WWJD remember when those letters were the rage? There for a while, they were everywhere: bracelets, key rings, and just about anything that can be marked with the logo, WWJD: “What Would Jesus Do?”
Later, when the WWJD bracelet rage really started to catch on, people came up with some alternative bracelets: WWPMD for quarterbacks: “What Would Peyton Manning do?”
Or WWMSD for homemakers, What would Martha Stewart do?
Or DYWFWT for Liberal Arts graduates: “Do You Want Fries with That?”
For teens, there was a bracelet with simply a W: “Whatever” or “Whatsup,” take your pick.
[There was even one for those of us who are aging NWDIPOTB: “Now Why Did I Put On This Bracelet?”] (1)
If Christians of the first century had worn a bracelet, it would have said, “WDJDC? Why did Jesus die on a cross?” This was the question they had to struggle with. How could the Messiah be put to death?
Our text for today might seem strange to you for this season of the year. This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Next Sunday begins Advent. Yet our Gospel lesson focuses on Jesus on the cross. That is because this is the last Sunday in the Church Year. On this day we celebrate the meaning of Christ’s journey among us.
We began last Advent. We celebrated his birth. Then at Easter we celebrated his resurrection. At Pentecost we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. Now we are ready to start the cycle all over again, but first we want to consider what it all means. Who was this man who walked among us? He was a man . . . yes, but he was more than that. This Sunday is called Christ the King in some churches. Some churches simply call this Sunday the Reign of Christ. Today we return to the scene of his crucifixion where we see most starkly what his kingship was all about.
The lesson begins like this: “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals one on his right, the other on his left.”
Let’s stop there. He was crucified between two criminals. That is the first clue to Christ’s reign as king. He was crucified between two criminals. The Gospel writers use different words to describe these criminals. Matthew and Mark call them thieves. Luke uses a different word a word that means “members of the criminal class, professional criminals, members of the underworld.” (2) These men were hoods, thugs, perhaps cutthroat killers . . . They were anything but saints.
Some people are horrified that the Son of God should die in the presence of such men. I say that it is the most appropriate thing in the world. Friends, these criminals were the people Jesus came to save. On one occasion he declared, “I have come to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). And on another occasion he declared, “The well have no need for a physician, but those who are sick” (Mark 2:17)
These are the people Jesus gave his life for. We need to remember that. Jesus didn’t come to benefit good people. He came to benefit those who have difficulty being good. Maybe that includes you. I know it includes me. And I need to remind myself of that every time I am tempted to look down on another human being. Jesus doesn’t look down on them. Jesus looks upon them as a lost brother or sister who needs help.
Some of you may remember the well known British actor Michael Caine. Caine wrote a book several years ago in which he described how he fought his way out of a poor South London neighborhood to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
In the ’60s and ’70s, Caine became a major star in Great Britain and the U.S. But on a visit back home in London, Caine was saddened by the news that his younger brother, Stanley, had not been heard from in months. So Michael Caine began searching out Stanley’s old friends, hoping for some clue to his brother’s whereabouts. No luck.
Not long afterwards, Caine went to a local furniture store to buy a luxurious new sofa. His chosen sofa was brought out by two workmen in dirty, shabby clothes. Caine recognized one of the workmen as his brother, Stanley. Stanley had fallen on hard times. Michael took his brother home and helped Stanley get back on his feet. (3)
That’s what you do for a brother or sister you love help them get back on their feet. Friends, that’s the way Jesus regards everyone on earth as his brother, his sister. And if one of these brothers or sisters has fallen on hard times, it is not in Jesus’ nature to judge. Rather it is his nature to reach out a hand to save. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). And that’s what he expects out of us who call ourselves by his name. We are not here to judge our brothers and sisters who fall upon hard times, whatever the cause. Our calling is simply to reach out a helping hand. And we don’t wait until they deserve such help. Christ didn’t wait until we were worth saving. Paul put it this way, “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, RSV).
What does our text say, first of all, about this man Jesus? What kind of king was he? “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals one on his right, the other on his left.”
But look what it says next: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Who was Jesus asking forgiveness for? It was, of course, for those who put him on that cross.
He was, for example, praying for the soldiers who cruelly tortured him and crucified him and who were preparing to gamble for his clothes. Even as he hung on the cross the soldiers mocked him, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
He also was praying for the crowd who was deriding him. “He saved others,” they taunted, “let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
Then there were the religious leaders who, from their own jealousy and spiritual blindness, instigated his crucifixion. Pilate, finding no guilt in Jesus wanted to release him. But the religious authorities led the crowds in chants, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
But there were others for whom Jesus was praying. After all, he could have spoken these words silently. This is a prayer. God would have heard a whisper. But he chose to pray these words aloud loud enough for others to hear him and record his words. Jesus had a wider audience in mind when he prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I believe he was praying for everyone in history who has ever acted cruelly, who has ever lashed out in anger, who has ever caused anyone else pain.
