Beginning from the End :: Luke 23:27-43

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Have you ever paid attention to how our lectionary flows? Sometimes you really have to wonder what the lectionary committee was thinking. There actually is a rhyme and reason to it all; it just isn’t always obvious. The Holy Gospel we heard just a few minutes ago is one example. It would seem that it would be better to hear our reading from Luke 23 on Good Friday. Think about it. Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year. Thanksgiving is Thursday. And it’s only 35 days until Christmas! 

Alas, this reading was selected because Good Friday is the perfect ending for a new beginning. Good Friday is the lens through which we, as Christians, should see everything. When we preach the Gospel, we need to talk about this day. It is the focus of the Gospel. It reflects the cross, baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s supper. All of these preach Christ crucified, buried and risen ... for you. It is the full Gospel, all that Jesus did and taught, all that Jesus is still doing. Today we get a new beginning from the end.

In the end we have eternal life. Everything before Good Friday was leading up to the end. Everything after the crucifixion flows from it. The day God died on a cross is the day that changed the world ... it changed your life. That day is the center of time. 

So on this Last Sunday of the Church Year, we consider the beginning from the end. For Jesus’ life and death has something to say about our death and new life. 

4.

To do that, I want first to draw your focus to one sentence from the Gospel, ten words Jesus spoke from the cross. You’ve heard them before, many times I’m sure. But I pray today you can hear verse 34 differently ... Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 

In these words, we hear Jesus praying for the forgiveness of those who drove him to the cross ... for those who persecuted him and condemned him ... for those who nearly beat him to death ... for those who nailed his hands and feet to a cross ... for those who mocked him because he was praying ... for those whose appetites would not be satisfied until they had taken his life ... and not just any life, but an innocent life ... for those who had no idea that it truly was better that one man die for the sins of the world. Father, forgive them, Jesus prayed. 

That’s no small thing, is it ... forgiving them? 

You know very well how easy it is to condemn, don’t you? You know very well how hard it is to forgive, don’t you? How many people in your life have you still not forgiven? So hear how great and wondrous these words really are! Jesus is praying for an end to sin. 

In context, as Jesus spoke those words, the people who put him on the cross didn’t know what they were doing. ... They didn’t know that the man they were trying to silence was in fact the Word of God. ... They didn’t know his hands had knit them together in their mother’s wombs, that his feet would lead us to paradise. ... They didn’t know that they had created a crown of thorns for the head that knew all things. They didn’t know that the end of his life was the beginning of theirs. They didn’t know he was God!

It made no sense to them that God could love them so much that he would allow them to do this to him ... to die for the sins of the entire world ... to bear the full wrath of the Father for disobedience ... to shed his blood ... to allow himself to be beaten and tortured in your place. to do this precisely to fulfill his promise to you, creating a new beginning for all of creation.

3.

But we think we know what we’re doing. And that’s a huge problem, you see. From Adam and Eve down to you and me ... we think we know what we’re doing. And therefore, we think we know what God should be doing for us. We think that we know how to find God in our heart, in our work, in our thoughts and prayers. We think we can find God and serve God. We think that we are good people, most of the time. And we think that that is good enough.

Worse, too often we think God will ignore our sins. Too often we think God will act like our sins don’t exist. Too often we think God won’t see us hiding in the darkness of our sins. Too often we think of Jesus as just another son ... just another man ... just another model of good words and good living. 

Jesus was right. We don’t know what we’re doing ... we don’t know what we’re saying ... we don’t know what we’re thinking. So he prays, Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing. 

And the Father does. 

Look to the cross today and recognize this truth for once. Recognize that it is your sin ... and you savior ... on the cross for once. And then repent! 

Your sin died with Jesus on the cross so that the Father will forgive you. 

You who hurt ... you who lie ... you who lust ... you who doubt ... you who take ... you who rebel ... you who doubt God and his Word ... you who deny the forgiveness of sins to each other ... you who do not love God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength ... You who make me, myself, and I the focus of your life ... 

You have been forgiven!

Jesus has lived for you, died for you, rested in the tomb for you, risen from the grave for you, and ascended into heaven for you to prepare your inheritance. On his account, you are the saints of God. 

1.

And the Day is coming when that will be clearly seen. 

The disciples saw it initially three days later when Jesus rose from the dead and showed them his hands and feet, the beginning from the end. They saw their new life. Before the resurrection, everything looked bleak. Afterwards, the inexpressible and glorious joy of their salvation was becoming crystal clear. God has given you true peace ... the peace we cannot understand ... the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And God has given you hope ... that death is not the end. Jesus has given us a new beginning.

Now, we can join the thief on the cross declaring: Lord, Remember me! Remember me in my sad state. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, he does for ...

WE KNOW THE CROSS, WHICH LOOKED LIKE THE END, IS THE BEGINNING.

This is where this sermon has been going.

The cross, which we thought brought only death, actually brings us back to the beginning, back into paradise, just like the thief on the cross. Remember me, Lord. 

And Jesus did and he does. 

Today you will be with me in paradise, he declared. You will be because he baptized you, he absolved you, he prepared his supper for you ... the celebration of the forgiveness of your sins ... a celebration that never ends.

This is the same truth that applied to the thief on the cross, who obviously heard the Gospel and believed the promises of our father in heaven. The Thief was saved because he heard the Gospel. Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Gospel. Then he was baptized on the cross, quite literally: dying in the faith believing in Jesus.

In the same way, Jesus is remembering you and forgiving you, and preparing a place for you in paradise. That reality for you began in your baptism. There in this font God pours out his Holy Spirit upon you. And there Jesus is saying You will be with me in paradise. It’s not the water that is the key to baptism. It is the word of Christ who gives you the promise. That’s why Paul is able to declare in Romans 6 that you died and were raised to new life in baptism. A beginning from the end.

In the same way, when you believe the Gospel and are absolved after confession, Jesus is saying you will be with me in paradise because when the called ministers of Christ ... our pastor ... announces the forgiveness of sins, it is just as valid and certain as if Christ our dear Lord spoke the words himself. It is a beginning from the end.

Then when you come to receive the body and blood of Jesus at the Lord’s Supper, he is saying You will be with me in paradise. When we join the unending feast of forgiveness, our Lord delivers the miracle of miracles to you ... life and salvation to all who believe. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us always join the unending Feast where we celebrate the truth that God the Father has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you into the kingdom his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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