March 19, 2006

Lent 06

“Promises, promises, promises!” Sometimes a disappointed parent might exclaim that to a child who promises to do something and then does not. Junk mail may also arrive with the promise of winning $1 million or a free holiday Or, “If you buy this book, you will learn all the cures for all illnesses.” Sure! There is usually a catch to those kinds of promises.  In general, you dismiss false promises.

This week we hear a WORD OF PROMISE from Christ on the cross.  Is it valid and true?  Or is it junk mail, a message to be deleted?  Is Jesus authentic? Is he the Truth, and does he speak the Truth? Does he keep his words of promise? Do not disregard this promise made to one of the thieves on the cross, a promise that has deep meaning and comfort also for you. Jesus gives this word of promise: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” This  word is

1. More than the thief deserved.
2. More than the thief expected.

1. More than deserved. Two thieves were on crosses next to Jesus, on the right and on the left. At first both joined the crowds and mocked Jesus. Matthew and Mark say that they reviled Jesus. Now if I were doing an enlightened program on ABC of PBS on problems in the New Testament, I would say, “See, Luke didn’t say the thieves reviled Jesus,” as though they had discovered a marvelous inconsistency in the NT. That’s a deception on their part—not all the writers of the gospel recorded everything that happened. The writers say, simply, that these thieves were some rough characters, malefactors, who had done nothing good. Two writers mention that they blasphemed Jesus, certainly more than drawing cartoons about him.

One of the thieves grew silent as he watched the scene. Silent as he observed Jesus. Silent as he listened to him. God’s mercy changed his heart. He rebuked his partner in crime.  He admitted his guilt. He defended Jesus now as his Savior. “Don’t you fear God…since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our souls deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong” 40,41).  This man Jesus has done nothing wrong! How changed is his message! How changed is his heart!

We are amazed at this thief’s confession.  But there is little evidence that anyone else cared. Who would bother to listen to the thief? The soldiers didn’t care. The crowds didn’t care. They were all caught up with the one in the middle, Jesus. Who would listen to thief? No one.  No one except Jesus. Jesus listens to the cries of desperate people, their loud or silent groanings, their pleading for forgiveness, sometimes even hidden beneath a confident facade.  Who is listening to people like the thief on the cross?  Jesus is. Who is listening to you?  Jesus is. The thief threw himself into the hands of Jesus and offered a simple prayer of faith, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Why should Jesus remember him?  He came with absolutely nothing, nothing but bad, as in the words of the hymn-writer, “Nothing in my hands I bring.” He throws himself on Jesus’ royal mercy.

Jesus did not turn away from this sinner, thief, malefactor. He could not turn away.  For Jesus was hanging on that cross as the one who came to seek and to save that which was lost. Even the badly and hopelessly lost.

They are still out there, the lost. At the Olympics opening ceremony someone sang “Imagine” by John Lennon. There he imagines a place of no heaven or no hell, just us living as one in the world.  That is about as desolate and hopeless as thinking PEACE will actually bring peace. Tell that to some terrorist who wants you and me dead. Without Christ there is no peace.  In response to that song, someone demonstrated his fears and emptiness:  “What if he’s right and there’s nothing out there? Nothing but me, and nothing to aspire to beyond filling my appetites until I’m dead? Please, God, tell me it isn’t so. Tell me that you exist!  Because if I’m all there is, then there’s almost nothing.  And soon I’ll be dead, and then there really will be nothing at all. Please, let it not be so.”

