tables in Lectionary Bible
Study, it was as if we were being judged. For this Sunday, the last Sunday of
the Christian year, was once called Judgement Sunday. We now know it as Reign
of Christ, or Christ the King Sunday, but there is a way, reading this text,
that it feels more like Judgement Sunday. In the Noah Room, we carried with us
the guilt of the people who stood by watching, and it reminded me of the quote,
attributed to German pastor Martin Niemöller, who was put in a concentration
camp. He wrote,
“First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
and there was no one left to speak for me.”
In that Upper Noah Room, we thought of the
genocides that happen now, and our complacency, and our inability. We pondered
moments when might have stood by, and denied our Lord. I think of the times, I,
myself, plead the fifth, when I choose not to weigh in, when manners, and
disbelief in change, keep me silent. Someone told me that they like that I
don’t bring politics into the pulpit, but I have also been told that your not
preaching if you don’t shake any feathers. In our Noah Room, we thought of the
ways we were the ones who stood by watching when Christ was hung from the
cross. We thought of the ways we stood on that hill called The Skull.
There were ways too we are the leaders, and
the soldiers, and the criminal mocking Jesus. We did not name those ways in our
Lectionary Bible Study, and perhaps in our blindness, Jesus prays, "Father,
forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus prays for
the ways we are blind to the Messiah being crucified in our midst, to the ways
we doubt, and shout, “save yourself.” For the ways we want proof, for the ways
we want a king of this world, a king with the power of human judgement, a king
with the power of human systems, a king with the power to climb down from the
cross and walk. We resist a king who has the power to go all the way to the
grave. I often wonder, why, if Jesus was so powerful, did he have to die? Why
could not Christ have defeated death some other way, some less violent and less
sad, some way that leaves us less culpable. But if he did this, there would be
a faithful criminal hanging on a cross alone, and perhaps more-so, there would
be a unrepentant criminal hanging there on the cross alone, and most of all,
there would be an innocent man hanging on a cross alone. Instead, Jesus was
there with them.
Jesus was the there, innocent and hanging on
the cross, for the victim, for the little child who dies, for the parent who
passes away, for the community grieving a leader’s death, for those oppressed
by injustice, and for those who can relate to the pain of a cross and nails.
Jesus was there. Jesus was with them. We do not hang on the cross alone. Jesus,
likewise, does not leave us alone to die, nor does Jesus leave death as the
final answer.
Jesus was there with the criminal who mocked
him. He was there for the places and times, in each of us, where and when we
have mocked the true King. Where we have seen a neighbor and turned away. He
was there, on the cross, for the times we have not known what we were doing,
and yet still needed forgiveness. He was there, on the cross, for Pastor
Niemöller, and for Pastor Katy, and for you, and for the soldiers offering sour
wine, and the leader who wrote, “King of the Jews,” above his head. He was
there, on the cross, and they were not left alone their sinfulness. He was
there on the cross, to offer relationship, to be with them in their sin.
Likewise, he was there on the cross, for the,
‘deserving,’ criminal, who spoke justice. Jesus was there on the cross, to hear
the deserving criminal’s words, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom.” Jesus was there, on the cross, to promise a new kingdom, the kingdom
of God, a new reign, the reign of Christ. Jesus was there, on the cross, to
reply to the deserving criminal, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus neither left the deserving criminal alone on the cross, nor alone in
death, but promised salvation.
In our grief, at Lectionary Bible Study, Jesus
was there, on the cross, meeting us in the mess of life, and the brokenness we
feel. We were not alone. He was visiting again. Because there in our text,
Jesus also spoke words of promise, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with
me in Paradise.” In that hard Judgement Sunday text, there was a promise;
it is Reign of Christ Sunday. That our Christian year ends with Christ’s
promise, and Christ’s presence, and paradise. The final answer, the end, is the
promise: Paradise. Paradise. Paradise in the kingdom of God, today. Amen.
