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Our new testament lesson this morning is from the gospel of luke. Chapter 23 Beginning with the 26th verse . Listen, for the word of God. As they led him away, they seized a man Simon

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of Cyrene who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were

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beating their breasts and wailing for him, but Jesus turned to them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves , and for your Children, for the days are

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surely coming. When they will say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains fall on us and the hills

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cover us, for if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others, also, who were criminals , were led away to be put to death with

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him when they came to the place that is called the skull. They crucified, jesus there with the criminals, one on his right And one on his left. Then jesus said, Father forgive them for

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they do not know what they are doing and they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by watching, but the leaders scoffed at him saying he saved others, let him save himself.

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If he is the messiah of God has chosen one . The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the jews, save yourself. There

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was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the juice. One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, are you not the messiah? Save yourself and us?

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But the other rebuked him, saying, do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly for. We are getting what we deserve for

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our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong then he said, jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom? He replied truly, I tell you today you will be with me in paradise

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. The word of the Lord. Mhm. In the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, one God mother of us all. On July 14 of this year, john

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Connor was executed by lethal injection in a Georgia state prison. On that summer evening Connor became the 15th person to be executed in the United States in 2016 . His crime was a brutal one. He murdered

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his friend Jt White in a drunken rage after a long night of partying because White had said some uncouth words about Connor's girlfriend At the time. Connor was 25 years old. By the time he was killed

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in state prison, Conor was 60. White's murder gained significant press in 1982. But by the time of Kors execution there were not many news articles about it By 2016. U.C. most people in Georgia

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had already forgotten Connors and whites names. History does not remember the name of the man crucified next to jesus, the gospel of luke recalls him quite starkly as a criminal, anonymous despised fit for the ultimate

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punishment, but Jesus remembers him now. There is very little to sugarcoat this scene in a warning. This is not the fluffiest sermon that I have ever given in this space. The setting is in a

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place called the skull and it has the odor of death about it. Those who crucified, Jesus are casting lots for his clothing. People watch leaders scoff and soldiers mock Jesus hangs to die between despised criminals

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and one of them is despising him. This is how Jesus spends his last moments alive. His last conversation is not with his followers, it's not with authorities, it's not even with his accusers, it's

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with a criminal who is condemned like he is. But we do not remember this man's name. Jesus doesn't begin this conversation. It begins with the criminals request or is it a plea jesus remember me when

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you come into your kingdom? I think it's significant that the criminal begins the conversation. Not with a question he doesn't ask Jesus, would you remember me ? But with something akin to a command. We

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are of course used to jesus uttering commands, casting out demons commanding the dead to rise in the gospel of john exhorting his followers. But here in his last breaths Jesus is not the one issuing commands abandoned

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by his disciples. On Golgotha, Jesus is being exhorted by one of the most scandalous characters in the entire new testament. Jesus remember me, remember my name, Remember my story. Remember my words to

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you. What on earth does this passage say about jesus, and what does it say about those of us who seek to follow jesus? Well, one obvious implication of this story is that Jesus was regarded

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and condemned as a criminal and not just a common criminal, but a notorious one. The penalty of crucifixion, as you probably know, was not meant for garden variety thieves. It was Rome's brutal instrument

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to deal with the most dangerous enemies of the state . Jesus is nailed to his cross between these two criminals, not in contrast to them, but to show how he is like them. In the eyes

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of the roman state, you see there was no difference among these three men. All three are guilty . All three are worthy of a humiliating death and eventual anonymity. Jesus, the one whom we confess

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today as Lord was regarded by the government has nothing more than a criminal. And if we are to continue to make confession of him today, we have to know that this is a savior who hangs in

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solidarity with all who are condemned, not only those who are unjustly condemned, not only the innocent, but with all who are condemned with everyone that you and I regard as threats. This jesus, who

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hangs on a cross between notorious criminals, listens and responds, and he doesn't ask first whether or not his companion on Golgotha is innocent, Jesus remember me , the criminal pleads, and Jesus responds not simply

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with yes, I will remember you. He responds with a promise. Today, you will be with me in paradise. Jesus, who is here vulnerable and on the verge of death is moved by another's

