Not everybody who takes up a life of crime is all that smart. Sometimes movies or television glorify criminals. They make them appear sophisticated, even cool. Most criminals do not fall in that category.
Like the guy who walked into a little corner store in England with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, “I don’t believe you are over 21.”
The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he didn’t believe him. At this point the robber took his driver’s license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over, and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and he put the scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license. They arrested the robber two hours later. (1) Not the brightest tool in the box.
Charles Cortez, a sheriff’s deputy from Los Angeles tells about investigating a late-night break-in at a local factory. Someone had broken a window in the factory, stolen a large industrial sewing machine, and gone out the front door with it. But in their haste, the burglars must not have noticed that one end of the industrial thread had caught on a splintered area of floor. Officer Cortez began following the string as it wound out of the factory, down the street, and into a nearby neighborhood. Eventually, the length of string led him straight to the front door of the band of thieves. The three men were arrested without incident, and the sewing machine was returned to its rightful owner. (2) I believe those burglars need to find another profession.
Michael E. Hodgin tells of pair of robbers who entered a record shop nervously waving revolvers. The first one shouted, “Nobody move!” When his partner moved, the first bandit was startled and shot him. (3)
Of course, some criminals are smarter than others. Jesus hung on a cross between two thieves, according to Matthew and Mark. Luke doesn’t specify their crimes. He simply calls them criminals. According to Luke one of the thieves joined in the mob that was mocking Jesus. He hurled insults at the Master. One of those insults particularly stung: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other thief had a better grasp of what was happening there. He rebuked his colleague in crime. “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 turned to the Master and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What a remarkable statement of faith.
Here is a man who admitted he was a criminal. That’s unusual in the first place. According to people who have visited prisons, it is filled with people who were sentenced unjustly.
On television, criminals confess their guilt quite readily at about minute 57 of the drama. However, law enforcement officials tell us that getting a sincere confession of guilt that is admissible in court is extremely rare.
The Rev. Jerry Ruff tells about one case in the Southwest that involved two men on trial for armed robbery and assault. As the prosecutor questioned the victim, you could hear a pin drop in the courtroom. He quizzed her about the gunpoint robbery she and her husband had experienced. Her voice quivering, the woman spoke of her fear and terror.
Noting this, the prosecutor raised his voice and turned away from the woman and asked sternly, “Are the two men who committed this horrible crime in the courtroom today?”
At that the two defendants raised their hands. The courtroom galley and even the judge snickered. Noticing the two arms in the air, the prosecutor intoned, “Your Honor, may the record show that the defendants raised their hands and have just confessed to the crime.” (4)
The woman must have given a powerful testimony. Usually the truth doesn’t come that easily. Most people who have done wrong will not even admit the truth to themselves. They will say something like, “That is really not me, I am a good person and people misunderstood me.”
That’s what Martha Stewart said when she was accused of insider trading, “That is really not me, I am a good person and people misunderstood me.” She eventually ended up in prison. She is out now and back to living a very public life. I wonder, though, if she ever admitted her wrongdoing to herself. (5)
The thief on the cross didn’t try to mask his guilt. In fact, most of us cringe at the thought of a man being put to death for simple thievery. He wasn’t a mass murderer or a child rapist, but the law back then was much harsher than it is now. He even says to the other thief, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” I appreciate his honesty.
Of course, you and I don’t know anyone who has ever done anything wrong, do we? Oh, you do? You mean, one time you did something that you knew was wrong? Oh? Maybe . . . . more than once? How did you handle it? Did you confess it, or is it buried somewhere deep down where it still troubles you?
My goal today isn’t to make you feel guilty. Some pastors do that. They flog their congregations with guilt and then present the Gospel as a form of catharsis. It’s like the story of a Roman Catholic priest who had been at his church for years and was beloved by his parishioners except for what most of them considered one failing. He was a great believer in the sacrament of confession, and he never passed up an opportunity to remind his flock of that fact. No matter what Sunday it was, Christmas, Easter or any Sunday in between the good father would somehow weave something into his sermon about the necessity of his people being present in the confessional booth on Saturday afternoon.
Finally, they got so tired of hearing this that a delegation was sent to the rectory. There was the usual exchange of pleasantries, then the delegation’s spokesman explained to the priest that they, too, believed that confession was an essential part of the Christian life, but that perhaps he, as their pastor, might also want to give consideration to other topics about which to preach.
The priest admitted that maybe he’d laid it on a little thick, and he vowed to change. The next Sunday, the parish celebrated the annual festival of its patron saint, Saint Joseph. It was a big event, and the theme of the Sunday mass was to be fatherhood, as Joseph was the father of Jesus. The priest prepared what he thought was a particularly good sermon on the subject. But when he went up into the pulpit, and surveyed the packed house, something came over him. He set his homily aside and instead he began like this, “Today is the Feast of our blessed Saint Joseph. St. Joseph, as you know, was a carpenter, and during his holy life, he doubtless built a few confessional booths, which reminds me . . .” (6)
My goal is not to make you feel guilty, but as your pastor and your friend, is there some wrongdoing in your past that you’ve never been honest about with yourself or with God? Many people never really acknowledge that they have done wrong, so they never really feel the forgiveness of God in their hearts.
