Sermons

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“...With Me in Paradise”
March 30, 2003
Pastor Dan Baumgartner
4th in a sermon series on the Seven Last Words of Christ
Luke 23:35-43

We continue in our series on the Seven Last Words of Jesus…the words Jesus spoke from the cross. In looking through the different gospels, so far we have looked at these statements:

a) Here is your son…your mother.
b) I am thirsty
c) Father, forgive them…they don’t know what they are doing.

This morning we sit again, a fourth time, at the foot of the cross, to listen. Join me in reading again from the gospel of Luke, chapter 23 and verses 35-43. This Word comes immediately after the Jesus prays from the cross, “Father, forgive them.”

Luke 23:35-43

There’s a war going on. There’s a war going on around us on the OUTSIDE, in Iraq. We see it. We see it on TV, pictures beamed into our homes from across the world, so vivid that you can practically taste the grit of sand and the smell of smoke. We see it in the newspapers, reading page after page and article after article. We talk about it continually; we know people, perhaps, who are flying, parachuting, waiting for the orders to go.

There’s a war going on. There’s a war going outside us in Iraq, and INSIDE of us as well…and the two are definitely related. I felt it this week when I realized there was a weight on me that I couldn’t quite name. I felt it when people asked how I am, and the most I seem able to honestly muster up is “okay.”

There’s a war going on inside us. I felt it most acutely on Friday when I went downtown to run a couple of errands. I saw the extra policemen standing at the corners. I grew up in Seattle, have lived nearly my whole life here. For maybe the first time in my life, I was afraid to be downtown, afraid to be around a crowd of people. I found myself scanning the street in front of me, wondering if I was in a place where danger might strike. I’m ashamed to say that I found myself looking at people, wondering which one or ones might do something crazy: pull a gun, ignite a bomb. And then I wondered if people were looking at ME, wondering if I was a person who might do something crazy.

There’s a war going on…outside of us…and on the inside as well.

There was a war raging around Jesus as he hung there on that cross. A political war, where the oppressing Roman government loosely controlled the physical region of Palestine. There was the normal fallout of oppression and war: assassinations, arrests, political maneuvering, the spinning for favorable publicity. And there was also a religious war, where the religious leaders loosely controlled the spiritual region of the Jews and there was a groping for power that was tangible and measurable and that spilled over into daily life. There was war raging around Jesus as he hung on that cross: political, spiritual, a battle of words and a battle for power. And, the gospel writer Luke tells us, the enemies of Jesus were lined up all around Him.

a) Some SILENT ONES were there, “the people.” They just watched, silently. It was hard to tell what they thought. Perhaps they were deciding if they should have taken a position on this Jesus, if even now they should do something. Perhaps they were opportunists, wondering if anything extraordinary would happen. Perhaps they were believers, afraid to line up on the wrong side of power. All we know is: They were silent. When it comes to Jesus, sometimes WE are strangely silent.

b) The Religious Leaders, THE SCOFFERS were there. Without wanting to, they affirmed that there really was something to Jesus’ ministry (“He saved others…” they said). If only they could have seen how much they sounded like the devil at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Remember? When Jesus was in the desert, what were Satan’s words of temptation to Him? “IF you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” “IF you are the Son of God, throw yourself from the pinnacle, and see if God will save you.” The words of the Scoffers are the same. “Let him save himself IF he is the Messiah of God.”

“Prove yourself to us, Jesus.” Isn’t that what they are saying? “Prove yourself to us, and oh by the way, the only way for you to prove yourself to us is if you do what we believe a Messiah is supposed to do: Come with physical power, with political violence, vindicate by force, destroy all opposition. Then we’ll believe.” When it comes to Jesus, sometimes we’ll only follow if things go the way we expect.

c) The soldiers, the MOCKERS were there, too. They sarcastically carried on as though they thought Jesus was a king…though of course they didn’t. They “came up” to Jesus, approached him as though they were approaching someone of royalty. They grandiosely offered him wine as though they were his servants; they hung a label over him…but their hearts betrayed their actions. “IF you are the King…then SAVE YOURSELF.” When it comes to Jesus, sometimes our hearts don’t match our actions.

d) And then there is the CYNIC, hanging there on the cross alongside of Jesus, watching out for himself, goading Jesus… “Save yourself…and while you’re at it, miracle man, save me too.” When it comes to Jesus, sometimes we’re only watching out for ourselves.

All of these things are going on, enemy voices dripping with sin goading Jesus forward, all screaming through the blood and the pain, the nails, the wood, all shouting the only word which could have seemed at all rational to Jesus as he hung there: “Save yourself.” There was a war going on, all around Jesus and surely inside him too… “Just save yourself.”

And then there’s this one other guy. We know nothing about him, except that he was a criminal. That’s it. What did he know about Jesus? Anything at all? Almost anything we might say is pure speculation. But the church has never been above speculating. There are several church traditions that surround this criminal, even giving him a name, “Dysmas.” In 1943, in the midst of another war, Dorothy Sayers, a British author you may know for her detective fiction of Lord Peter Wimsey, or as a translator of Dante…wrote a series of plays on the gospel story to be broadcast over the BBC (“The Man Born to be King”). It was wildly successful and controversial, because she added imagination and conversation to the Biblical story. Here’s how she imagined this criminal “Dysmas” relating to Jesus as they hung side by side on the cross. Dysmas sticks up for Jesus in the face of the bitterness from the criminal on the other side, and then he says,

“There! He’s smiling. He like being talked to that way….(In a deeply respectful tone, humoring this harmless lunacy) Sir, you’ll remember me, won’t you, when you come into your kingdom?”

