This was a hard sermon about a hard topic because of the text. Anytime you publicly talk about death, you don't know where people are in their journey and how fresh the memories or the wounds of death could be in an individual or a family. But we stop to take a look at the death of Jesus Christ. We stop to take a look at the narrative, oftentimes when we sing hymns and sing songs, we bring all kinds of information from all over the New Testament and the Old Testament together about the death of Christ. And certainly there is a place for that. But I think it also is times when we stop and just focus on the narrative, on the story that he said, this is what I want you to remember, these are the details. And when you stop and look at different narratives in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and today we're looking at Luke. Just look at the details that he gives us. Don't add to the details, but let those details penetrate you as you think about his death. Now today we're going to do something that we do often and when we proclaim his death until he comes again, that's part of the Lord's upper liturgy. That this meal proclaims his death because it is so central to the gospel, that every time we come and lift up the bread and take it and every time we lift up the cup and drink of it, we proclaim his death until he comes again. The death of Jesus Christ was both planned and God's purpose. It was something that came out of the chaos of history or the misjudgment of people, although God, as we saw last week, used the injustice of men and governments to bring about his purpose, to bring us to this point. But it's part of God's plan for our salvation, so that the death of Jesus Christ is central to the gospel. If there's no death, there's no substitution. There's no justification, there's no atonement, there's no forgiveness of sins, there's no resurrection, there's no faith. Last week was the trial. This week is the death by execution. Last week in the trial, Jesus was silent, as Isaiah 53 said he would be. But yet, in the account of his death, when you look at all the gospels he speaks, what we think of are the seven last words. Four of those are in our text today, to the daughters of Jerusalem, to his executioners, to a criminal who was being executed with him and then to his father. Jesus is the king who's also a priest and a prophet. Listen now to the text from Isaiah 23, as they let him away, they seized one Simon of Sirenia, who was coming in from the country and laid across on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus, and there followed him a great multitude of people of women who were mourning and lamenting the first say in Luke. But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. But weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others who were criminals were let away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals. One on his right and one on his left, the second saying, Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments and the people stood by watching. But the ruler scoffed at him, saying, he saved others, let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, he is chosen one. That soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 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, railed at him and said, are you not the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him. Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? We and we indeed, justly, for we are receiving due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He said to him, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the six hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour when the sun's light failed. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out an allowed voice, said, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. And when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. And all the crowds had assembled for this spectacle. And when they saw what had taken place, returning home, beating their breasts, and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things. You see, even on the cross, Jesus was the king. I say that he was both a priest and a prophet. I want us to see these offices as part of what he's doing. And since we are Presbyterians, I want you to know that this is something that even in the Westminster short of catechism, in question 23, it speaks of when it says, what offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer? Christ as our Redeemer executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation. This is, perhaps, the most humiliating part of his being our Redeemer. And because he's identified as the king and that issue keeps coming up, but yet I see him being a priest and ministering. I see him a prophet and speaking God's word. And that's why I say that he is the king who is also both a prophet and a priest. The Romans, perhaps an irony, just a poke fun at the Jews, and they realized that they were executing an innocent man, put up a sign in Latin and in Greek. They didn't have the English then, but that's what you can find on the web. Let's us know that this is the king of the Jews. And that's what the religious leaders who mocked him. That's what the soldiers who tormented him. And indeed, that's what one of the criminals who mocked him, referred to him as. But yet that sign, this is the king of the Jews, was there to identify him. He was both the seed of Eve and Mary. He was the son of Adam and Abraham and David. He was the Redeemer of God's covenant of grace. He was the one who would execute it through his shed blood. But what's different about this king, who is both a prophet and a priest, is that the king dies for the people, not the people for the king. He turns the world order upside down there in that spectacle on the cross. And I think sometimes it's important just to stop. And as I said, to look at the narrative, to let the story sink in because so often we want to rush on to the resurrection, we want to rush on to the application, and we're not willing to stop and really let it be said to us that he really did die a public, painful death for us. That is part of the story, that is part of the memory. That is part of when he says, do this in remembrance of me that we remember his death and what it was like. So often in our culture, we remove death because whether it's in a game where you get killed and then you can bring yourself right back, it's watching one of my grandsons play a game and he would make a mistake because they tell us that when you're playing electronic games, you only have about a 200% batting average, in other words, you only see 20% of the time. But I would watch him do something, his boat would get blown up and it would come right back and he would go on, it's not that kind of