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Kim Wright 25th November 2007 Luke 23:33-43 - The Crucifixion |
| What is love? |
| Love is more written about, spoken about, thought about than perhaps any other emotion. In preparation for today, I looked the word up in a very handy present, Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and discovered that the word love comes from Old English lubh ‘to desire’ and Latin lubere ‘to please’. I was also intrigued to see so many connected words or phrases, Love apple, lovebird, love-hate, brotherly love, love is blind, love lock, love machine, love match and labour of love – I could go on. But I think it is important to remember that the word ‘love’ today is used to cover a multitude of feelings and emotions. |
| So I wonder, how do we begin to articulate an emotion that gives us so much enjoyment and can cause us so much pain? Love can make us act irrationally but it can also allow us to respond with feeling and commitment. Perhaps above all other things we have a need to feel loved. |
| For those we love most, we share closeness, and honesty, vulnerability, and intimacy - these people have a direct line to our souls, our soul mates. We share our hopes and our fears, our insecurities and our delights. For us as Christians, our relationship with God is like this – it is one of love. |
| In the next few minutes let us look together at the crucifixion account of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel to understand, firstly how God shows His love for us and secondly, how we can respond to that love. |
| 1. The love of God |
| The Gospel reading this morning is above all things a story of love, in its truest sense. Jesus shows us through His death, the meaning of love. The Gospel account is part of a bigger story of God’s love for his wayward people told in the ultimate love story – The Bible |
| We heard a few moments ago of the suffering and death of Jesus – a section which is often referred to as the passion narrative, from the Latin Term passio, ‘suffering’. Earlier, Luke tells us how Jesus was been beaten, whipped, stripped and humiliated. Jesus is put to death between two criminals, praying for those who are putting him to death. He is mocked and taunted by those who he has come to save. The crowds scorn him: ‘let him free Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One’. The soldiers mock Him and call on Him to save Himself. One of the criminals curses Him. But Christ chooses to remain on that cross. Instead of saving Himself, he saves sinful humanity. This is love indeed! |
| Luke’s Gospel continues with the account of the comments of the senior Roman officer present: ‘surely this was a righteous man!’ Jesus a man without sin, without fault, perfect, died for humanity, for each one of us here. That is love. Perfect love is surely shown in the act of Jesus’ death. |
| The response to Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of Christ was very mixed. The film showed Jesus being terribly flogged and beaten, and frequently the comment was that the film is too violent and too bloody. But in honesty was the treatment of Jesus anything other than barbaric and cruel? The film, I suspect, is realistic. Jesus was so terribly injured that he needed help to carry the cross and he died first, before the two criminals who hung beside him. We need to lift the story of the crucifixion from the pages of the book and imagine ourselves present at the time of Jesus: the smells, the sights and the colour to fully understand the context. |
| When we do this, the cost of what Jesus did for us becomes more than words on a page, or words we read during the service each Sunday. We sense His pain, His agony and His suffering. |
| But, of course, worse than this physical suffering was the spiritual anguish – the loneliness that Jesus felt on the cross when he is saddled with the weight of human sin and is cut off from His Father. As Christians we know how empty and lost we can feel when God feels distant. For Christ to be completely cut off from God, as He took upon Himself the burden of human sin, was literally ‘hell’. |
| The depth of God’s love for us is seen in the suffering of Jesus. It is so great, that its magnitude is difficult for us to comprehend. |
| Through the Gospel accounts we can see and know an intimacy and a vulnerability of Jesus. Jesus wants us to know Him, to understand His life, His prayers, His suffering, His death and His love for each one of us. |
| 2. The Choice |
| So how do we respond to the death of Jesus on the cross and this love that is shown for each one of us? |
| Two responses are shown by the reaction of the criminals who were crucified alongside Jesus. If you remember the account in Luke’s Gospel, it includes a conversation between Jesus and the criminals. |
