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In the name of Jesus, amen. Dear saints, the Lord gathers us together to hear His word, and especially on the last Sunday of the church year, so that we would think about the end—the end of our own lives and the end of the world. And how to be ready for those. How to be ready to breathe our last day. How to be ready to meet our maker, how to be ready to stand before the Lord on the last day, the great day of judgment when the Lord sits on his throne and judges the world.
And I’d like us to note that the Holy Spirit has before us today not texts of the law or of Moses or instruction as if we would be ready for that day by our own efforts or preparation or works or service or sacrifice or whatever. No, none of those things. We are ready for the end only by the work of Jesus. We’re ready to die only by the work of Jesus. We’re ready for the judgment day only by the work of Jesus, who claims us as his own and gives himself to us.
So today we hear of Jesus in the epistle and in the gospel lesson. But the amazing thing is that the way that Jesus has given to us is quite different in those two places. In the epistle lesson from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he talks about all of these beautiful, magnificent attributes that Jesus has according to his divinity. That he’s the image of the invisible God; that in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells; that he has the preeminence above all things. It’s from this passage in Colossians chapter 1 that we confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father before all things, through whom all things were made. This is the glory of the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God.
But then we turn to the gospel lesson, and there we see Jesus Christ walking slowly to the cross while Simon is bearing the cross behind him because Jesus cannot stand up under the weight of it, and the women are mourning. Jesus tells them to stop. The gospel lesson takes us all the way to this place of the skull, where our Lord himself is nailed to the cross, and there we hear his first and his third words that he speaks from the cross: “Father, forgive them” and “You’ll be with me in paradise.”
We see the Son of God suffering. It’s two very different pictures. In fact, beautifully contrasting. I made the list this morning because this is who Jesus is. And it’s who we confess. It’s who we cling to. It’s who saves us. The one who is the image of the invisible God is here beaten and bloody, so marred as his appearance that he’s not even recognizable. The one who is the firstborn of all creation breathes his last at 33 years old. The one through whom all things were created, both visible and invisible, is here astonishing the angels by his suffering and giving the demons reason to rejoice as he endures the pain of the cross.
This one who is, according to Colossians, before all things, now breathes his last. The one in whom all things hold together is held to the cross with nails through his hands and his feet. The one who is the head of his body, the church, now has his own head crowned with thorns and his body beaten and stripped. The one who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, cries out, “It is finished,” and gives up his spirit. The one where Paul says, “In everything he might be preeminent,” humbles himself even to the point of death on the cross.
He’s mocked by the sign hung above him: “This is the King of the Jews.” Paul says, in Colossians 1, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” This one cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He was to reconcile all things to himself, and yet here he is on the cross alone and abandoned, surrounded only by those who would mock him and his enemies.
But in all of this, according to the word of God, the Lord Jesus makes peace by the blood of his cross. Now this is an astonishing thing for us—that the one who created all things takes unto himself created nature, but not just any created nature—your and my flesh and blood—so that the one who is our creator might also be our brother. This one who is holy takes unto himself all of our sin and our shame so that he could be the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the world and declare us to be holy. The one who dwelt in glory, the unapproachable glory of God in eternal life, this one is covered in blood and spit and shame so that we could recognize in him the love of God for sinners, the love of God for you, and the love of God for me.
Jesus is the one who is both God and man, and he is all of these things—every single bit of it—for you. He’s man so that he could bleed and die and suffer for you, and he’s God even for you so that all of his bleeding and dying would stand before the Father’s throne and be your life and salvation. And it’s this one, Jesus, who is the king of all, the creator of all, and the one who suffers all for us. This one is your readiness to die. This one is your readiness to meet the Lord on the judgment day.
There is no work that we can do to be ready. There’s not enough. You never could accomplish it. If you were scrambling around to be ready to die and to be ready for the judgment day, I promise you’d never finish. You cannot achieve the holiness that God requires on that day, but Jesus can, and Jesus has accomplished it all. And he comes to us this morning in these words so that we would receive him as our Savior.
These two words that he preaches from the cross are for you. Remember, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.” Jesus wants to be known by you in the forgiveness of all of your sins. There’s this great danger that we start to speculate about theology and imagine God and all of this sort of thing. Dear saints, Jesus wants us to know Him as the one who forgives sins, the one who suffered and died for that reason, so that we would also know Him as the one who tells us when it’s time for us to die, “You will be with me in paradise.” That’s His promise. That’s your Savior. That’s Jesus.
So today we end the church year, rejoicing in the one who is the firstborn over all creation, born of the Virgin Mary, the one who holds all things together, hung on the cross, the one who is preeminent over everything, lifted up from the world in his crucifixion. This is the one who holds us in his hands and gives himself to us so that he might be our Savior and friend, with us in life and death.
May his gifts, may his suffering, may his power put forth on the cross be your comfort and peace this year and in every year that we wait for his return. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.