“A King Who Remembers Us”
Lk.
Intro.: All of us want to be remembered. It’s embarrassing, even humiliating to be
forgotten. Business people put their names and phone numbers on cards hoping
that people will remember them and work with them. Some people donate money so that a plaque will
remind others of their contribution to a worthy cause. After our death, family members want to
remember us by purchasing headstones or grave markers. It is important to remember and be
remembered.
As we gather here again today remembering
and celebrating the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and King, Jesus
Christ, the question we need answered is:
“Will He remember us?” In today’s Gospel there were a number of
people who remembered Jesus.
I.
Jesus’ Enemies Remembered Him And Mocked Him.
A. The rulers remembered Jesus. They remembered with bitterness that He had
exposed their false religion and threatened the way of life they had chosen for
themselves. They remembered with jealousy
the divine signs and glorious wonders that had accompanied His teaching, how He
healed the sick and even raised the dead, and how the crowds had followed Him. They remember all the wonderful claims He had
made about Himself. And so as the people
stood watching, the rulers sneered at Him and said, “He saved others; let him save himself
if He is the Christ of God, the
B. The soldiers around the cross also remembered
Jesus. Some of them may have remembered His
brutal and bloody scourging. They may
have been among those who had pierced His head with a crown of thorns, placed a
robe upon the His back of torn flesh, and put a staff in His hand, and how they
had jeered at Him. Of all the people of
C. Even the impenitent criminal who was hanging
beside Him remembered Jesus. He had
probably heard of the things Christ had done and how many had believed that He
was the promised Messiah. What a
disappointment! This was certainly not
the kind of Savior and God the man wanted, so he also lashed out at Jesus and
hurled insults at Him, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us.” (v.39)
Application: Still today
there are many who remember Jesus. They
remember with bitterness what Jesus says about the false religions they have
tailor made to fit their own deviant opinions and to excuse their sinful lifestyles. They remember with jealousy how Jesus’
challenges them and seeks to take their place at the center of their lives. They remember and mock the foolishness of the
cross, and laugh at the idea that after all these years Jesus will keep His
promise to return in glory to judge the world.
They remember Jesus, but like the impenitent criminal they insult Jesus,
because He is not the kind of God and Savior they want.
Transition: But
there were others there at Jesus’ crucifixion who remembered Him in another
way. One of them was the repentant
criminal who was also hanging beside Jesus.
He represents all of us who remember Jesus to be the very God and Savior
we need. Our Gospel shows us that…
II. The Repentant Sinner Remembers Jesus
And Calls Out To Him.
A. Our Gospel reading relates that immediately
after the first criminal insulted Jesus he was challenged by another who may
have actually been his friend and cohort in crime. Remembering His own sinfulness and the holiness
and love of Jesus he rebuked the impenitent criminal saying, “Don’t you
fear God since you are under the same sentence.
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” (vv.40-41)
Then
the repentant criminal turned to Jesus, looked at Him and remembered. He probably remembered the promises and
prophecies of the Old Testament. He
looked at Jesus and realized that every detail of Psalm 22’s vivid description
of the Savior’s crucifixion was taking place right before his eyes. He looked at the wounds and stripes on Jesus’
body and remembered the prophecy of Isaiah and how God promised to lay on His
suffering servant all our sins to heal us and bring us peace through His
agony. He looked at Jesus and remembered
how John had called him the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. Remembering his own sin and the
promises of God in Christ, the repentant criminal, turned and looked at Jesus
and prayed, “Jesus, Remember me when you come into your
kingdom.” (v.42)
B. We are here today in the spirit of that
man. We, like him, remember our own
sinfulness and the holiness and love of Jesus.
We look upon Jesus with our eyes of faith and we remember all the
prophecies, all the promises, and all the things He said and did to deliver us
from sin, death and the power of the devil.
We remember that He loved us so much that He came down from heaven to be
born of the Virgin Mary. We remember
that He placed Himself under the law and kept it perfectly for us. We remember that He suffered at the hands of
evil people like us, died on a cross because of our sin, and was buried in a
borrowed tomb so that we may be freed from death. We remember that He descended into hell to
proclaim His victory, that He rose again to give us the assurance of eternal
life, and that He ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us, so that where
He is we may be also. We remember that
He has given us the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of Baptism, the spoken, written
and sung Word and His Holy Supper to call us to faith and grant us
salvation. We remember that He promised
to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father and that He would come
again in glory so that we could finally be delivered from sin and every evil and
so that these bodies may be raised and transformed to be like His own glorified
body. We remember Jesus, and like that man beside Him we look to Him and with repentant hearts
pray, “Lord,
Jesus, remember me and let Thy kingdom come.” As we gather here today, we
remember Jesus, but the question remains “Will Jesus, our King, remember
us? The answer is certain and
comforting…
III. Our King Remembers Us – He Always
Remembers Us.
A. He remembered every one of us from the cross
and brought us into His kingdom when he looked down upon the crowds and through
the centuries upon our faces and pleaded, “Father, forgive them.” (v.34) There, by taking our place under God’s judgment and giving
his holy life in exchange for our sinful ones Jesus opened the kingdom of
heaven to us. There, in the midst of
agony our thorn crowned king remembered us and interceded for us with his dying
breath. And because of this, as our
epistle says, “[God] 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. ..in [Christ] God was reconciling all things to Himself…making
peace by the blood of His cross.” (Col. 1:13-14,20) Because
Christ, our King, remembered us from the cross our sins are forgiven and
forgotten and we have been made citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Even now, Christ remembers us and continues
to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father. Still, he pleads, “Father, forgiven them!”
and it is accomplished. Another thing
our Gospel assures us is that….
B. Christ, our King, remembers us at the hour of
our death. After the repentant thief
turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered, Jesus assured Him: “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” (v.43)
Over
the years of serving the Lord and His people, I have been with many repentant
sinners in their hour of death. I have
witnessed the certainty and comfort of faith that comes to them when they
remember Jesus and His love, and are able to pray, “Jesus, remember me and take me into
your kingdom!” And what a joyful thing it is to know that
they have heard the Lord answered them, “Today, you will be with me in
paradise!” and then to see Him carry
them through death to live with Him, as they await the day of
resurrection. And what a day that will
be when, Christ, our King, returns in all His glory, with all who have departed
this life in faith, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to
judge all people, to raise-up the dead, and to glorify those who remember him
in faith. In our Old Testament reading
the prophet assures us that…
C. Our King will remember us when he comes again
in glory. He writes, “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.” (Mal. 3:16-18) Repeatedly in
His Word, our King, Jesus Christ, assures us that we will be remembered when He
returns in glory. Our names are written
in heaven, in the Lamb’s book of life, on that day we will be remembered and
set apart for glory. The King of glory
will separate us out as His treasured possession and we will hear him say, “Come, you
who are blessed by my Father and take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared
for you since the creation of the world.”
(Matt. 25:34) He will remember everything we did through
faith, and all we did to serve Him and glorify of His name. Our sin will be forgotten, but we will be
remembered. He will remember us and His
promises to deal with us according to His grace.
Concl.: What a
blessing it is to remember and be remembered!
What a comfort to know that we have a King who remembers us, Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.