“Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43).
As you know, Jesus was speaking to one of the men who had been crucified next to him. This man, a thief had asked Jesus “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” and Jesus replied to him when he said that he would be with him in paradise. But just who is the man on the cross?
I know that when I first heard this story and up until just recently, in fact, I had always thought that this man was just there already. I had never really thought about how he got there. But I discovered that Roman law dictated that executions had to be carried out the same day as the sentence. Therefore, it can be concluded that the thief was at Jesus’ trial. He knew Jesus was innocent because he witnessed the conversations between Jesus and Pilate. He saw the crowds choose Barnabas and he watched as the Roman centurions flogged, tormented and ridiculed Jesus. Finally, he was a part of the deadly procession to Golgotha. This man was not simply there already, but had been with Jesus the whole day.
For that matter, so had the other thief – the man who said to Jesus, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us" (Luke 23:39). They had both been witness to the same cruel and callous treatments, harsher then even their own as ancient pictures depict the two thieves to have been tied to their crosses while Jesus had been nailed. Yet these two men had far different attitudes towards our savior. It is these two attitudes that I want to reflect upon.
I wish that I could stand here before you today and tell you that I have led the perfect Christian life. But this is simply not true. I have struggled with my faith my whole life and I struggle with it still. There have been times in my life when I saw going to church as laborious and almost like a punishment. I would be happy if I got sick and was excused from going. As I grew older and lived on my own, I did not always attend church but I did always want Jesus to be with me when I was having a problem.
I think you could have labeled me as a ‘bad day’ Christian because I only turned to God when I needed help. “Lord, you are the great all-powerful God; can you not help me out of this mess?” Does this not sound like “If you are the messiah then save me?”
I read a very interesting analogy comparing some people’s view of God as a car-jack. In this analogy the car is our life and a flat tire represents our problems. Do you know where I keep my car-jack? Do you think I give it a place of reverence in my car for all the times it helped me when I was stranded? No, I keep it in my trunk – hidden away and only taken out when needed. Then, when I am driving and my tire is flat, I say, “If you are such a good-jack, fix my tire. Fix my marriage, or fix my job, or fix my life”[1].
I have said this so many times, for years Jesus was my car-jack, only to be called upon when I needed to change a tire. If my car-jack didn’t do its job, I would become angry…angry at God, angry with myself, angry with the world.
The thing that I never understood until now is that I have acted like the unrepentant thief on the cross. Every time I demanded Jesus to help me through something, I was telling Jesus to save me and afterwards, I would callously put him back in the trunk—hidden until I needed his help again.
Perhaps most of us, at one time or another has been the first thief. But have we also been the second thief? Have we also been repentant?
The second thief was penitent; he knew his crimes and knew he was being punished justly. He feared God and knew Jesus was King and he did not ask for salvation for his mortal life but for his spiritual life. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
I have a history that involves a lot that I am ashamed of, but it is not the details of my history as a sinner that are important, for my sins have been washed away. What does matter is that I sought redemption and when I did, I was crucified alongside Jesus, allowing my body to die to sin so that I might be remembered in His kingdom.
If you are wondering why I would say that I was crucified with Jesus, I would like to examine one more aspect of the Gospel account and that is the narrative in comparison to Mark and Matthew. Both Mark and Mathew wrote of the criminals who were crucified with Jesus; however, neither goes into detail. They are nothing more than passing footnotes. In Mark, it reads, “Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him (Mark 15:32) and in Mathew it says, “The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.” (Mathew 27:44).
So why did Luke go into such detail, even to say that Jesus spoke to the man, welcoming him into paradise. That, I think has to do with who Luke was speaking to through his gospel. It is commonly accepted that Luke was writing to the Gentiles. Luke traveled with Paul and they ministered to the Gentiles, wanting them to know the Christian message was for them too. So, who was the man on the cross? Was he just a pawn in the gospel to show us God’s forgiveness? Or is he something more?
As I mentioned, Luke traveled with Paul and Paul said in Galatians 2:20 “For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.” Luke was not writing of the thieves on the cross to simply make the scene more dramatic. He was trying to tell us something – that Christ came for us all. He came so we would all be with him in Paradise.
When Jesus spoke his words on the cross he was not speaking to one man but to all humankind. We are called to be co-crucified with Christ[2]. It is in this humbling of ourselves, through our own suffering and repentance that we may find the grace to say, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And it is our greatest hope that on that day, Jesus will turn to each of us, as he did the thief, and say, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
I know that when I first heard this story and up until just recently, in fact, I had always thought that this man was just there already. I had never really thought about how he got there. But I discovered that Roman law dictated that executions had to be carried out the same day as the sentence. Therefore, it can be concluded that the thief was at Jesus’ trial. He knew Jesus was innocent because he witnessed the conversations between Jesus and Pilate. He saw the crowds choose Barnabas and he watched as the Roman centurions flogged, tormented and ridiculed Jesus. Finally, he was a part of the deadly procession to Golgotha. This man was not simply there already, but had been with Jesus the whole day.
