March 01, 2026
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
March 1, 2025
Lent 2
Words from the Suffering
“Jesus Remember Me”
Luke 23:39-43
Communion Sunday
This Lent we are exploring statements from the Passion of Christ. Statements spoken not by Jesus, but to Jesus or about Jesus. Today we consider the words of one of the men crucified next to Jesus who said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Prayer…
If you were with us on Ash Wednesday and last Sunday, you can tell we are not following a chronological order of events. We started with Jesus before Pilate, then went back to the moments before Jesus’ arrest, and now we jump all the way to Good Friday, to the crucifixion.
Crucifixion was a gruesome style of execution that was very public. It was meant to be a deterrent. All four gospels agree that Jesus was crucified between two others. They walked to the cross, carrying not a whole cross but just the cross beam. That’s different from most of our depictions of Jesus’ crucifixion, where he is pictured carrying the full cross. But the word cross comes from the Greek stauros which simply means post. It was a post (picture) already in the ground. In the early days of crucifixions, victims were affixed to posts. Later, perhaps to add to the humiliation of the whole experience, cross beams were used, so victims had to carry their beam (picture) from the place of trial to execution where they would be affixed to the crossbeam (Picture)and raised on the post. It was created to humiliate and warn others. But warn them of what?
Matthew, Mark and Luke all agree that Jesus crucified between two thieves. But the word used for thief also implies they could have been rebels. There was a resistance movement against the Roman Empire. Romans acquired resources at will and took what they wanted. So like early-age Robin Hoods, the resistance fighters would launch raids on Roman garrisons and steal as much as they could believing it belonged to them in the first place. Chances are these two next to Jesus were crucified not as petty thieves but enemies of the state. So crucifixion was not for people who were a threat to the general public, but a threat to Roman authority.
Now at the cross, religious leaders who wanted Jesus put to death for religious violations, gather around him to revile him. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark agree that the two thieves next to Jesus join in. As it says in Mark, “Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (Mk 15:32)
I have to wonder at this point how Jesus must have felt? He’s had people snapping at him his whole ministry. Its bad enough to have people below his cross doing this, but then to have two guys right beside him joining in? You wonder if Jesus said to God, “Really? Of all the days to be crucified, it has to be when these two characters are here?”
But here is where the Gospel of Luke gives some added detail about one of the thieves. It says that he began rebuking, not Jesus, but his friend. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” (Luke 23:40-41) Now why do you think he did that?
If you pay close attention, Luke gives us hint, I believe. Just before our reading today it says that when all three were put on their crosses and the taunting of Jesus started, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” And I just wonder if that did something to this one thief. Hearing how Jesus chose to use his last breaths. Its hard to breathe on the cross. That’s what killed most victims, asphyxiation. The weight of the body pulling down made it increasingly hard to get air. These thieves were using their last breaths to curse and revile, and here was Jesus praying for the people who were hating on him!
And I think this did something to that one being crucified. You know, the way we handle our crosses can have a powerful impact on people. I mentioned last week the meaning of the Greek word, martyr. It’s witness. Our most powerful witness is how we handle painful times, especially ones when we have been wrongly treated.
I believe this thief had a come-to-Jesus moment. Literally! He came close enough to Jesus in his suffering to hear Jesus asking forgiveness for people, like himself, who didn’t deserve it. And I think it changed his heart right there on the cross!
I believe he had a moment just like Peter when he heard the rooster crowing, he became aware of his own unworthiness. And that is an awful moment to be sure. Its like the Book of Revelation describes, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne.” (Revelation 6:15-16)
You just want to be covered up in a moment like that. You see no hope for yourself. Have you known a moment like that, where you just want the mountains to cover you. Its an awful moment and yet it’s a defining moment. The kind of moment where you shed all pride and pretense and makes you desperate enough to turn to God.
That’s what this penitent thief did. He turned to Jesus and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” That’s a remarkable thing to say. He believed that Jesus had a future. Even though he’s about to die, he believed Jesus had some kind of kingdom awaiting him.
