All the Way
Luke 23:13-26, 32-49; Philippians 2:1-11[1]
Some of you know I’m
not a huge sports fan, although I do love Husker Volleyball! One of the reasons
for that is that I tend to like sports that involve endurance. That would
explain my (crazy?) love of spending hours on my bike, riding long distances.
Back in the day, I was a huge fan of professional cycling, and of Lance
Armstrong in particular. Of course, my enthusiasm faded when it came out that
not only was Lance using performance-enhancing drugs, but that the sport had be
rife with that kind of thing for generations. Essentially, they were “cheating”
to be able to ride father and faster. The sad thing about it is that those
people have a natural ability to ride father and faster than most of us!
One of the aspects of
the story of Jesus that I admire most is the fact that he endured everything
that his opponents threw at him. More than that, when the time came, he
sustained his faithfulness to God and his faith in God even when it led him to
be rejected, beaten, and crucified. Now, in Luke’s Gospel, we’re told that
Jesus also had some “help.” He lived his life in the power of the Spirit of
God, who enabled him to endure all that he went through. But more than that, I
believe it was his unswerving commitment to live out his faithfulness to God,
and to hold firmly to his faith in God, that enabled him to endure such
sacrifice on our behalf.
That’s one of the main
points of our Gospel lesson for today: that Jesus faced all that he had to
endure for our sakes through his faithfulness to God and his faith in God. We
see this in what Jesus says from the cross in Luke’s gospel. Now, I want to
pause to point out that, despite the long tradition of the church, there is no
such thing as the “Seven Last Words of Christ.” No Gospel reports all 7 of the
words of Jesus that have been “compiled” into that tradition. Matthew and Mark
only have the one saying, the one we’re probably most familiar with: “My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?” John has three others, and Luke has three of
his own. The tradition of the “Seven Last Words” came from the desire to
harmonize the Gospels with one another, but it fails to do justice to the
unique message of each Gospel.
So I think it bears
looking into the words of Jesus from the cross in Luke’s Gospel, because they
present a unique point of view on the way that Jesus died. We need to remember
that all three of these “words” are only found in Luke! The first one, “Father,
forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34),
demonstrates Jesus’ compassion for the people, and even compassion for and
forgiveness of those who had rejected him, falsely accused him, and turned him
over to the Romans to brutalize him and eventually execute him. That statement
in and of itself bears witness to Jesus’ faithfulness to God and faith in God.
The next “word” of
Jesus from the cross was in dialogue with one of the criminals who shared his
fate. As you may recall, the first one “blasphemed” Jesus by demanding that he
free himself and them. But the second criminal came to Jesus’ defense,
acknowledging that they deserved their fate, but insisting that “this man has
done nothing wrong” (Lk 23:41). He then asked Jesus to “remember me when you
come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42), probably thinking of some time in the indefinite
future. But Jesus knew that everything he had been doing was bringing the
kingdom of God to all people. And so he promised this man, “Truly I tell you,
today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). Again, I would say this
reflects Jesus’ unswerving commitment to the work of God’s kingdom.
Finally, in Luke’s
Gospel Jesus dies with not with a cry of anguish, but with an affirmation of faith:
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). What we may not
recognize is that Jesus is actually quoting Psalm 31:5 here. While it may be
difficult to hear because we’re so used to thinking of Jesus dying with a cry
of anguish, in Luke’s Gospel, with his last breath Jesus entrusted his whole
life to God. I would say that Luke wanted us to see that Jesus died the same
way that he lived: seeking to be faithful to God by means of his faith in God.
We might be tempted to
think that this was Jesus, and he was a lot stronger that you or I am. But part
of the point of the story of Jesus’ life is that, as St. Peter puts it, “Christ
also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his
steps” (1 Pet 2:21). Now, he’s talking to people who were suffering unjustly,
and encouraging them to follow Jesus’ example of entrusting himself “to him who
judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23). I like the way Gene Peterson puts it in the
Message: Jesus endured everything he faced because he was “content to let God
set things right.” That’s a pretty good definition of faithfulness to God and
faith in God!
One of the themes of
the New Testament is that we all are called to follow Jesus’ example of “emptying
ourselves,” of “humbling ourselves” to live in a way that is faithful to God
and inspired by faith in God (Phil 2:5-8). I can personally bear witness that
it’s never easy to do that. I’m sure many of you can as well. Again, however, I
think that we’re meant to look to Jesus as our example. Just as he was able to
follow God’s will all the way to the end, so I believe that we can look to him
to find the faith, the courage, and determination to follow Jesus. We can look
to him to learn how to follow him in faithfulness to God and by our faith in
God all the way through our lives.
[1] © 2022
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm Ph. D. on 4/10/2022 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
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