End Times 4 – Christ the King                          November 23, 2025
Luke 23:35-43                                                   Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“Behold, Your King”

For the past month and a half we’ve been talking about the family of faith. How the Christian Church at large, and Salem specifically, is our home until Jesus brings us to our actual home in heaven. But Christians everywhere are a part of that family too. Maybe some are distant cousins we don’t see very often or they’re the cranky uncle that we never talk politics with at Thanksgiving, but they are family. That’s the invisible Church of believers that is found in every heart that truly believes in Jesus as Savior.

Today we get to celebrate that unity just a little bit. Today is the last Sunday of the church year, and around the world Christians are celebrating Christ the King Sunday. Lutherans, Catholics, Nazarenes, Methodists…everybody that follows the church year – is using the same texts and praising Jesus as king over all for all time.

Why bring that up? Because history has thrown us a curveball that we all share. This is the last Sunday of the year. You would think that those Christians who created the church year centuries ago would end on a high note. What part of Jesus’ life would you choose to end the year? His resurrection? Maybe raising Lazarus or some powerful miracle. Something from Revelation perhaps. We know Jesus is the victorious Lord of all things and that he will come again in glory. But today’s Gospel reading doesn’t show us a powerful Jesus. It doesn’t point to his glorious return. Here we see a despised Jesus. A broken man suffering a shameful execution. There’s no glory to Jesus there. No power in his appearance. But they chose it well. This is our king at his best. Lowly in appearance, but great in victory. Christians, this is your King.

Most of us know this account well, and how Jesus came to this cross. Christianity isn’t complicated. God says we must be perfect to enter a perfect heaven. And we are not. I don’t need to tell you what your sins are. You already know. Is it anger? Lust? Greed? Envy? Laziness? Selfishness? Even one sin bars us from heaven and we have so many. The sinful nature of our heart runs away with our words and our lives. And so, all humanity is condemned by their own sins to be separated from God now and forever. Apart from divine intervention, every soul would spend eternity in hell, including us.

But this text is the history of God’s divine intervention. God loves his creation, including sinners like us. That’s how Jesus ends up on the cross in our text. To save us, he became one of us. He left heaven for a time and came to be our perfect substitute. He followed every bit of God’s will. He lived in perfect love for God and others. As 1 John 2:2 says, “[God] loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Not that many people cared. Luke records Jesus in his lowliest appearance here and points out two specific kinds of mockery our king endured on the cross. And they’re mockeries that people make of him still today. Verse 35: “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” Those are damning words. Jesus’ crucifixion was no error in identification. The Jewish rulers knew precisely who Jesus claimed to be. God’s Messiah, the Chosen One. They didn’t crucify Jesus because they didn’t know who Jesus claimed to be. They crucified him because they did – and they didn’t believe him.

We see this today too. We see this mockery of our king every time someone robs Jesus of his glory by denying his miracles, his teachings, his divinity, his virgin birth. Every time someone tries to argue that Jesus is just one way to heaven or that we need only to obey some of his commands. Every time a false teacher changes Jesus to satisfy the world, they sneer at him and mock him. When someone challenges or criticizes your faith, know that the words you’re hearing are nothing new at all. They mocked our king. It’s no surprise they would mock us too.

Back at the cross, the unbelief of those mockers led others into sin as well. The Roman soldiers didn’t mock Jesus on spiritual grounds. What did they care if Jesus was some long prophesied Jewish Savior? They mocked him for his lack of power. Verse 36: “The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” In their eyes, Jesus was weak. What an inferior king Jesus must have been to be called “King of the Jews” and yet suffer this fate. These soldiers were the arm and the sword of Caesar. Now, that was a king. Caesar sat on a golden throne. He commanded legions of soldiers and his orders were not questioned. Caesar was not mocked. The soldiers ridiculed this supposed “king” who ruled nothing and suffered everything.

This mockery of our king continues today too. Your Jesus isn’t powerful enough, others say. Your God doesn’t love you. If God is so great, why does he allow trial and tragedy? If God is such a great king, why do children die and why are the weak trampled by the strong? If God is so powerful, why doesn’t he stop persecution? The mockery of Jesus’ power didn’t end with his death on the cross. It continues today as scoffers point to the cross and see the lowly appearance of the one we call king. It rises in our own hearts as doubts attempt to overwhelm trust and we ask “Why me?” and “Where are you, God?”

But know this. This king low in appearance is greatest in glory. One of the first things the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians was this: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” All those skeptics and scoffers that see only weakness at the cross don’t see the truth that we know. Christ didn’t stay on the cross because of weakness; he stayed there because of his strength. You’ve heard the cliché: It wasn’t nails that held Jesus to the cross; it was love. Trite but true. On the cross our King appeared at his lowliest so that he could win his greatest victory. And we see that victory in Jesus’ promise to the sinner right there on the cross next to him.

Other Gospel accounts record that for a while both thieves crucified with Jesus joined in the mockery. But over time, one had a change of heart. He recognized Jesus was different. This believing thief said to the other, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” He turns to the dying Lord, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And right there it is! In the middle of this account of Jesus at his lowliest, we see his true power and glory. Jesus wasn’t failing in weakness, he was winning in humility.

There’s so much we learn from Jesus’ words to this dying man. After a life of sin, a moment of faith can change a person’s eternity. Even from a cross a believer can witness to others. Baptism is a blessing, but not absolutely necessary for heaven. We don’t have to understand everything about Jesus to be saved – just trust in him. Heaven is ours the day we die. There is truly no death for the believer.

Christians, behold your king! So powerful in love that he gave up everything to win us. Shortly after he promised heaven to the thief, Jesus called out, “It is finished” and gave up his spirit. This humble king is the king of all kings. His sacrifice on the cross atoned for our sins. His perfect life is the one we will hold up to the Father when we are judged.

But now, Christians, turn your eyes away from that cross to the other window behind me. With the work done, our king now stands in glory again. Risen from the dead. A victory proclamation in hell itself. Ascended into heaven. And now, exercising his power as the right hand of the Father to rule all things for our eternal good. And in the end, he will stand on the earth again, this time in glory, and every knee will bow to him and confess his name as Lord. Christians, this is your king, powerful and glorious.

Why does Christ the King Sunday matter? Because too often we forget Christ is already our king now. We’re not waiting for our king to arrive and rule; he already rules in our hearts. Where is the kingdom of God? Jesus himself tells us in Luke 17, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is among you.”

Fellow members of this family of faith, this is our last thought for the “Welcome Home” series, and it’s a big one. When we gather. When we pray for each other. When we love and care for each other. God is among us. When you struggle. When you sin. When you doubt. God is here with his people in Words and Sacraments of love and forgiveness. I don’t expect a single worship series to change everyone’s hearts or attitudes toward church. But I do pray that it makes us think about how blessed we are. Blessed to have one another. Blessed to have this place. And most of all, blessed to be a part of this eternal kingdom of the King of Kings. To God be the glory. Always. Amen.