Our reading tonight is from Luke 23, starting at verse 32.
One on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the ruler scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. There is also an inscription over him that said, This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals, who are hanged, railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we pray for your help now to hear your word and to hear what you're saying to us. And I pray for your help to speak the meaning well. Lord, please be here tonight.
Make yourself known to us. Amen. When you see the picture, the image of somebody with outstretched arms like this, you Christians probably first think of words like the song we just sang, my Savior's love for me, somebody who suffers innocently, who sacrifices for others, who died for your sins. You probably do not think, first thing to mind, of the guilty criminal who suffers for his sins because he's under the curse because he actually did them.
Yet in our passage, we have two of those guilty criminals. And before Jesus, that was all people thought of when they saw the picture of a cross, the guilty criminal. On Calvary, what we call the hill that Jesus was crucified on, there were three crosses. Jesus was in the center, which God ordained because he is the center of our attention.
Nevertheless, all four of the gospels record that there are two other crosses right next to him, one on his left and one on his right. And that tells me that to fully understand the cross in the middle, we also have to know what's going on on the crosses on the left and the right. The cross, as you guys know, was society's worst form of punishment for the worst of men. And these crosses in particular held bad men.
The Greek word used by Matthew and Mark to describe them evokes ideas of highway robbery or insurrection. These men were violent. They killed people. They were the kind of men that if you saw them coming down the street, you would go quickly to the other side. If your children saw them coming, they would run and hide.
And if they had a smart watch in those days like my son got, they would be pushing the panic button calling for their parents to come rescue them. These guys were monsters. They were terrors. And you would fear these men. You will not find it easy to identify with these men.
But if you do not identify with them, you will have trouble understanding this passage. Have you ever been angry? Have you ever felt that tight burn in your chest when someone has done you wrong?
Maybe you're driving peacefully down the road and someone zooms in front of you and gives you a gesture like you were doing something wrong and you were just going the speed limit. It was them that was doing something wrong. Or in the home, your spouse treats you like dirt. Your children talk right back to your face. Doesn't that grip you with anger?
Your siblings, they do all the bad things and I'm the one who gets in trouble. Life is not fair. If you've been angry for any reason at all, Jesus says you are a violent person like these men. The reason for that is that both murder and anger come from the same vengeful spirit.
They both break the sixth commandment and they both deserve death. Now you may say, well my, not my anger, my anger is a righteous anger and I have never known a person that was angry that did not think that about their anger. But while human anger can sometimes be righteous, that is quite rare. And in Scripture, there are no examples of righteous anger on behalf of somebody's own rights. If you want to know how you're supposed to respond when somebody tramples your rights, look what Jesus did in our passage. He prayed for the forgiveness of them. He responded with mercy. Or look at the first person who died for his faith, Stephen.
He prayed for the forgiveness of the people killing him. Or you can go back in time and look at Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers and respond to them with mercy rather than anger. So there is a simple reason why Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount equates anger with murder because it's true. And so in God's sight, if you have been angry, and I suspect each one of us here has been, you are guilty of the same core crime that these robbers are guilty of. And that is crucial for you to understand this passage. Now let's look at the first criminal, the one that was railing against Jesus.
In the Greek, literally, he blasphemed Jesus. Consider his circumstances. He's been tried.
He's been found guilty. He's been hung up. His arms are stretched and nailed. He cannot move them.
His feet are nailed. He cannot move them. He is stuck. He is powerless.
His death is hours away. He knows it. But he's still squirming.
He will not accept it. And he's angry. He is mad. And he seems to think that his circumstances are Jesus' fault. He shows a shocking sense of entitlement that Jesus should get him out of his circumstances. And I say shocking because it's shocking to read, but is it really all that different from something you may have thought towards God at some point in your life? Have you gotten angry with God about your circumstances ever? Have you ever at times wanted God to prove himself to you by changing them? Show that he's real by giving me what I want right now?
You may in your heart shake your fist, or you may quietly turn your back and move away from him because he has let you down. Whatever it is, it comes from the same root, and that's pride. Pride says, I deserve better. Pride says, God should serve me. And that is the spirit of unbelief. We'll be seeing two spirits at work on the crosses on the side.
