Ponder the King – Luke 23:33-43

A text – Luke 23:33-43

³³ 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. ³⁴ Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. ³⁵ 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!” ³⁶ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine ³⁷ and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸ There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” ⁴⁰ But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹ And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come inyour kingdom.” ⁴³ He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

A reflection:

This portion of the Good Friday story is our Gospel text for the final Sunday of the church year when we celebrate the Kingship of Christ, right before the beginning of the next church year, Advent. It doesn’t seem like a kingly text, and it certainly feels more like Holy Week than Christmas. So we might be feeling off-put or slightly irritated to read it this week.

But can you imagine a clearer moment of Jesus’s earthly ministry where he acts more like the kind of King and Lord he is showing us that God is? Jesus has always said his heavenly father is forgiving, willing to listen, a very present help in time of trouble, and that Jesus himself is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. In this one moment, tortured, lifted up in public to Roman ridicule and probably the glee of the Hebrew church leaders who needed him to disappear, in this one moment when his humanness, bloody and weak, is on full display, in this particular one moment, he hears the ridicule from the man on one side of him and he hears the faith of the other. Jesus turns toward the faithfulness and the request just to remember him when Jesus arrives in Paradise. And Jesus wipes away the man’s guilt and promises, right then. He tells him that today they will both be in heaven together. There it is: forgiving, willing to listen, help in times of trouble, laying down his life and promising heaven.

Everything about Jesus’s life brought him to this moment, that he would be ready to lay his life down and make a way for us to join him in paradise. The King who gives us all crowns. The King who is the servant of all. The King who loves each of us without our deserving that love on our own. Christ the King, fulfilling God’s promises. Ponder that.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for the way Jesus lived and died. Help us to remember that he was a king in a completely amazing way, the kind of ruler who gave his life for us. Help us to be those kinds of people in our daily lives as well. Amen.