Spoken Word
32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Lk. 23:32-43 ESV)
No Shirt
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and seen this sign?[1]In the 1950’s these signs were common all through Florida and the Gulf Coast. We see less of them there today because the culture has grown less formal and you can walk into many establishments with just your swimsuit on.
But a history professor and author of the book American Hippiespoints out that these signs also became common in the 1960’s during the rise of the countercultural movement in the United States.[2]These “longhairs,” these “hippies,” who might go around barefoot, or without a shirt, became such a contrast to the established culture of the United States that stores and restaurants began to post these signs as a way to keep the hippies out. They wanted their stores and restaurants filled with “respectable” people. They didn’t want them also filled with these strange men and women who dressed differently, smelled differently, and behaved and thought differently. The sign was a way of keep out the riff raff, the trashy and unrespectable folks.
Our text this morning provides an opportunity to consider ways in which we as Christians may still hang out such signs, and the way in which Jesus never did.
Among Sinners
In our text, Jesus doesn’t just find himself around some hippies. He’s among downright sinners in this text.
Jesus finds himself among sinners of two types. First, Jesus finds himself among people with large sin.Could there be any larger sin than to crucify, torment and torture God’s only son?
Jesus is crucified. He is beaten with a whip into which have been inserted bits of bone or glass. He is forced to march to a place of execution. His wrists and ankles are nailed to wooden timbers. He is hoisted in place above a watching crowd. And he is left to die slowly and excruciatingly, bleeding out and struggling to breath as the weight of his body caves in against his lungs and he must push and pull against the nails to lift his body simply to take a breath.
In his classic simply called The CrossJohn Stott summarized crucifixion this way:[3]
Crucifixion seems to have been invented by “barbarians” on the edge of the known world, and taken over from them by both Greeks and Romans. It is probably the most cruel method of execution every practised, for it deliberately delayed death until maximum torture had been inflicted. The victim could suffer for days before dying.”
All of this is done to Jesus by these people. He is the victim of the most egregious kind of injustice.
And then Jesus is taunted. Pagans and Jews, religious and irreligious people, hurl insults at Jesus and taunt him. Jesus can’t even die in peace. He is subjected to the emotional and psychological assault that comes by the taunting from people around him. They question his identity. They question his mission and purpose and power.
And Jesus is tormented. Those in charge offer him sour wine. The purpose of this seems to be a temptation to dull his pain, although temporarily. The soldiers are playing with Jesus, wanting to see how much pain he can take, when he will say “enough,” and give in for a drink of the sour wine that can dull his frayed nerve endings briefly.
These are the very same people Jesus left heaven and came to earth to love. These are the very same people Jesus created. They are violent. They are unjust. They are the worst of humanity’s pride, lust for power, anger, greed, and envy. No greater sin has ever been committed.
And the question is this: what will Jesus do with these terrible people? Jesus lives in a circle of perfect love with the Father and the Spirit. And on the outside of that circle are these horrendous people. What is Jesus going to do with them?
Jesus also finds himself among people with late sin.As if things weren’t bad enough, Jesus has to die with company. Two criminals are placed on crosses next to Jesus. The word “criminals” used by Luke suggests these weren’t just your run of the mill thieves booked for breaking into a pawn shop. These were violent men. They were guilty of destruction of property and perhaps destruction of lives.
And Jesus finds himself caught in a shouting match between the two of them, a shouting match over what they believe about Jesus.
And the one criminal, whose name we are not given, has a come-to-Jesus moment–literally. Probably by reputation, he knows of Jesus. And he’s inclined to believe what the wildest rumors say about Jesus, what that plaque above Jesus’ head says about Jesus–Kingof the Jews. Here he is, in the waning moments of his life, with the weight of perhaps a whole life of wrong bearing down on him, and on his deathbed, on his cross, he confesses Christ. Talk about last minute. He’s so obviously sinful that even this corrupt pagan government has strung him up on a cross. But now, at this late hour, at the 12th hour, he’s had a deathbed conversion, and he wants what Jesus has got. His request, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” is ludicrous.
And the question is this: what will Jesus do with this terrible person? Jesus lives in a circle of perfect love with the Father and the Spirit. And on the outside of that circle hangs this very Johnny-come-lately. What’s Jesus going to do with him?
Separation
It would make all the sense in the world, if Jesus responded with a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” sign? We–Father, Son and Spirit–don’t want your kind in our circle. We have absolutely no place for people like you in our establishment. And who in the world would blame him?
After all, that’s what we tend to do with people we don’t want in our circles.
Tara Westover’s 2018 memoir Educatedexplores this. Tara is one of seven children born to Gene and Faye in rural Idaho. Gene and Faye have taken their Mormon religious beliefs and given them a legalistic fundamentalist twist and combined them with the creeds of survivalists who dot the landscape of the American West. Their belief that the end of the world is immanent is partly fueled by their conviction that the vast majority of humanity is utterly and hopelessly corrupted. God had to be coming–to judge the world for its blatant sin.
