KING JESUS IS IN CONTROL
Luke 23:35-43
Pastor Jeremy Mattek – November 20, 2016
Pizza is the name of a polar bear in China. Pizza is known as the “World’s Saddest Polar Bear.” Pizza’s home was in a shopping mall in Southern China. He was in a glass enclosure people would walk by while they were shopping. And recently, pictures of Pizza started showing up on the internet because a lot of shoppers thought that Pizza looked incredibly sad. Many concluded that Pizza just does not enjoy where he’s living. It’s lonely. It’s hard. It’s boring. And the only people interacting with you are typically just pointing and laughing. Once the pictures started showing up, people started saying that something needs to change; that whoever has control over Pizza’s living conditions needs to do something, because Pizza’s life in the mall is obviously one that Pizza is not enjoying.
Well, last week, there was a sign of hope. Pizza was removed from the shopping mall and taken to a park by the ocean where he was reunited with his parents. However, the move is just temporary. They moved Pizza from the glass enclosure in the mall because they’re renovating it. The plan is to put Pizza right back into a place that’s lonely, hard, and boring. Almost a million people have signed a petition urging Pizza’s owners to reconsider. But finally, none of those million people are the ones in control of the final decision, and for now, it looks like Pizza will continue to be the saddest polar bear on the planet.
Do you ever feel like Pizza? Do you ever feel lonely or sad? Is life ever hard? Do you ever lose hope when change you know would be good doesn’t seem to be happening? Whether or not you do probably has something to do with who you believe is in control. We’ve seen that in the wake of the latest election. The Milwaukee Bucks are one of three professional basketball teams that have decided to no longer stay at hotels owned by Donald Trump. Donald Trump owns many apartment complexes. So many residents of those apartments were unhappy with the results of the election that they said they would only continue paying their rent if Trump’s name was removed from the building. There was one professor at Princeton University who noticed that his students were so upset about the results of the election that he made the semester exam optional for them. They recognize that Donald Trump has been given a lot of control, and so they don’t have a lot of hope that things will turn out well for them.
But whether or not you do, today Jesus reminds us of one important thing we need to keep in mind as find ourselves enclosed by the situations in life that make us feel sad or destroy our hope. Donald Trump is not in complete control. Hillary Clinton would not have been either. Neither is President Obama. Neither is cancer, sickness, or death. None of those things has final control over what happens to you. There is only one person who does. And we find him today in a situation even worse than the one Pizza was in. Like Pizza, Jesus was once on display, in a place that was lonely and hard, in a place that induced a lot of tears and a lot of pain. But it’s there that we see just how much control our Jesus still has when life doesn’t seem to be going our way.
35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. 39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Do you know what Lebron James, Harry Potter, Neo from the Matrix movies, Anakin Skywalker, and Kung Fu Panda all have in common? They were all identified in the same way that Jesus was here – as the “Chosen One;” someone supposedly chosen to do extraordinary things that had never been done by anyone up until that moment. “Chosen One” is literally what the word “Christ” means. The Christ was supposed to be the one chosen by God to help God’s people be victorious over everything. But the reason they used the term for Jesus here wasn’t because they actually believed Jesus was going to do extraordinary things. They were making fun of him because hanging on a cross with his life being taken from him certainly didn’t make him look all that victorious. He looked more like Sam Bowie than Lebron James or Michael Jordan; someone with a lot of hype who showed a lot of promise only to end up as a monumental disappointment.
And making fun of his title wasn’t the only way they showed their disappointment. The kind of nasty words you hear about Donald Trump these days are probably the type they were shouting about him. The wine vinegar they offered him was the drink of poverty, not the drink of a king. And they held it out in front of him, just far enough away that he wouldn’t be able to reach it, taunting his throat that was parched and hurting. Pilate put the sign above his head, calling him the King of the Jews, basically showing everyone what kind of treatment they should expect if they worship anyone other than the Romans. They also challenged him. “If you are the Son of God,” they said. “If.” In other words, we kind of believe that you’re not. But I think the first criminal really hoped that he was.
“Aren’t you the Christ?” he asked. ‘Aren’t you the one chosen by God to be there for me and help me in every situation?’ Put yourself in his position. Think about how you would feel if God were right next to you, and you were going through the same thing as him? How easy is it to always praise God when you, or someone you love, is dying long before you were expecting, and you ask for help, and he doesn’t change anything? How easy is it to believe that God is in control when shooting pain is constantly running up and down your spine? And your heart feels like it’s going to burst at any moment because it’s so heavy from all the pressure of life? How easy is it to believe it’s all going to be ok when the people you love aren’t there for you? And the ones you thought would have your back ran away in the other direction? How do you react when it seems like the sun is never shining; when all you see is day after day of dark clouds of grey; when you’re in the middle of a crowd full of people who only point out all the ways you seem to be failing? I don’t know if it’s always easy for anyone to believe that God is in control. And yet one man did.