The spirit of unbelief leads to the curses that we read from Deuteronomy 28 a few minutes ago. Except in this life, you only get a taste of it. Your life, you will find, is a life of futility. You never quite get there.
You will be in a constant scramble to make it, to survive. Imagine that robber's lifestyle. He probably felt justified. He needed it. Life's been bad to me. I'm taking back what I deserve.
It's a scramble. When things don't go your way, you will be angry. And when you're angry, you will blame people. You will blame God. You will blame everyone except yourself. For you, God will be an enemy and not a friend. And you may not commit physical murder, but you will crucify Jesus and everyone else in your heart with your anger and with your tongue.
And your anger will go down with you to your grave. So that is the first criminal. Now let's consider the second criminal.
A lot of similar circumstances. He's been tried. He's been declared guilty. He's been hung up.
His arms stretched, nailed to the cross. He is powerless. His death is hours away. He knows it.
But one thing's different. He accepts it. He accepts it.
And his acceptance affects his behavior. Look what he does in verse 40 and 41. But the other criminal rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?
And we indeed justly, we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. I don't know if it would have been easy for him.
I don't know his personality before he reached the cross. If it would have been easy for him to rebuke his partner in crime for something before he got there. I do know that it is hard for many of us to give somebody a godly rebuke when they need it. And the reason it's hard for us to give people a godly rebuke is because we're afraid of the blowback.
We're afraid of what they think. Now in the criminal's case, he evidently didn't care about that. I don't know if he ever did. He at least did not care about it right then at that time. It probably helped that he knew he was about to die.
And what that other criminal thought didn't make a difference to him. But do you know you're about to die? It could be tonight on the way home. It could be decades from now. But in the scheme of eternity, it's soon. Your position's the same as his.
What other people think do not matter. Fearing man is pointless. So here we see another key ingredient to this man's faith. He fears God over man. The first one was he accepted his condition for what it was. The second was fearing God over man.
And then the criminal makes a simple prayer. His first words are, Jesus, remember me. He gives no reason why Jesus ought to remember him. He obviously knows he can't appeal to a well-lived life.
He didn't have that. He also doesn't tell Jesus, well, I'm a changed man now. Look at my repentance. Remember me because of my repentance and because of my faith.
This criminal does not appeal to anything about himself. He just appeals to Jesus to remember him in his mercy. His appeal is to the character of Jesus alone.
Remember me because you're Jesus. And that looks a lot like how faith is described in Hebrews 11 verse 6. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Faith means believing that God will bless you because that's who he is towards those who seek him. That's it. That's what this criminal apparently believed. And then he also assumed Jesus was going to come into his kingdom.
Now, think about that. No one else thought that Jesus was coming into his kingdom. Where are the disciples?
They're hiding. The people that knew Jesus the best did not think Jesus was coming into his kingdom. And then as that... Now, we, of course, in hindsight, know that he did. So when we read that, we worry right past it because, of course, he's coming into his kingdom.
But at the time, hindsight was not 20-20. This criminal is the only person on record who actually still thought at the time of Jesus' death that he was coming into his kingdom. When he was hanging up there and looking out, there was not any evidence outwardly to support that conclusion. When he saw the crowds watching the crucifixion, they weren't sitting there waiting expectantly for Jesus to come into his kingdom. They were mocking him because he was about to die. And everybody knew that when Jesus died, the hopes of his kingdom died with him. But not this criminal.
That's strange. Not even the apostles, after Jesus' death, understood that his kingdom was still going to come. That's why they were shocked by Jesus' resurrection. Here we see with this criminal what Hebrews 11, verse 1 says about faith.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This criminal had a conviction about Jesus' kingdom based on no outward evidence, none of the kind of outward evidence that people expected for a kingdom. And his faith said, well, this is Jesus, and nothing is impossible with Jesus. Now, his faith did have some basis, though. Now, he may, before he got there, he may have heard some stories about Jesus, the miracles, this may be the Messiah, but they apparently did not change his life because he still went to that cross as a criminal.
And the one thing we do know that changed his life was meeting Jesus. And so here's what he sees as he encounters Jesus. He sees an innocent man. He hears a man crying in agony.
