Luke 23:27-43 - A Portrait of Judgment Day - November 24, 2019

This is a strange reading for the last Sunday of the church year, isn’t it? Ordinarily we’d expect a vivid description of Judgement Day like the separation of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46) or the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13), or at least a vision of the King coming with the clouds in glory (Revelation 1:7). Instead we get Luke’s account of the crucifixion. So what’s the link between Good Friday and Judgment Day? What does Jesus’ crucifixion as a criminal have to do with his second coming as King? Everything! Good Friday, Jesus’ crucifixion is a shadow, a preview, a portrait of Judgment Day.

Jesus gives a grim introduction with his chilling response to the women who were weeping and wailing for him: daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” Jesus is looking roughly 40 years into the future, to 70 AD, when the Romans would besiege and destroy Jerusalem – a time when it would be better to never have had children than to watch them be starved or slaughtered.  

But that’s just the beginning of the end. For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? What do these words mean? Well, if God allowed men to put Jesus, an innocent man, a green tree to death, how much worse would it be when God unleashes his wrath on a guilty world on Judgment Day? As horrible as Good Friday and the destruction of Jerusalem were both will pale in comparison to horrors that will be unleashed on earth in the days leading up to Judgment.

And yet, in the midst of the chaos, there’s Jesus, an island of peace, praying: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. That’s Jesus’ prayer, not only for those who crucified him, mocked him, and gambled for his clothing – it’s his prayer for us. We may not have held the hammer or hurled our insults – but it was our sins nonetheless that drove those nails through his flesh and held him on that cross. We put Jesus to death and yet he prayed Father, forgive them.

And how does the world respond to Jesus’ unconditional love and forgiveness? Led by the chief priests (Mark 15:31), they sneer he saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. They represent everyone and everything that calls itself “religion” and yet mocks Jesus to this day. If you’ve attended our study of world religions you’ve seen that while some speak of human sin and God’s love and heaven and hell, they unanimously reject salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This includes certain segments of Christianity which accept Jesus as a good example or a gift-giving genie but reject him as the Savior of sinners. But the chief priests weren’t alone. Pilate offers his parting shot, mocking Jesus’ claim to kingship with a sign posted above his head. His soldiers pick up on that theme and provided mock service to him: They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” The church and state had conspired to murder God’s Son. Power and glory they might have respected, but they have no use for a crucified King. They always mock him, scorn him, run him out of his church and legislate him out of society.

And that’s so sad because it’s right here, right here on the cross where we get our clearest view of the kind of King Jesus is. Here we see that Jesus is the Christ of God, the Chosen One – the King of all kings – because here we see that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). This is the last picture the world sees of Jesus: bloody, beaten, mocked, scorned, defeated, dying. Oh yes, five hundred would see him risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:6), but not the general public. His disciples would walk with him on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), would be startled by his sudden appearance on Easter evening (Luke 24:36), and eleven of them would watch him ascend into the clouds (Acts 1:1-11) – but not the world. All the unbelieving world sees, all the world can see is a broken, beaten, bleeding, miserable excuse for a human being. They see a criminal to be spit on, a madman to be pitied, a prophet who must be killed – but certainly not a King and Savior to be worshipped.  

Are you beginning to see how Good Friday is a portrait of Judgment Day? In Jesus, God’s fiery wrath has already come; in him, the world is already judged. The two thieves separated by Jesus are the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), the wise and the foolish bridesmaids (Matthew 25:1-13), the saved and the damned (Mark 16:16). It’s ironic, isn’t it? James and John had fought for the right to sit at Jesus’ right and left when he came into his kingdom (Mark 10:35-45). But God gave these seats of honor to two guilty, convicted criminals.

Remember that last point as you consider Judgment Day: just as both criminals were guilty, so both groups on Judgment Day, both those on his right and his left, are guilty. It doesn’t matter who you are, how much good you’ve done, if you’ve never been caught, even if you’ve been a Christian your whole life – we all stand guilty as charged under the law, guilty of insurrection against our King, guilty of idolizing people and things – even ourselves – in place of God, guilty of willfully and intentionally violating God’s holy will. The Bible is unequivocal: There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22-23). But that is where the similarities end.

For one thief, even as he hangs there dying, can’t help but join the crowds in heaping scorn on Jesus: aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us! Little did he know how ironic and prophetic his words were – for it was precisely by not saving himself, by not coming down from the cross, that Jesus saved the world from death in hell. But that’s not the kind of Savior he wanted. He wanted a Savior for this life, a Savior to bring him down from the cross and extend and enhance his earthly life. This man embodies the most insidious form of unbelief of all places and all times. All those who would challenge Jesus to save their health, their relationships, their career, their finances – all are as guilty of blasphemy as this unbelieving thief because Jesus didn’t die to save us for this life but from this life. Like this thief, all who reject the salvation their King died to bring will in turn be rejected by him.