What is there in the human heart that causes us to lash out in hatred and violence even within our own household? Why do husbands and wives abuse one another? Why do parents slap, scold and belittle their own precious children? What is there in the human heart that causes us to act with such cruelty?
Why has every generation in history demonstrated time and time again man’s inhumanity to man? Why did Hitler have to exterminate 6,000,000 Jews before the rest of the world rallied to stop him? Why did Germany, an allegedly Christian nation allow the Nazis to come to power in the first place?
For that matter, in this country, why were Native Americans forced to march across our land in the infamous Trail of Tears? Why did the evils of cruel slavery in the South require a senseless slaughter of innocent young men from the North and the South in our nation’s most costly war before slavery was made illegal? Why were four little African American girls slaughtered in a church bombing in 1963 in Birmingham, AL?
Why have innocent people been persecuted even in modern times because of their color, their gender, their sexual orientation? Why are we even now forced to put armed guards in our public schools? For that matter why is bullying a matter of concern in nearly every school today?
Why is it always that way that the innocent have to experience extreme cruelty before the will and the way of the guilty is broken? Will it ever change? (4)
There is something wrong in the human heart, friends. But it’s not just in the heart of the Romans or the religious authorities, or the crowds, or the Nazis or the white supremacist or the school bullies. There is something wrong in the heart of every person who has ever lived on this earth. Any of us given the right conditions are capable of unspeakable wrong-doing. Any of us given the right circumstances might have been in the crowd yelling, “Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him,” if we felt our religion threatened, our rights threatened, our economic well-being threatened, our personal self-image threatened. The old spiritual rings out, “Were you there, were you there, were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And the truth of the matter is that all of us were there.
Isaiah said it 550 years before Jesus was born: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
Who was Jesus praying for when he prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”? He was praying for us all of us. “All have sinned and fallen short of His glory” (Romans 3:23).
That is the second thing this text tells us about the reign of Christ: he forgave his enemies. He, of course, was simply living out that which he taught: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-44). Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” But let’s finish our lesson:
“And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
“The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.’
“The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’
There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’
“But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’
“Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’
Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
Here’s the third thing our lesson says about Christ: he made us a promise. There he hung on the cross while the soldiers and the crowd mocked him. They placed a notice above his head which read derisively “this is the king of the Jews.” Even one of the criminals being crucified with him mocked him, but the other criminal rebuked him. Then this second criminal turned to Jesus and made a request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
To me this is amazing. As pastor Ray Pritchard has noted: “Somehow this man saw Jesus bleeding and naked and hanging on a cross beside him and yet he believed that he would someday come into his kingdom. No man ever looked less like a king than Jesus did that day, yet this man saw him as he really was, the son of God.
“This is made more amazing when you consider that this man had none of the advantages the disciples had. He never heard Jesus teaching by the seashore, he never saw Jesus heal the sick or raise the dead. He knew nothing of Jesus’ great parables and never saw any of his miracles. This man missed all the outward signs of Jesus’ kingship. Yet he believed.
“He knew nothing of the virgin birth, the Old Testament prophecies or the raising of Lazarus. The coming miracle of the resurrection was unknown to him. All the things we take for granted, he knew nothing about.
“Yet there on the cross, he came to understand the heart of the gospel. In the crucified Jesus, beaten, mocked, forsaken, his life blood ebbing away, this thug saw a king. He saw obviously another crown than the crown of thorns. (5)
The second criminal says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And that’s our prayer. None of us deserves to enter Christ’s kingdom, not on our own merit. We have only one hope, our connection to Christ. “Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom.”
And at this point Jesus made him a promise, but not to him only, but to all who call out to Christ for salvation: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The meaning of that phrase is quite self-evident. The moment this criminal died he would be in the presence of God not because he deserved it, but because of God’s free gift of eternal life. It is the promise that you and I cling to every time we ponder our own mortality or as we stand beside the grave of a loved one. It is that promise that allows us to carry on with our lives when life crashes in on us with its worst. “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
In the musical Godspell, after Christ’s resurrection, Mary Magdalene didn’t want to let go of Jesus. She sang to him, “Where are you going? Where are you going? Can you take me with you? For my hand is cold, and needs warmth. Where are you going? Far beyond where the horizon lies . . . And the land sinks into mellow blueness/ Oh please, take me with you . . .”
And that is the refrain sung through the ages by everyone who loves Jesus. What kind of king is he? He’s the kind of king who leaves his throne to die between two criminals. He’s the kind of king who forgives his enemies. He’s the kind of king who makes a promise to all who will turn to him no matter what we may have done in the past, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” What kind of King is Jesus? He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He loves us more than our own parents. He forgives us even as we sin against him and drive nails into his hands. And he has made it possible for us to live with him forever in his Kingdom of love. Don’t you want him to reign in your life today?
1. http://home.roadrunner.com/~lyndale/Pentecost%2015B.htm.
2. Ray Pritchard, http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1991-02-10-Last-Second-Salvation/.
3. Michael Caine, What’s It All About? (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992), pp. 216-217.
4. From a sermon by Dr. Philip Ware Zebley.
5. Pritchard.