Christ the King – Year C (Jeremiah 23:1-6; Luke 23:33-43)

I had no name … oh no, don’t get me wrong, of course I had a name, everyone does, but I wasn’t known, not like him, the man on the cross next to me, I was just a criminal, being punished for the things I had done, you might argue that I deserved what was happening to me, my life of crime had led me to this point, hanging on a cross, the cruellest of punishments and a torturous death, at the hands of the Romans.

I’d heard his name of course, Jesus, just about everybody had … you really would have had to be searching to find anyone that hadn’t heard about him.

And everyone, it seemed, had an opinion about him … but not me, not really, not until the day I met him for myself.

I had heard the stories of this man from Galilee, who had quite the following, he could certainly draw a crowd.

Many said, his teaching came with such authority … as if it were from God, yet others, mainly the religious leaders said, it couldn’t be from God, after all he didn’t always do things the way they thought ought to be done. They certainly didn’t like the fact he would eat with sinners, folks like me I guess, the ones who had somewhat lost their way in life. When challenged, by the leaders, he spoke in parables, stories that filtered down, like the one about the lost sheep, when I heard it, I wondered, was this story really about sheep, or about me? Was I the lost sheep?

This man Jesus seemed to have many names, with echoes of God speaking to Moses through the burning bush and declaring, I am who I am … Jesus said, I am the bread of life, the way, the truth and the life, the resurrection and the life …

Ironic really, as he hung on the cross, about to die, could he really be the bread of life, the way the truth and the life, the resurrection and the life.

He said other things to, I am the gate … I wondered where that gate would lead to … I am the light of the world, the true vine, and the one that resonated most closely with me, I am the good shepherd.

It reminded me of the prophecies of Jeremiah … Oh, yes, I may have lost my way in life, but I knew my scriptures, just as well as the next man, Jeremiah, prophesied judgement on the bad shepherds, and promised to gather the remnant and bring them back to good pasture.

‘The days are coming, Jeremiah prophesied, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called, The Lord, our righteousness.

When I heard the things that Jesus said about being the Good Shepherd, I don’t know, it really made me think … I knew my life was a mess, but surely it was far too late for me …

And then there were the miracles, these really got people talking, like turning water into wine, or walking on water … healing the sick, the blind, the lame, the deaf the mute, even raising the dead back to life …

Oh Yes, I had heard about Jesus, just like everybody else.

But I never imagined I would meet him for myself, and certainly not in the way that it happened.

I had no name, as I hung on the cross … no name

Jesus it seemed had so many. But the one that really struck me was the notice above his head .. Pilates attempt to mock the Jewish leaders of course, as well as announcing what Jesus had been accused of, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

Mine just said robber … for that is what I am

As we hung there in agony on our crosses, they continued to mock Jesus … ‘He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.’

And as they mocked, I just kept thinking about Jesus as King … he certainly wasn’t like any kings or rulers I had come across or heard about before, they more often than not resembled the types of leaders Jeremiah was prophesying about.

Jesus on the other hand, having read from the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, saying ‘The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favour.’ Declared, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

This was the Kingdom that Jesus was bringing in … could he really be the King … the king that Jeremiah spoke about, a king who would reign wisely and do what is just and right?

I had never seen such humility before as Jesus faced the insults, and the mocking … the master who came to serve, not to be served.

And such compassion as he said ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’

It was as if, even on the cross, with his arms flung wide, he still cared and loved all the people, despite their mocking and insults …

When the other robber, called out from his cross ‘Aren’t you the Christ, save yourself and us!’ I had enough of all the insults.

‘Don’t you fear God, I said, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’

And then, it was as if something opened up in me, as if, for the first time I could really see, as if light had suddenly replaced all the darkness in my life, and I knew that Jesus really is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And so, without even thinking the words just tumbled out of me ‘Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.’

And as Jesus turned to me, with such compassion and love in his eyes and said, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’ I knew that he had really seen me, seen me in all my lostness, in all my hopelessness, in all my darkness and I was now found … and the Good shepherd would take me home.

I may have had no name, but I am known and loved by the King of Kings and his Kingdom is a kingdom like no other …