“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (NRSV, Luke 23:43)

We read that when Jesus was crucified, two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right hand and the other on his left.

In those days the general rule was that only such men as pirates, rebels and murderers were put to death on the cross.  Presumably these two robbers were associates in crime.  Now their life of crime was nearly over.  A few hours of agony and society would be rid of two more of its enemies.  They had fought against society for years, perhaps, and now nothing was left to them but the bitterness of defeat.

They looked down on the crowd below them.  No one was paying much attention to them.  All eyes were turned on Jesus, all taunts were flung at him.  “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” (NRSV, Luke 23:35).

The soldiers at the Cross joined in, “If you are the King of the Jews,” they laughed, “save yourself!” (NRSV, Luke 23:17).

The jeers roused one of the robbers to fury.  Jesus belonged to a world altogether different from his own, and therefore he hated him.  Jesus was the only one whom he could hurt now.  He turned his head and, picking up the taunt of the onlookers, hurled it at Jesus with a bitterness made the more intense by his own plight.  “If you are the Messiah save yourself – and us” (Luke 23:39).  He had never had much faith in his fellowmen and now he had lost all in himself.  A dreadful despair settled on his soul and he abandoned himself to the powers of evil, an easy prey.

But his words of blasphemy evoked an unexpected reply, not from Jesus, but from the robber’s companion in crime.

He who is now known the world over as the Good or Penitent Thief, had also come to the end of his life.  He must have heard of Jesus before that day, may even have stood uneasily at the back of the crowd to listen to him teaching.  Now he was close to him for his last hours.  It was a time when a man thinks long and hard: the sands were quickly running out.

He thought what his past life had added up to.  He compared himself with the Man on the central Cross.  How silent he was in the face of the jeering mob!  How out of this world the only words that had passed his lips, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (NRSV, Luke 23:34).

And a great light flooded into his mind.  That taunt of the soldiers, that title on the Cross – he could just see it out of the corner of his eye as he turned his head, “The King of the Jews” – that told the truth: this man was what he had claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord’s anointed King.

“If you are the Messiah save yourself – and us”.

The words roused him; the blasphemy of his friend clinched the matter.  He made his great decision.

“Do you not fear God”, he cried, “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” (NRSV, Luke, 23:40,41).  Then turning to Our Lord he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (NRSV, Luke 23:42).

It is impossible for us to measure the depth of faith which those words expressed.  Everything was against him.  There was no escape, either for him or Christ, from the cross.  Before evening it would be all over for them both.  Yet that man did not despair.  The forlorn figure next to him became the centre of all his hope and confidence and faith.

What a lesson that is for us when everything seems to go wrong: when we reach the end of our tether and are tempted to give up in despair.  Perhaps life has turned out very differently from what we once expected.  Perhaps our religion may seem cold, meaningless, empty, and we think of giving it all up.

At such a time let us remember the Good Thief.  For if he trusted in a dying and apparently helpless Christ, how much more ought we to trust in a living, risen and glorified Christ?

Though the world fall in pieces around us, the love and power of Christ remain sure and steadfast, and our faith in him will never be in vain.

When the Good Thief realised that Our Lord actually cared for him, he felt how utterly unworthy he was of that care.  He confessed that he was a sinner and went on to prove his repentance by accepting his terrible fate as a penance for his past life – “…we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds…” (NRSV, Luke 23:41).

Then he turned to our Saviour and pleaded for forgiveness, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (NRSV, Luke 23:42).

“That word ‘Remember’.  How complete was his penitence and love.  If his love had not been perfect, he might have been tempted to say, ‘Do not think of me – do not remember me, because if you do, you will remember the long catalogue of sins from my earliest youth till this day, theft, violence – perhaps murder’.

But he would have all remembered; because he had no doubt at all of the measurement of the Cross of Christ – the length and breadth and height and depth was the measure of His infinite love which went beyond the robber’s life”. (1)

He had no fear of what he had been, because he could now present himself as he was, a truly penitent believer in his Saviour.

And how immediate is the forgiveness of Jesus!  “...today you will be with me…” (NRSV, Luke 23:43, our emphasis).  And when the Good Thief heard those words he knew with certainty that he was forgiven and all would be well.

And the result – life with Our Blessed Lord, “you will be with me”.  Until he gained forgiveness by his faith and penitence, the dying robber had been far removed from Jesus.  Though only a few feet separated the crosses, yet his unrepented sins formed a vast gulf cutting him off from all fellowship with his Saviour.

For forgiveness is not the end of the Christian life, but its first beginning, when one enters into fellowship with Our Blessed Lord, and in that fellowship begins to change, in spite of many falls and failures, into his likeness.  And as faith and penitence are necessary for life with Christ here, so are they the double gates leading to life with him hereafter – “Today you will be with me in Paradise”.

This second word from the Cross following the first – the prayer for forgiveness – brought a welcome joy to the breaking heart of Jesus, and peace and new-found happiness to the dying penitent.

But it does not rest there.  Jesus still speaks those words to the penitent soul today.  If we are truly penitent, he gives us, even now, the nearness of his life and presence for us to share: “Today – you shall be – with me”.

Reference

1. King, E. (Bishop of Lincoln, died 1910) Meditations on the Seven Last Words of Our Lord.