Jesus, Re-Member Me

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the 23rd Chapter

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.”

The thief on the cross (who wasn't a thief) said to Jesus “remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”  The other man didn’t ask Jesus to remember him.  He asked Jesus to get him down… return him to a time when he wasn’t dying on a cross… back to a time when things hadn’t gone wrong.  Back to a time when he thought life had been better.  But going back to some nostalgic past, no matter how beautiful and wonderful it might have been isn’t the way to Paradise.

The thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) he, on the other hand, wanted Jesus to “Remember” him.  But he didn’t need Jesus to just think of him fondly in the sweet by and by.  He needed Jesus to RE-Member him… to put his life back together.  Now, I know he hadn’t been physically dismembered, but he was being cut off in almost every other way.  He was being 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.  

So, that thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) he needed the pieces of his horribly Dis-membered life to be PUT BACK TOGETHER, to be made whole again and he believed Jesus had the power to do that and 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 while he sat on his throne in glory.  Jesus meant that THROUGH death was the Paradise of being RE-membered.  The Paradise of being made whole again in every way he could imagine and in ways he could never imagine as well.

The other man couldn’t believe Paradise lay ahead.  He bargained to recapture the past, to go back and string together a few more days.  The thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief), by the gift of the Holy Spirit, believed that the only place he would find wholeness and life lay ahead, THROUGH the uncertainty of the future, THROUGH the uncertainty of death and into Paradise. 

You and I will never be broken on a cross like those two men, but life breaks us into pieces just the same… life dis-members us in one way or another all the time.  We are 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 too have been DIS-membered in our lives, we too need more than just Jesus’s kind thoughts... All of us, in one way or another, need RE-membering!  

All of us who have been broken in one way or another… and that’s all of us… NEED to be made whole again.  The Good News of today is that we have been promised exactly that!  The hard part is believing that it is THROUGH that pain… THROUGH that death… THROUGH that dismemberment… that the infinite and unconditional love of God in Christ will RE-member us.  It WILL be different… it will never be like it was, but we will be RE-membered and that, we are promised, is Paradise!

The promise of being put back together after life has torn us apart… that’s grace.  But there’s more to this than a powerful promise given to us as individuals.  Together WE are the Body of Christ, not only a gathering of broken individuals but also, TOGETHER, we are the Body of Christ called to be RE-member-ers of the broken as well.  Together we are called to bring healing to the dis-membered gathered here today… together we are called to RE-member a world that seems increasingly torn apart… We are not only recipients of the promise that we will be RE-Membered but we are also called to be RE-member-ers too.  

As disciples of Jesus, who is the original “RE-Member-er,” we are 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 and see those around us who have been dis-membered… to care for those who are hurting.  We are certainly called 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 faithful presence, never doubting the power of being here.  To live out those prayers with generous giving, to help provide this place for the broken to gather.  To live out those prayers, sharing the skills we have been given and RE-Membering the broken; helping one another gather up the pieces of fractured lives when they have been torn apart and helping to put those lives back together... to help to make them whole.

The thief on the cross (who wasn’t a thief) asked Jesus to RE-member him.  The people around you here in this sanctuary, when they experience the hurts, losses and pains that are a part of life… they need YOU… each of you to RE-member them.  Our community too, when it’s broken and hurt, it looks to us as The Body of Christ and needs us as a congregation to work to RE-member them as well.  With our prayers we remember.  With our hearts and hands we remember.  With our generous giving that provides this place to gather and worship and care for each other and our community… we remember.  

Jesus, RE-Member me when you come into your Kingdom… Jesus, RE-Member us when you come into your Kingdom… Jesus, RE-Member our city, our country and our world when you come into your Kingdom and Jesus, feed us now at your Table and through your broken body, made whole in the resurrection, give us your light and strength and wisdom to be RE-Member-ers in your name and guide us to show the world a glimpse of Paradise.  Amen.