Last Words: A Lenten Meditation on the Final Sayings of Christ, Week 3ਨਮੂਨਾ

The Second Word: “Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise”

Christ and the Good Thief, Titian, c. 1566. Oil on canvas, 137 x 149 cm. National Gallery of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Public Domain.

“The Second Word—Verily Thou Shalt Be in Paradise Today with Me” from The Seven Last Words of Christ. Composed by Théodore Dubois. Performed by Choir of the First United Methodist Church, Lubbock, Texas, with Gordon MacMillian (conductor).

Week Three: The Second Word: “Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise”

In the ancient Roman world, criminals were executed according to class ranking. Citizens and elites were mostly decapitated, those less fortunate were burned alive, but the “scum” at the bottom of the social strata were made to endure the plague of crucifixion. Those in authority, wanting to keep everyone in line, knew that the most heinous form of capital punishment would keep all but the extremely rebellious on the straight and narrow. A few lucky convicts like Barabbas managed to win their freedom, but the two insurrectionists who died on either side of Christ did not. According to Matthew and Mark, both thieves initially taunted Christ, but Luke tells us that at some point the penitent thief implored the Son of God, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Immediately Christ responded with “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

During His earthly ministry, Christ immersed Himself in the lives of reprobates. His love for the outcast knew no bounds. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32). Jesus repeatedly involved Himself in taboo situations, ministering to anyone who would engage Him, but at the end of each exchange the person in question was transformed. Conversions are always incredible to witness. The “Good Thief,” as he has come to be known, with keen spiritual insight somehow understood that Christ was indeed “the Holy One of Israel.” Author Jon Meacham writes, “The account of Jesus’s redemption of the insurgent at Golgotha should give anyone claiming to know the mind of God enormous pause. The exchange is touching, even intimate.” Jesus, what a friend of sinners—quick to hear, to forgive, and to promise eternal life!

We are blind if we cannot see the sin and shortcomings in our own lives. Are we not all rebellious thieves? Christ’s “Word of Salvation” from the cross should give us immense hope. While clearly not the norm, the thief’s turn in the final moments of his life confirms the great grace Christ freely bestows on those who ask. What an intriguing twist that “the least of these” got to accompany Christ into Paradise. The “Good Thief” was the first Christian in heaven to welcome the likes of Stephen, the apostles, and Paul. "And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NKJV). This verse applies to the ex-thief who today is honored by liturgical Christians as an early martyr of the faith.

Poetry:

“Nameless Men - The Guilty Man”
by Stanley Kunitz

The years of my life were odd that now are even.
Think! to be young, amused, and not a fool;
Playing the world’s game—think!—with the world’s own rules,
And nothing lost, I think, I think…but years.
Heart against mouth is singing out of tune,
Night’s whisperings and blanks betrayed; this is
The end of lie: my bones are angry with me.

Father, the darkness of the self goes out
And spreads contagion on the flowing air.
I walk obscurely in a cloud of dark:
Yea, when I kneeled, the dark kneeled down with me.
Touch me: my fold and my defenses fall;
I stand within myself, myself my shield.

Teach me my reasons, I would know their names,
Cry havoc, drive my secrets out, because
I hate the excellence that spoils the world.
Depart from me, therefore, you virtuous men
Whose treason is to turn the conscience kind.
None may forgive us for the ancient wrongs.

LORD, REMEMBER ME

As a child, the promise of Paradise was one of the most precious gifts I understood to be a part of my salvation. The reassurance of dwelling for eternity in a place without sadness, without fears, and without evil, speaks to the security for which all children seek. Whether as a youth in Sunday School or later as an adult, it’s not unreasonable that the first time we hear the words of Jesus to the criminal on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise,” our attention is drawn to “Paradise.” We naturally envision it, hope for it, and long for it from deep within our hearts. Yet Jesus gave him a promise even more beautiful than Paradise. Christ offers this thief, who hangs next to Him and pleads with sincere eyes in Titian’s painting, the assurance He will be with him.

The longer I walk on this earth, the more I reflect on the unfathomable joy brought by Jesus’ words, “with Me.” Perhaps, like me, you have been in the room with a dearly beloved Christian family member or friend when they passed on to glory. At the time I found myself surprised at how little I thought about the place of Paradise where she was entering. Surely when I was younger, imagining details about her new home would have been at the forefront of my mind. At that moment, however, when her time was “today,” my heart and mind dwelt entirely on the One with whom she now walked in a new and magnificent way.

This “second word” on the cross also reminds us of the simple command Luke recorded earlier in his gospel from Jesus to Levi: “Follow me” (Luke 5:27). Christ doesn’t merely ask us to serve Him, but to follow Him and walk next to Him. Jesus invites us to be with Him from our first call to our last breath on earth, and then to be with Him in Paradise. Those of us today who count ourselves among those “who have not seen and have yet believed” hold to the promise of knowing that we will not only be with Him in Spirit but will truly see Him.

As a final thought, consider two significant contrasts in today’s music and poetry selections. The beautiful and powerfully booming chorale voices singing the words of Jesus and the thief are hardly intended as a vocal re-enactment of the physical dialogue—one which took place between two men slowly and painfully asphyxiating while speaking to one another through labored breaths. Instead, it is as though we get to listen directly to the voice of their hearts rather than their lungs. Likewise, what a contrast between the wretched but hopeful criminal on the cross, who has recognized the Man next to him as King and deliverer, and the hopeless and wretched man described in Kunitz’s poem!

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, thank you for your promise that your church will be with You. Thank you for your promise that you will never leave us nor forsake us. Thank you for your promise that you will be with us to the end of the age. Thank you for preparing our home and paradise where we will not dwell alone, but with you our Savior and precious redeemer in whom we hope. When we remember the beloved brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before us, may we remember most of all the way they followed you, were with you then, and are with you now forever and ever.
Amen.

Dr. Matt Van Hook
Assistant Director of Recruitment and Marketing
Associate Professor, Torrey Honors College
Biola University