Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise

(Read Luke 23-24)

There is a much younger couple in our small group. We routinely joke about why they want to hang out with us grey-haired panthers. This morning, I interviewed the husband about his faith journey. I gained so much wisdom from this YOUNG man. After our lengthy discussion, I discovered that nothing was recorded. Since I was driving, I had no notes, no video, nothing but my porous memory. Despite my disappointment, I realized that there was a reason for this and I should write about what I’ve been reading in the Gospel of Luke this week instead.

Easter is the pinnacle of the Christian faith. All of the days in the liturgical calendar, even Christmas, point to Christ’s resurrection. Without our redemption from Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, none of the other days can stand alone. Our faith would be hollow without it. Easter is about love, redemption, grace, and salvation, but for our experience here in this life, it’s about hope.

As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’”
Luke 23:26-29

On the day of his crucifixion, Jesus was led up a hill known as the Skull. The hill jutted into the sky and looked like a skull. After being scourged, tormented, and tortured, Jesus cared enough for the women wailing over him to warn them of bad times ahead. He warned them that the coming days will be so bad that they might be better off dead than to experience that degree of suffering that would come from the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Many historical scholars have written that up to one million people might have been slaughtered in Jerusalem at that time.

If you haven’t seen Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” it’s worth watching. There’s a scene where Jesus is continuously, mercilessly, being whipped, while carrying a burdensome cross up a hill. He stumbles and falls several times, cold, bloody, dirty, and weak. My guilt overflows every time I see this clip. He’s enduring this purposefully, for me. Because of me. Because of what I’ve done. All my sins creep back into my mind. The first time I saw this movie, I was shaking. As horrific as this part of the story is, it’s certainly not the point. Jesus endured the worst punishment man could dish out. More importantly, Jesus suffered the agony of God’s wrath at the same time. That is infinitely worse.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:32-34

Tradition (not the Bible) gave the two thieves names; Gestas and Dismas. Some refer to them as the bad thief and the penitent thief. There are many prison ministries named after Dismas for his repentant behavior. But, it’s interesting to understand that these weren’t your neighborhood pickpockets. As cruel as the Romans were to their subjects, crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals. Murderers, terrorists, and threats to society were hung on crosses. Two of the three deserved to be there.

Gestas was a vile and bitter man. He must have done horrible things. Facing his own demise, his self-centered hatred remained. He lashed out at Jesus:

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? 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.”
Luke 23:39-41

Tim Keller once stated that the penitent thief said something that’s impossible to admit without God’s help: “We are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” Dismas never asked to be taken down from the cross. He wants to be forgiven. He is concerned about being right with Jesus. Instead of asking God for the life he feels he deserves, he wants to make God his life. If it was someone else on a cross next to him, Dismas never would have claimed his guilt. He would have died a sinner’s death and spent an eternity alone in a place that is unimaginable for it’s torment – apart from God. But with Christ next to him, he came to understand his guilt before God.

There were two condemned criminals and an undeserving savior on that cold brutal hill called the Skull. Both criminals earned their place upon their cross. Their sins brought them there. Our sins will find us out too. While both Gestas and Dismas might have shared similar deserving paths to the cross, their eternal futures couldn’t have been any further apart.

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 23:42-43

In “Passion of the Christ,” Gestas has his eyes poked out by angry ravens, as a foreshadowing of his destiny. Dismas saw Christ’s divinity on the cross. He witnessed the grace of God in his presence. Dismas wasn’t asking to be taken down from the cross. He wasn’t asking for his earthly life to be spared. He admitted responsibility. The penitent thief confessed to Christ and asked Jesus to remember him, to accept him as his only hope. The bad thief, on the other hand, choose to face God alone, still denying his guilt.

Our sins bring us to the cross too. In God’s eyes all sin is equal. Do we claim responsibility? Do we confess and ask forgiveness? It’s not rocket science. I have always been overwhelmed with the imagery of what it must have looked like with Jesus and the two thieves positioned on their crosses at the top of that ruddy hill. Jesus was bruised and covered with blood. He had thorns embedded into his forehead and 6-inch by half-inch square nails pinning his wrists and feet to the rough wood of a cross. And yet, he’s ministering to the lost. On the spot, he forgives a repentant sinner. Without hesitation, he promised a lifetime in paradise to Dismas. Dying, abandoned by God, with hours left in his life, Christ still forgives and opens the door.

Two men died next to Jesus. Only one was forgiven because his eyes were opened to his guilt before Jesus as his Savior and only hope. They came to the cross together but would be separated for eternity. Do we seek God for our own needs, for our own gain, or do we seek God’s help to save us from ourselves?

Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we are assured of salvation. We should no longer think, I hope I make it or I hope I’m good enough. We can now be just as sure of heaven as Jesus was when he promised Dismas a spot there. I’ve always imagined that Dismas might’ve been one of the first people Jesus saw in paradise.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.
Luke 24:7-8

Easter. The reason for hope.

Hope from Easter:

• Start each day with new life. Even if you’re having the worst day possible, know that faith in Christ will make all things new. Tomorrow is a new day.
• Go to God with your guilt. Some wrongs we do are trivial. Some are huge. To God, they’re the same. They’re all bad. Confess to him. Give your sins to him because the price has been paid.
• Sunday is Easter. Remember this day. Do something that gives God the glory. Be mindful of others and be aware of your desires. Jesus has given us a lifetime of infinite happiness in paradise. Pray each morning for a week about this hope. Thank Jesus for his sacrifice.

Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.