Luke 23:32
Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him,[d] saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The thief is so close to death, so desperate that he speaks straight to the point. His need is now. His need is urgent.
The thief knew he was a sinner. He had stolen from other people. He had broken God’s law. He deserved death.
This is the moment when all of us finally reach Jesus in prayer. When we finally see that we deserve punishment, that we are dying and have no future.
Apart from Jesus.
In one of Flannery O’Connor’s story a character says about an old woman: “She would have been a good woman IF there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” In other words,
if she had always known she was about to die, she would have lived a better life.
This is all of us. When we know we are going to die,
then we repent. Then we consider finally how we should have lived. Then we see all our sin.
We all face we have wasted much of our lives, and we are running out of time.
Then all we can do is repent. Say to Jesus, “remember me!” I offer you nothing, but simply ask that you in mercy remember me.
Jesus does not reject any who turn to him. Even at the last hour, when there is little left to give him.
The thief does not say, remember my good deeds. He says, “remember me.” In mercy, remember me.
We were made for paradise. We have been crying for it all of our lives. Even when we didn’t know we were crying for it. In our pain and loss and emptiness and failure, we weep for paradise.
There Christ will live with us and we will live with him and for him. In love.
The cherubim and the flaming sword have barred our way to paradise for all of history.
Now Jesus has opened the path.
Do think you will like the company in paradise?
There will be many thieves there, and many other disreputable ones. Because they lived in the dirt but repented at the end.
If you think you are more qualified than them, then you have understood nothing.
You don’t belong there either.
You have only one hope: “Jesus, when you come into your kingdom… remember ME.”
