Holy Week

On yesterday it was my privilege to deliver the message at our community’s Holy Week Service at the Waldensian Presbyterian Church. I did not have this manuscript with me, but here is the gist of what I tried to say. As I share this with you I hope it will help your preparation for the celebration of Easter.

Then one of the criminals said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

~ Luke 23

Jesus was there on the Cross – living the last moments of life. One thing I have noticed as a pastor – and it is one of the great privileges of local church ministry - is that when a loved one is dying people pay attention. This can be a stressful and tense time, but also God can use this time to heal deep tensions and strong divisions in families. We want to be there for one another – especially at the time of death. And when someone shares his/her last words they aren’t often mundane or ordinary. These verses highlight some of Jesus’ last words.

It has often been said that Jesus wasn’t crucified on an altar between two candles but on Golgotha between two criminals. One of the criminals realized the significance of the moment – two criminals and the Messiah being crucified – side by side – together. One criminal recognized that this was not the case and said,

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom…

Jesus, my life has not added up to much – please remember me.

Jesus, I wish I had another chance, please remember me.

If I had it to do all over again, I’d be a different man, please remember me.

Jesus, I am full of regret and shame, please remember me.

Jesus, for a long time I’ve been forgotten and estranged and alienated. I am lonely, please remember me.

Jesus, I imagine, looked him in the eye and said, Today you shall be with me in Paradise.

And in that moment, when the hatred of the world was focused at one point, on Jesus, he spoke words of reconciliation. At the moment when there seemed to be no way to move forward – not for the criminal – when it was hopeless and they were approaching the dead end, Jesus Christ made a way. And this way was true for the criminal and can be ultimately true for us all.

In the moment of hopelessness, Jesus forgave the sinner and made a promise he intends to keep, Today you shall be with me in Paradise. Have you heard those words before?

This week during our noonday services the theme is ‘Those Who Stood in His Shadow.’ I hope your next step – as you reflect upon Peter and Pilate and Mary and Judas and this Criminal today – is to ask: What am I to do with this? What does this mean in my life? What does this mean for the world? How am I to respond?

There are a number of ways we could go from here – I want to head in one specific direction. Many years ago a Quaker theologian named Douglas Steere wrote a small and profound book called, On Listening to Another. In it he said one of the greatest things one person can do for another, one of the most profound ministries we each can do, is to listen to one another. To look a person in the eye, hear her words and say, I hear you. To communicate, What you are saying is important to me.

Each of us has touched by Jesus in our loneliness or our grief. Some of us have been alienated. Others of us are filled with grief or regret. No matter where we’ve been Jesus, the Messiah, can forgive us. He can embrace us. He will remember us.

Once you have received this kind of forgiveness, once you have been restored and given eternal hope – your job…my job…our job – is to do this with others. We are to be his agents of reconciliation.

I recently heard a minister tell of his experience in a Sunday School classroom of Jr. High boys…

Of course their conversation went in and out and around Scripture, football, basketball and pro wrestling. At the conclusion of the class he asked the boys if anyone could define God’s grace and forgiveness. This one boy with a kind of sheepish smile who’d been quite most of the hour said, “Well, if a cop waves you over to the side of the road for speeding and comes over and gives you a ticket because you were speeding that’s justice. If he comes over and gives you a warning and lets you go, that’s mercy. But after he waves you over to the side of the road for speeding, comes over to the side of the road and gives you a Krispy Kreme Donut, that’s grace!” (adapted from Tony Campolo’s, ‘Models on Forgiveness,’ 03.14.2010, www.30goodminutes.org)

We’ve been forgiven…we know Jesus’ reconciliation…we know his mercy…and his grace…Jesus has made us promises he intends to keep…now, go and do likewise.

Blessings,

Ande