Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Yes, in fact you did hear a few moments ago a reading from the Evangelist Luke’s account of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Easter is still quite a ways away. Today is the Last Sunday in the current Church Year. Next week, Advent begins, giving us four Sundays of spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Holy Incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. At the end of the Church Year, the main topics that we hear about are the End of the World, the Last Judgment, and the Life Everlasting. Sometimes the title Christ the King is appropriate for this day, in order to emphasize the Savior’s status as King over His threefold kingdom of Power, kingdom of Grace and kingdom of Glory. For centuries, men have complained that our King is slow in His coming, but St. Peter reminds us, writing from the dreariness of his prison cell, that the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise, He is patient toward His Church, and when the Lord’s final Day comes, it will come like a thief in the night. (2 Peter 3)

If anyone could teach us Christians a little more patience, it would be an apostle of the Lord locked up in chains waiting for his inevitable execution in Rome. His perspective, and those of all the other Christian martyrs both of ancient times and those who up to this very day have put their lives at risk for the sake of Jesus, should make us reflect on what really matters for the congregation of saints living now in these End Times. But for Peter, as well as for all the apostles and other followers of Jesus, it wasn’t only that they suffered themselves. Sure, going through that experience certainly would change you psychologically. But what really mattered is that these witnesses saw or heard firsthand what you and I only read and hear about in our yearly services in the church year. They witnessed the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, done once and for all in ancient Jerusalem about nineteen hundred eighty years ago.

It was this holy Crucifixion that serves as a window for us into the End Times. A little bit of the future, a preview of the destruction of this sinful world that we see portrayed in symbols by the Apostle John in Revelation, this is what broke into the contemporary world in the days of Pontius Pilate. The Almighty, absolute Judge of all the earth was displayed whipped and thorn-crowned to a bloodthirsty crowd as an innocent man, yet sentenced to the most severe torture and death ever devised by man or by demon. As our Lord was driven along the Way of Sorrows to Calvary’s hill, the eyewitness Evangelists dutifully copied down and documented every step of Christ, since every step He took was for the world’s salvation. He comforted the weeping women with the same Word that comforts His holy church today, the church who weeps in repentance for sin but faithfully follows Christ who bore that sin. Because Jesus made that march to the cross on that hideous day, we have the privilege to look forward in faith to His joyous procession in which He will return on the Last Day. As you hear this holy, Biblical account of the crucifixion this very day, the Holy Spirit strengthens you and prepares you not only for the Lord’s Supper in this life, but for the eternal feast that we will share with all the saints in the life of the world to come.

And when the world’s Savior was raised up on that cross, fulfilling Moses’ raising the serpent in the wilderness back in the days of the Exodus, that’s when Final Judgment truly was executed. If we were to be precise in our legal terms, the Last Judgment, as it is described for us in God’s Word, is really part of the sentencing phase. The Verdict was already handed down: Jesus the Holy Son of God—guilty of death; you the poor, miserable sinner—innocent because of His substitution in your place. You were the one who hurt or harmed your neighbor in thought, word or deed. Jesus was the one lashed and scorned in shame, hung on a tree. You were the one who disappointed your family. He was the lonely one who cried out in extreme anguish to His Father, “Why have you forsaken Me?” You committed the crime and found yourself imprisoned. But He served your time in full so that you would be set free. You who hear the Good News now have this release from bondage handed right to you. At this Communion Rail, salvation is placed square into your mouth in that same Body and Blood that was given and shed for your forgiveness. The outcome of eternal life is your birthright now, though you must wait until the End to experience it in full. And Christian patience and perseverance will be tried in these latter days, but the promise of life, the final outcome of the End Times that started on the Cross, that time will come suddenly like a thief.

And speaking of a thief, recall the Almighty Judge’s first pronouncement, from the bench, as it were, was over His own bloody shoulder to the repentant thief who pleaded to the King of all Kings for His remembrance. May the reply ring in every dying sinner’s ear from now till the end of time: “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” For you, the sinner, are in the place of that blessed criminal. You were transferred from the punishment you deserved in the domain of darkness to the Son’s kingdom of everlasting light, the Paradise that the world’s parents Adam and Eve had lost in the beginning. It wasn’t enough for your heavenly Father just to forgive your sins. You weren’t merely brought back up to neutral. You have been declared holy by God’s abundant, undeserved grace. You are His child and heir. You have joined the faithful cloud of witnesses, some of them your own loved ones whom you dearly miss. Eden’s flaming sword now gives way to you, for the Tree of Life is now your personal property. I really do mean to say “now” you are in heaven for you are with the Lord by faith in Him, even though for now you suffer and struggle with sin. But be assured of your Savior’s victory over sin and death, because you triumphed with Him and soon, when the End finally comes, you will see that Paradise for which your heart yearns in faith. For Jesus, having enthroned Himself in His kingdom on the cross, has remembered you to this very day in your Baptism.

So even though this is the end of the Church’s liturgical year, and Lent is still all of 13 weeks away, (you don’t have anything to do until then, right?) take a look at the End Times through the eyes of St. Peter and all the others who were witnesses of Jesus’ crucifixion. Recall that the Holy Judgment to end all judgments was rendered on that cross and your forgiveness was paid in God’s own human Blood.

And finally, revel in the abundant grace that is bestowed on you in addition to your forgiveness. For it is by that same grace and Divine Promise that you enter Paradise with Christ your King. Be not dismayed by His apparent delay in return, but rejoice that all His blessings are yours now. And by God’s grace alone, you may believe it with all your heart.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Mal. 3:13–18 you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked
Psalm 46 There is a river
Col. 1:13–20 the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation
Luke 23:27–43 today, you will be with Me in Paradise