February 20, 2005, Second Sunday in Lent

Lesson: Luke 23.39-43

Sermon Title: Today, You Will Be with Me in Paradise

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INTRODUCTION

  1. Actor Tom Selleck recalls:

"Whenever I get full of myself, I remember the nice, elderly couple who approached me with a camera on a street in Honolulu one day.

When I struck a pose for them, the man said, 'No, no, we want you to take a picture of US.'"

  1. We all want to be remembered

    1. Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) in Out of Africa reminisces:

If I know a song of Africa--I thought--of the giraffe, and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields, and the sweaty faces of the coffee-pickers, does Africa know a song of me?

Would the air over the plain quiver with a color that I had had on, or the children invent a game in which my name was, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or would the eagles of Ngong look out for me?

  1. There were two malefactors, thieves, criminals, who were hung with Jesus.

    1. One wanted to get somewhere else.

    2. He wanted to be remembered.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. How do we get to Paradise?

    1. Somewhere along the line we swapped out Jesus' gospel--through him we can be transformed into citizens of the kingdom of God, right now, today--for a gospel of heaven's minimum entrance requirement. (1)

The difference is illustrated in a scene from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

As King Arthur and his knights seek the Holy Grail, they come to a bridge that spans "the river of death."

A bridge keeper allows people to cross this bridge only if they can answer three questions. Get one wrong, and you're tossed into the pit.

Lancelot is the first to test the bridge keeper.

The keeper asks him, "What is your name?"

Lancelot answers.

"What is your quest?"

Lancelot answers, "To seek the Holy Grail."

"What is your favorite color?"

"Blue."

"Right," says the bridge keeper, "off you go."

Lancelot crosses the bridge, amazed this was so easy.

The second knight similarly states his name and quest. But the third question is now, "What is the capital of Assyria?"

"I don't know that."

Suddenly the knight is hurled, screaming, into the abyss .……

Finally, the king steps up. "What is your name?"

"Arthur, king of the Britons."

"What is your quest?"

"To seek the Holy Grail."

"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?" ……

"What do you mean," asks Arthur, "an African or European swallow?"

"What? I don't know that," answers the bridge keeper, who immediately is launched into the abyss.

Arthur and his followers thereafter cross the bridge unhindered.

    1. Many people's idea of the gospel is that some day we'll get to the bridge to paradise and be asked, "Why should you be allowed to cross?"

      1. As long as we answer correctly, we make it across.

      2. Answer wrongly, and we're cast into the abyss.

      3. The gospel is redefined to be the announcement of the minimal entrance requirements for getting into heaven.

    2. Some have written that we need to repent.

      1. Repentance, a change of heart and mind is all that is necessary.

      2. Seventeenth-century Puritan theologian Thomas Watson argued that repentance was a spiritual medicine made up of six special ingredients. "If any one is left out, it loses its virtue."

        1. 1) Sight of sin

        2. 2) Sorrow for sin

        3. 3) Confession of sin

        4. 4) Shame for sin

        5. 5) Hatred for sin

        6. 6) Turning from sin.

      3. This gets awfully complicated and involved.

  1. There was no repentance to be found in most of those who were witnessing this scene.

    1. The leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!"

    2. The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" there was also an inscription over him.

    3. One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"

    4. But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? and we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong."

    5. This is why he could cry out:

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

  1. The only way to Paradise is to be remembered.

    1. Both criminals would be remembered.

      1. One is remembered for what he said.

      2. The other is remembered for what he did.

    2. What the second one did provides the background and understanding.

    3. The penitent criminal change of heart is condensed in a poem

O the Bitter Shame and Sorrow

Theodore Monod, a Parisian, wrote these words, in English, during a series of consecration meetings in Broadlands, England, in July 1874.

O the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be,
When I let the Savior's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
"All of self, and none of Thee!"

Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on th' accursèd tree,
Heard Him pray, "Forgive them, Father!"
And my wistful heart said faintly,
"Some of self, and some of Thee!"

Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and ah! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
"Less of self, and more of Thee!"

Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered:
Grant me now my supplication,
"None of self, and all of Thee!"

    1. It is out of this condition that the criminal's cry is heard:

"Remember me when you come into your kingdom!"

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  1. The remembering must be done by one who has the power to create something different.

    1. Jesus is king.

      1. The sign above his head proclaims him king.

        1. The inscription was written in Greek, on account of the Hellenistic Jews, who were then at Jerusalem because of the Passover.

        2. The inscription was written in Latin, that being the language of the government under which he was crucified.

        3. The inscription was written in Hebrew, that being the language of the place in which this deed of darkness was committed.

      2. The inscription demonstrated that all were rebels against, and murderers of, the king.

      3. At least Pilate got this right.

    2. His kingdom is not yet of this world.

  2. His kingdom is Paradise.

    1. To understand Paradise we ought to understand what it was.

      1. The Lord God planted a garden in the East of Eden.

        1. Eden is Paradise.

        2. The Garden was a place of peace and tranquility.

        3. The Garden was a place where all of God's creation lived together without fear or danger.

      2. We do not know such a place.

      3. We are tempted to see it in mythological perspectives.

    2. To understand Paradise we ought to understand the Old Testament word pictures.

      1. One of the pictures in found in Isaiah 65:17-25.

17For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. 20No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. 21They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD--and their descendants as well. 24Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.

      1. This is a Hebrew picture of Eden restored.

    1. Another word picture is found in Revelation 21

      1. Revelation 21:1-5 (NRSVA)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true."

      1. All things will be restored.

    1. Who would not want to live in Paradise.

    2. The criminal's intentions are clear and precise.

  1. Jesus does not hesitate but responds that the penitent criminal will be with him in Paradise.

    1. Here is a poem on joy by William Blake titled On Another Sorrow (2)

He doth give his joy to all;
He becomes an infant small;
He becomes a man of woe;
He doth feel the sorrow too.
Think not thou canst sigh a sigh
And thy maker is not by;
Think not thou canst weep a tear
And thy maker is not near.

O! He gives to us his joy
That our grief he may destroy;
Till our grief is fled and gone
He doth sit by us and moan.

    1. The thief gives up his life in the joy of knowing that he will be remembered and restored.

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CONCLUSION

  1. Two criminals, one Savior.

    1. Both will be remembered.

    2. Only one will be restored.

  1. Soren Kierkegaard once told the story of an immense vestibule with two doors.

    1. Over one door the sign reads: "Heaven."

    2. Over the other door the sign reads: "Lecture on Heaven."

    3. Guess which one Kierkegaard said the people were flocking through?

  2. Is it fair for me to ask you, "Which one will you go through?"

1. John Ortberg, "True (and false) transformation," Leadership Journal, Summer 2002, Christianitytoday.com.

2. In The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne & The Complete Poetry of William Blake (New York: Random House, 1941), 547.

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