The lost are out there—Jesus came for them so that they will not live in such hopeless uncertainty. The lost are not only others. Can we admit tonight that we have been among the lost, that even in our new status as sons and daughters of God we need the remembrance of Jesus? Are we humble enough to admit that Jesus came for lost people like you and me? “Me? I’m not a thief. I’m productive. I take care of my family. I don’t murder. I don’t gossip—well, let’s not take this too far.” Smugness and self-assurance—Jesus came for these, too. Bring it all to the cross tonight, the whole load. The piles and piles of deceptions, the times we ignored Jesus or acted as though we did not need him.  Bring them back to the foot of cross. Look to Jesus and say, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Then marvel all the more at the word of promise Jesus spoke from the cross! “I tell you the truth, Today you will be with me in paradise.” There is a paradise, the abode of the righteous dead.  There is a heaven because Jesus said there is. And he tells repentant you and me the same words he told the thief—“You will be with me in Paradise.” There is no relativism here. This puts postmodernism’s “You can’t be sure” to shame. Here is a word of promise, more than the thief or any of us deserved. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Jesus said that.  And that is more than I deserve. You? Yes, you—in communion with Jesus—you will enter the day of great joy in the Lord, of forgiveness and healing, of salvation. You are remembered by Jesus’ divine mercy. Heaven is your home. More than we deserved. And…

2.More than the thief expected. All he wanted was a crumb of grace, like the Canaanite woman and her prayer. She wanted a crumb, and Jesus healed her daughter that very hour! A crumb of grace is all the thief asked for—remember me. Jesus gave him a golden goblet: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Come again?  He only asked to be remembered.  Jesus granted Paradise that very day to a man dying in excruciating pain. Today the thief would be with Jesus because Jesus was with him. Today he would be free, free of his pain, free of his guilt.  God’s Son had made him free, far from the place of the skull, far from Jerusalem’s garbage dump. Today!

“Today you will be with me—in paradise.” That’s our joy, too.  To stand with Jesus, beside Jesus, in Jesus.  Here and now already.  Here—tonight! Right now. You have fullness of life in Jesus right now. Today. Don’t wait for eternity to appreciate your gift in Jesus. It is here right now. “I am with you always,” Jesus said before he ascended to create our perfect Paradise. But in Paradise it will be for you! EDEN is regained by the completed work of Jesus.  You do not have to search for it any longer, or worry about it as though you are not sure there is a God or heaven. It is a place in your future, a perfect place where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain. It is a safe and secure place so holy and pure that the “city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp”? You haven’t seen anything yet. (Revelation 21:23). You think Toronto is one of the most beautiful cities? You haven’t seen anything yet! One of my places of paradise is the view from Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta—though I could not afford to stay there. But that is nothing compared to the Paradise coming for us.

You might be satisfied just to be in a little cabin on the edge of heaven in eternity. How dare you expect more? Yet even the shacks will be perfect there. But Jesus gives much more: gold-paved streets, walls covered with jewels, and a mansion.” Not a shack, but a mansion, in Paradise. He promised it.  “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25). Jesus would die later that day.  How could he keep that promise?  If he remained dead, he could not. But he rose, and a living Savior can keep those promises.  Easter is our proof, our guarantee.

The thief enjoys Paradise already now. Intellectually, we might say that he did not deserve it. Spiritually, we rejoice that a sinner was snared from the jaws of eternal death. One day we will enjoy Paradise, too. But we enjoy the promise here and now.  We live in it tonight. In Christ we live and move and have our being. In response and thanksgiving, ours is the privilege to encourage one another, to tell everyone what he has done, to imitate God by loving and serving as Jesus did.  To direct people to the cross.  To live as people with purpose and on a mission, with Jesus next to us, saying, “You will be with me in Paradise.”

In this age of relativism people need assurance. Have you ever told anyone, “You will be with Jesus in Paradise”? You have the right to say it to any repentant person who calls out for mercy. That’s what it means to be ambassadors for Christ. You represent Jesus to people. When you treat people with loving concern, as Jesus treated that evil-doer next to him, people may come to the conclusion that Jesus is not someone who laughs at them when they hurt. He is, instead, someone who cares, who cures, who forgives, who promises, who assures. You have your marching orders as you move forward to Paradise, inviting others to join you, assuring them of Paradise through Christ.

Right until the end, Jesus, who had many other things to consider, served as an evangelist to the criminal on the cross. He gave him the pure promise, the great good news! And he gives us the right and authority to give his promise, his gift to others. May God bless our Christian living, our Christian care and concern, and our Christian witness as we march through Lent and life.

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