The Westovers had one primary reaction to this situation: separation.They cut themselves off from as many of the sinful people around them as they possible could. They created a family compound where they stockpiled weapons, fuel and food. They kept their children away from schools and media of most kinds. The daughters and sons could not date or marry people unless approved of by Gene and Faye. They would not even go to doctors or hospitals, not even in the worst of cases, like when Gene was gravely burned when a car he was working on in his junk yard exploded. Theirs would be a pure community where only those who lived as they lived and believed as they believed would be permitted. They were creating a community where no sinful person would be permitted.
This is what we do. When faced with sinful people we often choose separation.Now, at times we have to because of safety reasons. We have to flee from an abusive situation. Or we have to protect a child from an aggressively immoral influence. But far too often, this is our baseline. We simply don’t want people who don’t act like us or believe like us in our circles. So we choose separation.
Reconciliation
But notice what Jesus does. Notice what Jesus does regarding the people with largesin:
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk. 23:34 ESV)
It’s nearly impossible for us to grasp the full significance of what Jesus does here. He is surrounded by people who are engaged in the worst behavior humans are capable of…and he’s the victim of it! Yet rather than push them away, rather than seek some way to distance himself from them, he seeks reconciliation with them. He desires to find some way for them to be included in the circle of himself, the Father and the Spirit. He’s not willing to write them off or send them away or close the door from them.
He does the same with the one who’s guilty of the latesin:
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”(Lk. 23:43 ESV)
Jesus doesn’t laugh in his face. Jesus doesn’t explain to him all the reasons why the lateness of his confession can’t counteract the weight of a lifetime of guilt. Jesus merely, unbelievably, extends his hand forward, welcoming him into Paradise.
When faced with sinful people Jesus chose reconciliation. His desire was to find some way to draw even these people into the circle with himself, the Father and the Spirit.
Now, none of this means Jesus isn’t interested in holiness. Could anyone honestly believe that Jesus seeks to reconcile with these people just so they can continue their violence, their power trips, their belittlement of others? We heard Peter’s words two Sundays ago about how we’re called to join the Spirit in making every effort to attain the character and virtue of Jesus. Jesus has no interest in creating a circle where the same kind of hatred and harm that occur outside the circle keep occuring inside the circle, but now just under the guise of religion. His circle is not a place for people who continue to abuse their children or spouse, for people who actively bully, for people who continue to devalue others because of their race or religion.
But what it does mean is that part of the character and virtue of Jesus is this unfathomable desire to have a circle where the worst of us are welcome. Jesus desires a circle where the worst are welcome.
It would make sense to us for Jesus to respond the way the Westovers did, the way many of us do. It makes all the sense in the world to create a circle where everything is done to push away the worst, to keep sinful people out.
Yet what Jesus is doing is the opposite. He’s creating a community where the worst are welcomed in. And once welcomed in, they are empowered and encouraged to move toward the center of the circle, which is Christlikeness. No one is invited to the side of Christ to remain as they are. They are invited as they are, but always with the goal that they will become as he is.
But that journey can’t begin without a radical openness to people who aren’t at the center, people who are as far from the center as you could possibly get.
And that only becomes possible when understand one more piece of this picture. Even those of us who are already in the circle are sinners. There is no distinction. It’s not like we’ve got shoes and shirts and they don’t. It’s not like we’re the pure living in our compound and the rest of the world is impure. No, we, too, are sinners. Every one of us who have accepted Jesus’ welcome are sinners, just as those outside the circle are.
Paul would put it this way:
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1 Tim. 1:15 ESV)
We’ve simply been called to welcome people are sinners just as we are and to invite them to join us on this journey toward the center of becoming just as Jesus is.
Tyler Speegle writes of the day he moved to his new house.[4]He made one last trip to his apartment office to turn in the keys to the apartment he’d been living in. At the office, he ran into an older man who was distressed and having difficulty logging into his online account to pay his bill. The man asked Tyler for help and Tyler helped him. Once the bill was paid, the man began talking about his life and about how lonely he was. Tyler thought it might be helpful to invite the man to church, thinking he might meet some new friends at Tyler’s church. So, Tyler invited him to join him for services that Sunday. Instead of accepting or rejecting the invitation, the man simply looked at Tyler and said this: “I did a lot of drugs when I was younger.”
The point? Tyler’s church probably didn’t want someone like him in their circle.
I wonder. Could Tyler bring him here next Sunday?
[1]https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0746/4589/products/No_Shirt_Shoes_Service_Sign_530x@2x.jpg?v=1497540380;
[2]https://people.howstuffworks.com/where-did-shirt-shoes-required-come.htm; https://www.amazon.com/American-Hippies-Cambridge-Essential-Histories/dp/1107627192/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1547138711&sr=8-3&keywords=american+hippies; https://www.amazon.com/Movement-Sixties-Protest-America-Greensboro/dp/0195104579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267479240&sr=1-1
[3]John Stott The Cross23-24.
[4]https://relevantmagazine.com/god/church-supposed-be-messy