For that matter, so had the other thief – the man who said to Jesus, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us" (Luke 23:39). They had both been witness to the same cruel and callous treatments, harsher then even their own as ancient pictures depict the two thieves to have been tied to their crosses while Jesus had been nailed. Yet these two men had far different attitudes towards our savior. It is these two attitudes that I want to reflect upon.
I wish that I could stand here before you today and tell you that I have led the perfect Christian life. But this is simply not true. I have struggled with my faith my whole life and I struggle with it still. There have been times in my life when I saw going to church as laborious and almost like a punishment. I would be happy if I got sick and was excused from going. As I grew older and lived on my own, I did not always attend church but I did always want Jesus to be with me when I was having a problem.
I think you could have labeled me as a ‘bad day’ Christian because I only turned to God when I needed help. “Lord, you are the great all-powerful God; can you not help me out of this mess?” Does this not sound like “If you are the messiah then save me?”
I read a very interesting analogy comparing some people’s view of God as a car-jack. In this analogy the car is our life and a flat tire represents our problems. Do you know where I keep my car-jack? Do you think I give it a place of reverence in my car for all the times it helped me when I was stranded? No, I keep it in my trunk – hidden away and only taken out when needed. Then, when I am driving and my tire is flat, I say, “If you are such a good-jack, fix my tire. Fix my marriage, or fix my job, or fix my life”[1].
I have said this so many times, for years Jesus was my car-jack, only to be called upon when I needed to change a tire. If my car-jack didn’t do its job, I would become angry…angry at God, angry with myself, angry with the world.
The thing that I never understood until now is that I have acted like the unrepentant thief on the cross. Every time I demanded Jesus to help me through something, I was telling Jesus to save me and afterwards, I would callously put him back in the trunk—hidden until I needed his help again.
Perhaps most of us, at one time or another has been the first thief. But have we also been the second thief? Have we also been repentant?
The second thief was penitent; he knew his crimes and knew he was being punished justly. He feared God and knew Jesus was King and he did not ask for salvation for his mortal life but for his spiritual life. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
I have a history that involves a lot that I am ashamed of, but it is not the details of my history as a sinner that are important, for my sins have been washed away. What does matter is that I sought redemption and when I did, I was crucified alongside Jesus, allowing my body to die to sin so that I might be remembered in His kingdom.
If you are wondering why I would say that I was crucified with Jesus, I would like to examine one more aspect of the Gospel account and that is the narrative in comparison to Mark and Matthew. Both Mark and Mathew wrote of the criminals who were crucified with Jesus; however, neither goes into detail. They are nothing more than passing footnotes. In Mark, it reads, “Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him (Mark 15:32) and in Mathew it says, “The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way.” (Mathew 27:44).
So why did Luke go into such detail, even to say that Jesus spoke to the man, welcoming him into paradise. That, I think has to do with who Luke was speaking to through his gospel. It is commonly accepted that Luke was writing to the Gentiles. Luke traveled with Paul and they ministered to the Gentiles, wanting them to know the Christian message was for them too. So, who was the man on the cross? Was he just a pawn in the gospel to show us God’s forgiveness? Or is he something more?
As I mentioned, Luke traveled with Paul and Paul said in Galatians 2:20 “For through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ.” Luke was not writing of the thieves on the cross to simply make the scene more dramatic. He was trying to tell us something – that Christ came for us all. He came so we would all be with him in Paradise.
When Jesus spoke his words on the cross he was not speaking to one man but to all humankind. We are called to be co-crucified with Christ[2]. It is in this humbling of ourselves, through our own suffering and repentance that we may find the grace to say, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And it is our greatest hope that on that day, Jesus will turn to each of us, as he did the thief, and say, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Jesus on the cross, I love you. As I stand near the cross, help me listen to Your words with faith and love. Let Your love for the Good Thief inspire and console me. Give me some of that freedom to open myself to others, to never lose hope in them. Help me, Lord, to understand that You invite me too, to paradise. Amen.
[1] Piper, John, Today You will be Me in Paradise, (Good Friday Reflection, Bethlehem Baptist Church, April 17, 1981). Retrieved from http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper81/%20041781.htm.
[2] Heaster, Duncan, The Death of the Cross, (Online Source, n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.carelinks.net/books/dh/cross/1-1-10Today_You_With_Me_Paradise.htm.
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