Remembered by
Jesus
Sermon for
November 21, 2004
1. Good Morning. Let’s pray – O Lord may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening comments: Today is Christ the King Sunday and it’s the last day of the Church’s liturgical year. Today we celebrate the “crucified One” as “King of kings and Lord or lords!”
Did you hear the echoes of this theme of “kingship” peppered throughout our readings this morning?
In the first reading from 2 Samuel 5:1-3 we heard of the coronation
of David as king not just of the Southern Kingdom of Judah but now also of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel! David had
arrived at this point following a long and bloody conflict with claimants from
the house of Saul. But what was most
significant was his kingly title in this coronation. Our reading said, “You . . . shall be shepherd of my people
In our Gospel reading, Luke 23:35-43, we’re taken to the last moments of Jesus’ life, as he hangs on the cross. This scene is in stark contrast with that of his ancestor David’s coronation. And instead of words of glorification we hear words of mockery. Look at verse 36:
Luke 23:36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him
wine vinegar 37 and said “If you’re the
king of the Jews, save yourself.”
The soldiers are joined in this mockery by the thief who was crucified with Jesus on His left.
But the thief on
Jesus’ right does something very very different. He
proclaims Jesus’ innocence and then, addressing Him by His personal name,
simply asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come
into Your kingdom.” In saying this the thief recognizes that this
Jesus is truly King but in an even
more profound sense he recognizes Him as His Savior and it’s this reality that we’re going to focus upon in
our reflections this morning.
I will come to our reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians at the end.
3. Focusing in on the Gospel
Picture that
scene – Mel Gibson’s movie “The
Passion of the Christ” will help many of us to do this. The agony, the brute
cruelty, the jeers from the soldiers and the crowd. The profound tragedy of this scene is
overwhelming to all present but to those of us who know “the rest of the story”
it is sublime and ultimately
captivating – for here is our Lord and King dying for all of us – even
for those who were murdering Him. This
scene “defines” kingly nobility and
courage!
It’s vitally important here to recognize that there was one there who recognized Him for who He was and, unlike even Jesus’ own disciples and family, saw His coming victory !
Look at the thief on the cross to the right of Jesus in
your imagination. We only have a few words
from him – reading
now from Luke chapter 23 beginning at verse 40:
Luke 23:40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are
under the same sentence? 41 We
are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man
has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into
your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will
be with me in paradise.”
Listen to his words – “Don’t
you fear God? . . . We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds
deserve. But this man has done nothing
wrong . . . “
Ah! He recognized
his sin and recognized that this punishment was justified but he also
recognized the innocence of Jesus but even more than that he recognized
Jesus for who He really was!
Both thieves were
in a state of utter brokenness – one saw
from this position who Jesus was and the other
didn’t! O how this is such a perfect
metaphor for us. How many of us can’t
see Jesus beyond our own pain and anger and egocentricism?
Some of us can
see who Jesus really is but many of
us see only ourselves or our own pain and miss Him!
Some of us know
our guilt and realize that we deserve
punishment but so many of us ignore our guilt and squirm endlessly away from
our deserved punishment and assault everyone else because of it – like the
thief on Jesus’ left!
And listen how He speaks to our Lord – “Jesus . .
“ His personal name! Intimacy!
He speaks His intimate name and then pleads with Him to remember him
when he comes into His own kingdom! This
thief recognizes His royalty but he also recognizes something else! What it is that causes him to use His
personal name?
You see this is
the name that a friend uses for another friend – a friend – a disciple – a follower! He recognized who Jesus was and in so doing
recognized who He was – He had become at that very moment a follower of Jesus
and He was going to follow Him right into His Kingdom!
Look at Him –
pinioned to a cross – in excruciating pain – yet free in a most wonderful
way. Ah!
This is what salvation is all about isn’t it! Not becoming free from our afflictions but
becoming infinitely free in them knowing beyond doubt that he was free “in” Him!
What a great lesson this grand thief is teaching us!
And listen again
to Jesus’ majestic response: , “I tell you the truth, today you will be with
me in paradise.”
I tell you the
truth in Greek is aÓmh/n and it means “strong affirmation of what is declared —
‘truly, indeed, it is true that.’ So Jesus is saying – “Yes it will be so! Today you will be with me in paradise!”
O! How those words
echo in my heart and make it ache! How
much I ache to hear those words from the mouth of my Lord addressed to me! “Today! You will be WITH ME!!!! IN
WOW!!!!! The essence of salvation is not
to be saved from physical death, as the mockery of the onlookers
suggested but rather it is to be “with Jesus!”
And the reference
to “
So in the words of a biblical commentator by the name of Fr. Brendan Bryne S.J. “This is how the kingship of Jesus is displayed! He shepherds His most marginalized one by giving him an assurance of inclusion within the community of the saved.”