a death. It's not an actor's death where he goes through great pains, but then at the end of the day he gets up and goes home. No, it's a real death that's being written about here, that the gospel writer wants us to know. But yet as it approached Jesus as the prophet demonstrates his faith, when he quotes the Old Testament from Psalm 31, he says, in to your hands, I commit my spirit. He says this loud enough so that we hear it. So we allow it to grab hold of us that he was willing in his death. And I think it's important to see there's two places where he's addressing his father that he realizes even in death he's not going to have that broken relationship but he's willing to commit his spirit in death, to go to the other side, to go to the unknown, something he had never done as a man to die. And to be able to say yes, I commit my spirit because my body's going to die into your hands. Yet I think he was also a prophet to the daughters of Jerusalem as he walked towards his death. Now we have to understand the cultural context of what he says. These women is crowd, these women are weeping for him but yet what does he say? Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming and we'll always say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed and he goes on about the mountains and the hills. They would prefer death. See your children die and I know that has happened in some of our families but the pain that he's able to prophesy knowing the destruction that will come to both Jerusalem and to the people of Israel. And you realize don't weep for me but weep for yourselves and for your children that he looks out there and prophesies. Now I think one of the things in our society and our culture that we minister in that we need to remember is that sometimes in Christianity there are important doctrines for us that we need to remember people out there in the world don't care at all about. When I look at this and I think about our world and I think about the trinity of the doctrines of an air and sea inspiration and revelation is that we live in a world where just the beginning and that's the doctrine of revelation is something that people they don't buy engine they don't accept they don't even think about that God could speak into the world that God could send a prophet into the world that God could communicate into his creation. When we try to argue our morality or why we think some public policy is right or wrong from Scripture they say so because they don't get the connection with God that we do. We say it's in Scripture therefore God said therefore we should obey. But Jesus was the prophet just like he was the king and so as he reveals his willingness to commit in death in spirit to his father is he is willing to speak hard words to the daughters of Jerusalem. We need to remember that God is a God who is not silent. Some of us remember Francis Shafer's book he is there and he is not silent. The whole idea that God can speak into the world that he created is fundamental to what Christianity is all about and those of us as we look back at our confession of faith and we see that you have the chapter on Scripture is before the chapter on God because if you don't have Scripture you don't have God I realize it can sound circular but yet we go to the Word of God to learn about God. We go to the Word to learn about the death of Jesus Christ to let that story overpower us as it were. But see he's not just speaking the truth he's also communicating it as a prayer as a priest and you look at his prayer as he's both a priest, a mentor, an intercessor even for his killers. He is being executed unjustly, publicly, painfully but yet he is able to say father forgive them for they know not what they do. My grandfather in 1929 a man who I never met because I was born in 49, 20 years later. When my father was seven my grandfather was murdered in a bank robbery. And my father was in the middle of his decline in the Alzheimer's when he was 77 years old. In other words these are the memories of 70 years of a seven year old. What did he tell me about my father's death? He remembered very vividly the blood spatter on the white shirt that he wore to work. The last memory that seven year old had was that they had not put enough wax in the wound on his forehead and when no one was looking he had put his finger in the hole. And I said you've been carrying this memory for 70 years. But my father knew that he could not allow that person to control his life. But at some point as he worked through all of this particularly in adulthood he knew he had to forgive him. Even though the man was convicted of secondary murder and got out after seven years that he could not allow the executioner of his father to be the one that controlled his life and his memories that he had to forgive him. Now we look at Jesus and we say well he was Jesus, what does that have to do with me? Think about how he taught us to pray in Luke chapter 11 when he said and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. You think about the following verses after the Lord's prayer in Matthew in Matthew 6. For if you forgive others their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. I think the simplicity of what Jesus says here is so powerful. Father forgive them and this is so counter to our culture, so counter to the way we are brought up. For they know not what they do. We want them to be accountable, we want them to say hey I'm sorry I did it. But he says they don't understand what they're doing. They're doing your will and executing me and they need to be forgiven. How many times do we stand around stalling our lives because we will not forgive someone. We're waiting for them to get the clue to understand that they need to forgive us or that we need to forgive them that they need to say I made a mistake. We allow that person to control our memories and our lives. We need to look to the cross and see that he recognized that he was still connected to the Father that that was what identified him was that relationship with his Father and Heaven, even on the cross. And he's getting ready to die. You can say Father forgive them for they know not what they do. See we know from Hebrews chapter 9 that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. That his death was necessary so our sins could be forgiven so we could forgive others as he did. Knowing that that death brought our forgiveness so that we would never be separated from our Heavenly Father. Because you see even in death Jesus is a king and the judge is able to grant forgiveness and promise that we'll never be separated from him. The criminal that asked to be remembered. He's the one that acknowledges that he deserves to die for his sins. That he is accountable for what he does and we've done things that we're getting our justice for in being executed.
