Last Sunday C
No Distinction
St. Luke 23:39-43
21 November 2010 – Redeemer
20 November 2016 – Redeemer
There was no difference between the two criminals as they headed to the cross. They were guilty men. They had killed or rebelled or raped or stolen. There was no sympathy for them as they were marched from Jerusalem to the place of the skull. The crowds spit and jeered the whole way until these bloodied and beaten men, burdened by the weight of their crimes, arrived at the cross. The courts and the crowds made no distinction between the two criminals with Jesus. They were guilty and they were getting what they deserved. It was their last day.
Except on that day there was a great difference between the two – a difference as great as life or death, innocent or guilty, saved or damned. This was a difference no one saw until the end, until they breathed their last – and then one criminal found himself in the torments of fire and eternal death under Satan’s rule and the other criminal found himself in paradise with Jesus, alive, free, joyous.
Jesus makes it clear in several of His parables that there is no visible distinction between those who are in His Kingdom and those who are not until the end. The wheat and the weeds grow together in the field until the harvest. The 10 bridesmaids are all dressed the same in their coral shoes and sea foam green dresses with their little lamps in their hands until the bridegroom shows up and then five are in and five are out. The sheep and the goats belong to the same family of animals and live together in the flock until the great Shepherd does the separating. Young Christian moms get cancer. Christian teenagers drink and die in auto accidents. Christians still fall on the ice and break a hip. Christian families are ripped apart by divorce. There is no difference until the end.
Wouldn’t it be beneficial if there was some visible difference between those who are in the Kingdom and those who are out? What a wonderful evangelism tool if Christian businesses succeeded while non-Christians struggled? Or if Christian marriages sailed through the storms of life without capsizing while non-Christians experience marital shipwreck? Wouldn’t it be something if people were as anxious for God’s Word and Sacrament as they were for Black Friday sales? Imagine if we had to set up chairs in the narthex and basement fellowship hall to accommodate the number of people who desired God’s Word and if everyone who drove by on Third street would visibly see the popularity of God’s Kingdom?
Dr. Luther coined a phrase to describe that desire for us Christians to be distinguished here and now. He called it a “theology of glory.” It is the desire that God would work in our ways instead of His way. It is the desire to see before you believe – to live by sight and not by faith. The crowd at the cross was filled with theologians of glory, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” … If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself,” One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” Lk 23:35-37, 39. They wanted Jesus to act like “their” savior instead of THE Savior. I’ll believe You Jesus when I see You do something for me. If You demonstrate Your power, tear Yourself free from the cross, send these nasty Romans running, deliver me from prison or death – I will believe.
That is not God’s way, for He knows that the way of sight, the theology of glory is a dangerous way. What would happen if God gave us what we wanted, if He showed us what we wanted to see? Well, what would have happened if Jesus had come down off the cross? The very people in the crowd clamoring for their proof of a Savior would have lost their salvation. That’s what would happen to us – we would soon place our hope in whatever “proof” we demanded, instead of the proof of the cross. We would hold God to our standard, instead of holding the standard He raised on Golgotha – the death of His Son for us sinners.
The theology of glory looks for a visible God and a visible Kingdom, but God has chosen to hide the Kingdom. His Kingdom is hidden in a baby in a manger and a bloodied man on a cross. It’s hidden in a convicted criminal who believes and enters paradise on the last day of his life. In many of the last day parables God is hidden until the end. The 10 bridesmaids spend hours on their hair, got their lamps lit, and wait for the groom who is delayed. The main guy in the story, the bridegroom isn’t visible in most of the story, but when he shows up everything is made known – 5 in, 5 out. In the parables of the vineyard God is once again hidden for most of the story – the owner plants a vineyard and goes away for a long time. He isn’t around. No one sees him until the end.
No one could see God at work at the cross, except those who heard God’s Word and believed. That criminal by Jesus’ side heard the Word. By faith he saw what others did not see and he confessed it to his fellow convict, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Lk 23:40-42
God’s working, His rule over sin and death, His Kingdom, is hidden in this Jesus on the cross. Hidden on this man’s shoulders is the sin of the world, is your sin.. Hidden in this crucifixion is God’s wrath against your sin. Hidden in the wounds of Christ is the healing balm of your forgiveness. Hidden in the blood and water that flow from His dead side is the source of life that still flows for you in baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Hidden in His empty tomb are all your sins.
God chose to hide Himself, in an infant child, in a rejected rabbi, in a convicted criminal. Before Jesus ascended into heaven He chose to hide His Spirit’s work in the teaching of the 12 apostles, in the preaching of His Word, in the water of baptism, in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. He is hidden in churches filled with people, like you, who don’t look any different from the rest of the population, who have the same sins and troubles as everyone else.
God is hidden, but He is not absent. He is present among us in His Word and Sacraments to make a difference, as He was present at the cross. Those two criminals looked the same as they trudged toward death. They looked the same even as they died. But there was a great difference. The one man met death with fear and anger, the other met death willingly and in great expectation. One man knew death was the end and the other knew it was only the beginning. One man blamed God, his parents, and society for his woes. The other man confessed his own sin and rejoiced to call Christ his Lord. One man died forever and the other lived eternally. And the difference between those two men is the man who hung between them. We won’t see the difference until the end, but we know the difference and we trust that difference and we proclaim that difference – the difference between heaven and hell, life and death, hope and despair is in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
Edited 19 November 2016 anno Domini