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“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.
Fellow redeemed: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” One of Jesus’ important titles in Scripture is ‘Emmanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’ This is the next-to-last Sunday in the Church year. Advent is coming, and one of our favorite hymns we can look forward to singing is ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.’ God with us comes. Our question today is, how shall He come? At His holy birth in that stable in Bethlehem, Jesus came to us lowly and humble. So He lived His life among us for more than thirty years, perfectly innocent and obedient under the Law in our place to the Father’s will, and so too Jesus humbly submitted Himself to suffering and death on the cross.
Jesus came in humility at Christmas. And He came to die on our cross humbly, that first Good Friday. These things happened. They are historic events. Along with those events Jesus promised us this concerning the future: that at the Last Day He would return. We are near the end of the Church Year, which symbolizes our nearing the end of time. Jesus is returning, and we are engaged by Him to lift up our heads as He comes. But let’s consider: Emmanuel– God With Us is returning– but; how shall Jesus be, in what manner, in what attitude shall Jesus come again? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” Jesus comes again, but not in the manner He first came, an infant to be swaddled and laid in a manger, a man to be scourged and crucified in deepest obedient humility. Jesus comes in His glory.
When Moses asked to see God face to face, our Lord warned him that His glory would undo and destroy him. Moses only was allowed the slightest glance of the Lord as He passed by, and even that was so much that his hair was turned white and his face glowed so intensely that he had to wrap his head up afterward lest he blind those who saw the man who had caught a glance of the backside of the Lord! Man cannot withstand the presence of the unveiled Holy One. When Jesus returns He is returning in His glory. God With Us shall come upon us and be seated in the midst of us, His creation, attended by the angelic heavenly host. The sight and the glory of it will surely be terrible beyond words!
And Jesus will gather us, the entire species of man from the whole world without exception or escape to Him, and having drawn us all near to Him as He dwells in the uncreated light of His glory, who of you imagine that you will not be undone? In that light of His glory every secret, every defect and fault will be shown, as clearly as a scratch or stain in crystal!
And Jesus shall look upon you, and upon every person, every newborn, every girl and boy, every teenager, every man and woman, every bed-bound, every hospitalized, every elderly, every one shall be subject to His all-penetrating light, and His all-seeing eye. When Jesus returns, there shall be no exception to His judgment. And from it there shall be no appeal or relief. And as a shepherd divides his stock, sheep into one pen, goats into another, there shall be no possibility of evasion or escaping His glorious return to judge you.
You know the word picture Jesus presents of this judging, of the sheep He orders to His right, and the goats He consigns to His left. And you know the good works He has demanded of you in His Law– the Law which He has perfectly kept in His first coming. Jesus is not only the creator of that Law, but in your place, having been made man, Jesus has perfectly obeyed it, and so He is fully in every respect qualified to legitimately demand it of you in judgment. And you know that you have not kept His Law. Your good works are filled with error, with evil, with death. You know that by His Law you are a goat to be consigned to the fire of hell for eternity. And you know that this judgment is right, even as you imagine the unimaginable experience of being in the presence of Jesus in His glory as He judges you.
There is no escaping. You cannot hide. You cannot lose yourself in the crowd. Jesus is coming, and you shall be made to stand before Him. So here is the only question that matters, really: how shall you fare?
On the last day; the Last Day of all Creation, or your personal Last Day when you shall die and await that judgment, there is nothing to be done. You shall not be afforded any second chance, any period of working additional merit by which you might escape the prisonhouse of hell and eternal death. But leave this now, and return to your senses. This is not the Last Day, Jesus has not yet returned in His glory to judge. There remains a time. What is to be done?
Of yourself there is nothing to be done, for as we hear the sheep and the goats, both the saved and the eternally damned of mankind say, you are unable to recognize even in the slightest manner what service you may bring to your Lord. But Jesus in His returning in His glorious judgment is doing just that– returning. He’s been here before, the historical events we celebrate from Christmas through Ascension, and He is even now in our midst according to His promise, in His flesh, fully. Your salvation, and the rescue of your loved one and neighbor, if they will have it, is in Christ’s presence now, the Mystery of His presence among His own between the history of that first advent of Jesus, and the future of His returning on the Last Day.
Therefore it is given to set before you the Mystery Gift of God. Here is Life in Christ, and He is for you, rampant in triumph over your sin, Gracious in loosing your well-earned bonds of death forever. Hear the Word given to be spoken, Christ Jesus lived and died for you, and in Him choose Life, or turn to your own work to your own sin, yes, even to your own virtues, and die. Life and death are here, and you are on the precipice of eternity. Choose Life, your Salvation, your Savior, Who in dying in your place has stretched out His arms to you in His crucifixion and taken you to be His own, He for your sake a sinner, and you for His sake a saint. Isn’t that a wonder! Live in the One who gives you life.
You cannot effect your salvation. But the day of doom is not yet upon you. And Jesus has come to bring you salvation. Emmanuel, God With Us has come to us, and now comes to you with healing, forgiveness, salvation! He once came in humility both to actively fulfill the Law and to offer Himself passively into suffering and death, making the perfect payment of the eternal penalty of your sin. Jesus entrusts this gracious work to you for your salvation in Him precisely where He promises it: in His Word, in which the Holy Spirit continues to breath life and salvation to all who hear and believe. Jesus comes to you by to His promise, chasing the devil and his demons from you in the watery word of holy Baptism, and creating in you faith to hear and believe His Word. Jesus feeds His body and blood, borne of Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, into your mouth to eat and drink, delivering to you fresh and new and unending His redeeming sacrifice made once and for you and for all. Jesus breathes forgiveness into your heart and mind and makes you His own. You are covered in His righteousness by His promise in His Word and these means of His grace.
Oh, insofar as you can see, you are a sinner, and woefully so! But you are in Christ Jesus, and you believe His promise, and His Spirit enables you to hold God Himself to His Word. And when the day at last arrives, and you are made to stand before Him in judgment, and all the world around you is cowering in unworldly fear, you, lift up your head! Lift up your eyes and behold! Your Savior has come, and in His most unrelenting and eternal judgment you have your salvation, life, joy, and peace! Your sin is forgiven. You see your sin, He does not. You see your flaws, God With Us sees none at all, for you are entirely wrapped up into His Glory, His Word fills you, and leaves no place for the word of condemnation. The water has washed you and you are clean. He has fed Himself entirely to you and you are filled up with Him. You are become the very Glory of the Lord which an unbelieving world cannot even see. You are transfixed here, between history and future, and are met by Jesus, and you are saved, redeemed, restored, forgiven, graced to be His holiness, wrapped up altogether in His righteousness, made a participator in His uncreated light and Life forever. And here you may abide, at Peace in Christ.
Jesus has already won your salvation. Worry about it no more. You are forgiven every sin. You are made spotless in the Blood of the Lamb. You are free. So serve one another, and serve those whom you may. Don’t bother whom you serve, just do so in the gladness borne of an heart set free in the grace of Jesus. And with glad surprise hear on the Day to come, just Whom you are credited with serving. Your life is gift. Your salvation is gift. Your sin is no more, by gift you are holy made. You shall not die, but live. God With Us in His Glory gives You His Glory, covers you over and fills you up in His Glory. Lift up your heads, your Redeemer comes nigh!
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus your Lord. Amen.
