Mercy for Me, Punitive Justice for You

​Young at Heart Message
 
Imagine one day you are walking through a neighbourhood and you stumble upon a pile of junk with a sign that says “free” on it.
 
In that pile of junk is a beautiful full-length mirror.
 
Normally, you aren’t the type to take things from a pile of junk, but this mirror is too beautiful to let it go somewhere else. In fact, you aren’t even sure why the person is giving the mirror away.
 
You take the mirror home and set it in your bedroom.
 
The next morning, you wake up and get ready for the day. As you’re getting dressed, you decide to use the mirror to see how you look for the day.
 
When you look in the mirror, something doesn’t look quite right.
 
Your hair looks grayer than ever. The wrinkles on your face look deeper. And, is it just you, or are there more of them today?
 
You look like you’ve gained 20 pounds overnight. Your ear and nose hairs are sticking out all over the place.
 
Every scar is more obvious. Those pesky chin hairs are darker and more noticeable than ever. And, do you also have a unibrow now?
 
You don’t understand what happened – all of these things might have existed yesterday, but certainly they weren’t this bad?
 
You rush to your usual bathroom mirror and look at yourself again.
 
You breathe a sigh of relief – everything looks just like it did yesterday. Whew.
 
You go back to the beautiful new mirror, thinking maybe you were seeing things. But no, this mirror seems to magnify everything you find unflattering about yourself.
 
How strange!
 
You look at the back of the mirror for any kind of information about it, and sure enough, the sticker on the back says that it’s a mirror that magnifies everything that you find unflattering about yourself.
 
Talk about giving yourself more to worry about than you need to!
 
If you stumbled across a mirror like this, how many of you would keep it? Raise your hands if you would want this mirror in your home.
 
OK, now imagine the same scenario, but this time, the mirror summarizes everything you feel guilty about having done in your life.
 
In other words, the mirror reflects back to you every “bad” thing you think you’ve ever done.
 
How many of you would want to keep this mirror around?
 
Not too many people would want a mirror around that shows them unflattering things about themselves.
 
Of course, we often already know these things about ourselves, but to have a mirror around that constantly points them out would be a hard pill to swallow.
 
It would force us to be self reflective in ways that would cause a lot of guilt and perhaps even shame.
 
It’s a lot easier to avoid looking too closely at these things about ourselves, that’s for sure!
 
The Message
 
But what does this have to do with our scripture passage today, and with Reign of Christ Sunday?
 
Well, let’s dive into it a bit deeper.
 
This passage sends a powerful message about Christ and his kingship.
 
First of all, Jesus is placed on a cross along with two other men who are guilty of crimes. Jesus, however, is innocent.
 
Everyone around Jesus, including one of the other criminals, is mocking him. They have even gone so far as to put a sign over him that says, “This is the King of the Jews.”
 
It’s as if the sign is saying, “some King. Just look at him now – a common criminal.”
 
Jesus is suffering this humiliation and rejection in a very public way while people watch – almost for entertainment.
 
Most people would see this as some form of torture. Most of us would not want to be humiliated so publicly – much like we would not want a mirror to call out the things we feel guilty or ashamed of.
 
Most of us want to retreat to solitude during times of suffering, humiliation, guilt, or shame.
 
And we certainly wouldn’t be in a position to want to forgive those who were causing our suffering! Especially if we were innocent.
 
But Jesus is suffering this humiliation publicly.
 
And despite this very public humiliation, Jesus uses his power to intercede on behalf of others – not once, but twice in this passage.
 
In verse 34 he says, “Father, forgive these people! They don’t know what they’re doing.”
 
And then in verse 43, Jesus responds to the man who asks Jesus to remember him by saying, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.”
 
Despite his suffering and despite his pain, Jesus’ instinct is to reach out to those who are at the end of their ropes, or the end of their lives, or the end of their ability to care or function.
 
This act emphasizes that no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy.
 
Relationship is at the core of God’s kingdom.
 
In one of her sermons on the crucifixion, Barbara Brown Taylor said, “One cross makes a crucifix. Three crosses makes a church.”
 
We easily forget that Jesus came to minister to the sick, not those who were well. He came for the sinners, not the self-righteous.
 
It often offends our moral sensibilities to think that Jesus might forgive the criminal who insulted him by saying, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and save us!”
 
This is because we want mercy for ourselves and punitive justice for other people.
 
We want to believe that we would be like the second criminal who, instead of trying to defend himself, admits that the two criminals got what was coming to them, but that Jesus did nothing wrong.
 
We want to believe that we aren’t like those people who are condemning and mocking Jesus.
 
But, what about all the people who were simply standing and watching, doing nothing to fight the powerful people condemning him?
 
No one stepped in – even his followers who were there did nothing.
 
No one wants to see themselves in an unflattering mirror.
 
Jesus, in this very moment, embodies the ultimate act of love and forgiveness.
 
He uses his power to grant mercy to others, even as he is nailed to the cross. He even grants mercy to those who are hurting him.
 
This act reminds us just how important grace is to the Reign of Christ.
 
It compels those of us who follow Jesus to take this call for mercy seriously in our own lives and relationships, too.
 
It begs us to ask ourselves: are we ready to extend grace to those around us, even when it is difficult?
 
What if they’re actively working against our best interests?
 
Are we willing to embrace the radical love and grace that Jesus models for us?
 
Answering these questions and being honest with ourselves might mean looking into our unflattering mirror. We may want to say that we are willing and ready to embrace this radical love.
 
But if we are being honest with ourselves, we still want grace for ourselves and punitive justice for others.
 
But this reality simply demonstrates our limitations and our need for Jesus’ forgiveness.
 
This is exactly why Jesus stood in front of this crowd – humiliated and disgraced – and offered grace to those who mocked him.
 
Jesus knew the limitations of the people in the crowd. Jesus knew their very human nature.
 
And Jesus knows us, too. Jesus knows us and sees us, and extends his grace toward us.
 
The grace Jesus extends is not necessarily earned, and yet he offers it freely and willingly because of his limitless love for humanity.
 
Without judgement, Jesus extends his love and grace to all of us. And he challenges us to do the same for others.
 
Not because he knows it will be easy, but because he desires a more loving and gracious world for all of us.
 
So, as you leave here today, remember that Jesus is King, and his kingdom is radically different than any kingdom we could ever know.
 
Jesus’ kingdom welcomes all, offers grace and mercy to everyone, and invites us to embrace the radical love that he demonstrated, even toward those who hurt him.
 
May you receive his grace and mercy, and may you learn to extend that same grace and mercy to everyone you meet. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
 
Let us pray:
 
God of grace, we thank you for sending your son, Jesus Christ, to love and serve us and to teach us how to live our lives in ways that are pleasing to you. We ask forgiveness for those times in our lives when we have strayed from your path or treated others poorly, and we ask for your guidance as we navigate our increasingly complex world. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

---