One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
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,
“I tell you the truth today… you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:39 43).
There is something that always touches me when I consider people in Scripture like this wonderful man. I feel the same when I remember Rahab, the harlot who left that lifestyle to join the people of the living God, or Zacchaeus, the small man with large courage and faith who humbled himself to climb the tree to see Jesus and was so greatly rewarded for doing so.
And when I consider the woman taken in adultery (John 8), who was dragged before Jesus and then saved by him from the stones of her accusers, I would very much like to think that she “sinned no more”, became a dedicated follower of her Savior, and will receive eternal life.
Although we won’t know his name until the Kingdom, there are some things we do know about this astonishing man, the thief on the cross. Quite likely he was, along with his partner in crime, a follower of Barabbas (the one the crowd chose to release instead of Jesus). This would mean he was also an insurrectionist and in all likelihood a zealot.
But it’s also possible, too, that he was a lapsed disciple. I would suggest this based on his amazing insight about Jesus (which will be considered shortly). And if this is the case, then we have an answer to the vexing question, ‘How could he be saved, not being baptized?’ For, as a disciple — even a former disciple, so to speak — he would have been baptized either by John the Baptist or Jesus’ apostles.
Even if it turns out that he wasn’t baptized earlier, it is true that he literally died with Christ. Isn’t that what baptism represents?
As to the thief’s beliefs, we can tell the following from his statements to the other thief and to Jesus:
- Jesus was sinless: “This man has done nothing wrong” (v. 41).
- He himself was a worthless sinner: “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve” (v. 41).
- Jesus was “Lord” (AV), i.e., the Messiah (v. 42).
- Jesus would rise from the dead. For how else could Jesus eventually remember the thief when he came in his kingdom?
- Jesus would ascend to heaven — the same reasoning as before, based on Psalm 110:1: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
- Jesus would come again. “Lord, remember me when you come.”
- At his coming Jesus will raise the dead: “Remember me!” Of course, the thief knew that within hours he would be dead!
- “Remember me” also implies discrimination (judgment) between those accepted and those rejected, so he had to have known Jesus would be the judge.
- His coming would also establish a kingdom. So here again is his understanding that Jesus will be the king in this glorious kingdom.
A couple of other points: The other thief had just said to Jesus, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!” This is similar, of course, to what the mockers were saying — “Come down from the cross.” Also, the unrepentant thief was saying, “Save us too!” (v. 39). But, in contrast to the other thief, the righteous thief appeared to know that Jesus needed to die as a sacrifice for sins; therefore, he doesn’t endorse what his companion said. Furthermore, in his rebuke to his companion he asks, “Don’t you fear God?” — implying that he (the speaker) did fear God. Here was his open confession of faith in God and in His Son. He and his companion may have had the sympathy of the crowd, if it’s true that they were followers of Barabbas (for most Jews would have had much sympathy for anyone who had tried to overthrow the yoke of Rome). But, if so, now he was forfeiting this sympathy, and choosing rather to share the reproach of Jesus.
Isn’t it rather extraordinary that at this point there may have been only three people, in the world, who knew for certain that Jesus would rise from the dead, ascend to heaven, and eventually come in glory to establish God’s kingdom? One is this criminal, this nameless thief, and the other two are the soon-to-be despised Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (both hated by their own associates in the Sanhedrin). The apostles and close friends of Jesus would soon understand it all, but for them that came later, on the following Sunday, when he appeared to them.
*****
Paul makes an important point about all these conversions, when he writes to the Corinthians:
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).
And in another passage, also from 1 Corinthians, he adds this thought: “Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a ‘fool’ so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” (3:18,19).
So it was with Simon of Cyrene, Malchus, the Roman centurion, Joseph, Nicodemus, and the righteous thief. They were from wide and varied backgrounds, but they all had one thing in common. They saw the truth when it presented itself — that the suffering, apparently friendless man whose life was ebbing away was the Messiah, the judge of all the earth, Son of David, the future king of the world — and their Lord and Savior.
Come what may, they all chose to attach themselves to him — and not let go.
Brothers and sisters, we must do the same.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One