Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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The awkwardness of Good Friday
Nice breakfast, pastels, flowers, laughter and fun
Coupled with a message of suffering and death that simply cannot be avoided
Luke 23:26ff...
Setting the Stage
Criminal, being crucified as an example
possibility they were more than thieves…could have been political trouble-makers.
Matt an Mark use a strong word translated robber.
It means violent robber…maybe even insurrectionist.
That fits with the narrative…and fits with the location of calvary just outside the city walls where the church of the holy sep.
sits today.
The cruxifiction site would have been close to the gates…very clear, very prominent, to send a big message…don’t mess with Rome.
Both robbers mocked and ridiculed Jesus.
[41] So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, [42] “He saved others; he cannot save himself.
He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
[43] He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” [44] And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
(ESV)
says the suffering servant will be numbered with the transgressors.
Here is the prophesy playing out in real time…Jesus is being led to Calvary with two enemies of the state.
[41] So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, [42] “He saved others; he cannot save himself.
He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
[43] He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” [44] And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
(ESV)
Led to Golgotha, Jesus prays “forgive them...”
Something changes in one of the robbers
Receives GRACE
His change of heart was not a hail mary.
This wasn’t a throw anything at the wall and see what sticks.
Youve heard it said there are no athiests in a foxhole…well there may not be athiests but that doesn’t mean everyone in a foxhole believes in Jesus Christ.
This man is in the foxhole in the worst of ways…yet his confession is not ambiguous…its not generic in any way…it is boldly…miraculously…specific.
Only a regenerate heart makes this kind of confession
God’s normal way of bringing about regeneration is by the work of the Spirit through the hearing of the Word of God....that’s exactly what happens here.
I don’t think it is a stretch, and I don’t think its mere speculation…we see a change in this man following Jesus’ prayer for his enemies.
Jesus’ words transform this man.
Imagine the scene...
Recognizes GUILT
v 40
He rebukes the other thief
How can you possibly be mocking him when you are also under the same sentence?
Don’t you realize in mere hours we will meet our eternal fate?
He’s recognizing God’s judgment for sin!
But more than that, he recognizes he justly belongs on the cross.
He knows he is a sinner.
Isn’t that half the battle sometimes it seems?
This man, by God’s grace, see’s reality.
He is being punished for a crime he committed.
He isn’t crying foul…he isn’t debating with the soldiers the proportional response of his torture to his crime.
He isn’t appealing to his goodness or inherent worth.
No…he gets it…he’s guilty…he has no excuse…he has nothing to say.
But he knows Jesus is innocent.
He recognizes Jesus doesn’t deserve this.
Jesus wasn’t a hidden figure.
Yes, even this violent robber knew exactly who he was.
He had heard of his great deeds…and he has seen…first hand…Jesus’ words coming to life.
All we have is what the gospel writers have given us…but even as the apostle john reminds us…Jesus did far more than is written in the gospels.
Who knows what else this man saw Jesus do and say while dragging his cross to calvary.
But he gets it…he sees the innocence…he knows Jesus is faultless, and he sees the great contrast between he and the Lord.
Receives GIFT by faith
Who Jesus is
Notice the personal nature of this…he calls him by name
King.
This is huge…this is calling Jesus King after he had been mocked, as he is being humiliated on a roman cross.
This is not calling him king as he is riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to cries of Hosanna…no, this is a different crowd entirely.
Recognizing the king here is far different…He is recognizing the King while he is under the judgment of God for the sins of the world…let that sink in,
God.
Make no mistake about it, he sees Jesus’ divinity.
What Jesus is doing
He’s identifying with Jesus at his weakest
Beautiful irony in that Jesus is doing the same!
Jesus saves this man while he is hanging on a cross spitting in his face
Confesses that the cross is not the end for Jesus…nor the end for him.
Where Jesus is going
Again, identifying Jesus as King…he knows Jesus is going to reign.
He may not have a well-developed theology or Christology but he knows Jesus will reign.
He doesn’t simply want heaven…he wants Jesus.
Religious Advice
I didn’t come up with this question, but reading it this week really got me thinking...
Here’s the potential scene in our minds as one by one, the proponents of all religions were given the opportunity of talking to the thief on the cross; what they would say to him?
Muslim
Buddhist
Mormon
Non-evang.
All would require the man to do something…the only problem is he cannot.
He’s stuck.
He is literally pinned down, nailed to a cross…slowly suffocating to death by Roman torture.
What would you say to him?
What advice would you give him?
How you answer that question says much about your own eternal fate
What would he say to you?
This is an interesting question as well.
One might expect him to tell us to not live the kind of life he lived…to not make the same mistakes he made…but I don’t think so
Instead, I think he would remind us that we’re not so different from him.
Without Jesus we too are without hope, dying a long-slow death awaiting the judgment of God.
I think he would warn us about the illusion of freedom
He would encourage us to live the rest of our lives understanding who this man hanging next to him is and living to serve him.
There is hope.
This man’s testimony is often used to give encouragement to deathbed confessions…to give hope to eternal destiny procrastinators…but, would this man really want that legacy?
No, this man had in that small span of time developed a theology of hope…a hope that he surely would encourage us to live all our days.
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