Our text for today is from St Paul’s letter to the Christians in
Galatia, in which he wrote: “But when the fullness of the time came,
God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so
that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive
the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore
you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an
heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)
He wrote similarly to the Christians in Rome: “For all who
are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For
you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but
you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out,
“Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we
are children of God.” (Romans 8:14-16)
And so, what does this all have to do with you and me in 2026 – and with
all others who live for Jesus as their Lord? And that is the limitation: Those
who live for Jesus as their Lord.
The texts do not apply to any who reject Jesus’ lordship, or to those
who give only lip service to Him, Only
those who obey Christ have the right to call God, ‘Father;’ Or ‘Daddy.’
As Scripture tells us: “He was in the world, and the world was
made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own,
and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to
those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:10-13)
Several years ago, Nancy and I were vacationing in Orlando, Florida. During
my morning time with the Lord in our hotel suite, I heard a young child outside
our door call anxiously to her father, “Daddy, wait for me. Please.”
I assumed her father stopped, and I heard a muffled response, “Come on,
we need to go.” A moment later, small feet pattered past the door and down the
hall. But her plea interrupted my prayer time, and I replayed her plaintive cry
in my mind, “Daddy, wait for me, please.”
Although I couldn’t see him on the other side of my door, I sensed he
was in a hurry to get wherever it was they needed to get to.
“Come on,” he said. “We need to go.”
Did he sound a little impatient? I can’t know for sure. As I said, his
voice sounded muffled. But I suddenly remembered
myself several decades earlier in similar situations.
Countless times, I’m sure, our children called out to me as I raced to
get wherever it was I needed to get to. “Daddy, wait for me, please.” And I
know I must have called behind me – probably – and I am sorry to admit – most
often impatiently, “Come on, we need to go.”
And then, as I thought about the little voice outside the door, and my
memories of our children, the Holy Spirit changed my focus. It is that change
of focus that I want to now draw our attention.
You remember the story of the two men hung between
heaven and earth, nailed to crosses on either side of the One in the middle.
Two men, thieves, struggling against death, knowing it was only a matter of
time before death finally sank its talons into their flesh. And all the while, they watched the Stranger
in the middle.
Here is how
St. Luke records this scene in his gospel: When
they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the
criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying,
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast
lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. And the people stood by,
looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others;
let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.” The
soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying,
“If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” Now there was also an
inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him,
saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered,
and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same
sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are
suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds;
but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me
when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today
you shall be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:33-43)
I want to draw our attention to
the three responses in this short section – and how they relate to the
plaintive cry of all who know they are lost without the Savior – Daddy, Daddy,
wait for me, please. Here are the
three responses: The response of
the sinner to his sin; The response of the sinner to his savior; and the
response of the Savior to the sinner.
First: One thief knew he deserved
to die. He’d broken the law, and now was paying the penalty. The other, even while
dying, joined the mob at the foot of the cross in mocking, cursing, and
blaspheming the Stranger in the middle.
But the penitent thief would have none of it. And here we see the sinner’s
response to his own sin. He acknowledged it. He confessed that he was wrong
in what he had done. And he rebuked the other: “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 our deeds, but this man has done nothing
wrong.”
When was the last time you
confessed to God that you were wrong and that God is right to demand of us
righteousness?
Well, that was the sinner’s
response to his own sin. Acknowledgment. We must all, every one of us, first do
that. It’s called making a good confession – not a casual confession of sin to
God, but honestly being SORRY for having sinned.
It’s like saying, “Daddy, wait for me, please. I’ve stumbled.
I’ve fallen. I want to go with you, but I’ve allowed myself to be distracted.
I’ve allowed myself to be tempted away from You. Daddy, please wait for me. I’m
coming to you now.”
Have you ever in your life felt
that way? Stumbled into sin? Fallen deeply into sin? But you woke up, took
stock of where you were and where Daddy was . . . and you called out to Him –
“Daddy, wait for me. I’m coming”?
If you’re like me, you’ve done that
dozens and dozens of times in your walk with Christ. And if you have not – you
need to get alone with yourself and ask yourself, “Why not?” Maybe – and I suggest this very cautiously
and kindly, but also firmly and with great earnestness – if you have not daily
confessed your daily sins, then maybe God is not really your Father. Maybe He
is for you just a nice idea.
