[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the gospel lesson today, those last words of Jesus: truly you will be with me today in paradise.
Please be seated.
Again, last week’s service, Ash Wednesday, we focused on the first word of Jesus from the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, which was a word of pardon and forgiveness. And tonight, the second word from Jesus is a word of promise and salvation.
It’s interesting that when Jesus says these words, “Today you will be with me in paradise,” it’s a promise. Basically, he’s not saying it to a religious person or a fine upstanding citizen or even to one of his disciples. He says them to a convicted criminal who’s guilty of a capital crime.
Two convicted criminals are executed with Jesus between them. An innocent man dying with two guilty ones. Now, we don’t know their exact crimes, but oftentimes they’re accredited with being thieves. But it’s actually more than that. Probably insurrectionists or even terrorists might be closer to the reality, but for sure they weren’t Romans because they weren’t executed by crucifixion, and they’re not common thieves. They had committed a capital crime, and the Empire of Rome found them to be a great threat, so they’re being executed.
In those days, thieves weren’t executed by crucifixion. These two guys have the privilege of being able to speak to Jesus with their final words. Now, one uses his words to insult Jesus, joining the chorus of all the other people, the religious leaders, and the soldiers there who were mocking him and shaking their fists at him. He says, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.”
Strange, isn’t it, that this insult comes in the form of a prayer, a prayer for salvation. Save yourself and us. But it’s not a prayer of faith; it’s mockery; it’s an insult. What kind of Christ are you? the man seems to be saying. What sort of a Messiah are you turning out to be? Come on, come on, Jesus, flex some of that Messianic muscle and spare yourself from this death. And oh, by the way, us too, okay?
He wants to call the shots here. This guy does believe that the Messiah can do these things, but he doesn’t believe that Jesus is him, doesn’t think that Jesus is capable of keeping the promise of the Messiah to deliver and save his people, and so he mocks him.
But the other criminal talks a little differently—a lot differently, actually. But first, he has some choice words for his, I’ll say it, partner in crime hanging two crosses over. He says, “Don’t you fear God, since you’re condemned too? You aren’t getting mercy from humans. Don’t you want mercy from God?” Then he proclaims that Jesus is innocent.
“We are punished justly,” he says, “and getting what we deserve. But this man, he’s done nothing wrong.”
Contrary to the other criminal, two crosses over, this one does believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah, that he’s done nothing wrong, and says that this man hanging next to him, dying next to him, can deliver and save him, can take him to paradise and give him life. And he begs for it: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Words of faith; he has faith that Jesus is that Christ, the one sent from God, from God’s kingdom to give life and paradise to all who believe in him.
And Jesus responds with that beautiful promise: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise,” Jesus says—words of life. He promises it for this condemned criminal dying next to him. Jesus says this word of promise and life to a convicted criminal—that is, one who’s convicted of his sins and seeking life from God. Jesus says those same words of promise today, but he doesn’t say it to religious or fine upstanding citizens. He says it to convicted criminals who are guilty of a capital crime.
These criminals are guilty of and convicted of sin, with the punishment of death that’s promised for them. Jesus says this word of promise to you. He makes this promise of paradise for you.
But we can be so like the other criminal—the bad one, I mean. We can try to take what we want from God, make demands of God, call the shots with God. We want God to get us off the hook, maybe even get us off the cross—praying for Him to do something for us and to do things for our world.
“Hey God, aren’t you God? How about doing something about this mess down here? Can’t you see that people are killing and abusing even children? Save yourself and us! Save us.”
What a great request to make to God! And what a great request that is for that criminal to make during that time, because when Jesus was hanging on the cross and dying there, that’s exactly what he was doing—saving us, saving you, saving you from your capital crime of sin that you’re convicted of and deserve to die for.
You don’t deserve mercy from God; you deserve, just like those two criminals, to hang there and die by crucifixion too. But on the cross, Jesus saves you from that—saves you from having to die without this promise of eternal life. He saves you from that punishment, saves you from that kind of death, and gives you promises even life. Instead, He saves you from the cross that you deserve, and instead of dying on it yourself, He dies on it for you and promises paradise for you—promising life.
To receive that promise requires faith. Jesus doesn’t require you to be a religious person or an upstanding citizen. He requires you to be convicted of your capital crime of sin. Confess it and pray, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” and then have faith to take hold of that promise that, like this criminal, we can say, “Please, Jesus, take me out of this world, take me to your kingdom, take me to paradise.”
And it takes faith, faith even like this criminal dying next to Jesus has. There may be days when we’d really like to be in that paradise—days that we’d like to be out of this world—days we wish that we could hear Jesus say to us, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Yeah, we’ve got days like that, but the words “today you’ll be with me in paradise” aren’t just for when we die. They’ll be true at that time when we die, but they’re just as true now. Jesus promises this paradise whenever we read, speak, hear, or sign His gospel. When we hear His Word—the Scriptures are words of life and promises of life for us.
The Word of God is paradise, and we’re in paradise when we confess our sins and hear those words of absolution and forgiveness in Christ’s grace. And paradise is in receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, where the words of forgiveness and life are spoken and received in physical elements.
When you hear God’s Word or partake in the sacraments, you’re in paradise because there are perfect and sinless places in those things where your capital crime is forgiven, and that paradise is given to you today and every day.
You know, actually, if we think about these two criminals as thieves—though I don’t think they are—but anyway, if we think of them as thieves, there are actually three thieves being crucified because Jesus, too, is a thief who steals us out of the sin of this world, steals you from dying on the cross, steals you out of death, and promises to take you to paradise— to take you to the place where there is life and no death. Words of life that He spoke to a criminal, He speaks to you to promise you that life in paradise.
So even from the cross, even in His last dying words, this God-man, Jesus Christ, speaks words of life and promise for you. Amen.
