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.