Day 1
Love's redeeming work is done
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:40-43)
The village was abuzz. According to all the informal village “news” channels, Mr. X was “calling lists.” “Calling lists” was the local dialect for deathbed confessions.
It was not the first time that someone in the community was “calling lists,” but the alleged confession from the well-respected Mr. X was of a nature to send shockwaves through the entire local area. Mr. X, according to the rumors, had startlingly and unexpectedly revealed his responsibility for a series of heinous crimes that had shaken the community a few years earlier.
In those days, serious crime was rare, and the mysterious nature of these related crimes had left the community bereft and baffled. Until now.
I do not know whether Mr. X found peace and forgiveness in his last hours, but I know of someone else whose “lists” led to an amazing assurance! I do not know the details of his crime—they are only suggested by the way he is described. You may have heard him called “The thief on the cross”—one of two men crucified with Jesus.
The gospel writers do not give any details about the crimes of these two men. Matthew and Mark refer to them as rebels (Matthew 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27 – NIV); Luke refers to them as criminals (Luke 23:32-33). John attests to their crucifixion along with Jesus (John 19:32) but gives no clue about the charges against them.
Whatever their crimes, we know they were serious enough in the eyes of Roman Law to warrant the Roman capital punishment of crucifixion. And we know they were guilty from the admission of the one to the other, “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve” (Luke 23:41).
Interestingly enough both initially mocked and insulted Jesus along with the crowd (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32). But like the Roman centurion whose up-close witness of the crucifixion led him to conclude, “Surely this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47), one of the rebels became convinced that Jesus had “done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). More importantly, he recognized Jesus as the Messiah-King (Luke 23:42).
The thought strikes me that these two criminals represent the two possible human responses to Jesus’ sacrificial death. The starting place is the same for us all—God’s enemies (Romans 5:10). But the choice is to either, like the one thief, carry enmity with God into death, mocking and insulting His grace up to the last breath, or, like the other, become reconciled to Him through the death of His Son (Romans 5:10).
We might not have committed crimes considered heinous by the standards of human law. Perhaps nothing deserving of capital punishment. But in God’s perfect, holy, just, all-knowing reckoning, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We are all those two rebels—For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).
But our spiritual separation from God is not the end of the story. The cross offers hope through a sinless Savior who, though He Himself had done nothing wrong, paid the staggering price for all human wrongs.
One rebel ultimately recognized this hope amid the stark reality of his condition. And following the admission of his guilt, he offered a prayer to the only One who could offer him forgiveness, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
As simple as that. No eloquence required, no script, no prescriptive words. Just a penitent heart, submitted to the only One who could cleanse a wretched criminal and offer Him pardon and paradise (Luke 23:43).
For us, as well as for a condemned thief, the cross offers One Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all people (1 Timothy 2:5). Human execution positioned Him between two criminals—divine execution positioned Him between God and man. One person, one space between.
Some find this offensive, but if there are alternatives, why would the cross be necessary? Jesus Himself wrestled deeply in prayer under the weight of such a “cup” of suffering, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). And ultimately, one at will with the Father, He embraced it as the only way.
Ultimately, we are all Mr. X. Whether we are in the glow of youth and physical health, or knowingly numbering our waning days, we seek peace with God in the deep recesses within. And for every Mr. X (and for every Mr. A to V, Y to Z—or any other letter in any other alphabet in any other language,) the hope of the cross is still held out to every penitent heart: “Christ has opened paradise.” Alleluia!
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