April 11: Jesus and the Repentant Thief
♫ Music:
Day 42 - Tuesday, April 11
Jesus and the Repentant Thief
Scripture: Luke 23:39-43
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Poetry:
"Luke XXIII"
by Jorge Luis Borges
Gentile or Hebrew or simply a man
Whose face has been lost in time;
We shall not ransom from oblivion
The silent letters of his name.
He knew of clemency what could
Be known by a petty thief Judea had
Nailed to a cross. Of the preceding time,
We can, today, find nothing. In his final
Task of death by crucifixion,
He heard, among the taunts of the crowd,
That the one who was dying next to him
Was God, and he said, blindly:
Remember me when you come into
Your kingdom, and the inconceivable voice
That will one day be judge of every being
Promised, from the terrible cross,
Paradise. They said nothing more
Until the end, but history
Will not allow the memory to die
Of that afternoon in which these two died.
Oh friends, the innocence of this friend
Of Jesus Christ, the candor that made him
Ask for and be granted paradise
From the ignominy of punishment
Was what tossed him many times
To sin, to the blood-stained gamble.
REMEMBER ME
The powerful exchange between the criminal and Christ begins in the depths of despair. There is the obvious horror and humiliation of crucifixion - of hanging naked and bloody before mocking crowds, hopeless at the threshold of death. But, taken together, the artists accompanying this passage prompt us to wonder about another, more complex layer of this scene’s despair: the bondage and brokenness behind the lives of the criminals. Probing this tragic dimension may open our eyes to see Christ’s mercy blaze all the brighter.
Borges’ poem and the PBS video dig below the surface into the criminals’ lives – where they uncover goodness and tenderness, as well as abuse and pain. The inmates in the video describe how they were reared in unsparing families and neighborhoods where they were directly exposed, either as witnesses or subjects, to the acts of violence they learned to commit. Numerous of the “Men Who Grew Up in Prison” boldly own their actions, but it is undeniable to the viewer that the guilty are also in some sense victims.
I’ve long heard arguments about how social evil influences individual brokenness, but since I started working half a year ago as a housing case manager, I’ve observed and wrestled with this tragic dynamic much more closely. My clients, who I assist with finding and keeping housing, have all been formerly homeless. Many have criminal histories, chemical addictions, and/or mental illness. Most come from generations of dysfunctional families and unstable homes, and too many have been denied opportunities they deserved - only because of the color of their skin.
I see the palpable effects of these webs of the world’s fallenness on my individual clients, even as some make bewildering personal choices that entangle them deeper in those webs. It is so clear that their life circumstances are not simply their own fault, and it is also clear that the fallen world around them is not solely responsible. Without a binary mechanism for assigning blame, we have to reckon with the depressing fact that sin abounds in all directions (of course including our own). We can’t fix this. Truly this is cause for despair.
But despair is not the final word. Luke chronicles more vividly than other gospel writers how Christ seeks out the lost, the shameful. He gravitates towards shady places and sick people. He knows the marbled mess of freedom and poverty and social pressure and sin surrounding every soul; he comes close, makes Himself available, offers salvation right in the midst of it. It is no surprise that he is found at the climax of his earthly ministry between two criminals on a cross.
Luke records that the rulers, the soldiers, and even one of the criminals mock Jesus’ salvific claims. But the other criminal takes him at his word and makes a desperate plea. In a moment Christ’s salvation vanquishes whatever deed landed this poor soul on a cross, and whatever decades or generations of sin and dysfunction may have led to it.
In the depths of despair, in a scandalous showering of mercy – Christ saves. Alleluia.
PRAYER
Oh Lord, we have no hope to save ourselves
We are bent and broken in ways we cannot even fully understand
Grant us the childlike boldness to come to you for help
Let your mercy inspire us to show mercy to others.
Amen.
About the Men Who Grew Up in Prison Video
In this video, men at California's San Quentin prison who committed crimes when they were teenagers and are currently serving long or life sentences, give their brief but spectacular views on their crimes, the early traumas that affected their actions, and how they're changing their lives now.
About the Artwork:
Remember Me (1988)
Barbara Kruger
Photographic collage
About the Artist:
Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist. Much of her work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions. The phrases in her works often include pronouns such as "you,” "your,” "I,” "we,” and "they,” addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, and sexuality. Kruger lives and works in New York and Los Angeles. Kruger's early monochrome pre-digital works, known as “paste ups.” reveal the influence of the artist’s experience as a magazine editorial designer during her early career. Since the mid-1990s, Kruger has created large-scale immersive video and audio installations. Enveloping the viewer with the seductions of direct address, the work continues her questioning of power, control, affection and contempt. Remember Me recalls the words: “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom,” spoken by the repentant criminal crucified next to Christ.
About the Music:
“Song for Athene”
Lyrics:
Alleluia.
May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
Alleluia.
Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom.
Alleluia.
Give rest, O Lord, to your handmaid, who has fallen asleep.
Alleluia.
The Choir of Saints have found the well-spring of life and door of Paradise.
Alleluia.
Life: a shadow and a dream.
Alleluia.
Weeping at the grave creates the song: Alleluia.
Come, enjoy rewards and crowns I have prepared for you.
Alleluia.
About the Composer:
Sir John Tavener (1944 – 2013) was a British composer, known for his extensive output of religious works, including The Whale, The Protecting Veil, Song for Athene and The Lamb, a choral composition that was included in the soundtrack for Paolo Sorrentino's film The Great Beauty. Arguably his most well known work, Song for Athene was sung by the Westminster Abbey Choir at the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. Written in honor of a deceased friend, Song for Athene combines texts from scripture along with that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
About the Performers:
Westminster Abbey Choir is renowned worldwide as one of the finest choirs of its type. Comprising some 30 boys, all of whom attend the Abbey's dedicated residential Choir School, and 12 professional adult singers, known as Lay Vicars, the choir plays a central role both in the daily choral services in the Abbey and in the many royal, state and national occasions which take place at Westminster.
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/music/the-choir-of-westminster-abbey
About the Conductor:
Martin Gerard James Neary LVO (b. 1940) is an English organist and choral conductor. He was Organist and Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral from 1972 to 1988. As the Master of the Choristers and organist at Westminster Abbey, he was the musical director of the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales. He has been particularly active in the promotion of the music of Sir John Tavener, whose Song for Athene was performed by the Choir of Westminster Abbey as Princess Diana's coffin was borne out by the pallbearers..
About the Poet:
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1996) was an Argentine writer who exerted a strong influence on the direction of literary fiction through his genre-bending metafictions, essays, and poetry. Borges was a founder and principal practitioner of postmodernist literature, a movement in which literature distances itself from life situations in favor of reflection on the creative process and critical self-examination. Widely read and profoundly erudite, Borges was a polymath who could discourse on the great literature of Europe and America.