“Don’t you fear God,” the other criminal said; who happens to be the only person we ever hear defend Jesus at his crucifixion. And notice what he said about Jesus. After pointing out to the other criminal they were getting what they deserved, he said, “But this man has done nothing wrong.” That word “wrong” literally means “out of place.” ‘He has never done anything out of place.’ Now, that certainly means that Jesus never sinned. But think about what that would mean if we would apply it to the “God is in control” phrase we like to say so often. If God is in control of everything, and nothing under his control is ever out of place, it would mean that we would always have a reason for hope when life doesn’t go the way we were planning.
It would mean that the bad news you got wouldn’t really be bad because we would know that all things work out for the good of those who love him. It would mean that you wouldn’t need to worry about anything, no matter what it is, no matter how unexpected. It would mean that you could be perfectly confident in your future, even if something blows up in your present. It would mean that cancer, or death, or car accidents wouldn’t destroy your hope. Or your joy. It would mean that, no matter where you are in life, even if you’re hanging on a cross, stabbed with shooting pain, you could and should still believe that there is no possible better situation – because God is in control of everything, and nothing is ever out of place when it comes to him. Do you think that’s what the criminal wanted the other criminal to remember about Jesus?
Regardless, what do you think he wanted Jesus to remember about him? He then turned to Jesus and asked Jesus to do just that. Have you ever thought about what he was really asking Jesus to remember? I heard this week something that Priscilla Presley said. Priscilla was married to Elvis. And she said that Elvis never saw her without her makeup on. Never. He did not want to see his wife unless her flaws were all covered up. He didn’t want to remember her with her flaws.
When you cry out to God, hoping that he’ll remember you, what exactly are you asking him to remember? Are you hoping that he remembers everything? Are you hoping he remembers your flaws? The times you’re disappointed with God because he’s not letting you control how he answers your prayers? Do you want him to remember the times when you let this world – its troubles, its cancers, its pain – have far more control than him over your mood and emotions? The times you think about yourself more than anyone else? Do you want him to remember the things you do when you think no one’s watching? Is that what you’d like Jesus to remember?
Last week, a woman named Wanda Dench wanted her family to remember when the family Thanksgiving dinner was going to happen. So she sent out a group text message to everyone, saying, “Thanksgiving dinner is at my house on Nov. 24 at 3:00pm. Let me know if you’re coming. Hope to see you all. Of course that includes Amanda & Justin.” She received a text back that said, “Who is those..” [Who is this?] She replied, “Your grandma.” “Grandma?” a text came back, “Can I have a picture?” “Of who?” she replied. “You lol.” So Wanda sent a picture of herself, along with the message, “Yes, I’m at work.” She received a text that said, “You not my grandma,” along with a picture of a young man named Jamal Hinton. Jamal is black. Wanda is white. They’re not related. They’re not the same race or gender or family. They’re different. Despite that, Jamal sent another text. “Can I still get a plate tho?” To which Wanda replied, “Of course you can. That’s what grandma’s do … feed every one.” Wanda and Jamal will be having dinner together this Thanksgiving.
Now, they weren’t expecting that to happen. Just like I don’t think the criminal was expecting Jesus to promise him heaven. They were too different. Jesus had done nothing wrong. But the criminal knew he did. And that gives us a lot more in common with the criminal than Jesus. And Jesus isn’t unaware of it. He does remember everything, including the mistakes, including the doubts, including the sins. In fact, that’s the reason he was there that day, hanging on that cross. He was there because he did not forget that he was the one chosen to forgive them. To wash them away. No matter what it cost, no matter how much pain. He remembered that he was the one chosen by God to assure even a criminal on a cross who knew he deserved nothing good from God that there is nothing in this world that can keep God from opening the door of paradise to him.
That’s what it means that God is in control. That’s what it means that nothing is ever out of place for Jesus. It doesn’t mean that he wants you to suffer pain. It doesn’t mean that he causes your pain. It just means that he is determined to hang by your side through every bit of it and make sure that it won’t keep you from the one paradise where you’ll never have to suffer ever again.
And that kingdom, my friends, is only one that will never be destroyed and will never end. One day we will see it with our eyes. But until we do, we will always find it again at the cross, proof that the God who is in complete control is right next to you through anything.
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