And he also says, “Remember me.” There’s a lot packed into those two words. “Don’t hold this against me. Forgive me. Remember me so that you might welcome me into your kingdom.” Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today, you will be with me in paradise.”
Do you know what that makes this man? What Jesus’ words mean for him? It means he became the perfect example of grace. Think about it for a minute. He had no chance of straightening out his life. He would not be able to make up for his sins. He couldn’t clean up his act, which means Jesus’ offer of grace was in no way contingent upon this man’s deserving it. He received grace simply because he admitted he needed it.
I know many of you will think I’m being political for using this illustration but I’m not. At the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago President Trump said he thought he stood a pretty good chance of getting into heaven. He wasn’t saying he was perfect, but with all the good things he’s done, he figured his chances were pretty good. And, I imagine a lot of us think it works that way. That getting into heaven works like a ledger sheet, as long as we have more on the good side than the bad, we get in.
But it doesn’t work that way.
Now, that’s not to say that what we do is unimportant. Paul said to the Romans, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (6:15) What we do definitely matters. In fact, I believe that we Protestants have refuted the idea of works righteousness a little too much. Of course, we don’t believe our works earn grace, but, our works are still meant to be righteous. We are intended to do righteous things.
Too many Christians make the faith all about receiving grace without much emphasis on our actions, but our actions matter. Those actions include our personal lives, our holiness, our conduct. And it also includes our public life, our social choices, our public morality. The voting booth is as much a place where our faith should be lived out as serving at the food pantry. What we do matters. Our works are meant to be righteous.
But righteousness isn’t enough. Righteousness alone can become unrighteous. It can become perfection and judgment and who’s right and who’s not, and guilt over not doing enough. And so we need grace. Righteousness without grace is like a banquet table where everything is perfectly prepared. The crystal and silver polished. Every plate in its place. Napkins folded with precision. Name cards at each seat. But you forgot to cook the food.
Righteousness is important but limited. If you think its hard trying to make the world right, just try making your own life right! Now there’s a job. Try getting all your deeds to line up with your values. Try thinking only the best thoughts. Try having only the purest desires and urges. Its hard. Some would even say impossible. And when you hear that rooster crow, when you compare your own angry actions to Jesus who hangs there next to you praying for others forgiveness, it makes you wish the mountains would topple on you, because you feel like a hopeless wretch. Yet that can be one of the most beautiful moments in life. It is, I believe, when we are most appealing to God, when we have no where to turn and say, “Jesus remember me.”
There’s no pride in that. Just raw humility that recognizes I am a broken sinner in need of grace.
Harry Denman was one of the greatest evangelists in the Methodist Church. He wasn’t ordained. He was a layman. And he was known for his ability to meet anyone and share faith in such in a way that got him into relationship with people. For instance, one of his most popular habits was to go to bars and sit at the counter. When the bar tender said, “What can I get you?” He would say, “I could really use a prayer.” To which, most of the time, the bar tender would laugh and say, “Fella, you’ve come to the wrong place.” Then he would respond with something like, “Well you can pray can’t you? I just need God’s mercy. Ever felt that way?” And before you know they are in a conversation about their lives and what they think of God and what they hope for.
Then Harry would keep up a correspondence with them. Over his life he wrote thousands of cards and notes to people and he signed them all the same, “Harry Denman, a sinner saved by grace.”
He would just meet people in their need and talk about a God of grace who never gives up on us. A God who looks like Jesus, who met people on their crosses and promised them paradise.
That’s a very interesting word Jesus used, paradise. Today, you will be with me in paradise. It didn’t come from his Hebrew or Aramaic language. It wasn’t Latin or Greek. Jesus used an old Persian word. It referred to a walled garden, typically by a king or royal figure. No one was allowed into the garden except by invitation of the royal figure. In Persia, the highest honor a person could receive is to have the emperor invite you into his royal garden. It meant that person looks upon you as a friend.
To everyone who has ever recognized they have blown it, and says humbly and maybe even desperately, “Jesus, remember me,” he says, “I will never stop wanting to be your friend.”