Remember Me
The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
March 27, 2016
Easter Sunday
Remember Me
Luke
24:1-12
But on the first day of the week, at early
dawn,
they
came to the tomb,
taking
the spices that they had prepared.
They
found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
but
when they went in,
they
did not find the body.
While
they were perplexed about this,
suddenly
two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.
The
women were terrified and
bowed
their faces to the ground,
but
the men said to them,
“Why
do you look for the living among the dead?
He is
not here, but has risen.
Remember
how he told you,
while
he was still in Galilee,
that
the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners,
and
be crucified,
and
on the third day rise again.”
Then
they remembered his words,
and
returning from the tomb,
they
told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
Now
it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna,
Mary
the mother of James,
and
the other women with them
who
told this to the apostles.
But these
words seemed to them an idle tale,
and
they did not believe them.
But
Peter got up and ran to the tomb;
stooping
and looking in,
he
saw the linen cloths by themselves;
then
he went home,
amazed
at what had happened.
************************************************
They were two petty thieves,
willing to steal just about anything,
a few coins here, a chicken there;
two men always in trouble,
two men who lived life in the shadows.
It wasn’t that they were lazy,
it was just the life they knew.
In fact, they worked hard at their thievery.
They saw so much wealth all around them,
amidst so much want and poverty.
It was easy for them to think that
those from whom they stole
would never miss the little they took.
The two were cunning and quick,
always one step ahead of the centurions
with their swords, shields, and spears.
As fiercesome as the soldiers looked,
all that metal slowed them down,
and made the soldiers easy to hear
whenever they got too close.
How often the two had heard the
clanking of soldiers,
and then quickly, silently,
melted into the night,
gone without a trace,
safe for another day.
But then, finally, their luck ran out,
and they found themselves
on the wrong end of the soldiers’ swords.
They were marched off to the lockup
and in the
ruthlessly efficient system
of Roman justice,
they were pronounced
guilty and
sentenced to be
crucified,
the form of
execution the Romans preferred
for common
criminals.
A few days later
soldiers roused them
from their cell
and prepared them to
march outside
the west gate of the
city,
out to the hill
called Golgotha, the Skull,
where the Romans crucified
criminals by the dozens,
despatched them,
making an example of
them
for all who came
into the city on the western road.
Each thief shouldered
a cross beam
and prepared to
carry it out of the city,
out to the hill.
They said nothing to
one another,
but they both knew
that
before the sun set
that day,
they would be dead.
There was a third
man
the soldiers pressed
into their group,
a third man
struggling
under the weight of a
crossbeam.
The thieves heard
the soldiers call him Jesus.
They knew that name,
the two thieves;
they’d heard it many
times,
especially the past
week,
during the Passover
celebrations.
They’d heard him
called a prophet,
a teacher,
a healer,
a miracle worker.
They’d even heard
whispers
that Jesus was the
Messiah,
the successor to
King David,
come to throw off
the Roman oppressors.
The soldiers snidely
called him,
“King of the Jews”.
Apparently he too
was to be crucified,
he too was to die;
but for what the two
thieves didn’t understand.
He certainly didn’t
look like a king,
and he certainly
didn’t look like a threat
to the power of
Rome.
The chief of the
guards cracked his whip,
and the small
procession moved forward –
two thieves, Jesus,
and the solders –
forward, for the
short,
but grueling walk to
Golgotha,
each step they took,
a step closer to
death.
As the two thieves
stole
silent glances at
one another
they both wondered what
Jesus could have done
to have warranted
such punishment,
what he had done to
have been
condemned to die on
the cross.
They knew themselves
to be guilty;
that was the one
thing they were honest about.
A crowd followed the
procession out of the city,
out toward Golgotha,
out to the hill
lined with crosses.
There the three were
hoisted up,
the two thieves with
audible groans,
Jesus silent.
But then Jesus
lifted his head
and spoke to the
heavens,
“Father,
forgive them;
for
they do not know what they are doing.”
(Luke 23:34)
The crowd responded with taunts and mockery.
One of the thieves found
himself caught up
in the crowd’s
mocking contempt
and added his voice
to the cruel chorus:
“Are you not the messiah?
Save yourself and us!”
