Love Wins The Remix Part 2

Introduction

Last week we learned about the practice of remixing a song and sampling a song. Sampling is when a part of a song is taken out of its original arrangement and placed within a different arrangement. When a song is sampled, it can lose its original identity in the new song to where the listener can't tell where the sample originated.

On the other hand, a remix is a new presentation of the original. A remix is close enough to the original that the original can still be recognized. The remix of a song is close enough to the original that they are often placed next to each other on the same album.

Last week we used this at our starting point to talk about how America has remixed racism and oppression over the years from slavery to Jim Crow and from Jim to the New Jim Crow. As believers in Christ, we are required to embody the word of God in an ever-changing context; remixing has become a function of faith that must be founded on the narrative of the cross.

"The cross is the greatest event in the history of salvation, greater even than the resurrection. The cross is the victory, the resurrection is the triumph, but the victory is more important than the triumph"[1]. Cornel West once said,

"For as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive."

There is an immediate need for hope to remain and meaning to be preserved.

There is an immediate need for a message of hope out of the midst of despair.

There is an immediate need for a message that shows new life can spring forth out of death.

There is an immediate need for a message communicating that the cross is the ultimate picture of how blessings can flow out of brokenness.

Last week we answered the question: "Does love win?" We responded to the question with an emphatic "YES" by looking to the criminal crucified with Christ. The victimizing victim was able to reach out to Jesus when no one else could help.

This nameless criminal, who was in a moment of utter despair, was able to find hope in our crucified Savior! We saw hope realized for this criminal when he makes the statement of faith "Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom!"

First, we understood this to be a statement of faith because the sentence ends with a period and not a question mark. He is not asking Jesus to remember him. He is stating that Jesus will remember him! Secondly, we knew that this was a statement of faith when we learned that the word "remember" is a word that is used in the context of the convent.

It is a word that speaks to God, remembering his people that He is in covenant with to act on their behalf. Consequently, we discovered that the criminal was saying that he was in a covenant relationship with Jesus through this statement of faith.

Therefore, he does not need to ask, for he knows that Jesus is faithful to fulfill His part of the covenant. It is out of this faithfulness that will move Jesus to jump into action!

I think this truth deserves a moment of praise! Let's praise God for remembering His covenant with us. We should praise God regardless of what the situation looks like, knowing that God will jump into action on our behalf!

While the criminal's actions on the cross are profound and speak to our human experience in a very intense way, that is only part of what is going on here. So let's pick up where we left off last week in the gospel according to Luke.

(Go with me to Luke 23:43 and pick up where we left off last week, with Love Wins The Remix Part 2.)

Luke 23:43 (NASB95)

43. And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

I. Jesus is hanging upon the cross:

All of the gospel writers take a different perspective as they approach the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. Matthew gives a picture of the promised kingly messiah. Mark records more miracles than the other gospel writers and shows us that Jesus was a tireless servant and miracle worker. Then in John's gospel, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The wisdom of God personified in the flesh. For it is John who presents Jesus as the divine Son of God.

But it is Luke who gives us the social justice side of Jesus' ministry. In Luke's gospel, we find that Jesus was a friend of sinners and tax collectors. Jesus was the friend of the outcast, the prostitutes, and the thugs. Luke shows us that Jesus could be found in the parking lot, the projects, and the ghettos of his day.

This image before us this morning of Jesus crucified between two Insurrectionists. It shows us that "Jesus died as he lived: in the company of bad people.”

And let me make parenthetically say, since Jesus is the head of the church, then as we move forward in the ministry that Jesus began. It is only right that there is a mixture of bad and good people within the church.

As Jesus hangs there, it would appear as if all of his ministry over the last three years has been for nothing. As Jesus hangs there naked, after having been beaten all night long, mocked, spat upon, and ridiculed. As Jesus hangs there bloody, battered, and bruised, it would appear that:

The sermon on the mount was for nothing.

It would appear that the conversation with the woman at the well was for nothing.