| One of the criminals who hung at Jesus’ side hurled insults at him ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ |
| But the second criminal rebuked the first, |
| ‘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’ |
| Then the second criminal said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom’. And Jesus answered him ‘truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’ Luke 23:39-43. |
| One of the criminals is sceptical of Jesus, he hurls insults at Him. He is perhaps looking for a quick earthly fix – if you are God, free us. |
| The other criminal is deeply moved by what takes place, and puts his faith in Him, receiving an assurance of going with Christ to paradise. |
| The death of Jesus marked the start of a new agreement (or covenant) between God and his people. All people can know God’s love, His forgiveness, and a life of eternity beyond death. But it is a gift that we need to accept. We do not passively receive this gift. A new life with God comes when we decide to follow Him. |
| It is interesting that one criminal fears God. ‘Don’t you fear God since you are under the same sentence?’ An indication perhaps of the acceptance by one criminal of the supreme rule of God and the realisation of judgement on his death. It is an interesting point today – do we fear God? |
| But Jesus died, as he had lived, flanked by those who were outcasts in society. Jesus showed a love for the disadvantaged, those who were pushed to the fringe of society. He shunned and ignored many of the religious leaders, the self-important and self-righteous, who felt too important to bow down before God, too blind to be healed. Jesus instead chose the vulnerable, the open-hearted, the desperate souls, and the humble that would come to Him to beg forgiveness and seek a new life. |
| How do we respond? - Christ the King |
| Finally, let us turn to the sign placed above Jesus on the cross. Superficially done to mock, but of a deeper significance and truth. ‘This Is the King of the Jews’. |
| A king, but not a fierce and conquering warring ruler – A king who rules by love, a king of a kingdom of love, a kingdom of faith, a kingdom of hope and a kingdom of hearts. The ruler of a spiritual realm. Jesus was a bridge, so that mortals like us could connect with God. |
| To accept Jesus, is to make Him king of our hearts. To invite Jesus into our hearts to be with us, our comforter or guide. To walk with us, to be with us, a flame that burns in our centre, leading us through a challenging purposeful life. To know God, is to feel Him, to love Him. And for those we love most, we share closeness, and honesty, vulnerability and intimacy. God doesn’t need a direct line to our souls – because he already resides there with us. With Him we share our deepest thoughts, our hopes and our fears, our insecurities and our delights. |
| The German theologian Martin Luther used a nautical analogy to bring out the importance of trust and commitment in the life of faith. |
| He said, ‘Everything depends upon faith. The person who does not have faith is like someone who has to cross the sea, but is so frightened that he does not trust the ship. And so he stays where he is and is never saved, because he will not get on board and cross over.’ Perhaps in this analogy Jesus is the boat. |
| Faith is not merely believing that something is true; it is being prepared to act upon that belief and rely upon it. To use Luther’s analogy, faith is not simply about believing that a ship exists, it is about stepping into it and entrusting ourselves to it. As we step into Jesus, we entrust ourselves to Him and make Him the King of Our Hearts. |
| In Conclusion:- |
| We are not Christians because we come to church, attend church services, because we say the right things or wear the right clothes. We are Christians because we have chosen, like the first criminal, to be followers of Jesus and to respond to the love of God. When Jesus is the King of our hearts, we feel a passion for Christ and a compassion for His people. When Jesus is the King of our hearts, we are forgiven for all misdemeanours, serious or slight – even the things for which we can’t forgive ourselves. |
| So, Jesus shows us the true meaning of love - the selfless giving of ourselves to help others. It is a lifestyle that we are called to adopt as Christians, to help others without counting the cost, for no earthly reward. And this is the most deeply satisfying life, the life that we were created and designed to live. |
| So as we worship today, let us look at the cross and know the depth of God’s love for each one of us. As we look at the Jesus in the windows and paintings, let us remember the choice He gave us – whether to accept or reject Him; and as we pray and sing, let us open our hearts to Jesus. Let us say, come Lord Jesus, and be the King of our hearts. |
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