(Luke 23:39)
“But the other [thief] rebuked him, saying,
‘Do you not fear God,
since you are under
the same sentence of condemnation?
We…have been condemned justly
for we are getting what we deserve
for our deeds;
but this man has done nothing wrong.’
The first thief
dropped his head in silent shame.
The second thief
then turned to Jesus and said,
‘Jesus, remember me
when you come into your kingdom.’
All who were
gathered on the hill
in front of the
three crosses
heard Jesus’
response to the man:
words spoken calmly,
confidently,
‘Truly I tell you,
today you will be with me in Paradise.’
The crowd grew
quiet;
and then, slowly,
they began to drift
away.
Soon, only a handful
of people stood by Jesus,
all of them somber,
despairing,
eyes red,
cheeks stained with
tears.
Each thief looked
down at the ground
in front of them,
each of them
painfully aware
that no one was
there
to mourn for them.
Silence descended on
the hill,
a dead silence,
until it was broken by
Jesus’ voice,
“Father,
into your hands I commend my spirit.”
(Luke 23:46)
and those standing with Jesus
saw that he breathed his last.
It wasn’t long after
when each thief took his final breath,
first the one who had asked Jesus
to remember him,
and then the one who had taunted him.
Sounds of life echoed from the city,
but on that hill,
the only sound was the still silence of
death.
Who were those two thieves
who were crucified with Jesus?
All four gospels tell us that
Jesus was crucified between two other men.
Matthew and Mark call them “bandits”;
Luke calls them, “criminals”;
John just says they were two “others”.
Later stories tried to fill in the gap,
stories written long after the gospels were
written,
long after Paul wrote his letters,
stories that attempted to give each man
a back story, even a name.
They are apocryphal stories, though,
stories in which we put no credence.
What we know is what the gospels tell us.
And, as is so often the case with
Scripture,
we have conflicting information.
Mark and Matthew tell us that the two
both added their voices
to the jeers and taunting.
John’s two were silent.
But Luke’s gospel tells us
that one chose a different path.
One found the gospel,
even as he hung on a cross.
One found hope,
even as life ebbed from his body.
One found grace,
even as he took his final breaths.
One said, “remember me”
and Jesus’ response was,
“Yes, I will,
Of course I will.
I will remember you.
for this day, you will be with me
and I will be with you.”
Such powerful words spoken to a thief,
a criminal,
a crook,
someone we’d dismiss as beyond hope,
beyond redemption,
beyond salvation,
someone we’d be quick to call a loser.
But for Jesus,
even this man was not beyond hope,
beyond redemption
or beyond salvation.
This man, even as he hung a cross,
was embraced in God’s love,
embraced by God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
This is the good news of the gospel,
the good news of Christ,
the good news we celebrate on Easter,
the good news we celebrate every day.
That God is love,
God is mercy,
God is hope,
God is life,
God is redemption and salvation,
for Christ is risen.
Why is it that we are so quick to remember
faults, failures,
missteps, the bad –
our own,
and even moreso,
that of others,
Why is that we humans are
so quick to taunt, to jeer
to condemn,
to shout out “Away! Crucify!”
when Jesus shows us a different way,
when Jesus calls us to a different life
new life,
a better life.
Remember that through the resurrection,
our Lord not only defeated the power of
death,
our Lord defeated the power of evil, of
sin,
of anything and everything
that distracts us from a life of
compassion,
of goodness,
of mercy,
of love.
Remember that our Risen Lord
calls us to new life
in a world that is dying -
dying for peace,
dying for justice,
dying for compassion,
dying for hope.
Remember that in the risen Christ,
God brings to fruition the words spoken
through the prophet Isaiah:
“For I am about to create
new heavens and a new
earth;
the former things
shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and
rejoice forever in
what I am creating;
(Isaiah 65:17)
Remember that in the risen Christ
the former things will not be remembered,
as new life begins here and now
God’s re-creation through our Risen Lord.
Remember that you are loved;
Remember that you live in grace;
Remember that you are remembered;
Remember that you are called to new life;
new life in the risen Christ.
For Christ is risen!
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen, indeed!
Allelulia!
AMEN
posted by Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson @ 11:00 AM
