ONEFamily
Outreach exists to "Connect
Kids to Community and Communities to Kids." Have you considered having a
mission week for your church? This
is one of my favorite "in-depth" ways of reaching out with the Great News of
Jesus Christ. Activities can include:
Interactive and participative praise concerts for children,
youth, and families;
Morning staff studies on "Authentic Leadership"
and "Building a Culture of Intentional Courtesy"
Brown-Bag Luncheon Studies for your community
focusing on our scriptural call to justice;
In-service for your volunteers or teachers on reaching
today's youth and families with the vibrant, living, message of Jesus
Christ;
Evening parent seminars based upon two of
Jerry's recent books: "Significant Conversations: Helping Young People
Live Meaningful Lives," and "The Deepest Longing of Young People; Loving
Without Conditions."
Local networking with other area groups (secular
or faith-based) regarding prevention and intervention strategies for
high-risk and incarcerated youth;
Humorous and thought-provoking school assemblies
(secular or religious, elementary through high school).
ONEFamily
Outreach is primarily
supported by your donations and by trainings, workshops, retreats and concerts.
[Lk 23:33] When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. [34] But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. [35] And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” [36] The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, [37] and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” [38] Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
[39] One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” [40] But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? [41] “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” [42] And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” [43] And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (NAS)
Luke 23:33
[Lk 23:33] When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
There they crucified Him and the criminals
There should be no doubt that Jesus physically died at the “Place of the Skull.” The Romans and the Jewish religious leaders never denied his death; they closely guarded his tomb but could never account for the disappearance of his body. Prior to that tortuous death, there were hours of other tortures that even the bravest person might be unable to endure. Yet, Christ endured it with the additional mental torture that at any given moment he could have called a stop to the whole thing. He was the Son of God; even Satan was aware that an army of angels lay at his beck and call. All he had to do was cry out and they would have rushed to him. But he didn’t, he went to his death like “a lamb that is led to the slaughter.”
Isaiah 53:7
[7] He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
When tempted in the desert, Satan threw all of his the tricks at Jesus and we see the depth of God’s Son in the depth of those temptations. Who among us would be truly tempted with dining on bread made from rock, lordship of the world, or jumping from a cliff with no chute? These are the temptations of either an insane man or the Son of God; but they are not our temptations. Finally, we must realize how tempted Jesus must have been on that horrible day and during those awful hours of torture when he knew that he could have waved it all off with but a whisper. He could have said; “If one more person spits on me, insults me, slaps me – I will destroy them all.”
Christ bore a sentence that was false, drummed up in the middle of the night in a kangaroo court where it appears that only part of the Sanhedrin was summoned. Jesus did not argue his case; instead, he chose to be crucified among criminals
Criminals [GSN2557 kakourgos]; the word means; “those with evil deeds.”
Our Lord died not among criminals, but for criminals. I am either the criminal on his left or his right. It is my attitude about “Jesus, The Man in the Middle,” that will determine my salvation.
What do I say about Jesus: The Man in the Middle?
Luke 23:34
[34] But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Does our forgiveness look like the forgiveness of the Lord? When he forgives, it was a blanket reprieve. His amnesty did not just cover his friends – the two Mary’s and John. It was a blanket pardon that covered those who scorned him, spit on him, abandoned him, plotted against him, or nailed him to the cross. This wasn’t an exclusive forgiveness, a – “what have you done for me, lately?” – forgiveness. Christ’s forgiveness reached across time – forward and backward – to all persons, everywhere.
If our Lord’s forgiveness had been exclusive, who would have been rejected? Surely, he would not have forgiven the chief priests, the fleeing disciples, Peter, the Centurion in charge of the detail, Herod or Pontius Pilate. However, he would certainly also not include the criminals, the kakourgos, the “evil-doers,” and doesn’t that include me? Perhaps, it would be far easier to ask, “Who would be included?”
In fact, Jesus’ forgiveness extends to all of those who surround him – it includes everyone. It doesn’t mean that everyone accepts it: Judas did not, the Chief Priests did not (except for Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea), and Peter almost didn’t. One of the criminals hanging by Jesus accepted his offer – the other mocked him. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the Father pleads for the elder sibling to accept his invitation but the boy finds his anger and bitterness too sweet to discard. Yet, the forgiveness still extends to everyone.
Does my forgiveness extend to everyone? If there were two qualities that we could practice that would be pivotal to our eternal joy, the first would be compassion and the second would be forgiveness. To the degree that I can extend them both without limitations – I will experience the depth of Christ.
And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
Our Lord’s sacrificial death was neither happenstance nor a band-aid solution to the sinful fall of man. His death was part of a purposeful march towards the recovery of man that began before God created us. Our beloved Father knew that we would sin before he drew us from the mud and yet, decided to breathe life into us anyway.
