St Andrew's Church

In the Gospel reading today, we have Luke recording very simply that at Calvary, the place of The Skull, they crucified Jesus at Calvary with two criminals – one on his left and one on his right. The rest of the reading can be seen as being about a dialogue between Jesus and the two criminals. In the darkness of the ‘ending’ of Jesus’ teaching and ministry years, there was an emerging out of that darkness into light, a new Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is dawning as a new ‘beginning’, even in the darkness.

Imagine that you are one of the criminals. You had killed a criminal as an act of passion and anger. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time, to protest against the rulers, to deal with him for deriding your religion and all you hold dearly. Surely as a martyr you would have God on your side? You fought the criminal for Paradise and you killed him and now you are being crucified. It seems Paradise is being turned into hell. You know you deserve this painful death that you are about to undergo.

Listen to the shouting. It is not about you but about Jesus. He is the centre of attention. You are hardly noticed. You are a little jealous. He is not the sort of martyr that you are. He has not killed anyone. As far as you can tell he has done nothing wrong. You have heard that he has a strange philosophy of treating everyone as an equal, and telling folk to love their enemies. Why should anyone like that find himself on a cross?

Your strength is ebbing away. You want to get this over as soon as possible and die. In the background you hear new shouting. It is the other criminal on a cross. He is bitter and twisted in his agony. He attacks Jesus: ‘What’s the use of being the Messiah and not being able to save yourself and us too? You are an impostor!’

You take a deep breath though it hurts on the cross. Defend the innocent. Honour God. Admit your sin. Seek God’s will: ‘Jesus, remember me when you are King.’ What are you saying? How can the dying Jesus rule from the cross?

Listen, Jesus is speaking quietly to you: ‘after today we will both be in Paradise’.
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Crucifixion is about an ‘ending’ and a ‘beginning’. Hang on to those words ‘ending’ and ‘beginning’. This day is to celebrate Christ the King on the last Sunday of Year C. The readings that we follow is from a lectionary for Sundays (there is a separate lectionary for daily readings too), and the readings (with psalms) covers a large portion of the bible (not the whole bible) over a period of three years known as years A, B and C. The years runs from Advent to Advent. As I say, this day is to celebrate Christ the King and this Sunday is the last Sunday of Year C – an ‘ending’. Next Sunday will be the first Sunday of Year A – a ‘beginning’.

So there is a pattern here of an ‘ending’ followed by a ‘beginning’. We have in this reading an ‘ending’ and a ‘beginning’. It was to be the end of Jesus’ teachings and ministry. Most Sundays, the readings from the New Testament are about a story or a parable or a healing that happened during Jesus’ teachings and ministry. That, with the crucifixion, was coming to an ‘ending’. If Jesus had simply died and was buried, then Jesus would be just like any other thinker or philosopher to be quickly and largely forgotten, only to be featured as a paragraph or two in articles and books covering the biblical and even mythological eras. But the crucifixion was about a ‘beginning’ for Jesus would rise and God’s Kingdom will be a reality. Crucifixion is about an ‘ending’ and a ‘beginning’. Hang on to those words ‘ending’ and ‘beginning’.

When I prepare sermons, I always think about how I am feeling about the reading and I try to identify with the feelings of a person or persons in the reading.

Firstly, I thought of feelings of doubt. We have in the reading the word ‘if’, ‘If he is the Messiah…..’. There is a lot of meaning in that little word ‘if’. I recognised a sense of a feeling of doubt at the end of Jesus’ teaching and ministry life. I remembered the sense of a feeling of doubt at the ‘beginning’ of Jesus’ teaching and ministry life where he went into the wilderness for forty days and resisted the temptations from the devil. It says in Luke 4:3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.”, there is that word ‘if’, again casting doubt; and Luke 4:9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here”, there is that word ‘if’ again casting doubt.
Alongside Jesus, we have two criminals, one on his left and one on his right. One criminal was feeling despair; he could only see the ‘ending’, for he was asking Jesus why couldn’t he save himself if he was the Messiah? His death seems to defeat the kingdom of God that he had promised. Empathize with Jesus. All he had worked for was in ruins. He preached love of friends and enemies, and it had failed. No one had learnt the lesson until it was too late. His friends had betrayed or deserted him. His enemies had gained power to eliminate him. You see, this criminal was only seeing the ‘ending’, the end of his own life along with the lives of the two beside him – Jesus and the other criminal.

The other criminal was feeling not so much despair, for he felt for Jesus in a totally different way. Jesus was an innocent man, he had done nothing to deserve crucifixion. This criminal was seeing a ‘beginning’, the start of the Kingdom of God, a Paradise – not a romantic kind of Garden of Eden, but a system of things where we can walk with Jesus to glory when all of humanity would find peace and justice. The crucifixion was about a ‘beginning’.

Crucifixion is about an ‘ending’ and a ‘beginning’. Hang on to those words ‘ending’ and ‘beginning’.

The text here parallels that in the other gospels, Mark, Matthew and John. It is the core of the Christian tradition about Jesus. In his death all that the Messiah revealed proved to be true. The forces of evil gathered all their strength to put out the light of God’s love, and failed.

Luke carefully points out the contrasts of how one criminal saw only an ‘ending’ and of how the other criminal saw a ‘beginning’ too. Salvation comes to those who have eyes to see what is happening, and who take responsibility for responding to God.

Luke highlighted that Jesus could have saved himself and then there truly would only have been an ‘ending’. Luke highlighted that Jesus didn’t save himself and gave his life away in sacrifice for others and so following the ‘ending’ was a ‘beginning’. No doubt Jesus could have avoided death. He could have retired to the safety of Galilee and allowed the rulers of Jerusalem to persist in the distortion of theology and the destruction of peace. But God cannot compromise with evil. Evil must be exposed, even if this entails suffering. If Jesus had saved himself then evil would not have been exposed and dealt with. As Jesus had saved himself then he showed that God’s love endures all things.

Crucifixion is about an ‘ending’ and a ‘beginning’. Hang on to those words ‘ending’ and ‘beginning’. Amen