February 28, 2010

Introduction

            “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (that's in Luke 23:42-43). “In my Father's house there are many rooms. And I go to prepare a place for you.”

         Epitaphs are carved into stone, whittled into wood, burned into bronze. They offer a lasting message, readable long after these bodies turn to dust and memories fade. “Loving Mother, Faithful Wife.” “Honest Man Of Business.”  “Gave His Life In The Defense Of His Country.” Epitaphs seek to sum up in one lasting phrase the life, the love, the work, the passion, the very purpose of the person. Jesus had no epitaph. He was buried in a borrowed tomb, with no words left there on his grave. But if there had been, what might they have been? “Rabbi.” “Beloved Son, Faithful Friend.” “Hardworking Carpenter, Itinerant Preacher.” “Healer.” Or, “Crucified, Dead and Buried.” “Enemy of the People.” Or, “The Way,  The Truth, The Life.”

         Christ had no epitaph. Instead, during the final hours of his life, Jesus mapped out his way of suffering with seven famous last words--seven final phrases, remembered and recited throughout the ages. This Lent, as we gather to make sense out of his suffering and death, as well as our confusing lives and our miraculous relationship with him, we can do so with these words as our guide. Last week, Pastor James shared great insights on “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I. In Paradise

         Today we read how one of the criminals who was nailed to a cross railed at Jesus, “Are you not the Christ? Aren't you the Messiah?
Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him, saying, “Don't you fear God, since you're under the same sentence of condemnation? 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 in your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

         “Lord, remember me,” the man prayed. There was a time, in Paradise, when our relatives hoped that God would forget, at least for a while: “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid” ... afraid God might be with them in Paradise, when they didn't really want him there. It might be dangerous if God were with them, knowing what they now knew. It can be frightening to have God with us.

         It might also be frightening not to have God with us. “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself ... and us,” for we have crosses that we can't stand to bear alone. It's awkward to confront the Lord under these circumstances, outside the gates of Paradise. For if he finds us, it's quite possible that, like Adam and Eve, we face the prospect of being doomed: “Do you not fear God, since we are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” Then again, if God were to forget us, to leave us to ourselves and remove his presence entirely, “To be without God is to be without hope.” We want Jesus as Savior; we don't always want Jesus as Lord.

II. Remember Me

         Are you beginning to see the predicament? Although the phrase is often overused and misused, this is one time where it's quite literally correct: “We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.” Like the thieves on the cross, we've come to the end of the line. There's nowhere else to turn. “Lord, remember me!” the one thief cried out. And that prayer was heard, for our God is a God who does remember. The Bible says, “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark.” “And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that he remembered Abraham.” “The people of Israel groaned under their bondage in Egypt and their cry under bondage came up to God, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” The Psalmist sings, “God has remembered us in our low estate… He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel.” Psalm 103 says it out loud in all its fullness: “The Lord knows our frame: he remembers that we are dust.” Before Jesus was born, in the announcement to Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah, she said in her expectant prayer, it was done by God “in remembrance of his mercy.”

         In Jesus Christ we have a Lord who does remember. What did he remember as he hung there on the cross? Did he remember childhood? What it means to be a member of a human family, of the human family; the joys and frustrations of growing up being human? Did he remember his Baptism? The Holy Spirit's personal descent, the Father's own promise and commission for his life? Did Jesus remember times of happiness? The wedding at Cana would have been one of those. Did he remember times of rejection? It happened at his own hometown of Nazareth.

         What else did the dying Christ remember? Opposition? Denial? Betrayal? And sin? Yes, sin. He felt its pain all the way to the dust that we are and the dust to which we must return. As he had been with Adam and Eve in Paradise--even when they didn't want God there and tried to hide from his presence. God was present to confront them with the death they brought on themselves, to show the seriousness of it all, and yet was somehow there to cover them as well, that they might not be lost forever, but that they might be remembered and restored and given once again the hope of Paradise.

         And so, in Jesus Christ, the Lord came once again on the cross to be Immanuel, “God with us.” With us in birth, celebrated at Christmas; with us in life, with all its joys and pleasures; with us in our sorrows and disappointments, our hungers and thirsts, our pains and problems; with us in our weariness, and in our exaltations; and with us finally in death: to confront us with the death we've brought upon ourselves, to show the seriousness of it all, and yet somehow to cover us, that we might not be lost forever, but that we might be remembered ... and restored ... and given once again the hope of Paradise. There, outside of Paradise, where God was with our parents in their need ... there, outside of Paradise, the Lord sought us out as well. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me,” said Jesus. Paradise? Yes, Paradise. For on the third day, once more God remembered.

         “Lord, remember me.” “Can a mother forget her nursing child, that she shall not remember the child of her womb? Yes, she may forget, but I will not forget you, says the Lord who has mercy on you. Behold, I have graven you in the palms of my hands. You are mine!” The promise is sure. By faith in Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, we shall be with him in Paradise. He is with us, Immanuel--right here!

Let us pray together.

Written by Arden Mead. Edited by Michael Imperiale. Used by permission.