Thinking about the thieves

My church had a guest speaker this past Sunday.  David Nasser has a powerful testimony and I urge my Christian friends out there to listen to it.  There is plenty for all of us to learn.  At any rate, while he was inspiring, that's not why I'm writing this post.  Our church is going through a series on the last saying of Christ.  Those sayings from the cross.  This week, the topic was "Surely I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise".  This is what Jesus said to one of the thieves after he defended Him and asked Him to "remember me when you come into your kingdom".

This is a powerful passage of the Bible for many reasons.  It tells us that only faith is needed to enter heaven.  That it is because of God's mercy, not any works we do, that we are saved.  It puts on vibrant display the power of the cross and the path that each Christian goes through in their journey to being saved.  See, Nasser pointed out in his sermon something I knew, but had never really thought about.  He stated that the Bible doesn't really reveal to us what the two thieves were guilty of.  This is certainly true.  Most translations say thieves or criminals, but beyond that generic statement, there is no specificity.  Obviously, even thieves is too simplistic.  After all, a simple thief caught red handed would have had his hand removed from his arm.  This hardly rose to the level of crucifixion.  The point is that the Bible is intentionally vague about what these two men did.  Nasser stated that he believes this is intentional.  Very little in the Bible could be described otherwise, I think.  Regardless, by omitting the sin of the criminals, it allows us to fill in the blanks.

Two men died with Jesus that day, one mocked Him while the other defended Him.  Jesus, who was in great pain, thirsty, abused, ashamed, mocked, suffocating, bleeding out, and more, took the time to acknowledge the second criminal who simply asked Jesus to remember him.  This immediately following asking God to forgive all those responsible for putting Jesus where he was.  Jesus had a sign above his head that stated his crime.  This was not an uncommon event so it is likely that the criminals also had their crimes spelled out above them.  Jesus' crime was nothing more than claiming to be the King of the Jews, which was a power threat to the Romans, but wasn't really the point.  The Jews would have understood his claim was really of being the Messiah.  So, Jesus was put to death for claiming to be God.  The criminals were put to death for what?  Fill in the blank with your own crimes, sins, misdeeds and you reveal what was really happening.  As with all of us, Jesus died to wash away all sin...from the past, the present and the future.  Jesus died for the people killing Him, the people who followed Him, and for the criminals who died with Him.  He died for everyone past and future.  So, the criminals crime is left blank because Jesus died for them.  We can place our sins on our own signs and know that faith in Jesus will result in the cleansing of those signs.  It is really that simple.

See, the story really illustrates a truth I'd never thought of before.  Sure, Jesus died for us all and the criminal who showed faith rather than scorn ended up having his faith credited to him.  However, when looking at the two thieves on the cross, I realized that this really represents the world.  In the end, there are only two possible responses to what Jesus did for us on the cross.  We can mock and scorn Him and ask Him to prove himself, or, we can praise Him and ask Him to remember us/to forgive us.  These are really the only two options available to the world.  Accept Him or reject Him.  This story powerfully illustrates that truth as Jesus reached out to the one who accepted Him and provided him with hope and assurance.  This is what Christian "faith" is about.  To accept Jesus and follow Him.  It is never too late.  The thief proves this point as well.  He had no way to ask forgiveness of those he harmed or to do good works in the name of Christ.  He was literally on his deathbed.  In the end, all he had was his faith and Jesus' response to him was "today you will be with me in paradise".  Today you will.  Now...immediately...when this is over...TODAY!  That is the comfort that all Christians cling to.  We aren't perfect, we don't always do like we should, but we are forgiven through the power of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection.