The King of the Jews.  So read the sign that was posted above the head of Jesus as He hung upon the cross.  All four Gospels record these words written on the sign, so apparently it is something that we ought to note. During a crucifixion, it was common to post the victim’s crime so that whoever saw it would be warned.  Here, Pilate stated Jesus’ title as a way to mock the Jews, brought these charges to Pilate.  Whenever you see a crucifix with the letters “INRI” this is what it means. It’s the Latin acronym for Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

There He hung, the King of the Jews, dying upon the cross, mocked by His own.  The rulers scoffed at Him. They did not deny that He saved and raised others, but reasoned that if He will not save Himself, He is not the Messiah. A king that didn’t save Himself isn’t much of king. 

Even one of the two criminals Jesus hung between recognized this.  He railed against Jesus saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” It’s not that this criminal was any greater of a sinner than anyone else.  Yet how he treated and received Christ determined his eternal destiny in hell.  He mocked and insulted the Son of God.  He even asked Christ to save him, yet not as a repentant and faithful heart begging its Savior for salvation.  No, this criminal could not see that Christ was even in that moment purchasing a kingdom with His death.  If he hoped for anything, the criminal hoped for a display of power by Christ, if He really was the Christ, to get down from the Cross and take the criminals with Him. 

How often this cry has gone up in the world, rolling off the tongues of countless people who find themselves in trouble.  They cry out to Jesus, not in faith, but in anger and frustration, in rebellion because of their own sinfulness.  What kind of God are you, anyway, that you would let people suffer?! What kind of king is crowned with thorns, bleeds, and dies? If you can’t save yourself, you can’t save anyone else either! For all extensive purposes, this Jesus is a loser.  Not even His own people accepted Him.  St. John wrote that “He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him.”  

But then St. John goes on, “But to those who did receive Him, who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11-12). These verses describe perfectly the two criminals. Both were bad people. Both were sinners.  Both were dying because of their sin.  One rejects that Jesus is the Christ, the other believes. One bore the punishment for his sin. The other saw his own sin in light of the King who hung dying next to him.  He feared God, since he knew that he was rightly under condemnation.  He did not consider his own crucifixion to be unjust, since he had committed sinful deeds.  Yet the criminal also saw in Christ the only innocent Man, who deserved no punishment.  He saw that Christ was dying in fulfillment of Scripture to usher in the kingdom of God.  So the man humbly begs, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” (23:42).

And He does.  Jesus responds with words of pure joy: “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise!” (Luke 23:43). Paradise, a fulfillment of the garden of Eden, and the crucified criminal will be there with Jesus that very day, for he believes that the crucified Jesus is King, even over a dying sinner like himself. We hear an absolution in His words to the repentant criminal.  There is the promise of eternal life.  There is the assurance that Christ does not see the criminal's sins, which are surely great.  Instead, He opens for Him the gates of heaven through His gracious Word.

So upon the Cross, Jesus spoke these words to indicate the purpose of His sacrifice: To restore God’s people to paradise by His death and to usher in His kingdom to all who believe in Him.  In the SC, Luther explains the second petition of the Lord’s Prayer by saying, “The kingdom of God comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.  And how does God’s kingdom come? God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.”

This is the purpose of the Divine Service, this is why the Spirit gathers us over and over again in this place – to deliver the kingdom of God to us. We hear those same words of absolution, receive the same forgiveness, inherit the same paradise today.  The kingdom of God exists wherever and whenever the king is ruling by means of His gospel. This is why we litter our churches with crosses, the instrument and sign of death.

At the Cross, we meet the end of Days in the death of the Christ of God, the Chosen One. Yet we need not feel the terrors of the last Day.  We may be a little afraid at first when we don’t know what is happening.  But when we straighten up and lift up our heads on that last Day and behold the risen Christ in all His glory.  Then we will remember that we are His, united with Him by virtue of our Baptism, and that He is our gracious King who has come to save us.

This crucified and resurrected Christ is the Judge who determines who shall enter His Paradise, as ridiculous as that seems to those who scoff at the Son of God.  Whether we are sinners or not is not the issue to Christ.  It is whether we have faith in His promises, a faith that receives and holds on to the merits of Christ.

Today, Jesus invites you to join the criminal on the cross and confess your sin in repentant faith.  To confess, to look to Jesus in faith, to rebuke those who reject Him, to suffer and die with Christ and be raised to eternal life with Him on the Last Day.  Jesus serves you with the promise of paradise through the proclamation that your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the gates of His kingdom are open to you today.  When our last hour comes, Jesus will have the same words for all who believe in Him that He had for the criminal, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Amen