While catching up on my reading, I ran across this Good Friday sermon in Gottesdienst, Vol. 28, No. 1 on the gospel text: St. John 18:1–19:42. May it be a blessing to you.
† In the name of Jesus. †
For to Christ, all are thieves. The elders of the people had robbed him of his title, Messiah. The disciples had robbed him of comfort and consolation. Judas had been pilfering his purse all along. The soldiers robbed him of his clothing, and Pontius Pilate would soon rob him of his life.
Thieves to the left, thieves to the right, and thieves all around.
And the thievery continues to this day. Modern science has robbed Jesus of the title, Creator. Perverse and sinful people rob him of the obedience that should be his. Abortionists rob him of little worshipers and rob the rest of us of potential researchers who might find the cure for cancer and other diseases. Indeed, thieves all around. But don't be too smug, you too have joined in the thievery. Your complaint that your life should have turned out better than it has, has robbed your God of the titles, Father and Provider. Your fear that there will not be enough for you has called into question the truthfulness of his promises and has left you selfish, failing to help others as you ought. Your angry, lusting, and pitying thoughts have robbed him of his sovereignty over you. By your self-justification, your lame excuses, your blaming others, you have robbed him of the title, the One Alone Who Justifies the Wicked.
Thieves to the left, thieves to the right, and thieves all around.
But here is the grand surprise, my friends, here is the "Ha, Ha!" from heaven, here is the great, divine comedy. Thieves to the left, thieves to the right, and thieves all around, but the greatest thief is on the center cross. Didn't the Lord Jesus say that he would come to judge the world like a thief in the night? Didn't the little Lord Jesus slip into our time and space in the deep of night? Didn't Jesus say that when a strong man guards his house his goods are safe, but when one stronger than him comes he breaks in and plunders all his goods? Yes, the strong man kidnapped us and took us into his house, but unlike other kidnappings, we went willingly. Like our father Adam we snatched up the glittering trash that he held out. He's a liar, but we love his lies. We love the lie that our lives should have turned out better. We want to believe the lie that there is no need for contention in the church, no need for confession of the truth, no need for martyrs anymore. We love the lie that our sins are small compared to others, that we are not as bad as most and better than some. We believed the lie that his prison-house was actually a mansion and the place where we could find true happiness.
But Jesus would not leave us in that prison of delusion. The Valiant One came to release us. He broke into the prison house of Satan to set us free. He took the one thing that Satan could hold against us, keeping us in everlasting bondage, and that was our sin. He took that sin, and the death that comes with it, into Himself and shed his holy precious blood for the expiation of the world's sin, and ours as well, thereby slaying death. Through that blood, we have been cleansed in Holy Baptism and thereby are granted admission into the Supper of the Lamb and his Bride, the holiest of suppers, which we concelebrate with the saints above at each and every Mass.
Into to that grand banquet, the dying Lord was about to admit an unexpecting thief. This miserable little man, who did not sleep a wink all night for the horrifying thought of the hell he fully expected and deserved, heard the unimaginable and completely unexpected words, “Today … with me … in paradise.” We know him as the repentant thief, and he was. His brief Christian life was spent in defending his Master, praying to him, and believing his promises. Yet in one sense he remained a thief. And what do thieves do? They frustrate us, for after working hard for the things we own, they creep in and in an instant take what we labored for so long. And so, while the Lord was working to death for your salvation and the salvation of the little thief, the little thief found the treasury of Jesus' mercy and grace wide open where he found salvation freely given. But the Lord always has the last laugh, and as the little thief was snatching grace, the Grand Thief snatched him clean away forever!
People of God, if the little thief found hope in the mercy of Christ, then there is surely hope for thieves like you!
In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Ghost.
This sermon was preached by Pr. Peter M. Berg at the Tre Ore Service of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 19, 2019.
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