Luke 23:33-43
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. 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.” 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.”
When I was in seminary, my wife Kelly was working and our daughter Hanna went to day care. Every day her class listened to a thing she called a “big black CD” of Louis Armstrong singing “It’s a Wonderful World” before nap time. She could sing every word and I bet she still can! They played that song so much I joked that they were going to wear the grooves out of that “big black CD.”
So, what is the song you loved and played so much you were in danger of wearing the grooves out of the record (or the digital equivalent)? Now, how did it feel when you first heard a different version of that song?
It’s hard, isn’t it? When you’re used to hearing the needle in one particular groove, it’s hard to allow the needle to drop in another spot. Reading scripture can be like that too. With a familiar story like this one it’s easy to just drop the needle in the old familiar groove and let it play.
But this week the needle wouldn’t go in that old familiar groove for me, it kept skipping to a new groove and that new groove is the word “remember.” The thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief since the Romans didn’t crucify thieves, they only crucified terrorists or revolutionary heros who are, after all, the same people seen from different perspectives) That guy asked, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
When I think of the word “remember” the first thing that pops into my head is that word’s opposite, which is “forget.” But when I think about that guy dying on a cross next to Jesus, I have a hard time believing that all he wanted from him was for Jesus to think nice thoughts about him once he got settled on his throne at the right hand of God.
I don’t think that guy wanted Jesus to simply “not forget him.” I think he wanted.... I think what he desperately needed... was not to be remembered (as in the opposite of being forgotten) but to be RE-membered (as in the opposite of being DIS-membered).
Now, of course the guy on the cross beside Jesus was not being physically dismembered, but he was being cut off in almost every other way you could imagine. Cut off from his family, from his community, from his faith, from his dignity, from his self-worth, from his identity, from his hopes, from his dreams, from his future and of course from his life.
That thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) didn’t need Jesus to just think of him fondly in the sweet by and by. That thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) needed someone to pick up the pieces of his horribly Dis-membered life and RE-member him... He needed someone to put him back together, to make him whole again and he believed Jesus had the power to do that.
I believe when Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” Jesus didn’t just mean he’d have fond memories of this guy from his throne of glory. I believe Jesus meant that he would be whole again... be fully RE-membered in a way that I don’t think any of us can fully comprehend.
Now most of us, and I might even venture to say all of us will not have our lives ended by crucifixion, but I’m just as sure that each one of us has experienced being Dis-membered in our lives; cut off from life with a spouse, cut off from a career, cut off from children or relatives or friends or health or hopes or dreams or you name it and because we’ve been DIS-membered in our lives we too could desperately use more than to be fondly remembered from time to time... We too could use some real RE-membering! The Good News of today is that we have been promised exactly that! No matter how Dis-Membered we have become, the infinite and unconditional love of God in Christ will RE-member us in ways we can not fully appreciate and being RE-membered will be Paradise!
To me, that’s some amazing grace... So far, I really like this new groove on this big black CD! But there’s more to this song, and the next verse to this song is a little more challenging. As followers of Jesus, as followers of the one who promises to RE-member us no matter how DIS-membered we’ve become, we too are called to be RE-member-ers as well.
As individual disciples of Jesus, the original “RE-Member-er,” each one of us is called to do more for those around us who are hurting than to simply think fondly of them from time to time. Our call is to open our eyes no matter what might be going on in our lives and see those around us who are hurting. We are certainly to remember them in the prayers of our hearts and minds but it can’t stop there. We are being called to live out those prayers with our hands and the rest of our being as well... to not just remember them, but to do all we can to RE-Member them; to help them gather up the pieces of their lives when they have been torn apart and help to put them back together... to help to make them whole.
There is one more verse to this song and it speaks to us together as a congregation; a congregation in a particular community in a particular time. It speaks to us and calls us as a church to look out at our community and not just remember it in our hearts and prayers but to see where things like hunger, homelessness, poverty, addiction and being paid less than a living wage Dis-members our community. It calls us then to not only remember our community in our hearts and with our prayers but to also actively work to RE-member it where is has been Dis-membered.
The thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) asked Jesus to RE-member him. The people in our lives, when they experience the hurts, losses and pains that are a part of life need us as individuals to RE-member them and our community looks to us as a church and needs us as a congregation to RE-member them as well.
May we never be satisfied with only remembering. May thinking kindly about and holding in prayer those who have been forgotten in our lives and our community never be the end. May we instead bravely open our eyes and see those who have been Dis-membered and then work with our hearts and prayers but also our hands and the rest of our being to RE-member them so that one day we might all experience fully the Wonderful World in which God created all of us to live. Amen.
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