These two robbers present one of that extraordinary series of contrasts which Our Lord, by his very presence and by being what he was, brought about on Good Friday – the same sort of contrast which we see in his Parables of the Judgement.

There was Peter who went out and wept bitterly and Judas who went out and hanged himself.  There was Pilate, the chief secular authority who sought to acquit Jesus, and Caiaphas, the chief religious authority who was bent on condemning him.  There was Pilate’s wife who tried to save Jesus, and the mob which succeeded in saving Barabbas instead and having Jesus crucified.  So now there is the contrast between the two robbers.