Sermon for Holy Tuesday
+ Luke 22:1-23:56 +
We’re presented with four kinds of sinners in the Passion History.
We have Peter, the devout disciple of Jesus, who fell away for a time, but then repented. Peter denied his Lord three times, and that, after Jesus warned him that he would and after Peter himself swore to Jesus, Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death. Even if all the rest deny You, I never will. No doubt Peter was sincere when he spoke those words. But he spoke them out of pride—pride in his own ability to sustain his own faith—and pride went before the fall. When the moment of truth came, when the three moments of truth came, each time Peter turned away from Christ to save his own neck.
But then the rooster crowed and the Lord Jesus turned and looked right at Peter, and the words Jesus had spoken came back and pierced his soul like a knife. Confronted with the terrible reality of what he had done, Peter acknowledged his sin; he repented. Repentance includes both sorrow over sin and faith in Christ, who bore that sin on the cross. Peter went and wept bitterly over his sin. “What have I done?!?” But to that godly sorrow, faith was added, so that Peter turned again to Christ in his heart—to Christ who doesn’t save the deserving, but the undeserving. And so Peter was restored and forgiven.
Then we have Judas, the hypocrite who died in impenitence. Even before his betrayal, even before he chose to sell his Lord for thirty pieces of silver, Judas had become an impenitent thief, helping himself to the treasury of offerings people had given to Jesus. He was so angry at Jesus’ kindness, like His kindness shown to Mary when she anointed Him with that costly perfume, so angry and so greedy, that he sold Jesus to the highest bidder and betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss of phony friendship.
Luke doesn’t mention it, but the other Evangelists do: Judas was driven to remorse after he saw that his actions had led to Jesus’ death sentence. Apparently he thought it wouldn’t come to that. He was sorrowful over having betrayed innocent blood. But that wasn’t yet repentance, because he put no faith in that blood to cover his sins. He despaired of God’s mercy and imagined his sins to be more powerful, more important, more valuable than the blood of Christ. So he hanged himself and was condemned to hell.
Then we have the thieves on the cross, impenitent unbelievers at first, one of whom remained impenitent until he died, the other of whom repented on his “death bed,” as it were. They were both criminals. One of them, now facing imminent death for his trespasses, still wanted nothing to do with Jesus. He would rather go to hell than rely on the blood of Christ. But the other—the other sees the guiltless Lamb of God, or as the sign above His head read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews,” and he believes and seeks pity and pardon from that King. And he receives it! He finally enters into Christ’s kingdom, even there on the cross, and has Paradise promised to him before the day’s end.
Four men, all sinners from birth. Four men, none of whom deserved anything from God but condemnation. One, a devout believer who stumbled severely, but repented and was received back again. One, a hypocrite who finally recognized his sin of betrayal but still didn’t look to Christ for forgiveness. One, a thief who never acknowledged his sin nor believed in Jesus. One, a thief who finally did acknowledge his sin and believed in Jesus.
Two of these men—Peter and the one thief—were eternally saved. The other two were eternally condemned. What was the difference? Was it the desire of God that two of the four be damned? No, for God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. What was the difference? Was it that Christ didn’t do enough to make up for the sins of the two men? No, He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. What, then, was the difference? The difference was that Peter and the one thief were brought by the Holy Spirit to repentance, while Judas and the other thief resisted the working of the Holy Spirit, pointing them to Christ as their Savior. Two were saved by faith. Two were condemned in unbelief.
Who in the world isn’t like one of those four men? The believer who stumbles, the hypocrite who pretends to be a Christian but doesn’t believe, the heathen who is never converted and the heathen who finally is. Notice what we don’t have in the whole Passion History: the believer who never stumbles, the disciple who commits no sin. There is a lesson for us in this, and St. John summarizes it well in his first epistle: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Always know that God earnestly desires your repentance, not your death. And see in the Passion History how Jesus never, ever turned away the one who looked to Him for mercy, but, for the sake of His own suffering and death, always forgave and always restored. And He always will. Amen.
