Before

This sermon was presented at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on November 25, 2007, Christ the King Sunday.

Jeremiah 23:1-6
Luke 1:68-79
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Today Show is doing a series on Presidential candidates and their roots called “Candidate Cribs.” This isn’t a political series; it’s a feature series about what influenced the candidates when they were young. Thanksgiving Day was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s day. One of the things the story talked about was his love of rock music and especially the guitar. The story begins in the Christmas of 1966 with his parents making a tremendous sacrifice and ordering a guitar, amplifier, and the whole rig from the JC Penny catalog. Young Mike wanted to be in a band. The story mentions the work ethic involved in playing, the hours of practice, the meticulous preparation needed to prepare for one great performance. As the story showed tape of the Governor playing bass with his band “The Capital Offense,” the story talks about people he has played with in the past including Willie Nelson and Grand Funk Railroad.

The person Governor Huckabee was most excited about meeting was Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who told the Governor about getting busted in Arkansas in 1975. Huckabee told NBC News, “I said, ‘Well yeah Keith, in fact I don’t know if you know this, but I am the one guy in the world that can do something that no body else can do, I can pardon you from that misdemeanor from back in 1975.’” So now, imagine Mike Huckabee doing an imitation of Keith Richards reply, “Oh man, could you do that? Could you really do that? That would be so great if you did that. That would be really cool if you did that.” So near the end of Huckabee’s administration, he issued a full and absolute pardon to Keith Richards for his misdemeanor traffic fine.

This pardon was met with some cynicism. When one reporter asked if since he pardoned Keith Richards would he pardon anybody, Huckabee replied, “Not unless they can play guitar as well as he can.”[1]

Huckabee was for a moment in time Governor of Arkansas. The power vested in the office of the Governor by the Arkansas constitution is the source of his power to pardon, to forgive, to absolve.

Jesus cries from the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Jesus asks his Father to issue a pardon by virtue of who he is, the Son of Man who is also the Son of God. Jesus is the anointed, the Christ, that’s who he is and who he has always been. Who he is and what he does is the source of his power.

Mike Huckabee’s ability to grant absolution was based on a relationship with a legal document and the voters of Arkansas. Jesus’ ability to ask for absolution is based on a relationship with God the Father Almighty.

Pardon, forgive, absolve, another way to look at these words is to free someone of their misdeeds, whether a traffic violation or the sin of humanity. But after the death and resurrection of Jesus, in the writings of New Testament, there is a special aspect to forgiveness that became obvious to readers, “the community [realized] that it has to receive from God the forgiveness which is offered through the saving act which has taken place in Jesus Christ.”[2]

Forgiveness of sins is available to us through the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

But there is an interesting piece of Jesus’ pardon that far surpasses that of the Governor. The Governor can only absolve crimes committed. Huckabee’s power is not a “get out of jail free” card to be presented before arrest. Huckabee’s power could only be exercised on behalf of someone who had been indicted. Jesus extends his forgiveness to humanity before the sin is committed.

The forgiveness of Christ precedes the sins of the world; before, not after. Jesus says “Forgive them for what they are doing,” not “for what they have done.” Yes, I imagine Jesus is asking for forgiveness for all humanity for all of the sins committed before that moment, but by saying “are doing” instead of “has done,” he is also asking for forgiveness for what follows.

Jesus does not wait to see the scope of the sin humanity is capable of before asking for our forgiveness, he knows and has known since the beginning. Yet, in this movement of grace, Christ gives himself for our forgiveness before our transgression is committed.

“At the cross, before the people gawk, before the rulers scoff, before the soldiers mock, before a criminal taunts, before the people tempt Jesus to save himself, he says, ‘Father forgive them.’”[3]

So during the chaos of the crucifixion, in the midst of all of the shouting and taunting, one of the criminals looks at the other and says, “Don’t you fear God? We’ve all received the same death sentence; but we’re getting what we deserve, he has done nothing wrong.”

With this, the criminal then acknowledges the sovereignty of Jesus over creation and the kingdom that was not created when he begs, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Recognizing Christ as King the criminal shows that he knows his death sentence is from the rulers of this world, but his life, his salvation rests in the King of all creation. Jesus tells him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The Governor’s pardon releases the accused from the confines of prison and allows them the opportunity to live in the world without the burden of continuing to bear the cross of their crime.

Jesus does more. Through the pardon of the Lord, we are absolved of the sins of this world and the confines of this life and we are given the opportunity to live in the Kingdom of Heaven without bearing the cross of our sins.

Christ bears that cross for us. He bears it for all creation and for us each individually.

Christ is the sovereign, the ruler. He bows before no one and as co-equal and co-eternal; God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit reigns in love supreme over it all.

Still, Jesus as the Son of Man chooses to empty himself of all heavenly trappings, coming to earth, born in a barn stall, as the son of a carpenter and a young maiden. He comes with nothing; he comes as a baby, and on the tree of woe is called King by the Roman prelate and a criminal.

Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday. Christ is King of a kingdom that is not of this world, yet is able to be found in this world. It is a kingdom that exists now on earth, but as we know all too well is not fully here, not yet. It is a kingdom of paradise. It is a kingdom where the king bears the sin of the subjects.

In the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of all that was created and all that existed long before creation, we are welcomed as citizens, not mere residents but citizens, by the power and the work of the King himself. Such grace and peace comes to us before we could ever know our sin. Like the crowd at the crucifixion, Jesus forgives us before we can even begin to insult him.

We have been forgiven. We have been welcomed. Like the criminal, we will be in paradise with the one who is paradise in the flesh and in the spirit. The lamb is on the throne, the Christ is on the cross. Let us sing, sing aloud that we know our King and show the world who the sovereign is of this life and of life eternal.

[1] “Candidate Cribs,” Today Show podcast, November 22, 2007, segment 5, viewed from MSNBC.COM on November 24, 2007.
[2] Kittel, Kittel, Gerhard, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. I, Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans, 1965,
page 511
[3] Handbook for the Revised Common Lectionary. Bower, Peter C., Editor. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996, page 265.