In this series of sermons about people Jesus met during his ministry, we have looked at the motives and feelings of many different characters - some were morally dubious; some were driven by emotion, perhaps even disturbed; and some were prosperous and powerful but unable, or unwilling, to accept the full revolutionary impact of what Jesus taught.
Today we move the very end of Jesus's life and focus on just a few sentences towards the end of Luke's Gospel where we shall meet two people whom society had chosen to dispose of by public execution. Even in the agonies of Jesus's approaching death as he hangs on the cross fighting for every breath, there is an encounter and an exchange which is recorded in some form in each of the Gospel accounts. Today we hear the version of Luke:
Reader: "Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left."
Mark and Matthew
describe them as 'bandits'; Luke calls them 'criminals'; John simply says
that 'two others' were crucified alongside Jesus.
Who were these men? Why are we made aware of them in the Gospel stories? The
answer seems to be that all the gospel writers wanted to place the dying Jesus
into their own particular context. Luke certainly wanted to ensure that the
prediction from the Old Testament, that the Messiah would be numbered among
the evil-doers, was seen to come true.
Throughout Jesus's trial, those who wished to be rid of him had regularly taunted him to display supernatural power, to demonstrate his credentials as the Messiah, and so to save himself from a criminal's death. In his description of the crucifixion scene, Luke first gives us a wide-angle shot of the crowd at the execution where the taunting continues:
Reader: Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."
Then Luke uniquely tightens our focus onto the three men hanging on their crosses and draws us in to the following close and intimate exchange:
Reader: One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
What is Luke saying to his readers by including these words which are exclusive to Luke's version?
Certainly by giving us the distinctive character of the one who has come to be known as the Penitent Thief, Luke has left us with a last desperate hope of salvation. In fact, when we unpack the story, we can see a number of positive features in the one who asked to be remembered by Jesus in the coming Kingdom:
And faced with what amounts to a confession of faith by the thief, Jesus responds with two promises: firstly, that before that day is over the thief will be in Paradise; and secondly that in that place the thief will be with Jesus.
Luke has nothing more to say about the two criminals. But it's fascinating to see what the Church has made of our unknown and unnamed Penitent Thief. By the 12th century the church had decided that these two criminals were loose ends in the Gospel that needed tying up, so a piece of writing called the Gospel of Nicodemus invented names for them - one was designated Gestas (sometimes written as Gesmas) and the other was given the name Dismas.
Now, bearing in mind all the cultural clues elsewhere in the New Testament, if you were creating a picture of Jesus centrally placed between the two criminals, which would you place on his left, and which on his right? Correct! Dismas the penitent thief is always the one on his right - the place of honour. Gestas on his left seems to have disappeared from popular memory without trace. We assume from the text that the invitation to join Jesus in Paradise was offered only to Dismas, and that Gestas ended up in another place - and that seems to be where the church has left him.
There is a caption to this image of an Orthodox cross which explains that the footrest is tilted upwards towards the left (as we view it from the front) as a sign of the saintliness of Dismas who hung on Jesus's right. And certainly parts of the Christian Church have claimed Dismas as a saint, have dedicated churches to his name, and have designated him the patron saint of criminals, the condemned, and undertakers.
There is even a kind of prequel, which passed into pious folklore, that Dismas was part of a gang of robbers who thirty years previously had attacked Joseph, Mary and Jesus as they travelled into Egypt after the warning from the Magi. And the story goes that Dismas persuaded his companions to spare the family and let them pass unharmed, thus earning for himself some form of recognition when - unknown to him - he would encounter Jesus again.
Even Luke's text invites us to speculate whether the penitent thief had perhaps been another secret follower of Jesus - or at least knew a little about him and had developed some degree of respect for him. Had he sometimes been around on the edges of the crowd when Jesus was teaching? How much of that travesty of a trial had he heard or been told about? He was certainly very clear in his declaration that 'This man has done nothing wrong'. What did he know to bring him to that conclusion?
Now, all this may be nothing more than evidence of a church which could not help itself from building up a saintly cult out of very little more than a pious belief. Or it may be a testament to the powerful impression which Luke's leaves with us that Jesus hears and forgives without exception, even as his own life is being poured out, and that true penitence can take us to Paradise to be with Jesus. It does seem that this was a scene in the drama which just couldn't be left as a nameless footnote when Luke took hold of the story.
If we're being strictly biblical, it is no more than a nameless footnote which only one Gospel writer chooses to edit into his text. But if we're using our imagination, these last people whom Jesus met lead us into all kinds of thoughts about justice, judgment, penitence, forgiveness and Paradise.
Perhaps we might ask ourselves:
For the moment, we need to move on from the footnote and let Luke finish his story of those final moments of that journey for Jesus and his last and latest disciple as they enter Paradise together.
Reader: It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent." And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
(Philip Jones)
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
Click here
for further information.