Reading:  Luke 23:32-46

Preached at Beckley First Methodist Church on Friday, March 25^th 2005 

 

 

Luke pictures 3 men dieing on 3 crosses on Good Friday.  In the eyes of the world there is nothing good about any of them.  Through the eyes of faith a different story is told.

 

The first goes to the grave unable to find release from the hatred that dominated his life.

The second is told he would be welcomed in Paradise.

The third was Jesus.

 

Think about the first man.  We don’t know anything about him except that he had committed some crime that merited the death penalty, and that he saw no hope in Jesus as being the one who could change things.

 

He hears the mockery of the religious leaders and joins in their insults to Jesus.  “He saved others - let him save himself ... Ha! some Messiah… some chosen one of God... what a fraud!”

 

The soldiers mock, offering Him some cheap wine.  “Like some of this would you - then save yourself - if you’re King enough - King of the Jews - you’re nothing!”

 

The criminal hurls insults.  “If you were all you make yourself out to be, you could save your self - and me. But you’re not - are you!  Go on - save us - do something to make everything turn out all right - Messiah.”

 

There will be those today who will look on at the Christian Church - maybe see people going to worship - or watch something on television - or hear something on the radio - or read some thing in the news - and they will sneer.

 

They will say to themselves, “Look at that bunch of idiots - thinking they know anything about God - look at those goody-goodies - hypocrites - think their better than the rest of us - who needs them - save the world - They couldn’t even save themselves!”

 

Some today will laugh at the church.

Maybe the church deserves it.

But not the church’s Savior; Jesus Christ

 

Some will laugh at love and go to their grave thinking they are so clever.  They will kick and fight against the very thing that could change their life.  They will not consider the love of Jesus with any seriousness - as being of any use - of any value to them.  Today - Good Friday - will be just the same as any other day.

 

If you were to take them by the scruff of the neck and drag them to the foot of the cross - they would look around and then join in the jeering, mockery and hurling insults, because - like the religious and political leaders - like the soldiers - like the criminal at Jesus side - they see nothing to move them - nothing that doesn’t bear out their deepest fears - that life is a cruel joke and the best way to get through is to look after number one - after all, look what happened to Jesus.  “Save others?  He can’t even save Himself”.

 

One man dies unable to find release from the hatred that dominated his life.

Then there is this other criminal, who has a different attitude altogether.

 

Again, we don’t know what he’s done, what crime he has committed.  It could have been something awful. But this one is horrified.  He recognizes that both he and the other man are getting the just reward for their crimes.  But this Jesus?  He has done no wrong.

 

Maybe you have heard the expression, “Honor amongst thieves.”  Before being a pastor, I once had a job working alongside some people who were on the fringes of society - involved in petty crimes and on occasions more serious misdemeanors that landed them in jail.

 

Though their behavior was well outside what society describes as acceptable, amongst themselves they had a strict, yet unspoken, code of what was right and what was wrong.  And what was well out of order was if somebody got accused, and punished, for something they hadn’t done.

 

One day, working at a private house, some money went missing.  As I was the only one meant to be working there, it looked like I was going to get the blame for it, and could have lost my job.  These guys, who at other times were quite happy making my life difficult, all came to my defense.  They went to the Boss; “It wasn’t him.  He didn’t do it.”  They wouldn’t let on who did do it, but even though I was only peripheral to the gang, they knew it wasn’t me and were horrified to see me taking the heat for something I hadn’t been part of.

 

In a similar way, this criminal on the cross, verbally attacks the one who threw abuse at Jesus. “Look, we’re getting what we deserve, He’s not.  He’s not guilty!”  That man, that criminal was a believer. A believer that Jesus was different - Jesus was innocent.  A believer that Jesus - despite the mockery and insults - really was the King.  His words to Jesus, “Jesus, Remember me, When you come as ... King.”

