The Day Jesus Died - Reign of Christ Sunday

When they came to the place that is called the skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.  Then Jesus said, "Father forgive them; for they know not what they are doing.  And they cast lots to divide his clothing.  And the people stood by watching; but the leaders scoffed at him saying, "He saved others, let his save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!"  The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."  One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!"  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." Then he said, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Luke 23:33-43

I was recently at a beautiful old church in our city perched right atop the river valley, distinctive with its brick exterior, boasting beautiful windows and woodwork.  After entering and taking a quick look around a friend asked: do you think there is a cross in here?  We began to look around: on walls? widows? in print? the ends of pews?  No cross that we could see.  A thoughtful silence fell as we reflected on the significance of the cross in Christian life and worship.

The cross is perhaps the most recognizable symbol in the world.  Think about all the places you see it in a day: around necks, inked on bodies, on the ambulance, some hospitals, most churches you pass.  The cross a notorious instrument of Roman torture upon which Jesus suffered humiliation, emotional pain, alienation and the worst of physical suffering.  The cross where Jesus died at the hands of fickle people, of people deep in fear; some consumed by their own ambition/power, some aware of the ways in which Jesus threatened their ways and means, others ignorant, mislead and co-opted.  Golgotha the place of skulls - desolate, full of the stench of humanity; the stench of death.  

The cross is offensive, it always has been.  When criminals hung upon it naked, for hours that stretched on, excreting all manner of fluids, writhing in pain, begging for death to come, all of their humanity, all of their dignity was stripped from them - that was the point.  The cross is offensive to people today too which is why it no longer hangs in some places of worship.  It offends our modern sense of decorum; God lets his son die on a cross? That just seems inhumane, why would it happen like that?  We don't like how we come off in the story - it reflects the worst of humanity.  We hear the vitriol in the crowd, the insults called down.  We imagine the purple robe they put on him, the crown of thorns - all to mock, to shame him; their faces made ugly with rage and we want to look away. We want all of the love of the cross with none of the violence.  We want salvation without sacrifice.

Instead we have the arresting image of our King hanging on a cross.  An innocent man tortured.  And his response is forgiveness: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."  Jesus answers all of the anger, all of the bitter mockery and insults  with a prayer asking God for forgiveness on our behalf.  Perhaps it is from the cross that Jesus sees mostly clearly the force of the powers of evil in our world and the darkness of the human heart.  And it breaks his own. Even at our worst we are not beyond the reach of Jesus and his forgiveness.  Even as he dies he is offering life.  And this is so beautifully illustrated in criminals who are hanging beside him.  The criminal on the left is still looking for someone to pin all his anger, his grief, his sense of injustice, his shame upon as he hangs, dying a scornful death. He chooses to mock Jesus, the saviour saying: "If you are the Messiah save yourself and save us."  The criminal on the right responds to him with a rebuke "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we have been justly condemned, we are getting what we deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong."  And he turns to Jesus saying, "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom."

Remember.  This is not just a request to 'bring to mind'; this is a word with deep scriptural resononance: "When I bring clouds over the earth and a bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."(Gen.9) or from Psalm 25:7: "Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O Lord."  As, Fleming Rutledge points out "when God remembers, he does not just think about us, he acts for us, with power to save."  

This criminal ending his life in misery and shame sees Jesus for who he is, a King with a Kingdom.  Not even all of those who have been closest to Jesus, who have seen him cast out demons and raise the dead can see him this clearly.  Luke is relentless in his determination make us see that the gospel is for all people, including those who have committed despicable acts and been discarded by society. Again, this is the good news and the hard news.  It is the good news because we know the darkness of our own souls, we have sensed at times what we are capable of and we too can be forgiven, "we can live in freedom because the strong love of Christ has reached across all borders and all boundaries."(Andrew Murray Purra) And it is the hard news because if we are to take Jesus seriously, we are to see that we aren't that different than 'those people' and we are to follow Christ to 'those places' and meet him there in the face of the criminal, the leper, the homeless, the addict, the prostitute, the john because "God has assigned infinite value to all elements of society "(Fleming Rutledge).This is our participation in the exodus of Christ initiated through Jesus' death on the cross.  And this exodus is not just for hebrew people but for all people and it is not limited to freedom from physical slavery but it "breaks the chains of slavery from all forms of sin and evil that bind the human spirit; it brings the promise of unending life and love and liberty as well as an unfettered relationship with God." (Andrew Murray Pura)

This Sunday is Reign of Christ Sunday and we sit with the jarring image of our crucified King identifying himself with all that is wrong and sad and shameful and broken in the world and yet has been redeemed through his death and made new.  And so the cross which stood as a notorious symbol of death has been subverted - the cross has become the way of life!  May it ever be before us.

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I read through all of the lessons this week and I like the trajectory that they take.  There is so much in this passage and yet each of these lessons have stayed with one key concept and developed it.  They have allowed children to enter into these stories in tactile and imaginative ways, and opened up places to make connections to their lived experience.

I think when I have taught this text before I have fallen into the trap of trying to explain the significance of what is happening (though barely grasping it myself) and getting bogged down in these explanations or in questions that are too theological and have kids looking at me like a two headed monster.  I re-read a little bit of what Gretchen Wolff Pritchard writes in her book and thought it might be worth sharing, she writes:

"For Christians, the stories of Christ's life, death and resurrection are the most powerful 'fairy tale' or 'myth' in the world.  They also happen to be true.  But it is the enormous power of these stories that exert such pull on our imaginations and drives us to act them out in springtime, and Sunday by Sunday throughout the year.  "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again"; "Take and eat; this is for you." This story which is so captivating to adult and child alike, though we cannot put our finger on why it so moves and nourishes us, is what we share with each other in the life of the church; and the difficult situation it helps us cope with is our own mysterious, inexplicable life: our birth, our alienation, our need for love, our fear of death and our assurance that the Christ who died and rose again has somehow brought us home to the heart of God."
- from Offering the Gospel to Children

May God be with us this Sunday as we celebrate the Reign of Christ