But yet he is able to turn and speak words of truth because he says when you come into your kingdom see he's got the faith that even though Jesus is dying across his kingdom is going to come. The death will not destroy his kingdom. Imagine those simple words from an almost invisible man. A man who we know not his name or his background or his crime but we know that he got the clue that he understood that Jesus was going to come into his kingdom even though he would die. And he said remember his response truly today you will be with me in paradise. You know there's so much theology tied up in those simple verses choosing the word paradise. Which goes back to a Persian word that means garden that speaks about the restoration of what was lost in Genesis is now being restored to the death of Jesus Christ to a desert people. What could be more thought in terms of restoration rest and being restored to God than to go back to the garden. The place where there was water and rivers and peace today right now after we die. After we go through an experience neither one of us have had you will be with me that death will not separate us the Roman government's execution will not separate us. And that is the assurance of forgiveness that you will be with me that when Christ comes to our lives and says you're forgiven. That communion we have with him that he never leaves us or forsakes us that we come to the table of the Lord. And we commune with him by faith through these simple elements that he gives us something to touch and to tell so that we know that we will never be separated from him that his kingdom is coming. So that criminal knew that even in death even in that mystery of his journey that he will not be separated from Jesus Christ or his kingdom. Let me read part of the last of the text. It was now about the sixth hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour when the sun's light failed. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, Father into your hands, I commit my spirit in having said this he breathed his last. And now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and saying certainly this man was innocent and all the crowds that had stumbled for the spectacle when they saw what had taken place returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. I know that our experiences influence how we read the Bible. Some of you may have been with relatives who died or friends when it says he breathed his last. The first images and memories that come to my mind is when I was a chaplain in Belod, Iraq in 2005. And one of the things the hospital chaplain did was sit with soldiers and with children who were going to die because there was nothing medically we could do. It could be two hours, it could be seven hours, it could be nine hours. You sat, you touched them, and you got to know how death comes. I learned that in strong men who are soldiers, that if you touch them on the shoulder and you begin to feel the muscles hardening because the oxygen is no longer getting there that he's going to breathe his last, the death is coming. The same thing with young children who are the casualties of war as you wait. As you wait for them to breathe their last, the reality of death that comes into that room, the reality of death that was there on the cross, this was a public spectacle. What's the ideal in our culture of a good death dying in your bed quietly surrounded by people who love you, right? Not a public spectacle where you're hanging, gasping for air while people are making fun of you. When you're almost naked, you look out and you see people that you love and care about, and there's nothing anybody can do because you're going to die. When we take this meal, we are to proclaim his death and we want that death to be real, we want that death to be something that we say, yes, it really happened. It wasn't a fairy story, it wasn't a myth, it was a reality. Someone that says, do this in remembrance of me when you take the bread, when you take the cup, remembering the reality of his death should both make us feel his love and his awe because he died for our sins, he chose to do this. It was voluntary, it was a substitute, it was our atonement so we could be forgiven, but it was a real death. And I know this is a hard topic for families to deal with. I remember having to try to explain to a two-year-old on a death notification of a military member, the daddy wouldn't be coming home. And I think that two and three-year-olds began to get the idea, particularly by the time they're three, and so families be willing to talk to what death is. Because understanding the death of Christ in the cross and part of that is understanding this really happened. It's not just a story, it's a hard story, but yet it is who Jesus Christ is. And so as we get ready to come, lift up the bread, the body, to drink the cup of the covenant, which has his blood, which is for the forgiveness of sins. That we remember that this meal that gives us life is given to us by one who died for us. And we need to stop when we come to a text like this and say, thank you God, help me to see what you are telling me. And not to run off to an interpretation or an application to make it about me. What can I, you know, look at Jesus, look at Jesus because that will strengthen when I say, do this and remember it's with me. Do you remember the real Jesus that Jesus had died for your sins, who really died for your sins, who gave up his last breath for us, who was able to forgive? Those folks in Colorado, there's a lot of families, they're going to struggle with forgiveness. But I remember the words of my father, I will not let the killer of my father control my life, he had to forgive him. It is hard sometimes to forgive those who destroy lives, but do not allow them to destroy the rest of your life because you will not forgive. Don't wait for them, Jesus says they don't understand what they're doing. Your forgiveness is not conditional just like Christ's forgiveness was not conditional. Don't let the sins of others destroy you, follow your Savior on the cross in your forgiveness. Let us prayer, pray to repair our hearts. Father, we ask that you would take these simple elements, that you would separate them from their common use to a use, that you would do so that your death would be proclaimed so that we would know that you are with us, that our sins are forgiven. As we touch and taste, help us to remember you, Jesus, help us to remember that you really did die for us, because we know that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins, so we know because you really died, our sins are forgiven. I look for no other sacrifice, so father, just prepare our hearts, we pray Jesus in your name, if the elders would come forward.