Sermon on Luke 23:32-34
Lent IV March 15, 2015
Trinity Ev. Lutheran, Waukesha, WI
Pastor Aaron L. Christie
Repent: Turn to Jesus; he longs to forgive you
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 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. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting
lots (Luke 23:32-34).
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JESU, JUVA!
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Change is part of human life. We change our clothes, either because fashions change
or our waistlines change. We trade in old technology for the newest and fastest. We
enjoy changes of scenery. We enjoy changes to our daily routine - changes of pace.
We all experience the natural changes of life - infancy, childhood, adulthood, old age.
There are even changes in church! I remember back in my childhood that we
worshiped according to page 5 or 15 every single Sunday for the first 20 years of my
life. Never once did a piano play in church! Change is a part of life.
Jesus, true God and true man, made the changes of human life his very own. He
changed his home from Bethlehem, to Nazareth, to Capernaum. He experienced
changes in work: Nazareth’s carpenter became the disciples’ rabbi. Jesus enjoyed
changes of pace as he attended the annual religious festivals in Jerusalem or at other
times withdrew to quiet places to pray. He was born and grew and matured from
Bethlehem’s baby, to the boy in the temple, to the Feeder of 5,000. Jesus is no
stranger to the changes of human life!
And yet you know what they say: “The more things change; the more they stay the same.” If
there are things about us that tend to remain the same, how much more so with
Jesus? Scripture tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and
forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He is always loving, always gracious, always forgiving - in
ways that take our breath away! One of the most amazing things about Jesus’ grace is
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Pastor Aaron L. Christie
that it is CONSTANT and ABUNDANT - always bubbling over, always overflowing
and going. He isn’t more gracious one day and then less than gracious the next,
forgiving one day and resentful the next. No, the One whose mercies are new every
morning IS grace unending! Even when they crucified him…
St. Luke is so brief on the crucifixion that it is easy to miss it! He simply says, they
crucified him there. In the Apostles Creed we confess that “I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord… was crucified.” The Gospels’ descriptions of Jesus’
crucifixion are all so brief that we can easily miss the weight of what just happened!
How easy it is to forget that the Lord of Life willingly took on flesh to die our death!
How simple it is to no longer feel the pain piled upon pain that Christ suffered in our
place. How easy it is to dismiss the depths of humiliation that Christ endured for all
the world to see: no robe of heavenly light, only bloody nakedness; no saints and
angels accompany him, but only two criminals with their own crosses to carry; no
angels serve him, instead Israel’s spiritual messengers mock him. Terrible torture,
hellish humiliation, disgusting death - that’s all packed into that one little statement:
“they crucified him there….” Everything, it seems, has changed for Jesus.
And yet, with Jesus, nothing changes. Usually, when criminals were crucified, they
cursed and cussed a blue streak - and then began begging for mercy - until their voices
gave out. But not the One in the middle! No curses. No cussing. No begging and
groveling for mercy. Instead, he confidently prays to his Father. And what does he
pray for? “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk
23:34). Jesus’ grace does not change! Even with nails in his hands, mercy is on his mind!
Father, FORGIVE them. That Jesus prays for forgiveness shouldn’t surprise us,
because Jesus has a pretty good track record of forgiving people! Even his forerunner,
John the Baptism came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins (Luke 3:3). When Jesus himself came, the forgiving of sin continued. To a
paralyzed man on a mat, Jesus proclaimed his sins all forgiven - and sent him home as
mat-carrying, leaping-with-joy proof to prove it. (Luke 5:21) Later on, Jesus handed
over the keys, not to a new chariot, but to the Kingdom when he blessed his disciples
with the keys to loose sin, to forgive sin in his name. (Matthew 16:13 ff.) Jesus
embedded the forgiveness of sins in his disciples’ memory when he taught them to
pray “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Fast forwarding
past his resurrection before he ascended again into heaven, Jesus commissioned his
disciples, reminding them that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached
in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Forgiveness was Jesus’
mission. Forgiveness is Jesus’ commission. Forgiveness was accomplished on the
cross. Not surprisingly then, Jesus began his time upon the cross with a word of
forgiveness.
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That Jesus is loving and forgiving is no surprise. The people that Jesus is willing to
forgive? That’s a shocker! Father, forgive THEM.
Who is the them? We immediately think of the Roman soldiers who did their duty by
driving spikes into Jesus’ flesh. For them it was just another day, another denarius in
the life of a Roman soldier. For Jesus, they were men in desperate need of God’s
forgiveness - forgiveness not only for taking Jesus’ life, but for their entire life!
But the Father, forgive THEM is not really Roman soldier specific. Jesus’ also prays
for forgiveness for the religious leaders who plotted and planned this dreadful day.