And Jesus says “Indeed and indeed I tell you -- today you shall be with me in Paradise.”

And Dysmas again (after an astonished pause and in a changed tone): You’re not mad! You’re…I don’t know what you are!…Don’t look at me like that…I been bad -- bad all through -- you don’t know how bad…Yes, you do; you know everything…Near Jordan, I was born, near Jordan, and the water cool to the feet…It’s a long way, but you won’t leave me…Stay with us, Jesus, stay with us on the cross -- go on looking at me…I’m sorry -- that’s selfish…keeping your head upright -- like red-hot pincers in your neck…Give me the pain -- it’s all I’m fit for -- but I think it’s you that’s bearing mine -- somehow. I’m all muddled…and the water is cool to the feet.”

Maybe that’s how it went. All we really know for sure…is that this criminal is the only one in the whole story who called the Lord by his name, JESUS (which means “savior”). AND…that he must surely have heard Jesus pray: “Father, forgive them.” He had heard the voice of Jesus respond to pain with mercy, respond to injustice with grace, respond to violence with prayer. Really, all we know…is what he heard Jesus pray.

There are at least three things that I don’t want us to miss in this story.

The first: The GRACE that Jesus extended to this criminal…is rather shocking. It would make the silent, the mocker, the scoffer, the cynic…absolutely fit to be tied. And WE read this word, and maybe if you are like me you wonder what actually went on. There’s an awful lot left unsaid. We don’t know if this man confessed his sin. We don’t know if he repented. We don’t know if he believed. We don’t know if he prayed the sinners’ prayer or knew the Four Spiritual Laws. We don’t know anything at all except that… He asked Jesus to remember him if SOMEDAY, some way his kingdom came about. And Jesus gives to him far more than he asked for, and far more than he deserved. “TODAY. You’ll be with me…in paradise.” For this man…being in paradise…meant being with Jesus. God’s grace is always bigger than we think it is. It defies our neat categories, it is downright shocking. What if Jesus held out that grace to you?

Second: The thing that makes the most sense in this story to me…are the voices which clamor for Jesus to save himself. To just climb down from the cross and end this whole ridiculous, painful scene. But Jesus couldn’t get down from the cross. I don’t mean he was physically unable. I suspect He could have done anything He desired. What I mean is that he couldn’t climb down from the cross…IF he was going to save. If He was going to open the door to eternity not just for ONE person, but for ALL people…then Jesus had to take upon himself all the sin which blocked the way to God. And He had to overturn the power of death, which separated people from being with God.

If Jesus climbed down from the cross…If Jesus saved himself…then he could save no one else. Not the silent ones, not the mockers, not the scoffers, not the cynics, not the criminal…not you. Not me. He was either going to save himself and not us…or us and not himself. Surely there was a war going on inside of Jesus. “Just save yourself.” He stayed on the cross.

But finally…in this scene, it is like the camera zooms in and the darkness of the day and the people around shouting…all fade out of sight until all we see is Jesus…and this one criminal, the one who acknowledged that Jesus didn’t deserve such a fate. In the middle of the battle it is now strangely quiet, as though there is nothing else that matters to Jesus except THIS ONE MAN…as though the greatest drama of history has come down to this one run-of-the-mill criminal.

And here is where we again get that feeling, the one that sends a shiver up and down my spine…that somehow, someway…Jesus is in control. Even from the cross. Especially from the cross. It is as though all that now matters to Jesus…is that the kingdom of God grows by one more person. Even there on the cross, his hands nailed to the wood, Jesus reaches out one more time. It’s all he has ever cared about, isn’t it?! You, the Outcast. You the Leper. You the Sinful Woman. You the despised Tax Collector. You that have felt as though you have never belonged. You that feel like you are not good enough for God to love. Jesus says: “Come. Come and know me. Come into my family. Come into the kingdom of God.” Jesus’ ministry, his mission, his identity, his death…bring people into the kingdom of God. Just one more. Just one more.

There’s a war going on…outside of us in Iraq…and inside of us as a result. There’s a war that makes us want to pull back from other people, that makes us suspicious, that makes us self-protective, that makes us separate ourselves…that pulls us to be exactly the kind of people that God does NOT want us to be. There’s a war going on.

I have to tell you…I am afraid that this war …can do great damage to the church. The church universal, and our part of the church here at Bethany. This war in Iraq has the potential to be not just around us, not just inside of us…but also between us. In this room, we feel differently about the war in Iraq. Very differently. I talk to a lot of people in a week’s time. Some speak against the war. Some protest on the streets. Some support the war effort. Many are uncertain at best, confused at worst. This war has the potential to not only physically kill and maim, to not only scar our minds…but to cause Christian brothers and sisters to be divided. To wonder about each other, to be suspicious, to mistrust, to quit reaching out. This war has the potential to do great damage to the kingdom of God.

And ironically…it also holds great potential for the church to minister to the world, to welcome people in, to point people towards Christ, to send us to our knees together, side by side on our knees, in humility.

Even from the war on the cross, Jesus looked for a way to add just one more person, just one more to the kingdom. We are called to do the same. It will begin with the people in this room. So I urge you, in the name of Christ, in these days…be gentle with one another, tender with one another, be good listeners to each other and fervent pray-ers together. Inside and outside of the body of Christ, extend your hands to embrace people. I pray that in doing so…the kingdom of God might grow…by just one more. And one more. And one more. Amen.