The Penitent Thief

The old city of Jerusalem has a wall around it. In that wall are several gates. On the north side of the city is the Damascus Gate. It gets its name from the fact that the main road north to Damascus starts there. The Damascus Gate leads into the Arab quarter of the old city, and when trouble breaks out in Jerusalem, it usually happens there. That’s why there are always a lot of Israeli soldiers and police around the Damascus Gate.

Just outside that gate, there is an Arab bus station at the foot of a rocky cliff. If you look closely at the cliff, through the dust and the diesel fumes, you can make out what looks to be a skull in the face of the cliff. There are a couple of deep holes in the rock that look just like eye sockets.

This is the place where many people think that Jesus was crucified. And he would have been crucified, not on top of that hill, but at the foot of the hill, down where the bus station is today. Now that may seem strange to you. I’m sure that almost everyone pictures Jesus being crucified on top of a hill.

We sing “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross…” and we picture it being a nice green hill, like in upstate New York. There’s even a hymn by that title. But let me tell you, it wasn’t a nice rolling green hill. It was rugged and rocky, and it probably was used as a garbage dump. There was nothing picturesque about it.

There’s good reason for believing that Jesus was crucified at the foot of that hill. He was crucified down by the busy crossroads, where the passers by could see him and mock him and laugh at him. The Bible says “Those who passed by hurled insults at him.” That would have been a lot easier to do if he was crucified at the foot of the hill.

We know that Pilate wrote an inscription that was fastened to the cross. It said “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews”. The Gospel of John tells us that many of the Jews read this sign. They wouldn’t have been able to read it if the cross were up at the top of a hill. But they would if it were down by the road.

Jesus was crucified by the wayside because that’s where the people were. When Jesus died, he died for all the people of the world. He died down in the midst of them, by the highway, in the midst of all the tumult and clamor and noise and dirt. He died to save ordinary people like you and me.

The Bible says that three men were crucified there that day. Today we call the two men who hung on either side of Jesus “thieves” or “robbers”. But the Greek word that is used to describe them is a word that was used of men who led uprisings. We’d call them revolutionaries, or terrorists. Violence was their stock in trade.

In the days when the Romans ruled Judea, the country was crawling with these guys - men who would just as soon put a dagger through the heart of a Roman soldier as look at him. There was no death penalty for being a thief, but there was for being a revolutionary. The fact that three crosses had been prepared indicates that Pilate was planning to execute three rebels.

Jesus hung on the center cross. That cross was supposed to have been for Barabbas. Barabbas was the ringleader. He and these two other men, who were probably his accomplices, had been captured by the Romans. They were sentenced to die. But in a strange twist of fate, Barabbas was released.

Another victim was found at the last moment to take his place. The Jews brought Jesus of Nazareth before Pilate on the charge of being a greater rebel than Barabbas. So Jesus was substituted on the cross that was supposed to have been for Barabbas. That’s how a man of peace and love found himself being crucified between two men of violence and hatred.

We don’t know much about these other two men. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark tell us merely that they joined in mocking Jesus along with the other onlookers. But Luke, who got much of his information from Mary, who herself was an eyewitness of the crucifixion, tells us a lot more about them. Luke tells us that one of these criminals had a change of heart.

The first criminal hurled his insults and curses at Jesus through teeth clenched in agony. You have to understand that being crucified makes it barely possible to breathe, let alone talk. So this man must have felt quite strongly about what he was saying to bother saying it at all. What did he say? He said, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

His question “Aren’t you the Christ?” was a rhetorical question. It presumed that the answer was “yes”. So I suppose you could say that this man, in a backhanded kind of way, was willing to admit that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ. But look where that admission led him. He cried out “Save yourself and us!”

This man came to Jesus as Messiah and Savior, but he came without humility. He was looking for an escape - a way out of the crisis he was in. He was saying “God, get me out of here!” There was no love, and no desire to honor the Lord in his words. He was scared out of his wits at the situation he was in, and he was angry that Jesus didn’t seem to be doing anything about it. His motives were purely selfish.

It’s ironic what the first criminal was asking Jesus to do. He was asking Jesus to save him by getting down off the cross. “Save yourself, and then save me, Jesus.” He didn’t understand that if Jesus got down off the cross, He wouldn’t have been the Savior anymore.

Jesus Christ hung on that cross to take away our sin. Were Jesus to have gotten down off that cross on Good Friday, there would have been no provision for our sin; no salvation, no eternal life. It would have meant eternal death for the whole human race. Thank God he stayed up there and saw it through to the bitter end. He paid for our sin by dying in our place. It wasn’t the nails that fastened him to that Roman cross; it was his love for us. He loved us so much that he was willing to stay there and die for you and me.

Criminal #1 wanted Jesus to get down off the cross and save him. He wanted a cross-less salvation.

But what about the other fellow? What made the difference in his life? His career had been the same as that of his partner. He shared the same fate - they were partners in crime, and now partners in dying. Both criminals talked to Jesus while they hung there on the cross. Both of them asked Jesus a question. Both of them requested of Jesus a favor. So what made criminal #2 so different?

