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Sermon for Christ the King Sunday – November 23, 2025
Luke 23:33-43
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
A sign hung over Jesus as he was being crucified. It said, “This is the King of the Jews.” It was put there ironically, as a joke. Some king he was, pinned there between two criminals, naked and bleeding, soon to be dead! Most of the people below him were in on the joke. They joined in, scoffing at him, mocking him, deriding him. The word “if” came up a lot. “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one.” Or as the soldiers said, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.”
One of the criminals being crucified beside Jesus joined in on the mocking from the people below. He derided Jesus, ridiculing him with sarcasm: “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself! And get us down from here while you’re at it!”
That sign identifying Jesus as the King of the Jews may have been intended as a joke, but there was one there who understood that it was true. The other criminal somehow saw in Jesus’ innocent suffering that something divine was happening. He somehow saw that Jesus’ crucifixion was his coronation. He somehow saw in Jesus’ crown of thorns a real king about to enter his kingdom.
And so he rebuked the other criminal who was talking trash to Jesus. “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” This criminal recognized that he was getting what the law demanded. He accepted his own condemnation. He acknowledged his own guilt while pointing to Jesus’ innocence.
And then he said something truly remarkable. He turned his head towards Jesus, and he said to him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Notice he didn’t use the word “if,” like so many others did. He said “when.” He firmly believed Jesus had a kingdom! As far as he was concerned, there was no “if” here, it was only a matter of when! That’s faith!
He then asked Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. This is more than just asking to be called to mind. He wasn’t asking Jesus to put a picture of him on his fridge and think about him once in a while. In asking Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom, this criminal was asking him for mercy when Jesus takes his place in his royal court. He was asking his King Jesus for pardon, for clemency in the coming kingdom. He was asking the King he knew would soon be on his heavenly throne to remember him with grace.
And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
“Today,” Jesus said. On that very day Christ’s kingdom would come to him. There would be no waiting, no delay. He wouldn’t be taken down from the cross for a second chance in which he could prove himself first. He didn’t have to come back for a hearing at a later date. “Today,” Jesus said. His grace was imminent. It was available on the very day of his asking! “Today.”
“Today you will be with me,” Jesus said. This criminal would not be alone. He would not be cast out into the outer darkness. He would not be stuck with his mouthy fellow criminal. He would not be dumped with all the other bodies piled up at the bottom of the hill. He would be with Jesus. He was going where Jesus was going. “You will be with me,” Jesus told him.
“Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Jesus doesn’t tell him he will be in Purgatory, with a sentence still to serve. Jesus tells him he will be with him in Paradise. This word can also be translated as “garden.” What Jesus is promising is a return to the Garden, a return to the paradise of Eden before the fall. He is promising a complete restoration, where he will be free from sin and its consequences, free from the condemnation of the law, free from guilt and shame and pain and weeping and death.
Jesus won’t just remember him, he will re-member him. That is, he will put him back together the way he was supposed to be. He will heal everything in his life which has been dis-membered. He will restore him to the wholeness and perfection God intended for him at the beginning of creation. This is the picture of heaven Jesus gives him with this beautiful word, “Paradise.” And if anyone questions this criminal as to why he is there, he can just point to the King and say, “He invited me! He let me in!”
My pastor during my high school and college years died from cancer while I was in seminary. We kept in touch in the years before his death, even after he took his last call to a congregation in Arizona. Once when I was down in Arizona on a trip, we met for lunch. He talked about how he endured all the ups and downs – mostly downs – of dealing with a terminal illness. He said that in his worst moments of suffering he would sing a chant he had learned, a musical setting of the words of the criminal from the cross: Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.
This didn’t entirely make sense to me at the time. He was one of the most godly, honest, upright, gentle, and kind people I have ever known, and I thought it was a little odd for him to be meditating on the words of a criminal, making them his own.
But years after he died, I came across something Martin Luther wrote about this criminal and his words. Luther wrote: “The criminal, perceiving his guilt and Christ’s innocence, trusts that Christ’s innocence will help him. He sees right into the heart of Christ, as though through a solid wall. The criminal is one of us, and we are like him; therefore, let us cry out to Christ trusting that He will say to us: `Yes, Amen!’
“The criminal is one of us, and we are like him,” Luther insists.
You don’t need to be a felon to need forgiveness. The scriptures tell us we all have fallen short of God’s law. The scriptures tell us that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The truth is we all need mercy in the court of our King. The truth is that we all suffer from sin and death. The truth is we all need to be re-membered and restored.
But this is just the first part of what Luther gets at here. Luther also says that we are also like the criminal in that we perceive that Christ can help us! We are like him in that we too see the heart of Christ in his innocent suffering for us! We see his great mercy. We see his great love. We are like this criminal in that we trust that our Lord Jesus will help us. We cry out to Jesus trusting that he will say to us, “Yes, Amen!”
Reading this snippet from Luther helped me make sense of my pastor singing the words of this criminal. He didn’t just meditate on them because he knew he was a sinner – although he certainly did and would be the first to admit it. He meditated on these words, making them his own, because he had faith that Jesus could help him.
He sang those words over and over again because he believed that the words on the sign hanging over Jesus’ head are true. Christ is indeed our King, and he is a King who can help. He is the King of mercy. He is our highest authority and our deepest hope. He is a King who suffers alongside us while promising us Paradise.
When the world looks to Jesus, it still sees that sign over his head and laughs, thinking it is all a big joke. It still scorns and derides him. King of the Jews? What kind of King dies on a cross?
But with eyes of faith, we too see that that sign is true. We see in Christ a King who helps us. We see a King who wore a crown of thorns, bearing our sin, in order to set us free. We see a King who suffers with us, so that we would know that he is with us even in our pain. We see a King who shared our death so that we might share his eternal life. We see a King who remembers us with mercy and promises us Paradise.
And so we pray, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”
And already now, our gracious King says, ‘Yes! Amen!”
Thanks be to God.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church