Looking Towards Paradise

Today was the third Sunday in Lent; and my sermon considers Jesus' third word from the cross: "Today you will be with me in paradise." Is that kind of promise just pie in the sky bye and bye; or is it something far more profound? If you choose to read my sermon, I hope it helps you to think about that question.

This morning, we consider the third word of Jesus from the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Like last week’s word (“Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.”), this statement seems to be one that only God can make. How could a human Jesus state with such confidence that something good is awaiting him as he is hanging on the cross, racked by pain and taunted by those who executed him? Isn’t God the only one who can say something like that with such certainty? Actually, this statement of Jesus is a word of hope; and hope is a gift of God to all Christians.

Hope wasn’t a very common thing in Jesus’ time. The Roman Empire was in charge of things; and the Roman Empire didn’t really care much for the welfare of the common people. The people in power were only concerned with staying in power; and the people who resisted the government were crushed like bugs. Floggings, crucifixions, beheading… they were all common sights in Jesus’ day. No one had much hope that anything would ever get better. It’s not that different from today, is it? Oh, we may not see executions in the public square; but many people have precious little hope these days, either. Wherever we turn, the future is pictured as nothing but doom and gloom. The budget sequesters that have now gone into effect are predicted to turn our economy back on itself, and plunge millions of people into unemployment. Global warming is wreaking havoc with the climate worldwide, and may very well lead to the extinction of many types of animals. And if we manage to avert global warming, we still have the problem of overpopulation. All kinds of dire consequences are predicted from that – wars, famines, diseases, and death. Yes, many people look for those four horsemen of the apocalypse to ride out any day now! How we need the hope that Jesus offered when he said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus uttered that courageous statement in the midst of a situation that should have led him to despair. But his words reflect a certainty that hate and oppression and suffering and even death don’t have the last word. God’s love has the last word. The end is not disaster, but renewal.

Now, there’s plenty of wishful thinking around today that masquerades as hope. We hear it all the time. “I hope that the weather will be nice tomorrow.” “I hope that I lose some weight so I can fit into this dress again.” “I hope that I win the lottery.” Those statements may use the word “hope,” but when we take their masks off, they aren’t really about hope at all. They’re just wishes that we make in the middle of bad situations. Hope is something very different. Hope isn’t a wish; it’s a certainty that God’s love, wisdom, and power will transform any situation into something good, even if we don’t see any evidence of it right now! Hope doesn’t deny that things are bad; but hope believes that the good will arrive someday. In the middle of the night, hope bravely declares, “This will not last forever. Even though I may never see the light, I believe that in the end, the darkness will be conquered.”

One of my favorite descriptions of hope is this poem that was written by the great American poet Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers

that perches in the soul
and sings the tune without the words,
and never stops at all.

Hope is like the little birds that come to my feeder in all kinds of weather. Sun, rain, or snow, little feathered bits of hope arrive every day to gobble up sunflower seeds or peanuts and to peck at cakes of suet. I am always amazed that, even in the most dreadful weather, they sing their songs. Oh, on some days those songs are very quiet. They don’t sing very much when the weather is bad. But they do sing; just as we have hope in both good times and in bad.

Hope is the thing with feathers

that perches in the soul
and sings the tune without the words,
and never stops at all.

 Just like the presence of God, hope stays with us no matter what the circumstances of our lives may be. And did you notice that the hope Jesus offered from the cross wasn’t just his own personal hope? No, his statement took the thief right along with him. Jesus could have declared, “I’m not worried! I know that I’m going to heaven when all this is over!” Instead, though, he included someone else. “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Christian hope reaches beyond itself to include all the folks around it who have no hope of their own! In a world that is often hopeless, we Christians can offer hope to others.

Now, sometimes, when we offer our hope to others, they ask, “How can you possibly have hope? Look around! Do you see any evidence at all that things are going to get better?” And in many cases, if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer to that question is “no.” Many situations in our world are very dark with no light to be seen anywhere, not even at the end of the tunnel. But that’s why hope is hope. Hope is the result of a faith that declares that God can and will redeem any situation, no matter how bad things may be. And there’s no way to prove that. No scientist can find God’s love in a test tube or in a Petri dish or under a microscope. We need faith to believe it. But if we do believe it, then we need not lose hope, not in any situation that we may encounter.

People who have hope are like the little boy who always found an opportunity for good, no matter what happened to him. When the weather was rainy, he reminded his family that the rain helps the flowers to grow. When he got a low grade on a test, he declared that his mistakes helped him know what to study so that he could improve. When a fellow classmate was rude to him, he said that the experience helped him to learn patience. His neighbor was not nearly as cheerful. He was a grumpy man who was annoyed by the child’s unfailing optimism. “That kid needs to grow up,” he declared one day. “I’ll show him that not everything in life is rosy.” So he ordered a huge pile of horse manure one day, and he had it dumped right in the middle of a vacant lot where the boy often played with his friends. When the child came home from school that day, his neighbor called to him. “Hey, I’ve got a present for you!” Leading him to the vacant lot, he showed him the enormous manure pile and said, “Here – this is all for you!” Without hesitation, the boy ran to the pile of manure and began to dig into it gleefully. The neighbor was astonished. “What in the world are you doing?” he demanded. The boy looked up with a huge smile, and answered, “Well, with a pile of manure this big, I know there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

Hope expects to find a pony some day. Hope believes that the sun will rise no matter how dark the night has been. Hope refuses to surrender to despair. Hope believes that God will redeem everything in his own time; if not in this life, then in the next. And when we hope, we are like Jesus in the certainty that God is sovereign.

“Today, you will be with me in paradise.” It’s the hope that Jesus offered to the thief on the cross.

“Today, you will be with me in paradise.” It’s the hope that we can offer to a world that has fallen into despair.
“Today, you will be with me in paradise.” It’s the hope that God offers to us, too, because of a cross and an empty tomb.