Sermon - Last Sunday of the Church Year, Year C, 2025 - Luke 23:27-43

Between the Two Thieves, Ioannis Moskos, 1711

Jesus Reigns as King from the Cross to Spare us from God’s Judgment against Sin

1. The Coming Judgement marked by babies

2. Christ was born of the blessed virgin Mary in order to defend us against the impending judgment

3. Through Christ’s crucifixion we may enter into Paradise

We’re coming up on Thanksgiving this week, and as such the Christmas decorations are popping up quite quickly. Most of them have nothing to do with Christmas of course, but every now and then you see a manger scene and it reminds you that this isn’t just a big marketing scheme to take your money, but on Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus. I think everyone loves to look at manger scenes, to see Joseph and Mary in a stable, surrounded by animals, and in a manger or in Mary’s arms there rests the sweet little baby Jesus. It’s a touching image because we love babies! What an incredible thing that we can hold such a small beautiful adorable eternal human being in our arms. Sure they do some less pleasant things on occasion, but even their cries are beautiful. We gladly endure their spitting up and diaper changes because we love them so much. For those reasons Christmas holds a special place in our hearts.

What an incredible dissonance we hear then in our text wherein Jesus says: “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’” What Jesus says here should be heard as surprising and shocking even. It’s such a strange thing that today this needs to be explained, because there are plenty of people who consider children and babies a curse, and they think women are blessed who don’t have kids. But that’s not what our Lord teaches us. From Genesis to Revelation babies are shown to be a blessing. 

As the Psalm declares: “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” Children are a blessing from the Lord. They are a gift from God. They are the fruit of the womb. A woman is blessed when she has a child. This is also why it is sad for a woman who can’t have kids. Children are a blessing, and when she can’t have them that’s not a blessing, that’s sad and it’s a burden she’s bearing. Of course the woman is valuable in other ways, but we should still be able to recognize her barrenness as a sad thing and so acknowledge her pain as legitimate.

So when Jesus says “Blessed are the barren” He’s saying something strange. Namely, Jesus is talking about a particular historical circumstance unique to Jerusalem in the first century. I’ll spare you all the details at the moment, so to cut to the chase, in the year 70AD the Romans besieged and attacked Jerusalem, in the end completely demolishing the city and notably the temple. When a city is besieged one of the biggest issues is food and so many of the people would die by starvation unless they resorted to barbaric means of survival. Suffice it to say, having children in your home during that time would be unimaginably horrible. That’s why Jesus tells the women to weep for themselves and blessed are the wombs that never bore. 

God brought about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD as punishment against the Israelites for rejecting Jesus, the Savior who came to redeem them from their sins. That same wrath of God against Jerusalem in 70AD is what is in store for all those who continue to reject Jesus. “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” If God is going to bring this kind of judgment against those who hated Him then, how much greater judgment is awaiting those in hell who reject the Lord today?

It’s fascinating that Jesus marks the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD by the birth of, or lack thereof babies. Likewise, how marvelous that God similarly marks His redemption by the birth of a particular baby, the baby Jesus. Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to defend us against the coming day of judgment! The wrath of God that we deserve on account of our sins has been mete out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The same Jesus whom we sing about on Christmas Eve to Silent Night by candle light was senselessly beaten with rods and whips and pieces of metal. The same adorable baby Boy a few decades later “had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” So Mary’s heart was pierced through knowing that her baby boy, the Son of God, would suffer at the hands of sinful men. The adorable Baby was born to be the Sacrifice for our sins and shed His blood upon the tree for our salvation.

I find it so incredible then that when Jesus was marred beyond human semblance, so grossly disfigured in His flogging and crucifixion, hanging there naked and gory, spit upon and mocked even by the priests, and yet the Holy Spirit worked faith in the heart of that malefactor to see through it all and recognize the Son of God hanging gruesome beside Him. “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” Jesus looks nothing like a king! For a crown he wears thorns. His undergarments were taken from Him, let alone a robe. His throne is a wooden cross stained with His and probably others’ blood. His closest friends had left Him and fled. Yet, the repentant thief hanging beside Him looked upon the face of God and believed.

The thief asked to be remembered, and Jesus promised Him something much greater: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Jesus isn’t just going to remember the thief one day later, but Jesus thinks on the thief already, and promises him a place in paradise with the Son of God. The Romans may have mockingly called Jesus the King of Jews, but ironically He was not just the King of Jews, but He is King of all creation, King over all! From the cross He reigned supreme by the blood He shed as the atonement price paid for the sins of all. Behold, your King, hangs all disgusting and filthy in love for His people.

Dear Christians, we are in the end of days, and Christ is coming soon. The day of judgment is approaching when all will stand before the judgment of Christ. The day that is coming is burning like an oven, and all evildoers will be judged with the full wrath of almighty God. When that day comes there will be no do-overs or second chances, no one gets to change their mind, and what’s done will be done. So if you’re on the fence, if you’ve put your faith off for a while, now is the time; choose this day whom you shall serve.

“Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. “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. Then 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.”

The day is coming and though your sins be as scarlet, like the sinner on the cross beside Jesus, Your Lord will look on you and remember you and spare you. You are His treasured possession. He has purchased you with His own blood. He has written your name, the name of those who fear Him, in the book of life. He claims you as His own and He says: “You are mine.” “You will be with me in paradise.” 

This Advent look for the manger scenes, and let those images of the birth  of our Savior direct you also to the cross upon which Your Savior bled and died for you. He was crucified so that your death may be like the manger scene, a new birth from death to life. “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... He is the firstborn from the dead.” And you are following Him.