It would appear that: healing the woman with the issue of blood, and giving sight to blind Bartimaeus, was for nothing.

It would appear that: causing the lame man at the pool of Bethsaida to walk again was for nothing.

It would appear that: raising Lazarus from the dead was for nothing.

It would appear that walking on water and feeding the five thousand was for nothing.

Not too long ago, Jesus was viewed as a prophet of God, the promised messiah, and a great teacher. But now, nailed to the cross. Jesus is re-introduced to the world as a criminal, a counterfeit prophet, and a deceiver of Israel! Not too long ago, these same people were shouting Hosanna...Hosanna, and now they are screaming crucify him! Jesus has been degraded to the limits his culture can imagine!

We can see why the prophet Isaiah said that Jesus was a man of many sorrows and acquainted with grief.

I can relate to experiencing moments in life where I felt like it was all for nothing. All of the sacrifices, pain, and struggles were all for nothing. When I wondered if everything that I held dear and thought was essential, I felt like it was all for nothing. Has anyone ever wondered if this is all for nothing?

Is there anyone who can relate to being abandoned by someone you loved? Is there anyone who can relate to being hated by someone you ministered to out of love? Is there anyone here that knows what it feels like to be lied to and betrayed? Is there anyone here who had to suffer through being abused? Only to have your abuser look you in the face and say that it is your fault.

This type of pain can make us emotionally numb and detached from those around us. This situation can produce what what Tod Bolsinger calls a failure of the heart. This type of agony has a way of lingering and showing up when we least expect it.

But despite this, when you think back, Jesus was still able to comfort you! Somehow Jesus showed up amid our disorder, discouragement, and despair! I'm going to say something crazy. Could it be that this pain is the price we had to pay to minister healing to someone else? This is what Bishop calls tempered resilence.

It seems to me that Jesus hanging on the cross shows us that to minister to the transgressors, we must also, at a point had to have been numbered with the transgressors!

We can see this because, despite what everyone else said about Jesus, Jesus didn't stop ministering! When the criminal called out to him, Jesus could have easily remained silent. But Jesus knew that love must win. And Jesus knew that for love to win, there was a price that had to be paid!

(Let’s take a closer look at the words of Jesus.)

II. Jesus ministered from the cross: "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Let's start with the word paradise. People who died before Christ's resurrection went to a place in the heart of the earth with two compartments separated by a great gulf.

One compartment, where the unsaved dead were kept, was called hell. The other compartment, was for those who were saved, was called Paradise or Abraham's Bosom.

I wanted to get this word out of the way first because what often stands out in a Biblical text isn't always most important. Which is the case for the passage of scripture we are engaging this morning. When this verse is read, our attention is immediately drawn to the word paradise. But Paradise isn't really where the revelation and application of this text resides.

As we move closer to the heart of this text, let's keep in mind that a vision of the ultimate future is vital because "meaningful action in history is possible only when there is some vision of the future.” This vision for the future must be supported by a faith that can be both realistic and hopeful.

British theologian Lesslie Newbigin writes in his excellent book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society says, "This realism delivers us from the utopian extremisms which have condemned millions of people to misery and death in the cause of an imagined future. But at the same time, we can be hopeful, acting hopefully in an apparently hopeless situation"[2].

In other words, this is about the theology of the cross that calls a thing what it is, versus a theology of glory that calls evil good and good evil. In the words of Jesus, we are looking at this morning; we will find a truth that will push us towards a realistic and hopeful faith. Truly I say to you, today, you will be with me.

· Jesus responds with the word "truly." When truly is used at the beginning of a sentence, it is a solemn affirmation or a term of honor used to establish credibility for the statement that is going to follow.

· Today: is an interesting word because the word also can carry with it theological connotations. In the Septuagint, this word can mean the temporary period in which man may receive or respond to God's blessings[3].

· Next is the phrase "with me," which is a powerful statement of unity and solidarity. Jesus is personally uniting himself with the criminal who has reached out to him.

