Christ the King Sunday, 11/25/2007

Sermon on Luke 23:33-43, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" 38 There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" 40But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." 42And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

KING

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

You and I are in this story. We might wish to rush to place ourselves alongside Jesus as the so-called good thief. But the truth about us is that we are the ones gladly doing the crucifying of God's Son Jesus every day.

Now you might well want to take exception to the use of the adverb "gladly" when it comes to your own crucifying of God's Son Jesus. You might wish to substitute another adverb such as "inadvertently" or "accidentally" or even "mistakenly." But all of those adverbs would be a bit of self-deception on your part. God knows that I, too, would like to substitute a more innocuous adverb that would allow me just one last smidgen of personal dignity. But that is not the truth about me, and it is not the truth about you.

We gladly crucify God's Son Jesus every day as we gladly embrace our own autonomy, which literally means being a law unto myself. We gladly embrace something other than God's kingship or God's lordship. It's really quite amusing in a sad sort of way, this self-deception of ours. There are even those within scholarly circles in the church that cannot quite accept the biblical terms "king" or "Lord" and rather substituting "reign" - a softer, less testosterone-loaded word like "king" or "Lord." Such self-deception puts us firmly there at the foot of the Lord Jesus' cross taunting and jeering.

Oh, yes, we would like our God not to be king or Lord - to be a sort of kind and gentle old person that says, "Aw, shucks, I'm sure you really don't mean any harm by ignoring me. I'm sure you really feel bad about throwing me out of your life. I'm sure that deep down inside you don't want to be a selfish person who really clings to whatever other gods offer you the greatest pleasure or comfort every day. I'm sure you really don't want to be such a control freak that you can't bend the knee to me. So, what the heck, you can do whatever you want without any consequences. It's all fine by me."

But, of course, that's not the kind of God we have. God's grace is not cheap. Grace is not God's winking at the fact that we occasionally feel guilty for continuing to be so selfish. Grace is not God's overlooking our desire to keep on being a law unto ourselves, because, after all, we really can't imagine that God would ever damn anybody to hell - even if they insist that they really don't want to have any part of God's kingdom!

So there we are at the foot of the cross every day. There we are gladly crucifying God's Son Jesus again and again and again, because we are just too busy or just too preoccupied or just too distracted or just too, let's say it, selfish to acknowledge that Christ Jesus alone is Lord and King.

All those books that are supposedly tell-alls about the real Jesus - they're nothing but the same old shams, the same old self-deception. The authors, whether they teach in a religion department or think all religion is hocus pocus, are not original thinkers. They are quite unoriginal thinkers. From the Garden of Eden up until today, we humans have simply said to God: "Nah, I'd rather do it my way, thank you very much!"

It's always easy to see such foolishness in others, isn't it? But to say to God, "Yes indeed, Father, I gladly crucify your Son every day," now that's not something most of us have the honesty to admit.

You think money is yours to control. You gladly crucify Jesus. You think your body is yours to control. You gladly crucify Jesus. You think your calendar is yours to control. You gladly crucify Jesus. You think the Bible is yours to control. You gladly crucify Jesus. You think it really doesn't matter to God that you are so selfish. You gladly crucify Jesus.

The crowds taunted Jesus: "You think you're so powerful and so mighty. Look at you now, Jesus. See who's in charge, Jesus." That's you and me every day. That's the truth about us.

Oh, we get all spiritual and get all holy and do a lot of God talk about how we used to do thus and so but not any more since we met Jesus and so forth. Or we get all smug about how we once read or heard a sermon that said or were told the truth that God's grace really means that we are home free now that we are baptized or confirmed or went on a Via de Cristo or a Walk to Emmaus or started taking a theology class. It's all the same old, unoriginal self-deception. We gladly crucify Jesus every day, because that's what it means to be a sinner, which is what you and I really are!

Are you too strapped financially to return a portion of what God has placed in your hands? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus. Are you too stubborn to support the budget of this congregation? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus. Are you too busy with all the other activities that are supposedly going to make you or your child a better person? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus. Are you too tired or too bitter or too sad or too confused to come to worship? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus. Are you too mad or too hurt or too afraid to forgive someone? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus. Are you too lonely or too foolish or too needy or too self-indulgent to say no to the things God says are bad for you? That's you gladly crucifying Jesus.

We do it every day. We get out the nails and the hammer. We add our voices to the crowd. We take God's Son Jesus down a notch by gladly nailing Him to the cross. And we invite God's judgment upon us for rejecting His Son and rejecting His Lordship and saying No to His Kingship. That's the truth about us. And we can't save ourselves!

