Backward Victory
Luke 23:33-43[1]
We live in a world where somebody has to lose for anybody
to win. As I mentioned earlier this year in connection with the NCAA basketball
tournament, in some cases, a lot of people have to lose for somebody to win. There
are all kinds of examples of this win-lose scenario in life. Mathematicians and
economists call it a “zero-sum game.” Although I wouldn’t say that I fully
understand all the details, the idea is that if someone has to lose in order
for someone else to win, then there is no real net benefit for the whole
“system.” The alternative is a “win-win game,” where a win for one can be a win
for many. In my mind, the many “collaborative” games out there, where everyone
works to “win” together, are a good example. They point out the option that I
wish the human family would learn: we gain more when we all win together than
when we try to “beat” everyone else!
I realize that there are so many aspects of our lives that
reinforce the “win-lose” scenario that a “win-win” scenario may seem positively
alien. It’s almost as if we believe it’s the “American way” for there to be at
least one loser (if not many) in order for there truly to be a “winner.” But
there are so many examples in daily life that disprove that. Like when one
farmer is injured and can’t harvest crops and the rest of the community pitches
in to help out. I know that I’m an idealist, but I believe that everyone wins
in that situation. I may also be a fool, but I think the world would be a
better place if we all adopted that approach toward more than just the people
we know. When you think about all the resources in this world—food and other
commodities, money and the ability to generate it, talented and hard-working
people—it really makes no sense for us in a global economy to think of anyone
as an “enemy.” I may be a foolish dreamer, but I believe that if all the
peoples of all nations worked together, we could make this a much better world.
Some of you may consider that to be “backward” thinking.
I’m okay with that. There’s a lot about our faith that can seem “backward.” For
example, today is the day in the Christian calendar when we remind ourselves
that we believe that Christ reigns over all things and all people. I can think
of no more “backward” way of doing that than with a Gospel lesson that
describes his death on the cross! Kings don’t get dragged before their subjects
and mocked by them. Kings don’t allow themselves to be spat upon and beaten.
They’re the ones who are usually doling out those punishments. And on the rare
occasion when a King or any other powerful person is publicly humiliated,
that’s pretty much the end of their “reign.” But here we are, on this Sunday
when we celebrate our faith that Christ is reigning over us all, reading the
“good news” of his death on the cross.
The irony in this has raised questions since the day Jesus
faced that ultimate test—especially for people who look at Jesus’ life and ask whether
he actually accomplished anything. He gathered some disciples. He stirred up
the Jewish leadership. And he got himself killed in the end. And while he was
hanging there on that cross, vulnerable, showing all the weakness of his
humanity, some in the crowd asked the question that many have repeated through
the centuries: “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of
God, his chosen one!” (Lk 23:35). In the light of Jesus’ humiliating death,
many have asked what a Jewish preacher from the First Century can do to make my
life any better in the Twenty-First Century. And many have concluded that Jesus
may have had some fine ideals, but he really can’t do anything to help us in
this day and time.
But that conclusion misses some important signs that point out
just how powerful the reign of Christ is, even in this passage that apparently
presents Jesus at his weakest. One thing we need to notice is that in Luke’s
Gospel, while hanging on the cross, enduring unimaginable agony, Jesus has the
presence of mind to respond to his hecklers by saying, “Father, forgive them;
for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34). And when Jesus dies, he
simply says, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk. 23:46). In Luke’s
Gospel, Jesus gives up his life calmly and intentionally, full of trust in God.
But there’s another detail that we’re familiar with, but I
think it’s easy to miss point. While Jesus is hanging on the cross, seemingly
undergoing the ultimate humiliation, one of the criminals with him saw
something that most all of those who witnessed this event firsthand missed. He
saw that there truly was something about Jesus that set him apart. And so he
took an amazing step of faith: hanging there on a cross, he looked at Jesus and
asked, “remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). How or why he
had the faith to see Jesus hanging on the cross and believe that one day he would
come into a “kingdom,” we may never know. But he did, and he asked Jesus to
remember him.
I think what we need to pay attention to is Jesus’ response.
It really was astonishing, if you think about it. There he was, having been
beaten, having been humiliated by some of the Jewish leaders, having been
strung up to die by the Roman empire. And he said to this man, “Truly I tell
you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43)! If you think about it,
there was nothing about the situation that would have made anybody believe such
an incredible claim under normal circumstances. And yet Jesus made the claim: “Today
you will be with me in Paradise.” The unnamed criminal left his request open-ended:
“when you come into your kingdom, remember me.” He expresses faith, but he
doesn’t pin Jesus down to anything specific. Jesus makes that astonishing claim
any way: “Today,” not at some indistinct point in the future, “whenever.” “Today
you will be with me in Paradise.” By doing so Jesus demonstrated not only that
he was more than just an “exceptional man,” but also that what he was doing was
not weak in any way. It was the ultimate display of the power of the one is the
truest example there has ever been of a “king.”[2]
Despite the fact that it all seems “backward,” I think it
is ultimately fitting to remind ourselves that Christ reigns over us with this
story, because his death on the cross defines the way in which he exercises
that reign even now. As one of our confessions puts it, “With no power but the
power of love, Christ defeated sin, evil and death by reigning from the cross.”[3] The
reality is that the only way for Christ’s reign of justice, peace, and freedom
to be truly established in this world was through the path of the cross, where he
exercised no power but the power of love. But his cross also led to his
resurrection and ascension, where he was exalted, as St. Paul puts it, “far
above … every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to
come” (Eph. 1:21). And that means that “The kingdom of this world has become
the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.”
We associate those words with Georg Friedrich Handel, but he was quoting from
Revelation: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and
of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15, RSV). When
you take the cross by itself, it can seem like the early Church got it all
backward. But in light of the resurrection and ascension, I would say that they
were able to see the true victory that came from giving up his life for us all.
[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 11/23/2025 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 102, where
he says that when we celebrate Christ as “king” it represents “the most radical
reversal of the ideal of rule that can be conceived.”
[3] The Study Catechism, question 41.
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