This death was not incidental; the details were foretold by the prophets down to minutiae of each moment:
Psalm 22:16-19
[16] For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. [17] I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; [18] They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. [19] But Thou, O LORD, be not far off; O Thou my help, hasten to my assistance. (NAS)
Christ knew that death lay in front of him the moment he stepped into the Jordan to be baptized. There, on those shores, God blesses Jesus’ choice: “This is my beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased [Lk 3:22].” That choice would inevitably lead to the cross, only an insane man would think he could proclaim himself “Messiah” and not be killed. In fact, it reveals the clarity of our Lord’s mind that he knew he was facing the cross long before its manifestation was obvious to others. His followers thought he was insane to speak of such things which pertained to his ultimate sacrifice [John 6:60-66].
The cross of Jesus was inevitable. It was the very purpose of Christ’s existence. Forgiveness was offered to us even before our creation was enacted:
John 1:1-5
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. [4] In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. [5] And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (NAS)
Jesus knew every detail of a Messiah’s death. Each detail was laid out clearly in scripture for anyone who would read the words or listen to the prophets. Yet, the chief priests chose to ignore the inevitable even as they played their part in it.
We wonder how they could be so blind and yet so many of us live lives of intentional blindness preventing us from seeing the inevitable as well. How often do I sit at the foot of Christ’s cross – never lifting my eyes – engaged only in casting lots for his garment? And, just what is the garment of Christ for which we “cast lots?” Isn’t it the external trappings of this world: power, authority, wealth? Why do we gamble for scraps when the Savior’s blood is shed just above our down-turned heads?
All of us stand within touching distance – within sight – of the greatest gift that God has ever given us. Still, we gamble for the externals. We cast lots for empty wrappings.
Haggai 1:5-7
[5] Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!
[6] “You have sown much, but harvest little; {you} eat, but {there is} not {enough} to be satisfied; {you} drink, but {there is} not {enough} to become drunk; {you} put on clothing, but no one is warm {enough} and he who earns, earns wages {to put} into a purse with holes.”
[7] Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!” (NAS)
Have I considered my ways? Am I scrambling for food that won’t fill me? Drink that won’t satiate my need for drunkenness? Clothing that I can only wear once before it is no longer “in vogue?” Money that never seems to be enough for my wants?
If so, then I am looking down, not up. I am casting lots for the garment and not for the embrace of Jesus Christ. Look up. Look up. Look up! Look up with the Centurion who grasped the truth:
Matthew 27:54
[54] Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (NAS)
Will I throw in my lot with the Son of God or cast lots for worldly possessions? “Lord, Jesus Christ, please lift my head from the dirt and help me to focus instead on you.”
Luke 23:35-38
[35] And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” [36] The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, [37] and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” [38] Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
“He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”
With each sign of grace and beauty that Jesus displayed, his opposition became increasingly spiteful. The more Jesus revealed that he was the Christ, the more his opposition denigrated themselves to bring about his end. Their tricks included sending out spies to watch Jesus’ every move, sending out scholars to entrap him, setting up situations where Jesus either had to turn from healing the sick or face the accusation of breaking the Sabbath. The religious leaders threw a woman caught in adultery in front of Jesus so that he might be the first to stone her, they bought false testimony, they ran a mock trial in the middle of the night and worked tightly with their sworn enemies – both Herod and Pontius – to bring about Christ’s death.
Then, even at his death, the Lord’s condemners could not leave him alone. They too climbed the hill of the skull to make sure that Jesus was mocked to his last drawn breath; “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”
Yet, even their final condemnation shows how perilously purposeless they were:
“He saved others…”
They acknowledge that Jesus saved [GSN4982 Sozo] others, yet still killed him. The word Sozo means not only “to save,” it also means to heal or to set free. The condemnation of the religious leaders never denied that Jesus had done these things. Their condemnation only stated that if he continued doing these things he would undermine their power and positions [John 11:48].
They themselves, claim that Jesus saves; then kill him anyway.
“…let him save himself.”
It was clear that the High Priests had re-interpreted scripture to fit their circumstances and endorse their ideology. If they had taken scripture at its word; they would have seen that Jesus was dying exactly as prophesied and that they, themselves, were fulfilling the roll of the Evil One in their quest for expediency.
If they had read scripture without interjecting their own biases; they would have known that the Messiah would not save himself, for he had come to save others through his death.
Isaiah 53:1-12
1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no {stately} form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke {was due?}
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; if He would render himself {as} a guilt offering, He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it} and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. (NAS)
The majority of people who die in the wilderness lose their life for one reason: They refuse to admit they are lost. Instead of staying where they are and putting up a shelter and a signal fire, they wander in circles becoming increasingly lost until they finally die of exposure and exhaustion.
Most people die spiritually for the same reason. Like these religious leaders, they refuse to admit they are lost. They spend all their energy trying to make scripture fit their biases. Finally, they torment and mock anyone who confronts their ideology. In what manner am I like these leaders? In what ways will I safeguard my true spiritual life and prevent myself from choosing ideology over faith and then further jeopardize my predicament by rationalizing my sin?
Like these religious leaders, we mock Christ on the cross whenever we choose our path over his; whenever we rationalize our sin instead of changing our lives.
