A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at The Good Friday Ecumenical Preaching Service?St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Metuchen, New Jersey- March 21, 2008

Text: Luke 23:26, 32-34, 39-43
Now that you’ve gotten comfortably reseated, I’m going to ask you to stand back up..come on, you could use the exercise at this point in the service. I want you to join me in singing another song. And I want to quiet Mrs. Diehl’s anxiety at this intrusion…we won’t need to have organ accompaniment for this one. I’m sure many of you are familiar with the Afro-American spiritual Do Lord, Remember Me. Lets’ give it a try…and, by the way, hand clapping and body-swaying are allowed.

Do, Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?do, Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?do Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?look a way beyond the blue…

I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?look a way beyond the blue…

I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?look a way beyond the blue.
Okay…now you may sit back down… I believe you’re now fully prepared to receive the Gospel reading from Luke 23…and I’ll be reading from the contemporary rendering of Scripture by Eugene Peterson in The Message.

As they led him off, they made Simon, a man from Cyrene who happened to be coming in from the countryside, carry the cross behind Jesus.

Two others, both criminals, were taken along with him for execution.

When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.

Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”

One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!”

But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours—a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly, “Father, I place my life in your hands!” Then he breathed his last. —Luke 23:26, 32-34, 39-43 The Message
At this point, you may be asking yourself…or your neighbor…“Why on earth did he have us stand up and sing that lively spiritual before reading from the Gospel?” Let me give you a hint by revisiting that wonderful song. But this time, we’re going to sing it quite differently…remaining seated and at a much slower tempo. And as we do, recall what the one “criminal” asked of Jesus from his cross: “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

Do, Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?do, Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?do Lord, oh do, Lord, oh do remember me;?look a way beyond the blue…

[And Jesus] said “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.”

I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?I’ve got a home in gloryland that outshines the sun;?look a way beyond the blue.
Remarkable, isn’t it, how this spiritual which we so often sing in such a spirited fashion can become a deep and powerful recollection of those final moments on Calvary when sung in such a slow and prayer-like manner.

When you and I gaze upon the hill of Calvary, we usually focus our attention on that middle cross…the one on which the Christ was nailed. And rightly so, for that is the cross which saves us…the cross to which our sin is nailed. But Luke reminds us of those other two crosses, and of the two “criminals” hanging there on either side of Jesus.

Some Bible translations have called them “thieves.” But more and more they are referred to as “criminals” or “bandits,” because we are re-discovering the reality that these two men are more than just common thieves. At a recent seminar I attended, Dr. James Fleming, Founder and Director of the Biblical Resources Study Center in Jerusalem, and a highly-respected archaeologist, stated outright that the two men crucified on either side of Jesus were not just “thieves”—they were most likely “zealots.” Common thieves were not crucified, Dr. Fleming declared. Their punishment was significantly less radical than that. Earlier this week I also came across several sites on the Internet that clearly indicate that thieves were not crucified. And that was confirmed as recently as this morning by Dr. Darrell Bock, a professor of New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, in an article in The Star-Ledger. Crucifixion, or death in any form, for theft was contrary to both Jewish and Roman law. Theft was not a capital offense.

Some people have tried to provide names for these two “criminals.” One has been named Gestas…which means, “the impenitent,” while the second has been given the name Dismas…later, St. Dismas…“the penitent”. But in fact, they remain nameless in the Scriptures. Indeed, the second thief on the cross—the one who asks Jesus to “remember me”—may well be one of the best-known of the innumerable nameless persons who inhabit the pages of our Bible.
Someone has said that there are two types of people in the world. (I suspect there are far more personality types than that.) The common joke says that these two types of people are the type who divide everyone into two types of people and the type that don’t. However, joking aside, we catch a glimpse of at least two types of humanity in this story of the criminals who shared in crucifixion with our Lord.

On God’s “Good Friday,” all of humanity is nailed to a cross, suffering for the sake of our sin. Through our damaged relationships, the ones we continuously damage, we endure pain and hardship. We lose love; we lose family; we lose neighbors; we lose nature; we may even lose God. There is little that we won’t hand over at times in the name of our own self-interest, greed and hate and violence and vanity. We wage war…5 years this week!…we strip the planet, we allow the homeless to inhabit our streets, we cheat on our spouses… And so it is that we are each on a cross at times, if you will, living in the brokenness of our lives and the sacrifice of healthy and whole relationships.

How do we react? How do we react, especially, to the One who claims to be the Christ of God? The One who became one of us…one with us…to endure the same reality we endure—the One who was hoisted upon that same cross?

One of the criminals crucified with Jesus remained unrepentant. Filled with self-interest, his only concern was to provoke God into getting him down from that cross. This is so familiar in the lament of so many who say that because suffering exists in our world, God must not. Yet they are often the same people who do little or nothing to change their own patterns of behavior which often causes the very suffering against which they rail. They seem to have difficulty realizing how the little things they do…or neglect to do…every day cause untold grief and pain and death around the world. They walk past homeless people, offering nothing, and then complain that God must not exist because there are people who are homeless. They purchase high-priced sneakers or clothing put together with cheap labor without a second thought, and then determine that God must not care because of sweatshop laborers. They hop in their cars and fill ‘em up with gasoline, while lamenting the growing crisis of global warming and the deaths of so many around the world in conflicts over access to petroleum resources.
This thief is so familiar to us, as he is hobbled by selfishness and shallowness of vision. His only interest in God is what advantage God may be able to provide for him. He doesn’t want to change terribly much…only to have God clean up the loose ends for him like a parent picks up the toys a child leaves strewn about the room.

The other thief, however, is coming to recognize his own culpability. When confronted with Jesus bearing the same suffering as he is enduring, he sees the justice of his own suffering at his own hands, reminding his criminal cross-mate: “We indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41, NRSV). He is moving toward repentance, understanding the web of sin in which he is involved. This thief understands that he has caused suffering by his own will, by pursuing his own selfishness. Every time he pumps gasoline, he sees the fumes of pollution and the flowing of the blood in the conflicts that affect so many around the world. She sees the work of four- and five-year-old children while examining some inexpensive clothing items. He acknowledges the suffering he causes when he can’t even look a homeless person in the eye. He may well recognize the immutability of his situation…that no matter what he does, he will always cause suffering to someone because of the nature of our interwoven global relationships. He will perpetually be on that cross.

And it is in this recognition that this thief is able to ask but one thing alone: “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” It is a humble request, a simple plea. He is not asking Jesus to pick up his toys after him; he is not begging to be saved from the consequences of his own behavior. He is asking Jesus…asking God…to forgive him. Faced with the gravity of his actions…or inactions…all he can do is weep for forgiveness.

So which of these “bandits” will we choose to be? Shall we be content to be the arrogant one who sees no wrong in pursuing his own self-interest, and sees no merit in God, except for getting him out of the justice he so richly deserves? Or shall we be humble and repentant, acknowledging the damage we cause as we go along our way, and asking for nothing more than to be forgiven… Not because we deserve it, but because, out of pure love, God has chosen to share the same cross with us…

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PRAYER?(Sung Slowly)
I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?I took Jesus as my Savior, you take him too;?look a way beyond the blue…
And let the people of God say, Amen.
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