Luke 23:32-43

32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. 35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” 40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

When we tie our worth to our work instead of His it leads to a performance based life instead of a peace based one. The question that we need to ask is do we really believe that our worth is tied to His word? Do we get it, have we got it because many of us struggle with being worthy, valuable and loved by God and when we do we are prone to be driven by performance. It becomes the corruptive cancer that eats away and kills our lives, because on days that we believe that we have perform well we feel like we are more valuable to God. We buy into the lie that the things we do and the things we stop doing are what make us worthy of the love of God. As a result we not only end up living a lie, but we end up pursuing the wrong things and pretend to be someone that we are not. A performance driven life leads to many forms of pain, one of them being the deadly disease of people pleasing. We end up trying to measure up so we can gain a sense of meaning in our life. Our value becomes based on what others say instead of God’s Word. We end up measuring our worth on our work, on whether we can please the people around us. That is why we so badly need this story in the book of Luke and why I am so thankful that the HS inspired Luke to put to paper this encounter with the thief on the cross. Because it is a powerful reminder that it’s not what I do, how much I have, how well I perform, or how good I look that determines my worth, or my value. No our worth and value rest firmly and securely on God’s unfailing, unconditional, unending love for us. Do you believe that, have you accept that, are you embracing and resting in that truth that the creator of the Universe is madly in love with you. Look don’t take my word  for it, take His, “Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. You are precious in my eyes, because you are honored and I love you… the mountains may depart hills may be shaken, but my love for you will never leave you and my covenant of peace with you will never be shaken.” Isaiah 43:1,4; 54:10. God calls you by name, you are precious in His eyes and His love for you will never be shaken. I believe Paul understood how hard it was for us to grasp God’s love for us that is why in Ephesians 3:17-19 he wrote, “And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Do you see and hear what Paul is saying about the love Christ has for you? It is deep, wide, long, high and understanding His love give fullness of life and power. In his book, Abba’s Child, Brennan Manning talks about a guy named John Eagan. John was an ordinary guy and a high school teacher in Milwaukee. He spent 30 years ministering to youth and struggling with seeing himself worthy of the one who is able to perform miracles with nothing more than spit and mud. But during an 8 day spiritual retreat, his spiritual director said something that pulled it all together, rocked his world and gives you and I something awesome to contemplate… John the heart of it is this: to make the Lord and His immense love for you constitutive of your personal worth. Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. God’s love for you and his choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life. Later that evening John wrote in his journal…We discussed it. The basis of my personal worth is not my possessions, my talent, not esteem of others, reputation… not kudos of appreciation from parents and kids, not applause, and everyone telling you how important you are to the place… I stand anchored now in God before who I stand naked, this God who tells me, “You are my son, my beloved one.” Have you define yourself radically as one beloved by God, because God’s love for you and his choice of you are what constitute your worth. We need to embrace this truth which means that we not only accept it but that we let it become the most important thing in our life. Unfortunately many of us are defining ourselves by our sin and our failure instead of His sacrifice and forgiveness. Let me ask you this question has anything I have said so far shocked you? For some it may but for many Christians this is nothing new. I mean one of the first songs many of us learned to sing as a child was “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” and one of the first bible verses we memorized was more than likely, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son… John 3:16” But even though we have read it, heard it, memorized it, sung about it for years and even taught it, it is still hard to see ourselves as one radically loved by God. So let me ask you are you living in His love or are you living in the lie that your worth is tied to your work not His?