 

He makes no excuses for his behavior.  He doesn’t try to get out of the consequences.  In his dieing moments, all he wants is that Jesus acknowledges that he was a man - who for once in his life - had gotten some thing right. “Remember me Jesus, when you come as King.”

 

Jesus does something far more wonderful.

He tells him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

There’s a song I heard on the radio, “What if God were one of us?”  It misses the whole point of Jesus.  The Jesus who hung on the cross between the two thieves was ‘one of us’.  The message of Christmas is that God became man and was born into human life with all that entails. 

 

The message of Good Friday is that He not only entered into life’s joys, but has entered into the deepest places of life - life’s darkest side, it’s suffering and pain, it’s unfairness and injustice, it’s hurt and fear.. even its end in death.

 

The message of Easter Day is that Christ has the victory over all these things.  Because of Easter Day, Jesus could say to a sinner with a believing heart, a criminal who hung dieing at His side, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise”

 

What else does Luke tell us of the third man on the cross, the Savior?

In verse 34 Jesus says, “Forgive them Father, they don’t know what they are doing.”

 

The Jewish and Roman leaders thought they were doing the right thing.  Jesus was a threat to everything they stood for.  Once He was out of the way, things could get back to normal.

 

The soldiers were just doing their job.  Yes, it was cruel.  Yes, it was brutal.  But that’s life.  If people didn’t want to get into trouble, they shouldn’t rock the boat.

 

Those who stood by and watched didn’t appreciate that something momentous was happening.  Yes, it was sad that Jesus should die, but, well, good men had come to a bad end before and probably would do so again.  Life goes on.

 

“Forgive them, Father, they don’t know what they are doing.”

Do we know any better?

 

Are we any nearer to becoming the sort of people God would have us to be?  Have we not also failed to appreciate the significance of Jesus’ death at Calvary?  Have we not failed to serve as He served us, failed to care as He cared for us, failed to love as He loved us?  Before the cross, how shallow and empty our faith can appear.  How we need to hear those words, “Forgive them, Father, they don’t know what they are doing.”  Because we don’t!

 

Luke also has Jesus saying as he dies:

“Father into your hands I place my Spirit”

 

What hope have we - but for the grace of God?  Throughout the last century we heard voices that told us: “This is the age of progress.  This is the man’s moment of coming of age.  Utopia is just around the corner. Man is at the center and can save the world.  By his understanding, war will be eradicated, the hungry will be fed, all will be free - All will be well.

 

And so we entered a new century.  Five years into it, war continues to rage.  The hungry continue to die.  All are not free.  All is not well.  Utopia seems more out of reach than ever.

 

There are areas of this good earth that we have made totally uninhabitable because of the radiation poisoning from weapons powerful enough to destroy everything on the planet.  The suicide rate continues to rise.  The prisons continue to be over crowded.  They haven’t found a cure for Cancer or AIDS or even the common cold.  They have no solution for death.

 

In the face of such a world I feel helpless.  I feel powerless and lost.  It’s too vast.  It’s too frightening.  I need a Savior.  I need the love that Jesus is.  And at the end of the day, I am at the mercy of God and can only say, “Father, into your hands I place my spirit.”

 

Three men died on three crosses.

 

One died throwing insults - unable to see beyond the narrow confines of his own self interest.  One died having turned to Jesus, died with the words, “Today you will be with me in paradise” ringing in his ears. One dies to defeat death, to overcome evil, to save sinners, to bring forgiveness, to reveal the depths of God’s love to a hurting, confusing, lost world.

 

On this Good Friday I am reminded that I need a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ who died at Calvary and was raised to life on Easter Sunday, whose Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the hearts of those who believe, from whose love nothing can separate us, and in whose love evil can be overcome - death can be defeated - and lives can be made whole.

 

The Cross of Christ.

It wasn’t the end.

It was just the beginning.

For we will meet on Easter Day and declare to the world:

“Christ is Risen - He is Risen Indeed!”

 

To God’s name be the Glory.

AMEN.

 

Adrian Pratt