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