“A LIFE TO DIE FOR”

LUKE 23:44-56

44  It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,

45  while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

46  Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last.

47  When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent."

48  And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts.

49  But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

50  Now there was a good and righteous man named Joseph, who, though a member of the council,

51  had not agreed to their plan and action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea, and he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God.

52  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

53  Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no one had ever been laid.

54  It was the day of Preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.

55  The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

56  Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

People deal with death in many different ways. Even so most of us can probably understand how a little girl felt one day when she asked her mother a question. It happened while they were on their way to the playground. While they were walking they passed a cemetery where the little girl saw a man push a rod into the ground. Her curiosity was heightened even further when she saw the man hang a wreath on the rod.  “Why did that man put a wreath next to that grave?” the little girl asked.  “Because,” the mother said, “he wants to remember the person who died.”  The little girl thought about it for a moment and then asked, “Will someone do that for me when I die?”  The mother smiled. “I’m sure they will,” she said reassuringly. Instead of being comforted by her mother’s answer though the little girl looked at her with a scowl on her face. When the mother asked her what was wrong, the little girl replied, “But it won’t be fair. All I’ll see is the stick.”

Jesus wasn’t afraid of death. That’s obvious when you look at the last thing that he said while he was on the Cross. After hours of incredible agony Jesus bowed his head and calmly said, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”  Those words actually come from one of the psalms. It comes from a psalm that every Jewish mother taught her children to say just before they went to sleep. It was the ancient version of the prayer that mothers teach their children today. “Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake.  I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

Jesus wasn’t afraid of death. All people around him were weeping and wailing, but not him. Instead of letting loose with an avalanche of tears and fear, Jesus calmly let go and died peacefully in his Father’s arms. Now I don’t know about you, but when my time comes, that’s the way I want to go. I want to peacefully let go knowing that the God who put me here is going to be waiting on the other side to welcome me home.  How about you?

If that’s what you want then it might be a good idea to take another look at what Jesus said just before he died. Jesus said, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” Those words tell you that Jesus was at peace when he died because he knew that he was going to a better place. That wasn’t the only reason why he at peace when he died though.  Jesus also was at peace when he died because of something else he said just before he died. John tells us in his gospel that just before Jesus died he also said, “It is finished.” (19:30) Now don’t take those words the wrong way.  When Jesus said that, he wasn’t throwing in the towel and admitting defeat. It was his way of proclaiming victory. He was announcing to the whole world that while he was here he did what God wanted him to do. That’s a big part of the reason why Jesus was at peace when he died.

The same thing is true for you and me. Simply put how you die tomorrow is determined in part by how you live your life today. That’s why the evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “If you live wrong; you can’t die right.”  Jesus was at peace when he died because while he was here he did what God wanted him to do.

That’s why some people are afraid of death. They’re afraid because they’re out of sync with God and what God wants them to do with their lives. They’ve forgotten who they are, why they’re here and who put them here. They suffer from what I like to call spiritual amnesia. They’re a little like the absent-minded professor who was so absorbed in his work that he often forgot the day to day things that he really needed to remember.  That’s why his wife sat him down one morning for an important conversation. “Now Henry,” she said. “I want you to remember that we’re moving today.  So here’s a note. I want you to put it in your pocket so you don’t forget.”  Despite the conversation and the note the absent-minded professor showed up later that day and was puzzled when he found the house completely empty. After wandering around the house a while he went out and sat down on the curb. A few minutes later a six-year-old boy walked up to him. “Little boy,” the absent-minder professor said. “Do you know the people who used to live here?”  “I sure do,” he replied.  “That’s why I’m here dad. Mom told me you’d forget.”

Spiritual amnesia hits when you forget who you are, why you’re here and who put you here. So, instead of letting yourself be used by God you let yourself be used in ways that lead you away from God. For example, you let yourself be used by Madison Avenue which tells you that the way to be happy is to buy, buy, buy and then buy some more.  That message, by the way, starts early on in life. It’s the reason why my aunt’s three-year-old grand-daughter surprised them last year just before Christmas. It happened when they asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she announced that what she really wanted was for Santa to bring her an ATM machine.

There are lots of ways that you can end up being used without realizing it.  Politicians use people all the time. They do that by twisting the truth to benefit their self-serving agendas. Businesses also use people. They do that by pushing them to work harder and harder. Then they take away their pensions and their health insurance and tell them that it’s all part of the American Dream. Sometimes you get used by the peer pressure that tells you what you have to do and what you have to believe if you want to fit in and be accepted. Even religious leaders have been known to use people from time to time.  They do that by feeding people distorted ideas of what Jesus is all about.  Take the people who attend the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. They’re the people who have been showing up a funerals for soldiers killed in Iraq. They don’t show up though to offer support to the grieving families. They show up to protest. They do that by carrying signs that suggest that the deaths of these young men and women is God’s way of punishing us for being tolerant of gays and lesbians.

People let themselves get used all the time and the end result is a lot of spiritual amnesia. You forget who you really are, why you’re here and who put you here.  Jesus let himself be used by God and that’s why he was at peace when the time came for him to die.

Will Willimon, the chaplain at Duke University, was reminded of that simple truth one evening when he went to speak at a fraternity.  Now Willimon knew that the only reason he was there was because the dean required each fraternity to have a certain number of educational and cultural programs each year. It was his way of making sure they had some degree of respectability. So, Willimon’s expectations weren’t very high as he walked up the path to the front door. His expectations went down even more when an eight or nine year old boy answered the door. Willimon thought, surely the university had rules about a child being in a frat house at that time of night.  He didn’t ask any questions though as the boy led him into the room where the members of the fraternity were waiting.  Willimon said that he hammered them for about an hour on the moral failures of their generation. While he was speaking he watched the boy fall asleep with his head on the shoulder of one of the fraternity brothers. When he was finished speaking there were no questions. So, one of the fraternity brothers walked him back to the front door. As they stood there Willimon heard someone say to the boy, “You go on and get ready for bed.  I’ll be in to tuck you in and read you a story.” Now Willimon was really perplexed. So, he asked the fraternity brother about the boy.  “Oh,” the fraternity brother said. “That’s Darrell. The fraternity is part of the Durham Big Brother program. We met Darrell that way. His mom’s on crack and having a tough time. Sometimes it gets so bad that she can’t care for him. So, we told Darrell to call us up when he needs us. We go over, pick him up, and he stays with us until it’s okay to go home. We take him to school, buy him his clothes, books, and stuff.”  Willimon was a little embarrassed. “That’s amazing,” he said. “I take back all that I said about you people being bad and irresponsible.”  The fraternity brother took another puff on his cigarette and then said, “I’ll tell you what’s amazing.  What’s amazing is that God would pick a guy like me to do something this good for somebody else.”

How you live your life today will go a long way in determining how you die tomorrow. You can let yourself be used in a way that leads to a bad case of spiritual amnesia.  Or you can let yourself be used by God. Let yourself be used by God and when the time comes you’ll be able to look back and say, “It is finished.” You’ll also be able to look ahead and peacefully say, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

April 2, 2006