But mixed in with those cries are prayers for mercy and not anger. And when he looked on Jesus' face, what did he see? He saw open wounds.
He saw a brow marked with a crown of thorns digging into his forehead with the blood running down over his brow across his eyes. And in those eyes, he saw love, and he saw purpose, and he saw passion. And so he believed.
This man, he concluded, is no victim of his circumstances. This man knows exactly what he's doing. This man is on a mission, and he's going to fulfill that mission. And so Jesus, remember me when you fulfill your mission is his prayer. And so he yielded, he believed, and he trusted, and that's all. And Jesus saved him. Jesus says to him, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It sounds like a nice word of assurance and a promise, but it's much more than that.
This was a serious commitment, and it was a deadly commitment. It was a costly commitment because the worst part of Jesus' day was still to come. It was after these words were spoken that the sky turned dark and that Jesus cried out in agony that he was forsaken by the Father. If you want to hint at what Jesus experienced from a spiritual standpoint during that dark hour, read Deuteronomy 28 as we did earlier tonight.
Here's a little snippet. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, and you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways, and you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. Now, consider Jesus in that hour. His entire life, he'd gone to one person for help, his Father. All of eternity, the comfort of his Father was the sweetest thing for him, and in that hour of darkest need for comfort, he was forsaken.
This wrath that we read about in Deuteronomy 28 only scratches the surface of the full and unrelenting and comprehensive nature of God's wrath. Earlier this week, we had a little disaster in our household. I walked through our laundry room, and I smelt this terrible smell in the house. I got into the garage, and it was really terrible smell, pungent. I knew it was coming from the trash can.
It had been growing for a couple of days. As I pulled out, I called April and said, Sweetie, would you open the garage? I closed the garage door, and I realized I should have left it open to let the thing air out. I called April to open the garage door and let the thing air out.
And sweet woman as she is, she went above and beyond that. She peered into the trash can. She pulled the top layers of the trash off, and what did she behold? Well, I had left a styrofoam plate of four scrambled eggs uncovered in the trash. Now, I remember thinking at the time, this may not be a good idea, but it's just a few days. It'll probably be fine. It's just scrambled eggs.
It's from Biscuitville. It's probably not even biodegradable. But then she did, the next day, she's doing yard work, and she put the bags from the manure. They were empty, but it still had the residue in there. She put the bags for the manure in the same trash can. Well, if you know about manure and mulch, it's got lots of little microbes that you can't see to the eye, and they loved those eggs. So when she peered in and she saw the plate of eggs, it was egg soup, and it was crawling with maggots.
And those maggots experienced the wrath of April right then. She beat them. She scrubbed them. She turned that trash can open. She sprayed it out with soap. She got it completely aerated and clean. Why? Because that infestation of maggots was completely contrary to her character of someone who loves beauty and sweet things. That's not going to survive in her house, not in her garage.
And she took care of it. God's nature is such that He cannot abide with sin. It's disgusting. And, you know, our nature can't abide with sin.
There's a picture that you see in The Lord of the Rings, a fantasy book you all have heard of. There's also a more recent one, very good series, called The Wing Feather series, where these monsters, orcs, other kinds of monsters, they love to feast on maggot loaf. And it's just disgusting, but they love it. They just feast on maggot loaf, and it suits their nature.
They like it, all right? It's disgusting for the better people who don't like that sort of thing. And so it's counterintuitive to us that Deuteronomy 28 would be so wrathful because maggot loaf is delicious.
What's the big deal? But for God, for His nature, pure for all eternity, to come into contact with sin is unspeakable. And that's why He's so passionate about cleansing us of our sin so we can be in fellowship with Him. But one of the things so astounding about the cross is not only that Jesus suffered for someone else's sin.
That's astounding. But what's astounding is what 2 Corinthians 5.21 says. For our sake, He made him to be sin who knew no sin. So this person, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, from all eternity, completely holy, pure, beautiful, could not even whiff sin without revulsion, become sin. And then the person who loves Him most of all, on Him sees sin.
That's astounding. And then the rest of 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He did that so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. So the sweet loaf, whatever it is for you, that's what we become. And that's how the criminal gets saved. Let's imagine the rest of the story for that criminal. He dies hours later and then he wakes up. He's in paradise just as Jesus said.
