+ Last Sunday of Church Year – November 23rd, 2025 +
Series C: Malachi 3:13-18; Colossians 1:13-20; Luke 23:27-43
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We live in a world long on hype and hysteria and short on hope. Heavy hearts and Hopelessness abound. Hope is hard to find.
There’s pessimism and division in politics. Despair over our own illnesses and our family and friends. Worries about everything from faith to finances. It’s easy to find ourselves wondering if Jesus is really going to return as he promised. Or if we’re honest, does he really even care about today.
The antidote, some would say, is simply to be more optimistic. Turn that frown upside down. Don’t worry, be happy. It’ll get better. Hakuna Matata, and so on.
There’s a difference though isn’t there, between optimism and hope, at least when it comes to God’s Word. Optimism isn’t the same thing as hope. Optimism (or pessimism for that matter) is often about how you perceive things. Hope for the Christian, however, is the way things are even when you don’t see it or feel it. Our Lord has a way of giving us hope just when all seems hopeless.
Consider yourself. When we look at ourselves – honestly, through the lens of God’s Word – we join Paul in confessing “oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.” And yet when God the Father looks at us through Jesus crucified, he no longer sees you the sinner, but the blood of his Son Jesus crucified for me, and for you. This is why seeing isn’t always believing. But hearing is. Hearing the Word of Christ. That anchor holds.
On this last Sunday of the Church year, Jesus speaks and delivers his sure and certain hope into our hopeless world. Hope anchored in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Hope as we long for Jesus’ glorious return. Hope as we await the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
We tend to think hope is just another word for wishful thinking. In God’s word it’s the opposite. Hope isn’t wishful thinking or wistful daydreams, but Christ’s sure and certain promises. Hope isn’t found in us, but in Christ crucified and risen.
The kind of hope God gives us through the prophet Malachi, “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him.”
The kind of hope God gives us through St. Paul’s words in Colossians 1. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The kind of hope Jesus gives to the criminal on the cross next to him. Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
No one in the ancient world would’ve looked at that scene and described it as hopeful. Darkness and thick clouds. Three men suffering the horror and anguish of crucifixion. Beaten. Weary. Dying. Bloody and beaten down. And yet, this is the where the thief found true and lasting hope. Or better yet…that’s where hope finds him and you. In Christ crucified.
Here’s a man, a thief, whose life did not merit the Kingdom. He’s utterly hopeless were it not for Jesus. And yet, when Jesus speaks, the thief is born anew to a living hope where all human hope and optimism had perished.
Hope for a dying thief pinned on a Roman cross for his crimes who cried out: “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”. The Lord meets that prayer with a sure answer: “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”
The same is true for you. When we look at the world around us, when we look at our lives, when we look within, we find no hope. We have nothing to cling to. Along with the faithful criminal, we confess that we’re under the same condemnation. For the wages of sin is death.
For you and me…hope is hard to find. Impossible in fact. That’s why hope finds you. Hope is pinned to a Roman cross for you. Hope is hung, bloody, beaten, battered, bruised, crucified, and buried for you. Our Lord has a way of giving us hope just when all seems hopeless.
In Jesus, we do not receive the due rewards of our deeds. We don’t get what we deserve. Just the opposite! In Jesus crucified we get what we don’t deserve. Jesus takes our punishment and we go free. Jesus who knew no sin is made sin for us. Jesus dies our death and we live. Jesus takes all of our depravity, doubt, despair, disease, death – everything that causes us hopelessness – and he delivers us hope in his death and resurrection. Jesus saves others by not saving Himself. Jesus saves sinners by dying for them. Jesus justifies the ungodly. Jesus saves the unsaveable and redeems the irredeemable.
In the waters of your Baptism, Jesus joins you as surely as he did that thief on the cross – and he says to you: Today you will be with me in paradise. In his word of absolution, resounding from the cross and the Last Day to our ears on this very day: Today you are forgiven all your sins. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ body and blood fill us and feed us with hope in the forgiveness of sins. And that cup is not half empty, or half full, but spilling, running, and flowing over the brim with the faith, hope, and love of Jesus crucified for you.
In the changes and chances of this mortal world, our hearts are fixed where true joy and hope is found. For the criminal on the cross. For you and for me, and for all. The cross of Jesus is where our hope is found.
In these gray and latter days, we live in the hope that we prayed earlier: “Lord Jesus Christ, you reign among us by the preaching of your cross.” In these last days, surrounded by pain and pessimism, by sin, suffering, and death, Jesus gives us hope in the midst of death. Hope that our Savior rules not in spite of the cross, but through it.
The cross of Jesus is where your hope is found. Today, on the Last Day, and every day until our Lord returns. Amen. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.
A blessed Last Sunday of the church year to each of you…
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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