“One of the criminals who were hanged there
kept deriding him
and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save
yourself and us!” But
the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the
same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we
are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing
wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in
Paradise.””
- Luke 23:39-43
Jesus’s
companions in crucifixion, one on his left and another on his right, can be
described in several different ways. Matthew and Mark call them “thieves,” an
indicator of the crimes that earned them their crosses. Luke prefers the more
general term “criminals,” perhaps unwilling to limit the extent of their sins. And
John seems unconcerned with their back stories, thinking only of them as “two
others” who shared an execution date with the Lord. I suggest another way of
thinking about them, based upon their interactions with Jesus in Luke 23:39-43—they
are our representatives; living, breathing examples of how all people respond
to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The
first criminal speaks to Jesus with derision, mockery, and perhaps a hint of
desperation: “If you were the Messiah, you’d save the three of us!” He looks at
the broken body and the spilled blood of Jesus and sees an imposter finally
paying the piper—Jesus may have had some pretty words and some fancy tricks up
his sleeve, but when all is said and done, he bleeds the same as any common
criminal.
His
response to Jesus, simply put, is rejection. He cannot see past the evil of the
world and the darkness of his own circumstances; he cannot imagine that there
may be purpose to the pain or hope from the horror. His only answer to agony is
anger, and so all he can think to do in his final moments is hurl insults at
God’s anointed. A Christ whose response to the world’s evil is meek submission will
never be his king.
The
second criminal behaves differently, scolding the first man for his irreverence
and pointing out that, while Jesus is suffering the same punishment as they
are, he is not guilty of the same crimes. He looks at the body and blood of
Jesus and sees something different than his fellow thief does—he sees a king
willing to suffer for his people, a Lord who is answering injustice with grace.
His
response, in other words, is acceptance. So, facing is own death, he turns to
Jesus with an earnest plea: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He
knows that, with all his sins, he does not deserve the attention of Christ, but
he prays that there is enough grace in the bosom of God to afford him some
small legacy in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus gives him more than what he asks
for: the man—no longer a sinner, but now a saint—will not only be remembered in
the kingdom of God, he will be part of it.
Easy
as it is to give the two men on either side of Jesus ostracizing
labels—thieves, criminals, sinners—they are not so different from you. Just
like them, you stand justly condemned in your sinfulness, incapable of saving
yourself. Just like them, you face a punishment that is as unendurable as it is
deserved. And just like them, Jesus is with you in your suffering, an abiding
Lord to the end. When he turns to you for a response, what will you say?
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