Now let’s look at the sinner’s
response to what He hoped would be the Savior’s mercy: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” (Luke 23:40-42)
In that moment he did what
everyone must do – not just once, but repeatedly
in their life. The broken and contrite thief recognized Jesus had a kingdom. He
recognized Jesus was Lord in His kingdom. And the thief wanted to be with Him forever
in that kingdom.
If we think about it, the thief’s response to his
own sin and to what he hoped would be the Savior’s response was not too
dissimilar to King David’s response to the Savior after his sin
with Bathsheba:
Be gracious to me, O
God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your
compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and
cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before
me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight .
. . . . Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow . . . . Hide Your face from my sins And blot out
all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast
spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your
Holy Spirit from me. . . . . (Psalm 51).
If
you’re Catholic, you recognize how close David’s prayer is to the Act of
Contrition often said in the confessional: O my God,
I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because
of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who
art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of
Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.
Or another
way of saying it: “Daddy. Daddy. Wait for
me, please. I’m coming to You.”
The
thief’s response was first to acknowledge his sins. To own up to them. His second
response was to turn to the Savior in repentance, to ask for mercy and
forgiveness.
Repentance does amazing things in
and for our soul. It lifts us to where Jesus hangs on the cross, face to face
with His nailed and bloodied body – brutalized because of our sins. Repentance
frees us from ourselves, from our arrogance that binds us to eternal death. It
teaches us humility and unveils for us our fleeting mortality and our desperate
need for an eternal savior. Repentance brings us into an intimate relationship
with the King of Glory reserved only for the penitent.
Here again is what the penitent thief said: “Jesus,
remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” He spoke less than a dozen
words. Short prayers from the heart are as efficacious as long soliloquies.
And finally, for today, the third
response – this one is the Savior’s response to the penitent sinner who
pleaded: Jesus, remember me. And Jesus responded: “Truly I say to you, today you shall be
with Me in Paradise.”
How often did the Lord Jesus say to others, “Come, follow Me”? Lots of times. His offer is embedded from one
end of the Gospels to the other. And oh, how I want to follow
Him. And I believe you do, too.
But how is it so often the case that you and I get sidetracked from
following Him? Like little children distracted by a bug crawling in the grass,
or the breeze blowing though leaves, or the cat cowering by the tree trunk – or
even a piece of trash crumpled along the sidewalk – we so often get preoccupied
by life events, and we take our eyes off the Shepherd and dally in the
distractions – until we suddenly notice we’re not as close to Daddy as we were
at the first.
“Daddy, wait for me, please.”
What causes a child to so easily lose focus? Whatever it is, and I know
there are many things responsible for catching a toddler’s eye – whatever it is
should not be what causes me or you to lose focus. St. Paul wrote something to
this point in his letter to the church at Corinth: When I was a child, I used to speak like a
child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away
with childish things. (1 Corinthians 13).
Oh, may God almighty help us to mature into spiritual maturity and to
better fix our eyes on Jesus as we follow Him wherever it is He wants us to go.
Daddy, wait for me please.
The good news this 19th day of July in 2026 is this: Unlike
human fathers who sometimes turn back and call impatiently to the lagging
child, “Hurry up. We need to get going;” Unlike the human father, our heavenly
Father never once, never ever once, has He ever turned back and said with
impatience: “Come on. Hurry up. We need to get going.”
Instead, He always turns back and says to us – as we find in the great
love story of the Old Testament, the Song of Songs, chapter 2:
‘Arise, my
darling, my beautiful one, and come along. ‘For behold, the winter is past, the
rain is over and gone. ‘The
flowers have already appeared
in the land; The time has arrived for singing. The voice of the turtledove has
been heard in our land. ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!’”
And so, on this Sunday, I’d like
us each to remember the three men on Calvary’s hill and the responses of the
men on either side of Jesus. One responded to his sin with a hardened heart.
The other responded with a broken heart – broken enough to bring his sins and
himself to the Man in the middle.
Almighty God’s promise threads
its way throughout Scripture. Listen to the Psalmist: “The Lord redeems the
souls of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be
condemned.” (Psalm 34:22); And now to the apostle Paul: “Therefore,
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
(Romans 8:1)
The story of the thief on the
cross holds a critically important lesson for us in 2026. As often as we do
what he did – humbly acknowledge our sin, our rebellion, the times we
have turned our backs on His commandments – and then plead for Christ’s
forgiveness – Jesus always responds: “Truly I say to you, you will be with Me
in Paradise.”
Another way of saying it: “Come
along, my child. I’m waiting for you to return. Come home. All ye that labor
and are heavily laden, come, and I will give you rest.
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