Luke 23:32-43

32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. 35 The crowd watched and the leaders scoffed. “He saved others,” they said, “let him save himself if he is really God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers mocked him, too, by offering him a drink of sour wine. 37 They called out to him, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 A sign was fastened above him with these words: “This is the King of the Jews.” 39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” 40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

It is here in Luke that we come across two criminals that were crucified on either side of Christ. Both scoffed at the Savior but one had a change of heart and his ridicule was replaced with a request. Now we know very little about him, in fact all we really know is that he was a thief. What he stole or how long he had been stealing we don’t know. We don’t even know why he became a thief, was it the result of abandonment by a father who walked out on him before he was born and he grew up destitute. Did he only steal from the Romans because somehow he felt justified in taking from them, because of their occupation and cruel oppression of his people? Did he steal out of need or did he steal out of greed? The truth is there is a lot that we just don’t know about this guy, but what we do know is that one day he got caught, went to court and was found guilty. As a result on a Friday 2,000 years ago he found himself nailed to a cross right next to Christ. Here was a person that the world would label a looser, a wasted and worthless life. Yet how did Jesus see Him? What did Jesus think of Him? Bringing that question closer to home let me ask you this, what does Jesus think of you and not just when things are great and you are doing good? Have you ever stopped and wondered what Jesus thinks of you, when like the thief on the cross you have been caught, you know you are busted, you have been tried and you know you are guilty? On that Friday 2,000 years ago a thief woke up left his prison cell walked up a hill carrying his cross and along with Jesus was nailed to it at 9am. Had he heard of Jesus before this day, had he witnessed his miracles, we don’t know. But one thing we do know, he hung there in pain as he was being punished for his crimes, and at first he responded to Jesus just like everyone else. He treated Christ with contempt, just like the Pharisees and religious leaders. He hung next to Christ hurling insults at the creator of the universe. At first he chose to join the chorus of those who mocked the Messiah, attacking the Almighty. How long did his insults spew from his lips, like venom from a viper, one hour, two, or three, we don’t know but what we do know is that the longer he hung on that cross close to the Prince of Peace the more things began to change. To the point where as he looked at the Lord he no longer saw a man who had been beaten, torn and ripped apart as his lungs grasped for air like a drowning man, but instead he saw a King and it caused him to cry out “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Have you ever wondered why this man had such a drastic change in attitude towards Jesus? I think it’s because of what he experienced what he saw and heard. He witnessed Jesus endure the cruelty of the Romans, the ridicule of the crowd and the pain of the cross and yet despite all this Jesus responded to the cruelty with control, to the pain with peace, to the insults with love. He experienced the contrast between how he and the other criminal responded to the crucifixion and how Christ did. He heard Jesus respond to His mother and the disciple whom he loved standing next to her, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother” John 19:26. He heard Jesus respond to him and the many others who ridiculed and despised him with these 12 unbelievable words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” In the suffering he saw the Son of God and he cried out, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Think about that for a moment here was this thief, a sinner, who like everyone else had mocked and insulted the Messiah and now he asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. If you were Jesus how would you have responded to a man who just moments before had been ridiculing you? We would have responded with hate but Jesus responded with hope saying, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” I doubt anyone was that coming. Hollywood would have never written that line into their script. But Jesus simply said yes, I will take you home with me to my kingdom. Now why would Jesus do that, what could He possibly have to gain by promising this thief a place of honor at the banquet table? What could this criminal offer Christ, here was a guy who would never attend a church service, teach a class or lead a life group. He would never tithe or go on a mission trip or help out the homeless. Unlike the woman at the well who went back and shared the story of living water with those she lived with. Or the leper who was made whole that could share with the world about the miraculous healing power of Jesus. Or the man in John 5 who had been crippled for 38 years who told the religious leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. But this thief, what was he going to do? Absolutely nothing and that is the point. You see your worth is not tied to your work, your value is not based on what you do it’s based on what He has done. If there is one thing we need to both get and grasp a hold of it’s that Jesus’ love does not depend on what we do for Him. In the eyes of Christ who willingly hung on the cross 2,000 years ago you have value. How much value? So much that He traded His life for you, buying you with His blood. That means that you don’t have to spend your life trying to perform and constantly trying to measure up. You have value and you are worthy of the love of God not because of what you do or what you have done but because of Him. When you get it and grasp it you realize that you don’t need to waste your life constantly trying to seeking approval because you already have it. You have a Father who forever loves you and promises you a home in heaven. How freeing it is when we finally realize that our position is not based on our performance. The question is are you resting in this truth or are you still relying on your trying?