Death Bed Conversations

First Lesson: Jeremiah 23: 1-6
Responsive Reading: Psalm 46
Second Lesson: Colossians 1: 10-20
​Gospel Lesson: Luke 23: 33-43

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Grace and Peace from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
​
Last Sunday, I was in Minneapolis watching the Vikings play the Denver Broncos.  The game starts, and the first half is a disaster for the home team.  The Vikings leave the field behind 20-0 to a loud chorus of boos from nearly everyone gathered.  I check Facebook at halftime, a friend of mine posts how the Vikings need to fire the coach.  I was sitting in my seat, regretting taking a Sunday off. The game appeared to be an inevitable defeat for the Vikings; only the game was not over.

The second half of the game would see everything change for the Minnesota Vikings: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, and finally victory.  Ninety-nine straight times, teams such as the Vikings losing by twenty points at halftime had lost [1]. The 100th time was going to be different.  Last Sunday’s game reminds us how too often we’re convinced that we know the ending of God’s script only to be proven wrong in the end. 

The failure of human instinct brings me to a well-known story.  Nelson Mandela was born to a prominent South African tribal family in 1918[2].  Mandela eventually becomes a lawyer.  Despite Mandela’s success, his homeland’s white-majority government adopted a system of persecution known as “apartheid.” against Native Africans like Nelson Mandela.  Mandela becomes an outspoken leader of resistance.  Mandela is arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison all sorts of terrible things happened to Nelson Mandela: his mother died and he couldn’t attend the funeral, his son got in a car wreck, and he was unable to visit[3] .  Mandela’s main interaction with the outside world was suffering abuse at the hands of the prison guards.

Nelson Mandela’s life appeared to be over.  Soon even carrying pictures of Mandela became a crime in South Africa[4].  It seemed that Nelson Mandela would never see the light of day again like thousands of political prisoners before him. 

Despite all this, Nelson Mandela clung to a belief that the past would not define the future[5]. Eventually, a new South African President F.W. Declerk sets out to reform the country with one of his first acts being releasing Nelson Mandela  after twenty-seven years.  Three years after being released from prison, Nelson Mandela was awarded a Noble Peace Prize. Four years later, Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa,  helping to heal a long-broken nation[6].  

Yet as dramatic as Nelson Mandela’s life turned around, even going to one’s grave doesn’t guarantee anything. 

Once upon a time, there was a struggling artist named Vince[7].  Vince struggled in life in every way imaginable.  As a teen, he fell in love with a young lady, she married someone else.  Vince soon gets a job for an art dealer, ends up getting fired for his lack of social skills[8].  Vince would spend his adult life continually moving around, feeling like he never fit in anywhere or with anyone.  He would seemingly lose jobs and love at every potential opportunity.  His mental health was so tortured that he eventually ends up institutionalized.  Vince would lose his life to suicide at the age of 37.  His only accomplishment of any note was selling some artwork to little fanfare.  When Vince died people probably mocked him with every nasty name in the books: bum, loser, deadbeat[9]. 

Shortly after his death, Vince’s artwork began to be noticed.  Fifteen years after his death, he was considered a superstar within the world of art.  One hundred years after his death, one of his portraits sold for 82.5 million dollars[10].  Vincent Van Gogh went to his own grave, seemingly to be forgotten like millions of others before him.  It was in Vincent Van Gogh’s death that his place in this world would forever be altered. 

My beloved Minnesota Vikings, Nelson Mandela, and Vincent Van Gogh lead us into our Gospel lesson for Today, which comes to us from the 23rd Chapter of Luke’s Gospel[11]. 

The tale our Gospel lesson tells is the tale of the most unlikely of kings,  a King that seemed to have less hope than Nelson Mandela,   A King who, like Vincent Van Gogh would seemingly be forgotten after his death.    A King who was born in a stable among animals, who grew up in the smallest of towns, little old Nazareth in the middle of nowhere[12].  Whereas most kings, spend their lives comfortably living in castles[13].  This King had now been sentenced to death by the seemingly unbeatable Roman Empire. 

What’s happening to this so-called King within our lesson[14]?
V.35: “but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself,”
V.36: “soldiers also mocked him.”
V.38: The King was considered a joke and a fool by onlookers as a sign was hung next to him declaring: "This is the King of the Jews."

Now the King’s last moments on Earth would be spent weak from beatings, clothes stripped from his body, listening to a debate between two ordinary criminals.  There could be no more humiliating end for a King then listening to a debate between a Traitor and a Thief[15].

The Traitor joins in the mocking of the King by declaring. “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us![16]”
Nothing good could seem to come out of this situation for the King: the odds were way longer than 99 losses in a row. Whereas the South Africans had feared Nelson Mandela’s popularity, this King had been abandoned by even his closest of followers[17].  Unlike Vincent Van Gogh, there were no prized possessions that could make his descendants rich in this world after this King’s death. 

What makes this King left to die worthy of our praise?  Consider the Thief who hung alongside him. I picture a petty thief who lived a long life of crime.  The type of guy in our day who passed bad checks, stole property standing in the open yards, and was on a first name basis with local police officers.  Upon hearing the Traitor’s mockery of this King.  The Thief dares to speak up. 

“Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation[18]?” Said the Theif to the Traitor.  “For we are receiving the due reward of our deeds[19].”

The Thief knew his sins; he knew they were numerous; he knew the Traitor hanging alongside him was just as guilty. He knew the King sentenced to death alongside them was different.  And “this man has done nothing wrong[20]., the Theif would say.

The Thief was at life’s most desperate place, the death penalty with no possibility of pardon, so the Thief turned into the direction of the King. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[21]”

How did the King respond to the Thief? Many kings would have sentenced this Thief to death.  This King was different, giving the most powerful of promises to this common thief.  “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.[22]”

The last man who cries out to the King for grace and mercy would be the scripture's first Death Row conversion. 

How might the presence of this King work in lives such as ours?

Let me close with one final story.  The year was 1974. Billy Neal Moore was a 22-year-old army specialist who after separating from his wife  was struggling to pay the bills[23].  He went around trying to find charity, but no one could help.  Billy then heard about a rich man living in the area.  One night, Billy starting drinking and smoking marijuana, when he decided to rob the man. The robbery went bad, and the man pulled a shotgun on Billy, Billy fired back killing the man.  He ran off with $5000.  Billy soon became overwhelmed with guilt over his sin[24].  Billy quickly confessed but was still going to be sentenced to die just like the Traitor, the Theif, and the King within our lesson.

Billy’s execution date is set.  Shortly before his death, a preacher comes to visit.  The preacher says that while a Judge could sentence Billy to death, a King could give Billy eternal life.  Billy and the Preacher began to pray. Billy would be baptized the next day[25]. 

Billy then, like Nelson Mandela, received life-changing news.  His lawyer had forgotten to tell him that all death penalty cases have the right to appeal.  Billy now had extra time on Earth[26].    

So, Billy after encountering the King, began to take classes to become an ordained minister to reach his fellow prisoners.  Billy’s death sentenced was postponed thirteen times over sixteen years until he was finally scheduled to die, yet again [27]. 

A last-minute verdict came down though: Billy’s sentence was reduced to life in prison. Why was Billy saved, because his victim’s family argued in his defense.  They, too, had previously encountered a different kind of King in their lives[28].  

Billy’s new ministry would lead to the outside traveling the whole world (churches, colleges,  and other prisons) preaching the Gospel of the King, who had forever changed his life[29].  Billy’s life is now ruled by a different kind of King, A King who doesn’t rule by power, but by grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  A King who brought victory out of inevitable defeat.  A King who embraces those like Nelson Mandela at the very lowest moments of their life.  A King who like Vincent Van Gogh doesn’t forget about us at our graves. A King who will give prisoners like Billy Neal Moore, eternal life out of what seems to be certain death.   This is the story of our King Jesus Christ.  Amen
 
 
  


[1] This tidbit was shared in numerous post-game news stories. 
[2] “Nelson Mandela.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. 20.Nov.2019. Web. Nov.21.2019.
[3] Hamlin, Rick. “How Nelson Mandela Found Hope.” Guideposts. 13.July.2018. Web. Nov.21.2019. 
[4] Nelson Mandela.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation
[5] Hamlin, Rick. “How Nelson Mandela Found Hope.” Guideposts.
[6] Nelson Mandela.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation.
[7] Ruyssenaars, Bas. “Vincent Van Gogh: A Brillant Failure.” Insistute of Brillant Failures. Web. Nov.21.2019.
[8] Nix, Elizabeth. “7 Things You May Not Know About Vincent Van Gogh.” History Channel. 8.July.2015. Updated. August.22.2018. Web. Nov.21.2019.
[9] This example is given to compare to the mockery that Jesus faces within our Gospel lesson for Today.
[10] Ruyssenaars, Bas. “Vincent Van Gogh: A Brillant Failure.” Insistute of Brillant Failures.
[11] Luke 23:33-43
[12] McLarty, Phillip. “Humble Savior, Exalted Lord.” Sermon Writer. 2013. Web. Nov.21.2019.
[13] Gerhardy, Vince. “Safe at the End.” Sermon Writer. 2001. Web. Nov.21.2019.
[14] Powery, Emerson. “Commentary on Luke 23:33-43.” Working Preacher. Luther Seminary. 24.Nov.2019. Web. Nov.21.2019. 
[15] Powery, Emerson. “Commentary on Luke 23:33-43.” Working Preacher.
[16] Luke 23:39.
[17] Matthew 26:56, Mark 14:50.
[18] Luke 23:40
[19] Luke 23:41
[20] Luke 23:41
[21] Luke 23:42
[22] Luke 23:43. 
[23] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations. 25. Feb.2016. Web. Nov.21.2019.  Stier’s article is based on Shelia M. Poole’s March 30th, 2013 news story in the Atlanta-Journal Consistution with additional notes from the Christian Broadcast Network website.
[24] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.
[25] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.
[26] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.
[27] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.
[28] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.
[29] Stier, Leon. “Death Row Conversion.” Email Mediatations.