The big question in Luke is; is Jesus God’s Messiah? Is he God’s long promised king? Luke seeks to answer that question by recording Jesus actions and words but also by showing how people react to him, and that continues as Jesus goes to the cross.

I guess some people think of the cross as the death of a great prophet, or a great teacher who dies as a martyr. But as you read this account what strikes you is that Jesus does not die as a martyr but he dies as a judge. He is every bit the authoritative God man as he hands with nails through his hands and feet and a crown of thorns on his wedged into his head as when he stood in the prow of a boat and commanded creation to "Be still!".

So the big question is why does he die? We are going to spend the next 3 weeks looking at why Jesus had to die, focusing particularly on words that Jesus spoke to see the answer. Why does Jesus die?

1. to face God’s justice for us
What is justice? Justice is the punishment of wrongdoing according to the law. In this scene at the cross we see both justice and injustice. (40) "We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." The second criminal sees that justice is being done, they have committed crimes, broken the law and they are receiving the due penalty for those actions.

But there is more to it than just that, do you notice what he says just before, "Don’t you fear God!" Do you see what he is saying? Their death on a cross is not just Rome’s punishment but it is God’s punishment. To hang on a cross was a sign of being accursed and cut off from God, it was a display of God’s judgement upon the individual.

It’s not popular today to think about God as a God who punishes. But actually the Bible tells us that God is just and holy and cannot remain God without punishing sin.

It’s very popular today to talk about God being a God of love and to ignore the idea of justice or punishment. But actually God cannot be a God of love without being just. How should a God who loves his people react to their oppression? How should a God who has compassion on his people react to their murder? How should a God who cares for the fatherless, widow and alien react to their mistreatment and isolation?

A loving and compassionate God would be angry wouldn’t he? He would want to see justice done wouldn’t he? His love would provoke him to righteous anger. If it didn’t he would not be a God who loves he would be a God who does not love, but who feels nothing.

I think actually we know that a loving God has to punish the hurt we cause to those he loves, its just that we don’t like it because it puts us in the dock.

You see that is what this criminal acknowledges as he confesses his guilt, I deserve God’s judgement he is saying. And it is not trivial misdemeanours that you were hung for, this is not the 1st century equivalent of an ASBO. Crucifixion was so bad polite society would not talk of it, it was for the scum of the earth, the worst of the worst.

God’s love means that he has to judge, it is his love for us that provokes his anger, he is grieved by all the pain and suffering he sees, by our rejection of him as ruler, by our insistence on living life by our own warped definitions of right and wrong and the catalogue of broken lives and people that leaves in our wake. Our rejection of him is at the root of all of it, ever since Adam and Eve rejected God in the Garden rebellion has been in our DNA worked out in our actions. And God is rightly going to judge it.

There is justice at the cross. But there is also injustice. Do you notice what the criminal says about Jesus? "But this man has done nothing wrong." Do you see the contrast? We are getting what we deserve because of our actions, our rebellion lived out. But not Jesus, and Luke has been at pains to emphasis that point this is the sixth time that Jesus has been declared innocent since his arrest and yet he hangs there.

In fact throughout the gospels Jesus is innocent, he faces temptation and does the Father’s will, even in the Garden when he is in agony over what he has to do, he prays not my will. He is the perfect Son in whom God delights as God has said at his baptism and at the transfiguration and yet still he hangs there.

Why? Because it is the only way God can be just and we can live. It was God’s plan, Isaiah 53:12

"he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors."

Jesus willingly faces judgement in the place of the guilty because that is the only way to deal with sin. This is where God’s love and his justice meet.

2. to save those who trust him
One of the other things that Luke shows us is that there are only two possible reactions to the cross. They are embodied in the two criminals who hang on either side of Jesus, and actually we either stand with one or the other.

One mocks and rejects Jesus just as the rulers did before him, but the other accepts who Jesus is and cries out for mercy, and I just want to look at what he says.

a. He recognises he deserves judgement We have touched on this already, he recognises he deserves God’s justice for the way he has lived. Now we may say that’s obvious after all he is a criminal, but I’m not.

Turn to the person next to you, here are some images I want you to answer the question are these people good or bad and why?

Where woudl you put yourself? Sometimes we do goodness by comparison don’t we? That’s how we ranked those images. And we fool ourselves into thinking God does the same. So provided I’m better than the criminal that’s ok. But actually the problem is we compare ourselves to the wrong cross. God’s standard is absolute and it is Jesus, it is his perfect Son.

b. he cries out to a personal saviour Amidst all the mocking, scorn and ridicule the criminals cry to Jesus stands out "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Do you see what his trust is in? It is in a personal saviour. I think he is the only person to call him Jesus whilst he hangs on the cross. It is a cry for salvation. He recognises who Jesus is - God’s Messiah, God’s long promised ruler come to establish God’s kingdom and he cries out for him to be his personal saviour.

Have you recognised that? Recognised that we fall below the standard and are therefore under God’s judgement? That I need to not just know who Jesus is but trust in him personally?

It is all by grace, there are no works, nothing, we can contribute, it is salvation by faith.

3. to give us his standing and future
I was at the funeral of a friend of mine this week. He was a lorry driver from Liverpool Docks who after 23 years of the Church praying for him became a Christian 10 years ago. 10 months ago he was told that he had terminal cancer, 14 days ago God took him home. I never visited Joe in the hospice but at his funeral a phrase of his was used. When people used to visit him and say how sorry they were to hear the news that he only had so long to live he would say this to them. Don’t be sorry I’m in a win, win situation - he would go on to explain that if God allowed him to live then he won, but if he died he would get to be with his Saviour.

It is the same here for this criminal after putting his faith in Jesus. Death is not the end, death is just the door through which he passes as he walks from life to life. "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."

Because here is the great transfer. The criminal deserves judgement, Jesus deserves glory. The criminal can do nothing to change that, he has no life to live, there are no good works for him to do, all that is in his future is death. He is utterly unable to do anything to contribute to his salvation and yet Jesus says to him "today you will be with me in paradise." Because Jesus will take his judgement and he will be credited with Jesus perfect sonship and be taken to paradise - the dwelling of the righteous.

No-one comes any other way, there is no other way to escape God’s justice, to be given mercy and grace.

This morning you will find yourself on one side of the cross or the other, the question is which side? I guess some of us may still be thinking ‘Yes, but if I try hard enough...’. This passage doesn’t allow any room for that thinking, there is nothing we can contribute to our salvation, it is all of grace.

Who do I say Jesus is? Is he my personal saviour who dies in my place for my rebellion to assure me of his standing before a loving Father?

1. What is justice? What does it mean for God to be just?
2. What does the way I live reveal about what I am trusting in to save me?
3. Which cross do I stand by? Am I with the one who mocked Jesus? Or with the one who cried "Jesus, remember me!"? How must this affect my life?

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