Luke 23:39-42
[39] One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” [40] But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? [41] “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” [42] And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”
“And we indeed are suffering justly…”
Luke, the painter, sketches a scene for us that should be imprinted upon our hearts for eternity: Two men – ”evil doers” – only a few meters apart, and Jesus, the man in the middle. All three are suffering the most horrific torture that the decadent Roman Empire could concoct. Two men suffer for their sins; one man suffers for the sins of others. For one of these two men, death will be liberation from the agonies of this world; it will be the “way to life.” For the other, death will be a continuation of the torment he has chosen as his “way of living.”
Two men, meters apart, with Jesus in the middle, both men representative of the inner struggle that each of us must face. Which man am I choosing to become? One man mocks and condemns the faithful. He makes demands and all of his demands are self-centric. What is to keep me from becoming that man? One man acknowledges his sin and leaps to the defense of the beaten Jesus. He takes the mocking that is aimed at the vulnerable Jesus and says, “If you are to mock anyone, mock me, for I deserve this death.”
What can I do to help me become that man?
What can I do to become less self-centric, cynical, demanding and hateful? What can I do to become an advocate for the vulnerable, aware of my own selfishness and sin, absent of judgment and spite? Finally, what can I do to make sure that my last words ask for forgiveness and love and not be demanding words of spite and condemnation?
Two men, meters apart, with Jesus in the middle. One received salvation on that day; one continued in bitterness for eternity. And Jesus is still in the middle.
Luke 23:43
[43] And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
“Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
How can it be, that a man who endured so much suffering, who was so close to death, could turn to another man – in the midst of his own final death throes – and speak such sweet words of kindness and hope? How often do I – with just a little pain or just a little stress – find myself unable to produce words of hope or acts of kindness? Our Savior, Jesus Christ, was nailed to a tree and in his last painful moments he was still offering words of forgiveness and assurance.
My friends, what can we do to increase our conviction so that we are able to produce love and comfort in all circumstances? How can I grow the muscle of faithful endurance? How do I train myself to respond with confidence and conviction whenever pressured by the “unfairness” or intolerance of this world? How can I be a resolute light in the absolute darkness and a life-giving stream in a lethal desert? How can I be more like Jesus? How can I become like the “Man in the Middle” of two evil-doers?
Certainly, it will not be by increasing my comfort level, by increasing self-focus, by giving into the immoderation of this world. Certainly, it will not be by feeding the whiner in me, by turning each conversation towards my needs, or by pronouncing myself “too busy” to minister to Jesus in his most wounded form.
If an endurance runner wants to become strong at high altitudes; she must train in high altitudes. If she wants to be able to run through the heat of the desert – she must train in the desert. If a long-distance swimmer wants to swim the English Channel, she had better train determinedly in frigid waters.
If I want to be a sweet fragrance in all situations, including on my own cross, then I had better train in self-sacrifice. Only then – and by the power of the Holy Spirit – will I be capable of becoming like “the Man in the Middle.”
There is a special touch that Luke adds to this story that we wouldn’t normally see unless we read it in Greek. Jesus offers a new salvation to the criminal who turns to him for mercy. Normally, throughout the Gospels, Jesus spoke about heaven in terms of “the kingdom [GSN932 basileia] of heaven [GSN3772 ouranos].”
The term literally means, “the rule of the sky,” or the “reign of God.” Yet, Jesus promises this man something completely different, something deeply personal and vividly tangible. Jesus promises him paradise [GSN3857 paradeisos], which specifically means a “park” or “Eden.” This term is actually oriental (not Greek) in origin and is used only three times in the entire New Testament [here in Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:4 and Revelations 2:7].
2 Corinthians 12:3-5
[3] And I know how such a man – whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows – [4] was caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. [5] On behalf of such a man will I boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regard to {my} weaknesses.
Revelations 2:7
[7] “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”
Each time the word is used it is not to express a mental concept but to express a physical place. Jesus, though dying himself, offers this man a “space in God’s place.” To those witnessing the event, it would have appeared ludicrous – because they did not know Jesus. The religious leaders would have thought, “The man still continues to throw out lies.” The Romans would have thought, “You have no kingdom to offer, we rule the civilized world!”
But to the man on one side of Jesus – a man also hanging on a cross – Jesus was not offering him a philosophy, he was offering him a home.
Therein is the character of the Man in the Middle. When people were sick; he offered them healing. When they were hungry; he offered them food. And, when they were dying and completely alone; he offered a home. Does that sound like the work of my life? Am I so empty of self and full of compassion that I have become home to the least of these? Do the poor see me coming their way and say; “There is good news.” Do the incarcerated find freedom in my conversations? Do the dead find life in my words? Do the exploited find an advocate in my work? Do the forgotten find home in my arms?
“Lord, help me become like you, that the footsteps of my life would take me to the places where the loneliest and most hated are dying. Give me the strength to offer them – not a concept – but a home.
“Help me to be like you, Lord; the Man in the Middle.”
The New Testament Greek Lexicon based on Thayer’s and
Smith’s Bible Dictionary plus others; this is keyed to the large Kittel and the
“Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” These files are public domain.
The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon is Brown, Driver,
Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon; this is keyed to the “Theological Word Book of the Old
Testament.” These files are considered public domain.