Jesus’ forgiveness reached out across Jerusalem to Pontius Pilate who tried his best to
wash Jesus’ blood off his hands. Jesus’ forgiveness extended to the men who beat
him, whipped him, spit on him, struck him on the head, and mocked him with thorny
crown and purple robe. Jesus’ forgiveness stretched out over the crowds of Jerusalem
- crowds who loved him and crowds that screamed “Crucify!” Soldier or slave,
Governor or priest, criminal or disciple, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, rich or poor,
believer or currently unbeliever, all the way from Adam to Zerubbabel - Father,
forgive THEM! In short, forgive THEM is a forgiveness as narrow as the soldier holding the
hammer and as wide as the whole world! God so loved the WORLD that he gave his one
and only Son (John 3:16).
Well of course God loves Mother Theresa, and apple pie, and grandma and grandpa God bless America! Of course God loves all good church-going folks. And it goes
without saying that God adores the stuff’ins out of the good people of the Wisconsin
Evangelical Lutheran Synod! My how God loves us! But that isn’t what Jesus said.
Jesus said that God so loved the WORLD. You remember the world don’t you? How
are things going these days in the world that God so loved? Well here are the a few
choice headlines from this past week:
Methlab found in Walmart bathroom...
Possessed Man Yells 'I Killed Demons' After Murder of Pastor...
Explosions Rock Syrian Capital
Gang of Middle School Girls Attack Classmate...
IRS Scams Sound Real, Rakes in Millions
Terror’s Middle-Class Jihadists
Murderers and rapists, predators and pill poppers, butchers of people and destroyers
of life and liberty? And God loved that? From Eve’s apple to the present, the world
has been heading to hell in a hand basket in ever more ingenious ways. And God
loved that?
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But here is the rub, the rapists and terrorists of the world are not sitting in the pews
right now nor standing in your pulpit. You are. I am. Father, forgive them. Jesus,
forgive ME! Me with the mouth that sings “Amazing grace - how sweet the sound!” and
then turns around and is filled with vinegar toward my neighbor. God loves me? Me
with the hands that are always eager to help - help themselves? My hands that have
left my brothers and sisters standing alone with their needs unnoticed and their hurts
unhelped? Can God really love me? Me with the heart that daily turns away from him
and runs from one idol to the next? Will God continue to love me? Me with the eyes
that are daily squirted with the world’s filth with nary a wink on my part? God loves
ME?
Yes, me. Yes, you. The night before his death, Jesus told his disciples: “Greater love
has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ’s
death makes enemies into friends, sinners into saints, and you and me into sons and
daughters:
Be of good cheer, for God’s own Son Forgives the sins that you have done.
You’re justified by Jesus’ blood; Baptized, you are a child of God. (CW 391:4)
There is no sin you commit that Jesus’ sacrifice does not remit. There is no guilt that
you bear that Jesus’ cross does not lift. There is no past that Jesus did not die to
forgive and forget. His nakedness is our robe of righteousness. His outstretched arms
are our protection. His prayer for forgiveness is our peace. The flood of his blood
washed away the scarlet of our sin. Our father Adam stretched out his hands toward a
tree to pick forbidden fruit and brought death. Our brother Jesus stretched out his
hands upon the cross and brings us life. His pierced hands (that he would soon show
Doubting Thomas alive and well) are our hope!
If you take anything home today, let it be this: Christ’s sacrifice for the sin of the
world is the foundation of the Christian faith. It is the key truth that empowers
genuine REPENTANCE. Some, when they feel their sin, turn to their good works in
an effort to do something good to make up for something bad. And when they do,
they end up becoming another good-for-nothing pharisee at the foot of the cross mocking Christ’s sacrifice. Others, when they feel their sin, turn to their guilt and end
up becoming a Judas - filled with terror and despair. But not you, brothers and sisters!
Turn to Jesus; he longs to forgive you! His enemies nailed his helping hands and
beautiful feet to the cross. But they didn’t touch his tongue. And with that tongue, he
proclaims pure forgiveness - for Roman soldiers, for the world, for you!
Turn to Jesus, the man in the middle between two criminals. There, he suffers and
dies for you as one numbered among sinners (Isaiah 53:12). Turn to the man in the
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Pastor Aaron L. Christie
middle - the one lifted up on the cross between heaven and earth for you. He is the
middle man between you and the Father: “But if anybody does sin, we have an
advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice
for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1John
2:1-2).
Some things in the world change. Some things stay the same. Jesus’ atonement for the
sin of the world never changes! It is always accomplished, always real, always free,
always yours through the gift of faith in his blood! So turn, in faith, to Jesus; he longs
to forgive you!
Turn to Jesus. Always Jesus. Only Jesus. Amen.
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