Download Lk23_27-43ThisIsTheKing - St. John`s Lutheran Church of East

“This Is The King”
Lk. 23:27-43
St. John’s – East Moline
11/21/10
Intro.: Ask any child to draw you a picture of a king and you will see a strong man perhaps with sword and scepter in
hand, a jeweled crown of gold atop his head, and sitting high upon a throne or on a war horse with flowing robes of
purple, scarlet and ermine. What you most likely will not see is this – [point to the painting of Christ crucified] – a naked,
dying man - a beaten and bleeding sack of flesh and bones nailed to a cross, wearing a crown of thorns. But read the
inscription over him in today’s Gospel: This is the King!
Unlike the calloused kings who reside in luxurious palaces while their subjects remain hungry, cold and impoverished
in the streets… Jesus is a king who cares…
I. The King Who Warns Those Who Don’t Understand And Weeps For Them. (vv.27-31)
A. Our Gospel begins with a great multitude of people following Jesus’ procession to the cross perhaps out of morbid
curiosity. Among them were a number of women who looked upon the pitiful man and wept as he dragged himself
through the streets to his death. They mourned for one they probably did not recognize as their promised king and
messiah, but lamented over him as a man who was either a convicted criminal or an unwilling victim of injustice.
Jesus words to them were, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your
children.” He reminds them that judgment would come upon their city because it would not receive him as its king and
savior. Jesus offers a strong warning of impending judgment to move them from remorse over what was happening to
him to full repentance and faith. He was calling them to set aside their misplaced pity and put their trust in his willing
sacrifice for their sins. He was urging them to believe that he would rise again to give them life and salvation. Rather
than weep for him Jesus tells them to weep for themselves, even as he wept for them.
B. Jesus is the king who weeps for those who do not understand or come to him for salvation. Both Matthew and Luke
note that earlier that week when Jesus looked out over unbelieving Jerusalem he mourned for it. Matthew reports Jesus
saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would
I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matt.
23:37-39) Luke says that when Jesus drew near and saw the city he stood and wept for it saying, “Would that you… had
known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come
upon you, when your enemies will… tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not
leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Lk. 19:41-44) Jesus is a
king who does not want anyone to perish without understanding or faith. He wants all to come to the knowledge of the
truth and be saved, and when they persistently refuse and reject him, as the people of Jerusalem did, he weeps for
them.
C. And Jesus still weeps for all of you who do not understand the peace he offers you by grace through faith. How often
he has tried to gather you under the shelter of those arms he spread out on that cross for you, but you were not willing.
You have preferred to go along with the crowd that follows at a distance with little more than a passing curiosity when it
comes to Jesus and life in his kingdom. You may regret the way things have gone with your life, you may be sorry for the
way Jesus has been treated, even the way you have treated him, but you have not yet been moved from remorse to full
repentance and faith in him as your Savior and King. You have yet to recognize and respond to the time of your own
visitation, when Jesus comes to offer you peace and to become the Lord of your life, and so he weeps. He is the king
who weeps over all of us who have put him off and cast him aside as he warns us of the coming judgment and pleads
with us to weep with him for ourselves and our children. As we continue to follow Jesus in our Gospel to the place of
the skull we also find that this is…
II. The King Who Prays For Those Who Don’t Know What They Are Doing. (vv.32-39)
A. As Jesus was being crucified there was no reverence or honor bestowed upon him as king. Instead, as he was hoisted
up on his rugged cross-shaped throne the people only mocked and abused him. Some stood at a distance and just shook
their heads as if they were ashamed of him. The religious leaders went further, making a big show of their mockery as
they declared, “He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” The soldiers also
made fun of him. They robbed him of his “royal” and cast lots for them. They drove nails through his hands and his feet
into that instrument of torture and death and offered him sour wine. Just as they had mocked him earlier in the
courtyard, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” they continued from the foot of the cross to cry out, “If you are the King of
the Jews, save yourself!” Even the criminals who were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left,
hurled their insults at him. One taunted him by saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” Insult and
injury were heaped upon the Lord of lords and King of kings.
