Jesus Promises His Kingdom to the Repentant Thief

"One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, 'Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!' But the other rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’" (Luke 23:39-43)

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In the face of mocking, ridicule and chiding Jesus has remained silent. Isaiah the prophet spoke of this posture of Christ, and it was this image of Jesus that captured the imagination of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8 that led to his subsequent baptism. “This is the passage of scripture the Eunuch was reading: “He was lead like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation we was deprived of justice.” Jesus continued his silent strategy even under the derision of the first criminal to rail at him from a cross beside him. Yet something remarkable happens next. When the second criminal defends Jesus, and then asks for Jesus to remember him, Jesus speaks. He responds. His life is ebbing away, yet he still finds the strength to engage this mans question. It is why he has come. It is why he is here now. Hanging. Dying. Nailed. Bleeding. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

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How shall I express my delight on thee, O cross?

By you has hell been despoiled, and its gates are now closed whom you have ransomed.

By you the demons are terrified, repressed, conquered and crushed.

By you the world has been renewed and beautified ...

By you human nature, being sinful, has been justified; being damned, has been saved; being enslaved to sin and to hell, has been freed; being dead, has been resurrected.

St. Anselm

(Translated by González, J. L. (2010). Luke. (A. P. Pauw & W. C. Placher, Eds.) (p. 263). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.)

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This word, “Paradise”, is so rare in the Scriptures that it appears only two other times in the New Testament. In its original meaning, the word suggests a lush and fruitful garden. It is a fragrant image of the Kingdom of light and peace that Jesus had proclaimed in his preaching and inaugurated with his miracles and which would shortly appear in its glory at Easter. The fullness of its expression is the destination that our toilsome journey through history, has set us on. It is fullness of life, it is the intimacy of God’s embrace. It is the final gift which Christ makes to us, in the sacrifice of his death which opens up for us the glory of the resurrection.

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“His (the criminal) tragedy is that his introduction to paradise came so late.… And his glory is that he found him in time.… His tragedy and his glory are not unlike yours and mine. And Good Friday is the opportunity to redeem tragedy into glory. For what is our tragedy but our failure to grasp what Christ can do for our lives here and now? And what is our glory but to discover with him how to live in heaven even while we live on earth?”

Howard G. Hageman, “We Call This Good Friday”, Philadelphia: Muhlenberg,1961, p. 29. (Parenthesis mine)

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Let the Kingdom come. Repent, for the Kingdom is near. Jesus is listening. Jesus knows. His invitation to join Him in paradise stands for us all.

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Art by Scott Erickson