Luke 23:27-43 - Christ the King Sunday
Grace Mercy and Peace to from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus, Amen. Our text today is the Gospel lesson, especially verse 42, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Thus far our text.
Dear Friends in Christ. Every four years, we see it happen. It is on the news all day, and then replayed again in the evening. Even two years ago, we saw it. The Inauguration of a new President of the United States. Thousands of people descend upon Washington DC to enjoy the festivities. People are excited, people want to hear the new president speak. They want to celebrate. All day long and even into the night, there are parties going on. A new Ruler, a new president is installed.
In the church year, we are celebrating the same thing today. Today is the last Sunday of the Church year, also known as Christ the King Sunday. Today we celebrate; today we are excited, because in our text today, Jesus is Crowned with thorns as our King and sitting on his throne, the cross. In our text, we see
the coronation of our King, Jesus Christ.
But the coronation we see in our text, doesn't happen the way we expect it to. Instead of celebrating, we see mocking. Instead of smiles, we see anger. Instead of happiness, we see death and blood and crucifixion. Instead of celebrating the new ruler, they are killing him. This is not what normally occurs at a coronation or an inauguration. This is not what we want to see. It is a raw, gruesome, dirty picture. But even so, in our text today, Jesus is crowned King of Heaven and Earth, and all authority is given to him.
But we modern and sophisticated people, we are offended at the image of the cross. We don't like this bloody picture of execution to invade our clean and sanitary lives. We don't want to witness death and gore. We don't want to bring that image into our lives. IN fact, when we see lifelike pictures of Jesus on the cross, we are taken aback. We often weep and cry at the terrible suffering that Jesus is in as he hangs on the cross for 6 hours. Often times when we see this picture, of Jesus on the cross, we weep. We don't want to look at the cost paid by him. We want to turn from the cross, and find another way. We weep and we mourn, because we feel guilty of what Jesus had to do for us.
But in our text, Jesus says, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'"
Friends, Jesus must suffer this way, to come into his kingdom. Don't feel sorry for Jesus. Jesus must suffer this way to gain for himself subjects in his kingdom. Jesus must suffer this way… for you. Jesus cannot avoid the cross. Jesus cannot avoid death. It is the only way. Jesus is suffering this way so that you might live under him in his kingdom, so that you might be his own. Do not weep for him, but weep for yourselves and your children. Weep because each one of us has been born into a terrible world of sin and death. Each one of us has been sinful even from our conception in our mother's wombs (Psalm 51). Weep not because Jesus is dying, weep because apart from him, you are enslaved in a kingdom of sin.
We are slaves to sin. Everywhere we turn, we see its effects. There is no place for us to escape from it. Each one of us harbors sin within ourselves. We have, as we confessed, sinned in our thoughts, words and deeds, by what we have done and left undone. We are guilty of sin as we live in this world of sin. We cannot deny it, "for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Our works are but dirty rags. We murder, we steal, we hate, we despise, we gossip, we idolize, we curse and swear, and in all of these things we are guilty. We are not holy as we often think we are. We are not as good as we think we are. We do not deserve anything but hell and damnation. We need to be washed, we need to be cleansed.
Friends, the only way we can be cleansed is in the blood of our king. We must be covered in the blood of Jesus. But we don't want to. We despise the picture of Jesus on the cross. We want to turn away from the cross, we want to turn away from our King. We say, "Lord if that is the cost, we don't want anything to do with it. Lord, I don't want to look at that despised and tortured man on the cross. Can't there be another way?"
And we look for another way. "If I only do this and this and that, then I can earn a way apart from the cross. If I only feel this way or that way, then Christ won't have to die. If I could just earn it for myself…" Friends, As sinners, we don't want to go the way of the cross, instead we want to go the way of glory. We want fame, we want riches. We want cheers and shouts of joy, not mocking and death. We don't want to see our King go to the cross and die for us. We would rather save ourselves, an idea that is impossible, for scripture is clear. In Hebrews chapter 9, we hear that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. Jesus must go the way of the cross. Jesus must die.
Our king goes the way of the cross, even when we don't want him to. God gives us an escape from this kingdom of Sin, and he does it by giving us a new King, one who is willing to die for all of your short comings in body and mind, one that is willing to pay the ultimate price. No greater love is there than this, that someone give up his life for his friends. God gives us Jesus, our King and Lord, who loves us that much. In Jesus, God invades this sinful world with his army of one to destroy all that would separate us from him.
And unlike the sinful kings and rulers of this world, Jesus is not here to see what he can get out of you, or to subjugate you. Rather, Jesus is here to subjugate himself to our sinful world, so that in his own death, he might put it to death. As Christ puts the sinful world to death, he is crowned king of the eternal kingdom of heaven. He his robed in purple garments, which he stains with his blood, oozing from his body following a merciless beating. He is crowned with thorns, which press into his flesh and even into his very skull. He is enthroned upon a cross with nails that pierce his hands and feet, leaving him hanging naked before the entire world. Dear Christians, there is your king. There is your Lord. There is your God, dying for you.
As your king dies, you go with him. As he leaves this sinful world, you too leave this world. As St. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Your King, in his life death and resurrection invaded this sinful kingdom, destroyed its ruler, and captured you up in baptism, and smuggled you safely into a kingdom of life, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom that will last forever. You have been spared, as our Old Testament lesson says, "They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him." Yes it doesn't seem like it now. Yes, we still deal with this sinful world, but we also know that we have been rescued. In the end, our citizenship is not here with sin, but rather it is with Christ in heaven. All our sins in thought, word and deed have been forgiven and forgotten. And yes, Dear friends in Christ, even our sins against God, our sins of wanting to avoid the cross, have been forgiven and forgotten.
Today we see the coronation of our King, and from our king flows out life and salvation. Today we see our Lord Jesus Christ regaining us for his own precious holy people. And so, just as with an inauguration, we celebrate, we feast, we laugh and rejoice. For we have a Righteous and Holy King, who has brought us safely into his own kingdom. And nothing can take us out of the hand of our King, Jesus Christ. To him alone be all glory and power. Amen.
