Luke 23:26-43
Happy New Year’s Eve …
New Year’s Eve? You say.
Yup … New Year’s Eve … at least for Christians … this is the last Sunday of the church year … the New Year begins next Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent … but today, we linger near the cross … we watch the strange ending of a strange man called Jesus …
Who would have thought?
We call Him King of kings and LORD of lords.
Who would have thought … such a strange ending would have such profound consequences for all the world!
Step back to Noah’s flood for a moment … the world was a mess; God regretted creating us … so let it rain …
Let the waters fall and let the waters rise … humankind failed the test, and they have to pay the price.
So pay we did … all but Noah and his family … and animals two-by-two.
When the waters finally recede, Noah gets right down to business … he plants a vineyard.
Makes wine, gets rip-roaring drunk … so drunk, he passes out in his tent … buck naked.
Ham stops by, sees the old man and laughs …
But Shem & Japheth take a garment and cover their father.
But the family is now divided.
It didn’t take long for things to get back to where they were and worse … and God said, “Now what?”
So God called Abraham and Sarah … “May I have a few moments of your time?”
A new family, a new nation, a new world …
But Abraham tells lies …
Lot lives in Sodom …
Sarah laughs at God …
Abraham fathers a child with a slave girl …
Jacob and Esau are enemies …
Slavery in Egypt …
Wandering in the wilderness …
Fighting for the Promised Land …
King Saul … a failure …
King David … a mighty man of valor, but hands covered in blood …
Solomon … ever-so wise, ever-so foolish; the kingdom collapses into warring factions – north and south – Civil War!
Death and mayhem everywhere …
And God said, “Now what?”
So God conceived a plan … “Mary, may I see you for a few moments?”
“Joseph, it’s all right … take Mary for your wife … she carries a holy child … He will set His people free” … and Joseph named Him Jesus.
30 years later … Jesus goes to the Jordan to be baptized … when John the Baptist sees Him, he cries out: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
Takes them away … doesn’t wait for us to give them up, but takes them from us … takes them away … far away.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
“Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1).
“Blessed is the one against whom the LORD will not reckon sin” (Romans 4:8).
Why?
What’s the big deal?
The church has fussed and fumed too much about sin, that’s for sure … saw-dust trail preachers have frightened children with hellfire and brimstone … sin has been used and abused to fleece folks of their coins and intimidate the crowds.
But if some of the church made too much of sin, it does us no good to offer up a pablum of self-help – a “Christ without a cross in a world without sin.”
I don’t know what sin is precisely … some deep inability to love … an instinctive self-centeredness … hostility in our homes … the wars we fight around the globe … a mugger in a back alley … a white-shirted corporate officer cooking Enron’s books …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … the will to dominate and win … the fear we have of the new … closed neighborhoods and gated communities …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … 40 million Americans uninsured; too many children dying for want of medical care, right here, in America … 30,000 children a day around the world …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … the dark shadows of the soul … shame, guilt and anger … an average of 17 military personnel a day who take their own lives …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … the games we play with God … looking good on the outside and still king of our own little domain …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … the distance between us and God … the boundaries we draw between neighbors … the chasms we dig and the walls we build … the suspicions we hold; the tales we tell …
I don’t know what sin is precisely … hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, factions, envy, self-indulgence.
I don’t know what sin is precisely … but Paul’s words ring true:
“The good I want to do, I don’t do; the evil I despise, I keep on doing … wretched man that I am; who will rescue me from this impasse (see Romans 7:7-25)?
And then, these immortal words: “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our LORD.”
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
The movie, “Sister Act” … Whoopie Goldberg, working with a youth choir … they’re singing “O Happy Day … when Jesus washed my sin away” … at first, lackluster singing … then Whoopie lights a small fire, and it takes off … and they sing with heart and soul, “O Happy Day” and when they finish, the audience on their feet, cheering madly, Whoopie says to the youth, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now a choir.”
That’s what God wants for this tired and trembling world … to sing a song, to be a choir … every voice represented … every style embraced … all together now, in one voice: “O Happy Day when Jesus washed my sins away.”
Simon of Cyrene … innocent bystander pressed into service … accidental disciple: “Here; you carry this cross and follow Jesus.”
What was Simon doing there?
Part of the Passover crowd … tens of thousands of pilgrims from the steppes of Russia to the shores of Tripoli … from India to the tip of Spain … the dream of every Jew … to see the fabled city and bring a sacrifice to the Temple.
Simon … immortalized in history … a bystander who carried the cross for our LORD.
And Jesus took away his sins.
The women who mourn and wail … not everyone in the crowd is eager for this man’s death … do they know Him? Were some of them healed by Him? Were their children blessed by Him?
And Jesus took away their sins.
The criminals on either side … not just back-alley thugs, but enemies of Rome … rebels, revolutionaries, terrorists … determined to overthrow Rome and rid their homeland of this hated enemy … violent men who lived by the sword.
That’s the charge brought against Jesus … sedition, treason, rabble-rousing - a threat to Roman rule … hence the public execution.
What better way to remind the people of their captivity – this exquisitely painful means of death – slow and agonizing …
And what better time - Passover Eve … let ‘em know who’s boss … Rome rules.
The soldiers throw dice for his garments – they mock Him – “Hey big guy, Mr. King of the Jews … you’re not so smart now, are ya’!” …
How else to break the boredom of a job done thousands of times … all over the empire, rebels, terrorists, instigators, crucified along busy highways; sometimes hundreds at a time … they’ve done this so many times, they can do it in their sleep. They know how to kill; they’re experts at it.
Just another day for these battled-hardened men.
And Jesus took away their sins.
The rulers are there, too … sneering; snide, enjoying their power … “What a fool you are Jesus of Nazareth … you had some good ideas, but you took ‘em too far … too radical … too much of a good thing … you didn’t play by the rules … you healed on the Sabbath; you disregarded our traditions … you forgive sins, but that’s our job, not yours.”
You spent too much time with the down-and-out, Jesus – you should’ve spent more time with us!”
And Jesus took away their sins.
The people were there, too … bystanders; tourists … in town for the Holiday … wondering … bewildered: “Who is this guy?”
“Where’s He from?”
“Nazareth, you say?”
“What did He do?”
And Jesus took away their sins.
Of the two crucified with Jesus, one was thoughtful … in the agony of his own death, he speaks kindly to Jesus … does he see something that everyone else missed?
“Jesus” … he knows the name.
Did someone tell him? … did he overhear it? Was he there at the Sermon on the Mount … did he witness a healing?
He knows the name, “Jesus” – remember me!
“Remember me” – I’m a nobody, and nobody cares about me … I die here alone … I’m a violent man, and I’m dying a violent death.
“Remember me.”
“Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
“Kingdom?”
Out of this mess? This wretched end to our lives? A kingdom?
And Jesus took away his sins.
“Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”
A strange ending to a strange life … a place called The Skull, three men dying … the one in the center speaks of paradise.
And He took away the sins of the world.
Amen!