He looks down on himself. His hands are healed. His whole body, maybe there's a reflection he could see. He's clean. He's pure. He's radiant.
And he realizes, I'm not just looking at physical. That's what I am. I am, as 2 Corinthians 5 says, I'm the righteousness of God. How did that happen? I mean, I knew Jesus would have mercy.
I believed Him in that. But how did I become the righteousness of God? And the angel's walking by. Hey, angel, how did I become the righteousness of God? And the angel shows him a vision. It's like seeing a TV playback.
Like you can go back in time, a flashback to a few hours before. And he sees, he recognizes, there's the hill of the crosses. There's the three crosses. Oh, and there's me on the right. And he looks closer. Oh, it looks like maggot soup. Oh, and he gags. The vision gives him a smell because in heaven you can smell visions. And it's gross. Oh, okay, that doesn't explain how I'm like this.
That is the opposite of how I am right now. And he sees Jesus. Oh, I recognize that guy. That was Jesus. But he doesn't look bad.
He's actually glorious and shining, and he doesn't have the blood. Well, that makes sense. That guy knew there was something to him. And then darkness falls on the screen. And then something happens. He sees the guy on the right, the maggot soup guy on the cross, starts to change.
And the maggots shrivel up and go away. And he starts to emanate light. And he begins to look like, oh, that's how I look now.
Wow. Let's look at Jesus. And he goes and he looks at that center cross. And on that center cross, the light's going out. The light's going out, and the maggots are coming. And the maggots are coming, and they're consuming him to the point that he's entirely consumed. And the criminal cries out, no, no, not him. Anything but that. Don't do that to him.
No. And as those words are coming out of his mouth, the angel puts his hand on his shoulder and says, look. He points up. And so the man looks up. And there's Jesus again.
And he's clean. He's up on a hill. He's seated on a throne. The world is at his feet, and he's triumphant. The man looks, and he looks up at Jesus. Jesus looks down at him, and their eyes meet. And Jesus has a twinkle in his eye. And that man, our brother, who used to be known as a criminal, experiences something strange. It's a sensation he hasn't had as long as he can remember.
He feels a broad smile come across his face. I knew it. He did it. Jesus did it. The outstretched arms of the criminal are the prayer posture of a Christian. I have a close one, a close loved one to me, someone I love very much who always asks me, how do I know if I'm a Christian? When am I a Christian? Am I sorry enough for my sins?
The Christian has this prayer posture. Your hands are nailed. You realize you're helpless. You're bringing God nothing. And you relax.
You're not squirming anymore. You give up. And then the Christian looks at the man who can do it and says, I'm putting all my hope in that one right there. He is able to save.
And nothing else can. That's how one becomes a Christian. But what's often overlooked is that's how one remains one for the rest of their life.
We often think of the life of the Christian as, well, I'm going to heaven because Jesus died for my sins. But, man, this life is hard. This life is hard. Man, yeah, life's hard.
God, He's teaching me some hard lessons here. The prayer posture of the one who trusts in Jesus and not his own strength and not what his eyes can see. She doesn't look at what the crowds are expecting.
She looks at one place. Jesus and what he intends to do. And this Jesus is a Jesus of love and of purpose and of passion. And so even though your eyes may fail you, and even though nothing in the world seems like it's going your way, because of Jesus, it will in the end. And because of Him, you will arrive one day. You will get there. You will look at Him in the eye. He will look at you with a twinkle. And you will smile, a broad smile, because you will at last see.
Let's pray. Lord Jesus, You are a great, good, impossible Savior. You do amazing and great things. We who are dead in our sins and trespasses, under the curse, deserving to die, despicable in every way. Being made clean and righteous. And you who knew no sin, becoming that for our sake. What a Savior you are. And Lord Jesus, oh, how it's easy for us to forget. But you're still there.
And you're still watching. So I pray now for this body, this body which is your body, this body of Christ. I pray that we will have this vision, this vision of the criminal on the cross. And that we will come to you as that criminal did. And if anyone here does not know you, that they will receive you tonight. Or be reminded of you. And may we, oh, we look forward to you coming again soon. Amen.
