Good Friday Reflections
I've stopped posting excerpts from my sermons for some reason. I gave a half-sermon on Good Friday. Here is an excerpt.

The Gospel account tells us about the two other prisoners who were being killed alongside Jesus. As the day drew on, the three men had a conversation, two criminals and the king of the world. Hanging there in the hot Israeli sun, every breath being torturously painful, one criminal turns to Jesus. He says that because Jesus was the Messiah, he should save himself and the other two. Then the other criminal criticized the first criminal and told the first man to accept his well-earned fate, and mentioned the innocent-ness of Jesus. Both men acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. Both men called to him for help. We cry out to him for help too. Which one did Jesus respond to? Which one is a model for us? Listen to the words those men cried to him.
“Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself, and us!”
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Only to the second man did Jesus respond, and what a response, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
The first man spoke to Jesus out of fear. Save us from death, save us from punishment. We cry to Jesus for help too. Save us from punishment, save us from hell. Jesus can and will save us, but we cannot be scared into heaven; we cannot use that kind of fear to approach Jesus.
The second man spoke to Jesus in humility. Remember me, he said. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. He took ownership of his errors. He knew he had sinned, he knew he was getting punishment for it, but he also knew something that even the disciples did not understand, the kingdom was still coming. Jesus had been telling them about a kingdom, a kingdom that he was going to bring, a kingdom that he was going to rule, but it was a kingdom that was not of this earth. That kingdom is still coming, that kingdom is already here. When we submit ourselves to that kingdom, when we turn ourselves to Jesus in humility and say “Remember me Jesus”, then he will to us and say, “you too will be with me in paradise.”

   [ posted by William @ 5:47 PM ]