Last Sunday of the Church Year

<)) Listen to the sermon here or here.

“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.” Malachi 3:17-18

“And He Was Numbered with the Transgressors”

                The people of Israel were speaking against God, saying, “It’s pointless to serve God, isn’t it? After all, look at the world around us: Evil doers prosper; the arrogant are blessed; those who speak against God escape unscathed. What’s the point of our repentance and our keeping of His ways? Others are just as well off.” [Malachi 3:14-15]

                God points out to these grumbling Israelites that they themselves are speaking against Him. They are not trusting that God is in control. They see wrongs in their land, so they accuse God of wrong. He’s not handling it in the way and timing they believe is right.

                God confronts them, “Your words have been hard against Me, says the LORD” [Malachi 3:13] “You are called to trust My way, My timing, My patience and wisdom.” Some of God’s people heard God’s correction, spoken through Malachi, as against their sin —  

                —  “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another” [Malachi 3:16] – about their mutual stumbling, how they had given in to unbelief regarding God’s promises and had begun to react to the world around them with a cynical heart as if there was no promise of a coming Savior.

                To these who feared the Lord, God promised all the more, “On that day, I will spare you. You will see on that day the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who doesn’t” — but that distinction will be different than we or those Israelites might expect.

                Malachi spoke around 430 B.C. The day that God promised through the words of Malachi was both the day of Christ’s cross and the day of Christ’s return. For us, one has come to pass, and one is yet to come.

                We witness the cross of Christ in this morning’s Gospel reading [Luke 23:27-43], and at that scene of His cross we’ll see the line of that distinction between the righteous and the wicked drawn. On the ground, there are the people, their religious rulers, and the Roman soldiers. On three crosses, there are two criminal and one Christ. But again, that line of distinction is not drawn where naturally expected.

                Consider what an onlooker would have seen if they happened upon the cross of Christ as we read about it today. The Son of God, in His state of humiliation, was not distinguishable from any regular man. And what kind of men get crucified? “He was numbered with the transgressors” [Isaiah 53:12]. Counted a criminal.

                And there were the law-abiding citizens on the ground standing by. (Yet it was they who yelled, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” against their God and Lord who had only loved them.) And there stood the religious rulers, the experts in God’s Law, the respected rabbis of the people. The righteous. (Yet it was they who held a sham trial the night before to condemn the Lord of life). And there stood the Roman soldiers, who crucified criminals (but were themselves committing the highest crime).

                By appearances, an onlooker would think they knew exactly where the line of righteousness fell – right between those people on the ground and those people on the crosses. (Though some onlookers in our world today might assume it the opposite way: that all those on crosses are righteous victims and that all who prosper are evil.) But the true line did not fall between the ground and the crosses either way.

                The line, instead, is drawn in their reaction to their Savior. “The rulers scoffed at Him, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save himself, if He is the Christ!” – “The soldiers also mocked Him… saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’” – and… “One of the criminals” who was crucified with Him “railed at Him… ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” [Luke 23:32-39]

                From the judge on the bench to the criminal he sentences; from the officer to the man or woman he arrests; from the rich in a house to the poor man on the subway steps; from the scholar to the uneducated; from the skilled doctor to the mentally or physically ill patient; from those on the ground to those on crosses; in every walk of life, there are those who mock their Savior Jesus. There are those who scoff at God’s love for them.

                And, from the judge to the criminal, from the rich to the poor, from the scholar to the uneducated, from doctor to patient, on the ground and up on crosses, there are those who praise their Savior Jesus. Who recognize their sin and recognize their Savior. Who believe and thank God for His undeserved love. Who believe their Creator and Redeemer. Who fear Him as Lord and trust Him as Savior.

                We see at the cross what it means to “fear, love, and trust” in our God and Savior Jesus – not from a perfect or sinless man – not from a man with his own righteousness to be proud of – but from the other criminal up there next to Jesus, who said to the first, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” He knew his own sins: “We indeed [are suffering] justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” And he knew His Savior. He prayed, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your kingdom.” [Luke 23:40-42]

                That criminal on the cross is our example. He knew himself and did not deny that he was wrong. He could pray with King David, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” [Psalm 51:3-4]. And he could pray with King David, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” [Psalm 51:8-9] – “Let me have Paradise, Lord, because I know you came to save people like me.”

                And Jesus responded, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” [Luke 23:43].

                The line drawn, the distinction made, between the righteous and the wicked was drawn between this criminal and the other, between this criminal and those on the ground, because man is saved by faith. Man is justified – counted righteous – by faith in Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice. [Romans 3:23-25] 

                Rich and poor, high and low, respected and despised in the world. The line of faith cuts right through all those lines. At the cross of Christ, here is a criminal who believed. Also, one of the soldiers will believe and will say, when all is said and done, “Truly this was the Son of God!” [Matthew 27:54]. And two Pharisees, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, believe and prepare Jesus’ body for burial and give Him a tomb [John 19:38-39]

                This same line is drawn every Sunday when we gather, from all walks of life, into one place, as one body, confessing our sin and receiving His forgiveness, hearing His Word because we believe it is the Word of our Savior, and praising and thanking Him because we believe Him.

                This is not our own doing but God’s: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” [Colossians 1:13-14].

                His deliverance and salvation does change us, transforms us for the better, and makes us people who can be distinguished from this world by the life we are beginning to live, by His power, according to His commandments. And we know that what God has only begun in us now will be brought to completion on the day of Christ, when Jesus comes again [Philippians 1:6].

                And, finally, we do not despair or scoff at God for the evils that go on in the world around us. We know our own sins and His forgiveness. And we know His promise that all things will be brought to light. Evil, which mocks the Lord, will be exposed and put away forever when He returns. Humbly, knowing we don’t deserve such goodness, we nevertheless, with confidence, “are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” [2 Peter 3:13]

                We do not grumble, but, by faith, we thank Jesus for all He has done so far and for all He will finish when He comes again. Amen.