The contrast with the other thief couldn’t be starker. Even though he’s no less guilty, he’s a Christian. More than that, he’s a Christian preacher. His sermon is the best you will hear this morning. He preaches the law, he preaches repentance from his cross: Don’t you fear God…since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. This sermon isn’t just for his fellow criminal – this sermon is for us. The wages of sin is death, Paul writes (Romans 6:23). Whenever you see a cross, remember that: This is what I deserve. I deserve to feel God’s blistering wrath on a cross for my sins. It’s no use hiding it or denying it…all we can do is confess it.  

And he preaches the Gospel. But this man has done nothing wrong. He confesses Christ to a hostile world. He is innocent. He is sinless. Then why is he there? Why is he hanging on a tree? That’s the mystery of the Gospel, isn’t it? Jesus is there because God made him who had no sin to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is convicted for the sins we have committed. The lies. The hatred. The greed. The lust. The sins against our spouses, our children, our parents, our pastors and teachers, our elected leaders. Our sins of despising God’s Word, rejecting his will, of failing to confess Christ to friends and family and coworkers, of failing to fear, love and trust God above all things. All of those sins, every last crime of thought, word and deed are hung on him. This is Judgment Day. This is the judgment of humanity. On Calvary God judged the sins of the world in the death of his sinless Son. This man has done nothing wrong and yet this man dies as the One who has done everything wrong, rejected by the world, condemned, mocked, ridiculed, forsaken by God, and damned to hell. He gets what we deserve so that, in the end, we get what he deserves.

How can we respond to such unimaginable grace, such selfless, boundless love? The believing thief isn’t done preaching: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. This is how faith prays. He doesn’t demand a sign. He doesn’t ask to be taken down from the cross, to be spared his suffering, to be granted a last minute pardon – much less to be made healthy, wealthy, and happy. He asks for nothing but to be remembered by Jesus. Faith sees through the present sufferings (Romans 8:18) of this life to glory that is to come. And when death comes, faith embraces it with the prayer Jesus, remember me.

Remember me. Familiar words, aren’t they? Do this in remembrance of me (Luke 22:19) Jesus said as he distributed his body and blood. Do this, eat this bread which is my body and drink this wine which is my blood, in remembrance of me he says to all Christians of all time. This remembrance works in two directions. Faith remembers him, what he did as our King to win forgiveness, life, and salvation for us. And he remembers us with his body and blood given and shed for our forgiveness. Now, you may argue, that the thief was neither baptized nor did he receive the Lord’s Supper. And that is true. Baptism had not yet been instituted. That comes after Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 28:19). The Supper had been given only to the Apostles, not yet to the world. But this dying thief had the ultimate Sacrament, the ultimate Sacrifice – the Chosen One of God dying on the cross next to them. He saw the body given for him and the blood shed for him dripping down that ugly cross. And from Jesus’ own parched lips, the faithful criminal heard this Gospel promise: I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. And just like that, the man found guilty by the world is declared innocent before God. Justified for Jesus’ sake. Though the Roman government had found him worthy of death, and rightly so, the Son of God declared him fit for life in paradise. Though his sins have earned him eternal death; Jesus has given him eternal life.

But Jesus didn’t say anything to the other man, and neither do we. Jesus prayed for those who crucified him and mocked him. He asked for forgiveness for a world of sinners. But he says nothing to the unbelieving thief. Why not? Wasn’t he included in Jesus’ prayer? Didn’t he pay for his sins, too? Didn’t he want him to be saved? Yes, of course. But he would not believe, he would not believe that Jesus was dying on that cross for his sins and therefore he would be damned for his unbelief. Just as Jesus refused to comfort this unbelieving criminal as he faced Judgment, so all who reject Jesus as their King, who scorn his coming in humility through Word and water, bread and wine – will be left without comfort on Judgment Day. Their own words and lives will condemn them: they rejected Jesus as King, their King will reject them eternally. They may cry and scream and plead for mercy, but all they will hear is awful, deafening silence.

But you have no reason to fear. You have been baptized into Christ’s death. You have heard his Word and received his body and blood. You have no reason to fear Judgment Day because for you, Judgment Day has already come and gone. You were judged on Good Friday. Your King was judged guilty so that you might be judged innocent. More than that, the King who will judge you one day comes to you today to serve you with the grace and forgiveness you need to stand before him innocent and guiltless. Hanging on a cross, bloody and beaten, Jesus may not look like a King, but he’s the King we need. To the King who died for us and who will return to judge the living and the dead, there is no higher praise than the prayer of faith: Jesus, remember me. And, thank God, his answer is always and ever the same: I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. May we live and die with that saving promise of our King in our hearts and on our lips. Amen.