B. And what does this king do about it? As the prophet had foretold he does not raise up his voice against them. He
does not come down from the cross and punish them. He does not call down fire from heaven to consume them. No,
the One to whom belong all power, glory and dominion and before whom every knee will bow in heaven and on earth
and below the earth, and all confess as Lord and God, prays for them. Jesus is the king who prays for his enemies and
does good to those who persecute him. Looking into the hateful faces of those who were mocking and abusing him he
prays, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing?”
C. Still, this is the King who sits at the right hand of the Father and intercedes for us. When we distance ourselves from
him and shake our heads as if we are ashamed of him while the world mocks and ridicules him, He prays, “Father,
forgiven them, they don’t know what they are doing.” When we arrogantly scoff at him, because He is not doing things
gloriously or the way we want them to be done, He prays, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”
When with every sinful thought, word and deed we drive another nail into his flesh, or join the soldiers in mocking him,
or when we steal from him with our stingy offerings and greedy casting of lots at the casino, he prays, “Father, forgive
them, they don’t know what they are doing.”
Christ, your king, knows that you do not know what you have been doing. He knows that you have been under the
powerful delusion of the devil just as all people are. And get this: “even while we were yet sinners [and enemies of
God], Christ died for us. He is the king who loves us so much that he offered himself in answer to his own prayer. This is
the king who prayed, Father, forgive them and let the full weight of your anger fall on me. Father they don’t know what
they are doing, but I do and I give myself to receive their punishment.
We also learn from our Gospel that this king who weeps and prays for those he loves is also…
III. The King Who Remembers Those Who Call To Him In Faith. (vv. 40-43)
A. Our Gospel reading relates that immediately after the first criminal insulted Jesus he was challenged by another who
may have actually been his friend and cohort in crime. Remembering His own sinfulness and the holiness and love of
Jesus he had witnessed he rebuked the impenitent criminal saying, “Don’t you fear God since you are under the same
sentence. We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
(vv.40-41)
Then the repentant criminal turned to Jesus, looked at Him and remembered. He probably remembered the promises
and prophecies of the Old Testament. He looked at Jesus and realized that every detail of Psalm 22’s vivid description of
the Savior’s crucifixion was taking place right before his eyes. He looked at the wounds and stripes on Jesus’ body and
remembered the prophecy of Isaiah and how God promised to lay on His suffering servant all our sins to heal us and
bring us peace through His agony. He looked at Jesus and remembered how John had called him the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world. Remembering his own sin and the promises of God in Christ, the repentant criminal,
turned and looked at Jesus and prayed, “Jesus, Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (v.42) After all the
years spent without understanding and all the things he had done without knowing, the man finally recognized that the
time of his visitation had come and that the way of peace was open to him.
B. And now after all the tears wept and prayers offered on behalf of this man, Jesus was pleased to assure the dying
thief on the cross next to him: “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” (v.43) Of all the days of this man’s life the
happiest and most blessed was the one spent dying with Jesus. Now, he understood and had peace because He truly
believed the inscription over Jesus’ head, “This is the King!” Jesus was His king and Savior. He would be with Jesus that
very day in paradise and then at the resurrection live him, body and soul, forever.
C. Over the years of serving the Lord and His people, I have been with many repentant sinners in their hour of death. I
have witnessed the certainty and comfort of faith that comes to them when they look to Jesus and His love, and are able
to pray, “Jesus, remember me and take me into your kingdom!” And what a joyful thing it is to know that they have
heard the Lord answer them, “Today, you will be with me in paradise!” as he carries them through death to live with
Him, to await the day of resurrection. And what a day that will be when, Christ, our King, returns in all His glory, with all
who have departed this life in faith, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to judge all people, to
raise-up the dead, and to glorify those who have read and believed that inscription: “This Is The King!”
Concl.: What a comfort to know that we have a king who weeps over us –who prays for you – and who remembers us
with a promise of paradise. Truly, This Is The King! Amen.