Today is the “Last Sunday after Pentecost”, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which means that it is also the last time we read from Luke’s Gospel. Next week, we’ll be in Advent and we’ll start reading from the Gospel of Matthew. The cycle is complete, and we will be leaving Luke’s with this last scene of the crucifixion. It may be a strange choice on this day where we celebrate Christ the King, we may expect hearing about Jesus’s glorification, and yet if we pay attention we’ll realize it is indeed about Jesus the king: an inscription has been nailed above his head that proclaims so in three different languages. More specifically it’s about Jesus inaugurating his kingdom, and we hear the words of the “good thief”: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” to which Jesus famously replies: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”. And so this Sunday we may have a short passage, but it sort of summarizes up all the themes dear to Luke, all we have talked about, studied about and meditated on as we have listened to his Gospel throughout year: Luke’s emphasis, if not obsession, on our need for forgiveness, Jesus’s compassion for the little ones and the sinners, the power of prayer, and in the end joy and hope for all. Luke’s Gospel is said to be the most joyful of all the Gospels and I am willing to believe so based on this passage only: No gruesome details about the crucifixion, Luke focuses on Jesus’s goodness and even tenderness during his most terrible hour, his willingness to forgive the worst and, for those who claim his absolution, his willingness to open wide the doors of his paradise, of his kingdom. Jesus hasn’t been raised from the dead yet, Jesus hasn’t even died yet and even then, somehow, already, everything is made all right: Today, you will be with me in paradise. We spent some time sharing on this Gospel during Bible study, and one of you said something that really touched me: Even in the darkest time, there is still hope. And this hope doesn’t come with a knight in a shinning armor, rather it comes with simple words of forgiveness and compassion.
And so, before we go even further, I think we could all take note of that, couldn’t we? Joy and hope do not come like a knight in shinning armor, rather it comes with simple words of forgiveness and compassion. I am sure you are like me and you hear a lot these days about the “darkness of our world”, when you are not the one to talk about it, the division, the violence we may experience even in this country and in our communities. Well, I think that Luke was certainly not ignorant of these realities. If anything, at the crucifixion he paints a world of hatred and evil. You know, before spending time on this Gospel it didn’t hit me that Jesus was surrounded by criminals. When I think of the people who surrounded Jesus, I have in mind the greedy tax collectors, the ignorant disciples and the occasional religious snob, but here Luke talks about people who are “criminals” and even “evildoer”. We now use the expression “Good thief” but the man wasn’t a thief according to Luke, he was a criminal. And yet, this is in this world that salvation comes to us. Three times, the criminals and bystanders challenge Jesus to save himself, and from the beginning Luke has been telling us that Jesus is the savior, but now we learn how salvation comes to us, in simple words of forgiveness and compassion, tenderness and mercy.
Think about it: A man decides to choose Jesus when everyone scoff, mock and rebuke him, he takes Jesus’s defense and asks Jesus to “remember” him, which was for the Jews the way they would ask God to forgive them (See Psalm 25:7), and it turns the world upside down: Today, you will be with me in paradise. This is in essence what in our reading today Paul says to the Colossians about the strength that comes for those who know God. Paul says that God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. I read recently, somewhere, that faith does not so much change our circumstances, rather it changes the way we see them. It is certainly very true of this passage and for this man. The darkness and despair turns to joy and hope. I think we need to remember that too, not only for ourselves, that our darkness can turn to light, but also for those who surround us. We have the power to heal this world by simple words of compassion and by our willingness to grant forgiveness and sometimes to ask for it. If you have ever been bullied, scoffed, mocked and rebuked and one person decided to stand up for you or to be your friend in your worst hour, you know what I am talking about. It’s not that you had “at least” that person, it turned your whole world upside down, from distress and darkness to joy and hope.
But enough about that because this is not mainly what I wanted us to focus on today – this was the easy part if you will. I think Luke is telling us something that is more difficult to hear, something the three other evangelists do not tell us about. I am sure you have already noticed several times, and also because I often point it out, that the version of a same event differs in the Gospels, Mark will tell things a certain way, and Matthew a little bit differently and Luke may add some more details. We also know that there are stories we find only in one Gospel, like recently we talked about the parables about prayers that are only found in Luke’s. If the four Gospels all talk about the crucifixion, they tell it in a certain way, and the story we have heard today, what we have come to call the story “of the good thief” is unique to Luke. And you know I’ve never really wondered about that, assuming each evangelist shines the spotlight on the details that are important to them (again in Luke’s: Prayer, compassion, forgiveness and we have all of that here). But then, when I had a look at the original text, and I learned that Luke is talking about criminals, evildoers and not about a “good thief” or a “thief with a great heart”, and that it is that man who takes Jesus’s defense and asks him for forgiveness and he is granted the first place in the kingdom – He will be the first to enter -I have started wondering if maybe we don’t hear this story in other Gospels for other reasons. Maybe we don’t hear it elsewhere not because it has been suspected to be too sentimental or too good to be true, but rather because it is too scandalous, too unacceptable. Especially for us the good people, the religious people, the faithful ones. Luke is the only one who tells the story because he is the only one who dares to tell the story. And indeed, does not it hurt our sense of morality and isn’t it downright crazy that you can do the worse things in your life, and then turn to Jesus at the last minute and Jesus will give you the crown of glory? What do you think? Is it too easy to enter the kingdom that way, if you have never sweat a bit or suffer a bit for Jesus’s sake or even for the sake of trying to be a good person?
And yet if it is true, what does it say about all of us?
Well, I think Luke makes this point very clear by showing this man as an example. Forgiveness is the only thing we need to enter the kingdom. Luke makes it very clear that we’re all here for the same reason, this very reason. All those who surrounded Jesus were criminals, no one was better than the other, the only thing that made the difference between them was there was those who realized they needed mercy and those who didn’t (Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?), those who think of salvation as avoiding the bad that may happen to them (save yourself and us!), rather than realizing that salvation is about being purified from the evil within. We spend a lot of time in our lives pretending to know what its meaning is about, why we are here on earth. We say: We’re here to work, to feed and to love our families or even to share the Gospel or to serve the church. But Luke tells us the hard truth: We’re here because we are all criminals and evildoers, all here standing in need of forgiveness in front of the crucified Christ. And it makes no difference if we live a hundred years or ten years, if we live to accomplish great things, if we end up on a throne or if we end up in jail, the only thing we need to do is to be ready to receive forgiveness. It can take our whole life to realize that, it can happen in five seconds. That’s the only thing we are here for. And it’s not easy to ask sincerely for forgiveness or to realize we indeed have done wrong, it’s actually the hardest thing in the world. If you ever have had to ask someone to forgive you for something you have done to them that was really bad, you know that, and if you ever had to grant forgiveness to some who really hurt you, you know about that too. Again, it’s not the easiest thing to realize we have done wrong and to ask for forgiveness, it is the hardest thing in the world, and the wonder is that it is also the only thing we need to do to be welcomed in God’s kingdom. I have a friend who comes from a family who isn’t religious at all and her dad died quite suddenly some years ago. And it was really distressing for her because she said as he died the last thing he said was that he had been wrong about everything. And I get it, if you don’t believe in God, it’s terrible to think you have wasted your life. But from a Christian perspective? I think maybe that’s the only thing we need to be ready to say.