The Lord Jesus said of His enemies: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." But is that really you or really me that He is speaking to? Because isn't the truth about us that we know exactly what we are doing even when we try to lie to ourselves or try to ignore that still small voice that asks "What are you doing?"

You are going to die. I am going to die. We are going to face the God whose Son we gladly crucify, and we are going to have to answer for our lives. That's what Scripture teaches. That's the Christian faith. We say it often: "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead."

On that day the only person in the crowd that I want to be is the thief on the cross that admits the truth about himself: "I am receiving the due reward of my deeds. I deserve to die. I deserve to be separated eternally from You, Father, because I gladly ignored you and gladly crucified Your Son Jesus day after day after day."

Now I know Christians that will object to that kind of talk. Again it's still trying to hold on to the last shred of the sinner's dignity: "I really improved along the way. I really turned out to be a better sort of person than I was before I became a Christian" and so forth. It's all lies dressed up in God talk about the miracle of grace and so forth.

The truth about you and me is said rather plainly in Augustus Toplady's famous hymn "Rock of Ages": "Nothing in my hands I bring; simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; foul, I to thy fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die."

You and I gladly were in that crowd that day. We gladly nailed God's Son Jesus to the cross. We gladly went on our way glad to be free to do whatever we damned well pleased. And God's Son Jesus had to die for our sins. He was innocent. He was without sin. He took the punishment we deserve every day and at the end of our lives.

The truthful thief said: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he was promised that he would be in Paradise with Jesus that day.

There wasn't time for the thief to be baptized, and so his admission of guilt and his desire to be saved was enough. But for you and for me the Lord Jesus says that we are to be baptized into His death and resurrection. We are to confess our sins and admit that Christ alone can save us. We are to learn all that He commands and follow Him in lives of humble service. That's what it means to be a disciple.

Now, of course, the old sinner in you me, all dressed up now in baptismal robes, seizes upon the grace of God as a kind of slogan: "I love to sin. God loves to forgive sin. Such a deal!" It's the sinner in you and me still trying to cut a deal that will keep the sinner in us from dying. Foolishness!

The only antidote to sin is death, and none of us will be free from sin until we finally die. But the daily prescription for sinners like you and me is to be drowned in the waters of Baptism.

One of the most famous lines ever uttered in a presidential debate was spoken by Ronald Reagan to Jimmy Carter back in 1980. Reagan said: "There you go again, Mr. President." It's a line that probably won Reagan that election.

It's a line that God the Holy Spirit uses on us every day, a line He wants us to heed: "There you go again, old sinner! You need to die to yourself! You need to be drowned in the waters of Baptism so that a new child of God can live!"

Indeed that's the line that God the Holy Spirit wants us to begin to say to ourselves: "There you go again, old sinner!"

When I am late getting home and begin to give a really moving explanation of my actions, my dear wife says to me: "Yes, there's always a good excuse. Isn't there?" I could have picked up the phone. I could have told her what was going on. But I was in the moment. Yes, there's always a good excuse.

Suppose the next time you want to miss worship for what you tell yourself is a really good reason you said: "There you go again, old sinner." Suppose the next time you really don't want to go to Bible study or Confirmation you said: "There you go again, old sinner." Suppose the next time you really have a good excuse for not supporting the church's budget you said: "There you go again, old sinner." Suppose the next time you are about to do something that God tells you is wrong you said: "There you go again, old sinner."

And suppose that then you and I didn't just go ahead and do what we were planning to do and not do what we were planning to do. Then we would finally be listening to the Holy Spirit who was telling us to die again to ourselves.

Now that wouldn't be the end of the old sinner in us. No, we're stuck with her or him until the day we draw our last breath. But the Kingship of Christ is such that it comes, as Luther says, "...when the heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit so that by His grace we may believe His holy Word and live a godly life, both here in time and hereafter forever" (Explanation to the Second Petition of the Lord's Prayer, Small Catechism).

So, then, today we come on bended knees before the Crucified King saying: "Have mercy on me, a sinner" and "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And He comes in bread and wine to our empty uplifted hands to nail our sins to His lonely cross and to fill us again with the power of His endless life.

So that when we leave this place, forgiven and at peace with God, we may indeed be accompanied by the only One who can fight for us daily and the only One who can deliver us at the last from every evil. When you and I draw our last sinful breath, may we hear His sweet voice saying: "Today you will be with me in Paradise!"

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[To listen to this sermon, please click on the icon at the top right "This Week's Message" page at http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/verwaltung/aktuellp_edit.phphttp://www.stmatthewsch.org/]

Samuel D. Zumwalt
St. Matthew?s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA

E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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