The thief admitted that he had done wrong. “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
But there is a second remarkable thing about him: he recognized that Jesus could save him. I say this is remarkable, because many people of that time saw Jesus perform miracles they saw him multiply the fishes and loaves, they saw him make lepers clean, they even saw him raise Lazarus from the dead. But it never occurred to them that Jesus could save them. He was a sideshow in their lives, a freak, an object of curiosity. They marveled at what he could do, they even liked to hear him teach, but it never occurred to them that he was the messiah, the one who would save the people from their sins.
This is the Sunday we celebrate the reign of Christ in our lives and in our world. [In some churches it is the celebration of Christ the King.] It may seem quite strange that we should be talking about the thief on the cross the Sunday before the beginning of Advent, but it is because this thief saw the bigger picture, something that most people could not grasp. He said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
How could he know that Jesus even had a kingdom? Had he heard him teach about the kingdom sometime? Was he there when Christ performed some miracle? Was it the Holy Spirit working in his heart bringing him to Christ even without physical evidence?
Dr. Dennis Kinlaw once preached a classic sermon on the subject of “Malchus’ ear.” Can you imagine that? An entire sermon preached about someone’s ear? Do you remember Malchus? Jesus and his disciples had entered the garden of Gethsemane to pray. Judas knows they are going there and he brings a “detachment of soldiers together with police” (John 18:3) to arrest Jesus.
Simon Peter is prepared to protect his Lord. He is not going to stand by and watch them spirit Jesus away in the night. Peter draws his sword and cuts off the ear of a man named Malchus. At this, Jesus reaches out and touches Malchus and immediately his ear is healed.
Here is what is interesting about Malchus, according to Dr. Kinlaw. Malchus was the servant of the High Priest Caiphas. It was Caiphas who had headed up the investigation which had resulted in the gathering of evidence, the arrest, the trial and then the verdict of death for Jesus. Dennis Kinlaw paints a memorable picture of this entire sequence of events and then he makes his point: from that day forward every time Caiphas looked at his servant Malchus and saw that healed ear, he was reminded that once there was an innocent man that he had helped convict. Every time he beheld his servant’s healed ear he was reminded that there once was a man named Jesus who came to heal and to forgive.
And here’s the clincher to Kinlaw’s sermon. He says that God has placed a Malchus’ ear in everyone’s life something to remind them of God’s love and God’s power.
God placed something in the life of this unknown thief to make him responsive to the reign of Christ. We don’t know what it was. Maybe his mother was a sensitive soul and she told him that one day the Messiah would come, and he believed her and when he met Jesus, something about the Master convinced him this was he who was to come. Maybe it was a teacher in a synagogue. Maybe it was a friend who had heard Jesus teach. We don’t know what it was, but on the cross in the most awful of circumstances this thief knew he was in the presence of the Savior.
And suddenly Christ became his Savior. After the poor thief rebuked his friend for mocking Jesus and asked the Master to remember him when he came into his kingdom, Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” What a remarkable and beautiful ending to the story. For the first century Jew paradise was a place where the righteous gathered after death. The thief on the cross would be the first person, but not the last person, who would be admitted to paradise not because they were righteous in their own right, but because Christ’s death had made them righteous.
The Rev. Charles Hoffacker tells about a scene in the movie “The Godfather, Part II.” In that film, the Mafia godfather, Don Corleone, goes to Rome to negotiate a business deal with the Vatican. He is not interested simply in business; he wants to gain respectability.
There in Rome he meets with Cardinal Lamberto, who asks if he would like to make his confession. At first Corleone refuses. He makes a little joke about how it would take too long. However, he wants the cardinal’s help, and senses something redemptive in the Cardinal’s presence. So Corleone begins his confession.
First he tells of his marital infidelities. Then he admits ordering the murder of his own brother. Finally, overwhelmed by the burden of his guilt, he breaks down and starts to sob. Cardinal Lamberto pronounces the words of absolution, then says to Corleone, “I know you don’t believe this, but you have been redeemed.” (7)
Of course, Corleone was a fictional character. The thief on the cross was not. He was a flesh and blood human being. He was being crucified for being a thief. It might seem unjust to us that someone would be put to death for this kind of crime, but he was ready to pay for his sins. Others who were present at the crucifixion of Christ mocked him, but not this thief. Somehow he recognized who Jesus was, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he made a simple plea, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
That’s all it took. That’s all it still takes, even today. Are you ready to turn from your sins and open yourself to the reign of Christ in your life? Be as smart as this thief and take that important step today.
1. Eugene M Donaghy, http://www.eugenemdonaghy.co.uk/jokes1.htm#joke20.
2. Daniel Butler and Alan Ray, Crimes and MisDumbMeanors (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1998), pp. 16-17.
3. Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
4. http://www.sumcnj.com/sermons/srm2003/Sermon07.13.03.htm.
5. Manfred Schreyer, http://www.spiritrestoration.org/Sermons/2003/Can-we-lose-our-salvation.htm
6. Douglas Warren Drown, http://binghamcongregational.org/sermons/2006/06_11_12%5B1%5D.ser.PDF.
7. Sermons That Work, http://www.dfms.org/sermons_that_work_75456_ENG_HTM.htm.