The Cross – Two Criminals, Two Responses – Ps Nadia Clark

April 19, 2022

SCRIPTURE 

Luke 23:32 – 43 Jesus on the cross.

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to a place called the Skull, there they crucified him, 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.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung their 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.”

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.”

There were two very different kinds of men hanging on the cross next to Jesus. There was the criminal who cursed. The words most of us say in this life won’t be remembered two thousand years later! But this criminal’s insults are known around the world and maybe if he knew that, he’d have said something nicer! And then there is the criminal who recognised Jesus as God and asked for mercy. This criminal reacts in a very different way to the first. And as we take a closer look, we see that we too need to decide what our own response to Jesus is as we continue to take up our own cross daily.

THE CRIMINAL WHO INSULTED GOD

Luke writes in chapter 23:39 “One of the criminals who hung their hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 

The rulers, the soldiers, and now the criminal all taunted Jesus that if he was really the Messiah, or King of the Jews, he should prove it by stepping down off the cross. We know that Jesus could have done that. It wasn’t the nails or the presence of Roman soldiers that kept him there. Jesus had more than enough power to climb down, and they taunted him to prove it. ‘If you are the Messiah, do it.’ Right at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he faces a similar temptation in the wilderness. Two of the three challenges the devil put to Jesus was for him to prove himself: “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” REF: LUKE 4:3 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.” REF: Luke 4:9   But Jesus didn’t give in then and didn’t give in now. Without doubt, He could have proven who he was by avoiding death, but that would not be how he could save people from their sin. It was not nails, and not Roman military, but it was love and total surrender to the will of his Father that kept him on the cross. REF John 15:13, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Our translations don’t bring out the full language or rage of this criminals’ insults. The writer Luke in fact reported that the criminal blasphemed against Jesus, this was not ordinary rudeness – this man’s aggression was in full force.

And as we can try to imagine, or maybe have experienced in our own life, people in great pain can and will say anything, and a man suffering crucifixion was in unimaginable agony, so harsh words are understandable. Yet this criminal ridiculed and mocked Jesus and that tells us some things about his thinking.  He was focused only on his immediate pain and need. The others who taunted told Jesus to save himself, while this criminal added “and us” meaning his mind was fixed on himself. He was blind to anything good, anything special, and anything divine about Jesus. He heard what others said but never considered that it might be true. 

At times we can all find ourselves acting like the first criminal on the cross where all we want is God to make our problems go away, make our pain go away, or make our life better. But this kind of thinking only leads us on a destructive road of wanting God for what he can do for us, rather than wanting God for who he is and believing that he has the best life for us.

THE CRIMINAL WHO APPEALED TO GOD

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, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

With the first criminal we see a guy who just wants God to make his problems go away, and then with the second criminal we see a guy who makes an amazing statement, ‘Remember me…” In his moment of death, he finds eternal life, paradise with Jesus.

In Jesus’ day people would often write these two words on their tombstones, ‘remember me’. Those words didn’t mean don’t forget who I am or don’t forget what I did. It means, God remember me by taking me into paradise. This was a common phrase during Jesus’s day. 

This criminal reacts in a very different way to the first and we can see that his perspective had a lot to do with that.  “Don’t you fear God?” he asks. This criminal isn’t filled with self-pity. There is a concern about himself, but it’s because he knows he’s lived a life against God’s laws, and he fears what that will mean. He’s dying, and he’s not in a good place with God. His awareness of his failings is different. He’s being punished justly; he’s getting what his actions deserve. No doubt he regrets the way he’s lived, but there’s no denial of his sin. He knows he’s lived against God.

His cry out to Jesus is different. The first criminal’s words were insulting while the second criminal’s words are appealing. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 

At that moment Jesus looked nothing like a king. He was under a sentence of death; he had been beaten brutally beyond recognition and then nailed to a cross. His naked body was saturated in blood from his head, hands, and feet. The Romans had mastered the art of pain and crucifixion and Jesus was no exception to the full force of evil and violence inflicted by them. REF Isiah 52:14 Yet, this criminal saw a king and appealed to him for mercy. H didn’t have long to live, but even though his timing was far from ideal, he still he cried out to Jesus, and it was enough. Scripture tells us that anyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved; that no call or cry goes unnoticed. REF Joel 2:32, Revelation 21:3-5

All of us have a choice on what our response is to Jesus. Do we live thinking like the first criminal – what can God to for me, how can he make my life better, or do we say – prove yourself to me God? And there are times we can be at a place where we are in pain, and we get fed up or mad and forget God’s place in our life and the sovereignty of who He is. The most important thing we can do is in those moments is to recognise wrong thinking, wrong attitudes, and sin in our life and to get right with God. To humble ourselves like the second criminal, to call out to God and ask him to help us. 

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