"Today you will be with me in Paradise"

Justice. When I say this word, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For me, it’s Judge Judy. A beacon of the court system, who has no time for those who don’t follow the rules or those who try to exploit the system, she is tough, but fair. But God is not Judge Judy.

God’s sense of justice extends well beyond our limited view of justice through the human court system. Our sense of justice is in order to do what is best for us – justice may involve separating some people from others, or enforcing fines in an attempt to get people to follow the rules.  But our sense of justice is also tainted – sometimes the justice system is actually unjust. But God’s sense of justice is not about what is good for God; it is about what is good for those whom God loves. And this is the type of justice Jesus demonstrated when he said, “today you will be with me in paradise.”

In today’s scripture passage Jesus, the Son of God, gives up his life for us. He is crucified by an unjust justice system  - he is killed on the accusations of someone else, for something that he did not do. And yet, as he hung up on the cross, he asked God, his Father, to forgive the crowds who were sacrificing him, because they did not know what they were doing. Yet, even after hearing this prayer, one of the thieves, literally translated “those who do evil works”, who hung naked and dying with Jesus chose to mock him, as if trying to build himself up, even in his final moments. Not realizing who he was speaking to – telling him to save himself and them if he really was the Messiah.

In the midst of this scene of heckling, from the crowds, and soldiers, and even another thief, only one person got it right, asking, Don’t you fear God? Especially since you are under the same sentence of death. We were punished justly, for we did what we were accused of doing, but this man, this man did nothing wrong. He then turned to Jesus and said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom. This man had faith. 

Only one man, and a criminal at that, may have understood who Jesus was that day. Only one person may have stood by his side instead of fleeing. Only a few truly believed and claimed that he did not do the things that he was accused of. And yet, Jesus’ blood, the death that he suffered was for all. Jesus didn’t make things fair – he made things clean. We aren’t going to get the punishment we deserve for our sins in eternity. What awesome love! 

To this one man Jesus made a statement that echoed how he lived his life of ministry, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. During Jesus’ time on earth he ministered with unexpected people - thieves, prostitutes, bandits. He spent time with them, making the Kingdom of God assessable to them. He shared his heart with them. Some, like the first thief hanging on the cross, rejected him. Others came to love him, even as the second thief did at his final moments on the cross. But he invested time in each of them, because he had a heart for the lost children of God. Do we have that same heart in this church? Take a moment and think - are most of your friends Christians or non-Christians? Do you have a heart to invest time and love in those who do not yet know Christ or does that make you uncomfortable? Now I am not saying to go out and spend time with people who aren’t Christians in order to convert them - for that would be inauthentic. But I am asking you if your interactions look like those of Christ, with a wide variety of people, offering hope and wholeness.

This passage also invites us to ask, what exactly did Christ mean with his statement, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” He was expressing so much, once again, in a brief statement. He was saying that this man, despite all he had done of earth, would find freedom in Heaven. In fact, he would experience that freedom today, immediately being raised to life following his death. Jesus was also saying that this man would be offered salvation because of his faith. He didn’t have to know all the right things before he could be saved, he simply had to believe that Christ was Lord. 

God’s sense of justice does not  come from making sure that everything is fair or right, but out of God’s deep sense of love for us. Its not a justice that we can predict or manage, just as we cannot predict or contain love. Jesus cried out in our defense, and God forgave us! When we recognize our sin and confess it, Jesus again cries out to God to forgive us, for we cannot comprehend what we are doing. Cannot fully imagine that we are hurting God, ourselves, and others. He continually asks God to forgive us, if only we would ask Christ to forgive us our sins. 

As Christ has sought justice on our behalf, we are seek justice for others. We may not be able to have the same kind of justice that doesn’t make everything fair or even (for if God’s justice was based on fairness we would all lose), but we can at least strive to love people in this world. Strive to offer them the message of hope and wholeness that is found in Christ.  While we may not be able to eliminate the wrongs in this world, we can try to correct them and see those often mistreated in society with the eyes of Christ. For Christ seeking and saving the lost was his mission of justice. Alas, sometimes we spend more time judging people and categorizing people into who will be in Heaven and who will not be, instead of living a life like Christ’s that seeks to offer salvation.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to get to see the movie, the Jammed, about underground prostitution in Melbourne. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to everyone, but is has a powerful message, and especially touched me as a Christian. The movie tells the story of three women who were pulled into prostitution under false contexts and one woman who got pulled into helping the girls by no choice of her own. I was quit convicted by the end of the movie by a phrase that kept playing in my head from my favorite book, the Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne. Shane is having a conversation with a friend who just claimed that Jesus never talked to a prostitute and Shane is trying to defend the fact that of course Jesus talked to prostitutes, all the time. But then Shane’s friend replied, “Listen, Jesus never talked to a prostitute because he didn’t see a prostitute. He saw a child of God he was madly in love with.” Brothers and sisters, I firmly believe that this is how Christ saw all that he ministered to, not by their sins or titles given to them by other people, but as children of God. How are we seeing the people around us? And how are we reaching out with a message of love and hope?

In today’s passage of scripture we are reminded that we are all sinners who deserve God’s punishment, but we are also all children of God. We have the responsibility as one who has received God’s gifts of justice and mercy to extend them to others and let them know that they are loved. Let them know that their is a paradise that Christ offers to all. For “what would happen if every one of us who professes to be Christian would reach out to those who are lost and show them compassion in Jesus’ name? How would the world change?”

So may we claim God’s justice in our lives. May we see it as a wonderful gift, and also as something that we can live into being. May we seek justice on the behalf of the forgotten, ignored, and oppressed. And may we love all, remembering that God’s love covers all, for even to those with the smallest grain of belief Christ offers the promise, “Today you will be with me in paradise”. Amen.