In this statement, we see a miraculous move of compassion. We see Jesus dying and still caring enough to affirm another person’s value and enter into their pain. At a time when Jesus would have been justified to focusing his attention on himself. We see Jesus liberating while being lynched! We see Jesus bleeding and blessing! We see Jesus is in misery and still ministering!

To pull everything together, Jesus basically tells this man, I promise you that what you are currently going through is temporary. Because today, you will be with me! That is a word right there!

· What you are currently going through feels like it's going to kill you. But with Jesus, you're coming out!

· Right now, what you are going through seems like it will never end, and you can't see a way out. But Jesus will provide a way of escape!

· You may be weeping right now. But Jesus will give you a peace that the world can’t take away from you!

· With Jesus, those who sow in tears will reap in shouts of joy!

The question I am about to ask may sound crazy. However, I believe it is relevant, and that is how Jesus can make this statement? We may not notice it, but when we're in the middle of a crisis and resist a word that God sends us, we are essentially asking this same question.

(The answer to this question is in the covenant.)

III. The Covenant:

Remember Jesus is responding to the criminal's claim to be in covenant with Him, which means that the covenant establishes the context for the response Jesus gives.

Let's dive into this. The covenant that we are talking about is in Genesis chapter 12 when God promises Abraham that the whole world would be blessed through his seed. This same covenant is later ratified in Genesis chapter 15.

This is when Abraham is having a conversation with God about the promised son, and God instructs Abraham to cut in half various sacrificial animals. God then tells Abraham to line the pieces up. God then sends Abraham into a deep sleep, and we see God's image as the smoking oven and flaming torch going up and down between the animals.

This was a common practice when two people would enter into a covenant agreement with each other. The only difference is that one person would stand at one end and the other person would stand at the other end. Then both people would walk between the animals. By doing this, each would solemnly promise to do his part, saying that if he did not, the other could cut him the way the sacrifice was cut.

But Abram was off to the side. "God in the symbol of fire went from one end to the other between the pieces, something Abram could not do. Thus, God covenanted to do the whole work of fulfilling the covenant. He would begin it. He would finish it. All Abram needed to do was accept it by faith. He could not help God fulfill it"[4].

In the encounter between God and Abraham, we see the ratifying of the covenant because God replaced Abraham with Himself. God took on himself the responsibility and the obligations of the covenant that would have fallen on Abraham. "For when God made the promise to Abraham since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself."

Now, if we j-walk back to Luke 23:43, we are witnessing Jesus fulfill the covenant that was ratified in Genesis 15 by replacing the criminal who represents all of us with Himself!

When Jesus says, "Today you shall be with me…" Jesus is taking on Himself the failed covenant obligations or sins of this criminal. Jesus is taking on Himself every crime and every heinous act committed by this nameless criminal and everyone his life represents. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB). On the cross, Jesus paid it all!

Jesus took on Himself, the drug addict.

Jesus took on Himself the drug dealer.

Jesus took on Himself the pimp.

Jesus took on Himself the prostitute.

Jesus took on Himself the liar.

Jesus took on Himself the fornicator

Jesus took on Himself adulterer.

Jesus took on Himself the thief.

Jesus took on Himself the abuser.

Now, we have the answer to our question. Jesus has the authority to declare truly today you shall be with me because Jesus was paying the price to make it happen!

Love wins for all of us because on the cross, Jesus paid the price for love to win. Whenever we start to feel like love doesn't win or when we can't think of the ways that love wins in our lives daily. I want to encourage all of us to look to the cross, the ultimate affirmation that Love Wins.

[1] Sauer, Erich, The triumph of the crucified, Grand Rapids MI: Eerbmans,©1951pg. 32

[2] Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a pluralist society ©1989 Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids MI p.114.

[3] Complete Biblical Library Greek-English Dictionary-Sigma-Omega

[4] Complete Biblical Library Commentary – Genesis.