This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran, Karoonda (11 am).
Why do we
need medicine? Why don't our bodies just get rid of the virus, get
rid of the sickness? Don't we need medicine when it's something our
bodies can't do? The medicine comes from outside of us, comes to us,
because of what we ourselves couldn't do, and keeps us going. And
the same goes for hope: the sure and certain assurance of God's
promises in Christ Jesus for you.
The
hope for this world doesn't come from this world and extends beyond
this world (it's Jesus).
If
Jesus is the hope that you have for this world, then that means he is
different than the hope that this world has to offer you. St. Paul
writes to the Colossians (1:5) that their faith and love is “because
of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before
in the word of the truth, the gospel”.
He can use that word 'hope' because he knows that it's very
exhausting to find hope in this world. It was very clear in those
days. They were the days you could find Greek tragedies with the
heartwarming lines: “Not to be born at all – that is by far the
best fortune; and the second best is as soon as one is born with all
speed to return thither whence one has come”. The worldview of the
culture that surrounded the early Christian Church was that time
wasn't leading up to anything, wasn't going anywhere. The Christians
have a different worldview, which we give special attention to on the
Last Sunday of the Church Year, the Sunday of the Fulfillment.
It
is very exhausting to find hope in this world. Your heart chases
after it – maybe it's at the bottom of this bottle, maybe it's in
this distraction, maybe it's in this bank account. The list goes on,
it's all that list can do, because you'll never find true hope in
things of this world. It's like trying to build a sofa out of
cardboard boxes, it was never made for that. It's the same for all
these things of the world – they weren't made to be your god, and
they can't hold up to this.
And if hope in things is so hard to find, you turn to hope in works.
This is a hope that seems so much better because it all depends on
you, your own goodness and niceness. This is also a hope that only
comes from the world – it's a hope in yourself in the end. And
you're just a creation, so hoping in yourself is worshipping
yourself, which is worshipping something of the creation, which is
idolatry, having another god than the God who made heaven and earth.
This hope fails.
This type of hope has no use for the day that has come or the day
that is coming. That is to say, this false hope has nothing to say
about Christ's crucifixion (which is today's Gospel reading) or about
his second coming (which this day of the Church Year points to and
looks to). These two days go together. And they are the hope that
is for the life of the world, but they come from outside of this
world, because in Christ's crucifixion and his second coming, these
are completely and totally God's work, not a work of creation or
humanity.
Both days show God's judgment. But Christ's second coming show that
this world now is judged according to sin, and this will be made
known when Christ does come down and stops every mouth. Hope in
idols has an end that doesn't go beyond this world.
And for you, you can't see either the day that has come or the day
that is coming. Christ was crucified long before you were born, you
haven't seen it with your eyes. And Christ's second coming hasn't
happened yet, and could happen at any time, so you haven't seen that
with your eyes either. That is a burden to carry, one you can't see
and the other is not yet, and both must be believed on the basis of a
Word that has come to this world. So both Christ's cross and the
Last Day are ridiculed by the world, even though it is the hope that
the world has to offer that fails.
And yet, Jesus is the hope that has come into this world and he will
come again. And it's all seen in that evildoer on the cross next to
Jesus. The two who were crucified with Jesus are called according to
the translation “criminals” but literally it's “evildoers”,
and watch when this man says that Jesus has done nothing wrong, but
he himself has been “justly condemned”. But see that for this
evildoer on the cross, he has no hope from this world – only
Christ.
How has this happened? He has been catechized by watching the
crucifixion and reading the inscription on - and hearing Jesus' words
on - the cross. He sees Jesus' blood shed, he reads the inscription
“The King of the Jews is this one”, and he hears Jesus' words
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. He has
been catechized that this hope who is Jesus, hasn't come from this
world but to this world. Jesus is sent by the Father. He is sent to
this world, and he prays to his Father. This shows that he's the
only one with the claim to be the promised Messiah, that he is the
Son who is begotten and was made man. He took human flesh to redeem
human flesh – to redeem you.
He has no hope but Christ, because he's the first to see what
Christ's cross does, the first to confess Jesus' innocence as an
innocence that is for him (that is, he confesses in faith). He's the
first one to get it – others during Jesus' arrest and trial have
confessed that Jesus is innocent of deserving death, but this man is
the first to confess this as his hope, the first to believe that this
has all been done for his sake.
In a way, the day that has come and the day that is coming meet so
beautifully in that evildoer on the cross. When he requests “Jesus,
remember me, when you come into your kingdom”, this shows a great
understanding of God's kingdom, and the tension between what is seen
and what is believed concerning the fulfillment of all salvation.
Now, on the cross, Jesus is King, and now his word bestows
forgiveness (“Today you will be with me in Paradise”). Not yet
has Jesus entered into his kingdom – of glory - (“and he will
come again with glory”), yet Jesus' word of forgiveness now opens
the door for this evildoer who is now dying to enter the not yet
kingdom too when it comes. And it will come that same day! When he
dies, he no longer sees Christ's kingdom only by faith, but also then
by sight. And he, with you, awaits when Christ will come again,
which will be plainly seen by all.
Christ
is that hope that comes to the world, as a gift, wrapped in suffering
and death on a cross and all for you. If Christ is the hope that has
come to the world, then what he brings is a gift. And if it's a gift
that comes to you from outside of you, there is nothing in you that
makes your salvation happen. Nothing. That's a hope that you would
have to supply and build for yourself. But that's not the hope of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not from you, but it's given to
you. And here's the gift: You're not judged according to your sin,
you're judged according to Christ's righteousness and gracious favor,
because the judgment for your sins he took on himself on that day,
the day he died on the cross.
And then, by faith in this gift, all the other gifts you have abused
are put in their right place. The things of this world don't have a
hope for salvation for you, but they are given to you – clothing
and shoes, food and drink, house and home, husband or wife, children,
land, animals, and all that you have. And your works are also put in
their right place, for they are the works done by those who already
have the true hope, out of thanksgiving to the only Savior from sins,
and for the good of the world which God has created and sustains even
through you.
Because he is the one who has come into this world and he will come
again, he must bring you into this hope. The tension remains that
you can't see his cross, that you must hold to it by faith and not by
sight, but that doesn't mean that the pure gift of the cross hasn't
been delivered to you. It came to the evildoer on the cross, in the
words of Jesus “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. It came
in his absolution. His absolution comes wrapped to you in the words
that the pastor is given, in water, and in the bread and wine. These
you can see, but you believe that they are what Christ says they are,
not what your eyes say they look like.
And because Christ sends you this hope, as he himself was sent by
the Father, so he himself must send you the Holy Spirit to bring
these gifts, to sustain you in the burden of living by faith and not
by sight, in now having Christ's kingdom, but not yet entering into
its fulfillment in heaven.
The day is coming, the Last Day, but its content you have already
heard: His absolution rings with “today” and “you (sing.)”
(as he said to the evildoer on the cross) to you. What else
than such an absolution can carry you through this valley of tears
and to himself in heaven? [The Christian has no reason, wants no
reason, to ignore the things of the end, but hears them, tastes them,
again and again in the divine service.]
Conclusion:
The
hope for this world doesn't come from this world and extends beyond
this world (it's Jesus).
There is a hope that comes from the world, but it's false. What the
world can't do, what you can't do, Christ does. There is a hope that
comes to the world, and that is Christ who was crucified for your
sins, and who will come again to bring you what he has already
brought you: everything that comes with the forgiveness of sins.
Amen.
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