This is a homily written for a Good Friday Tre Ore Service at Trinity Lutheran Church in Toledo, OH.
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” [40] But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? [41] And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” [42] And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” [43] And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)
We are hard-wired for hope. We need hope. We crave hope.
The lack of hope can funnel us into depression. The loss of hope can leave us despondent. Being hopeless can become so severe that, if we could feel anything, we’d feel dead inside.
That’s why this brief account during Jesus’ crucifixion strikes such a chord deep within us. Who could be more hopeless than the thieves crucified with Jesus? Surrounded by Roman guards. Nailed to a cross. On a hill, on a ridge, hoisted before hundreds, maybe thousands of witnesses. They were suffocating, with death only hours away.
Hopeless.
Deep down this is what is what is really disturbing our hearts: We were born as spiritually hopeless as the thieves on their crosses. It’s as if, because of sin, we’re like pelts staked out to dry in the sun. We know have no more ability to earn God’s forgiveness than those thieves had to take themselves off their crosses.
We’re even more disturbed by the fact that, in the midst of that suffering and death, one thief was given hope. We can’t wrap our head around how this happened. What had this man done to receive such hope? He was a thief. He was a thief that whose crime to so evil that he was sentenced with death by crucified. What do you have to steal to get crucified. Do you know the spiritual consequences of crucifixion?
Deuteronomy 21:22–23:
[22] “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, [23] his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God…”
How is it a thief who is in the process of being cursed by God can hear these words from Jesus?
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
We want to hear Jesus say those words to us. Heavenly Father, why can’t we have this hope? This is so brutally unfair!
Brothers and sisters Christ, come Sunday you will hear how you too got to receive such hope from Jesus. Yes, as impossible as this seems, this is hope for you and for me. While we won’t fully take away veil until Sunday, remember these words Jesus had previously spoken his friend Martha:
[25] …“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die…” (John 11:25–26)
Amen.
Image by David Bailey from Pixabay
Kevin Wilson 360 