Ah! Jesus comes to us – in our sin and degradation. Immanuel – God with us! That’s what the Advent season is all about and here on the last day before the Advent Season we witness what this is all about. It’s not only about God coming to us in a manger on that first Christmas day but it’s about Jesus coming to us in our degradation and sin – coming alongside of us in our utter pain and inviting us to see Him for who He really is!
What God is telling us here is that
we don’t fully grasp the meaning of Jesus’ kingship unless we’re prepared to
see Him through the eyes, as it were, of a dying thief! We, like the dying thief, discover Him as Jesus first and then as Jesus our intimate
Friend AND heavenly King!
And remember what the good thief (I call him “good thief” for that is what he now is) said,
“Jesus, remember me when you come
into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42)
Ah! I’m SO blessed
by the fact that it’s not ultimately about my memory but rather it’s about His
memory! We all know people who have
limited memory (heck I’m one of them) and some of us who lose it over time but
for Christians it doesn’t matter if we remember or not, for in the words of
another commentator “our soul or spirit is that which is alive to God’s
memory!” (Fr. Richard Leonard S.J.) DID YOU HEAR THAT – WE’RE REMEMBERED BY THE
LORD HIMSELF!”
The Lord Jesus
Christ will never forget me! He will
never forget you! God, in Jesus Christ,
will always come to us wherever we are – come very close to us – even join us
in our situation, and as we discover Him we will find those most poignant words
coming out from our hearts – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom!”
4. Focus on Colossians 1:12-20: And now let me close with those sublime words
from Paul’s letter to the Colossians chapter 1 verses 12 – 20:
Col. 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to
share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the
dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Yes, as we have seen – Jesus comes to rescue us – He came to the cross
to rescue us and that common thief. But
listen now to one of the most sublime descriptions of who this man – this ManGod – really is:
Col. 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
(in rank) over all creation. When you see Jesus you see God! (John 14:9). God the Father is made
visible in Jesus Christ! What does God
look like? Look at Jesus!
Eikon, the Greek word for
“image,” expresses two ideas. One is
likeness. Christ is the image of
God in the sense that he is the exact likeness of God, like the image on a coin
or the reflection in a mirror (cf. Heb 1:3). The other idea in the word is manifestation . That is, Christ is the
image of God in the sense that the nature and being of God are perfectly revealed or
“manifested” in Him (cf. John 1:18).
Let’s read on:
16 For by him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by
him and for him. Wow! By
this Man/God – on a cross, in a manger, on the heavenly Throne! He created ALL things! Reading on:
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. Oh yes! “in
Him ALL things hold together!” All would
fall apart without His choosing! Yet we
see Him – this Creator of all things – in a manger – helpless, dying on a
cross! Reading on:
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the
beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Reading
on:
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, Did you hear that – ALL of God’s pleyroma – His fullness, dwells in Jesus Christ! Jesus is no minor god but rather HE IS GOD IN
ALL OF GOD’S FULLNESS! And yet we see
Him willing to relinquish all of this for us – for a common thief and become an
object of our derision and torture! This
is love – this is infinite kingly nobility!
Reading now our final verse – verse 20:
20 and through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Ah! His mission – a mission of
reconciliation! Bringing peace between
us and His Father – but it had to be through His blood!
5.
So
where does all of this lead us as we stand on the threshold of the Advent
Season?
Jesus comes to us on our crosses – whatever or wherever that may be
and we can either see Him or miss Him!
Jesus didn’t take Himself from that cross nor did He take the good thief from his cross but that’s not, after all, what it’s really all about is it? Is it?
The good thief recognized
who Jesus was but he didn’t ask Jesus to save him from his cross rather he
asked Him to “remember him when He came into His kingdom!” What
did he want more than anything else? To
be remembered by Jesus!
Do you believe that Jesus remembers you?
The Greek word used here is mnhmoneu/w and it means “to
see again in one’s heart.” The good
thief wanted to be “seen again in Jesus’ heart!
The good thief experienced Jesus’ loving heart and was utterly
captivated by Him and wanted never to be forgotten by Him but rather to be “held
in His heart” forever! That’s salvation!
Ah! now we’ve come to the whole point of this reflection. You and I must see Jesus through the eyes of the good thief and invite Him to “remember us” – to “hold us in His heart” forever.
Remember who Jesus is:
·
He’s the image of the invisible God!
·
He
created ALL things!
·
He is the head of the church
·
all of God’s fullness dwells in him,
· He reconciles all things to God!
To be remembered by such a being is to become eternally alive with Him! Amen and Amen!
Let’s Pray . . . Amen!