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vulnerability. Here in this grim our jesus responds to someone who seeks him. His response to this condemned man reminds us that there is no place where jesus absence, there is nothing that we can experience no

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place where we can go where Jesus cannot accompany us , whether in life or in death, Jesus promised to this man on the cross continues today to anyone who would follow him a promise that begins today,

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Jesus words to this man are not tomorrow, you will be with me in paradise, not sometime in the future, but right here right now. Today , you will be with me in paradise. One

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of the most enduring critiques of christian faith, of course, is that it encourages believers to accept the status quo in the name of a great payoff in the sweet. By and by. That criticism is

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almost as old as christian faith itself. And sometimes if we look closely at the words that we say , we can also distort our faith to those ends , when we say things like this, God will

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only permit as much suffering as we can endure. The righteous will eventually receive their grace. But if we listen to those kinds of words long enough, we know that they ultimately ring hollow, don't they

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? Often. The reward does not come. Often , suffering proves more, then we can endure the paradise that jesus promises. This man on the cross does not begin. Tomorrow begins today. It is

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not a reward. It's the assurance that whatever we experience, we are never far from God, that our lives matter to God, and our lives are taken into the very heart of God. This new

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life begins today and it empowers all of us who would follow jesus to speak words of life in a culture that often foster's death. Jesus, words to this dying man reveal much about himself, but I

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think they also reveal much about the character of the christian life. Jesus remembers this man and makes a promise to him. Do we remember others like him , prisoners are easy to forget. Most of us

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have little contact with those who are incarcerated and often the plight of prisoners and other nations gets greater attention than those in the United States. I imagine that if most of us were to name a prison state

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, a nation that locks away inmates and throws away the key. Many of us might name china or Russia or Iran, but the nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world is none of these nations

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. The United States far outpaces them. In fact , we have the second highest incarceration rate in the world. Only one country on Earth. The tiny island nation of Seychelles, locks up a greater percentage

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of its population than we do. And if we look closer state by state, the incarceration rate in the US looks even grimmer. The state of Louisiana is the highest of any place in the world,

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and texas is not far behind. We are living in the area of mass lockups. Austin Seminary Zone , Professor of christian ethics, Asante Todd has written quite powerfully of this genuine national crisis and how it

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disproportionately affects young black men. Read his article in insights. It's easily available on the seminary website. Do that today. If we have forgotten prisoners, it is because we have chosen to close our eyes

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to those whose lives are actually quite near to us . What happens to a nation such as ours that locks up 2.5 million people, how many lives are cut off from their fullness? How many dreams die

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? Young Jesus didn't say much about many of the issues that royal the church today, but he did mention prisoners frequently. And in his last conversation in luke on earth, as recorded in luke, was

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with a prisoner in other places in the gospels, Jesus even suggests that time spent with prisoners. His time spent with him. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took

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care of me. I was in prison and you visited me, Jesus urges his followers to visit prisons . Yet I would venture that no command of Jesus today is more routinely ignored, Both by Liberals and

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Conservatives as this one rare is the church that has a prison visitation program. Rarer still are the parishioners who actually step inside prisons and I include myself in that. But the late theologian Bill Plecker suggests that

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such visits might begin to address our incarceration crisis. He writes. If christians were to start working with prisoners in significant numbers, it might be the beginning of radical changes in our criminal justice system. As

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in so many other things change. Begins with relationship , Jesus encounters a man who's dying gasp is for relationship to remember him. A gasp that leads to a promise. Today you will be with me in

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paradise, Jesus remembered this man. Do we who follow Jesus remember those who are imprisoned? Remembering begins now. It begins by recalling the story of this man who died with Jesus on Golgotha. It is

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carried forward by remembering John Connor, JT White and those whose lives that Connor destroyed on that terrible night in 1982. It remembers the fragility of human life and how one person can cut short the lives of

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others. When we remember, we keep their names alive, we recognize that in jesus christ no life is forgotten, All lives are remembered, All lives are claimed, blessed and cherished by God and ultimately

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carried into the heart of God. Today you will be with me in paradise. The new life that Jesus promised to this man begins for us today, when we remember thanks be to God, our men