We don’t know why he changed his mind about Jesus. Perhaps he heard Jesus say “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Whatever it was, we know that he had a change of heart about Jesus. Look at his words…

Luke 23:40 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.”

I’d like you to notice three things about what he said. First, he recognized his own sinfulness. He had come to grips with the fact that he was facing death and that he deserved to die for what he had done. He knew that he stood accountable to God for the way that he had lived. And he realized that his partner didn’t understand this. So he called over to him…

“Don’t you fear God?”

The very first step in coming to Christ is to recognize your own sinfulness. This is what the Bible calls repentance. It simply means to have a change of heart and mind. To let go of self-justification, of all the excuses for why I am the way I am. You have to recognize that there isn’t any extenuating reason why God should let you off without punishing you for your sin.

The story is told of a little boy who, while visiting a rich relative’s house, got his hand stuck in a beautiful Chinese vase. Try as they might, his parents could not get his hand out. Finally, they decided that they would have to smash the vase. They knew that it would cost a fortune to replace. Just as they were about to do the deed, the little boy said “Do you think it would help if I let go of the quarter that I’m holding?”

We cling to our self-righteousness just like that little boy with a quarter in his fist. We rationalize our sinfulness. We point to extenuating circumstances in our lives that make us the way we are. We blame other people. We compare our sins with those of others and conclude that we’re not so bad after all. Anything but own up to our sinfulness and admit the truth. Criminal #1 wanted to escape punishment; criminal #2 knew that he deserved it. He knew he was a sinner.

Second, criminal #2 recognized that though he was a sinner and deserved to die, Jesus was innocent.

“We are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

That man saw in Jesus something different from anything that he had ever seen before. I think he had seen a lot of people die. Maybe he had killed some of them himself. He could probably still hear their screams for mercy. But he saw Jesus silent and uncomplaining in the face of death. He heard Jesus pray for the forgiveness of the very people who were, at that very moment, in the process of killing him. This was something he had never encountered before.

When he said “this man has done nothing wrong”, criminal #2 was beginning to recognize the holiness and purity and sinlessness of Jesus. And it’s only when we come to grips with the fact that Jesus is the sinless one who died for us that we really begin to understand what Good Friday is all about.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

The man recognized that he himself was a sinner. He recognized that Jesus was without sin. There’s a third thing he realized.

He said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

He believed that there on that cross, where he couldn’t move and his life was quickly ebbing away, Jesus could do something to help him. Notice that his request was so different from that of the first criminal. He didn’t curse, he didn’t snarl at Jesus in sarcastic desperation. He didn’t even ask for anything specific, just that Jesus would simply remember him when he came into his kingdom. He humbly left the particulars up to the Lord

This man had come to believe that Jesus had a power that went beyond death. That Jesus was going to be able to help him in eternity. That’s pretty amazing for a man to be able to say about anyone, much less about someone who was himself hanging on a cross dying just a few feet away from him. But criminal #2 saw Jesus through the eyes of faith. He didn’t see a dying victim; he saw a king coming into his kingdom.

His request recognized that Jesus was a king. There is submission here, there’s humility. “Jesus, remember me.” It’s the kind of thing a servant would say as he addressed his master. His attitude toward Jesus has completely changed!

Luke 23:43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

An ordinary man trembling before a firing squad or standing on a gallows isn’t exactly in a position to grant favors, is he? But Jesus was no ordinary man! The king, though he hung on a cross dying, still had the power to grant favors. “Today”, he said. “Today, my friend, you and I are going to die. But today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”

These words, perhaps more than any others that Jesus said from the cross, proved his power over death. Death couldn’t keep Jesus from paradise, and it couldn’t keep him from bringing others there with him.

Three men shared death upon a hill,

But only one man died;

The other two -

A thief and God Himself -

Made rendezvous

Is getting to heaven based on our good works? No. The thief on the cross had done no good works. He simply repented and believed in Jesus. And even after he became a believer he could do no works - he was nailed hand and foot to the cross.

Is getting to heaven based on what church we go to? No. The thief on the cross had never been to church a day in his life.

Is getting to heaven based on the ordinances? No. The thief on the cross had never been baptized, never had communion, never gone through any Christian rituals.

Does getting to heaven require that we spend some time in purgatory working to make up for our misdeeds? No. The thief on the cross - a man who had a lot to make up for - went directly to paradise to be with the Lord. All his sins were forgiven.

This story tells us that it is never too late to turn to Jesus Christ. But we must never presume that we can wait until the last moment to receive him.

Earlier this week, the NCAA basketball championship game was played. The game was close, and it went down to the final seconds. But just then, one of the Michigan players called time out. The only problem was that his team had used up all its time outs. It was too late for him to call time out. His blunder cost his team the game and the championship.

A lot of people go through life thinking that they have a lot of time left to get serious about God. They figure that when they get in a real jam, then they can call time out and consider what God wants from them. But by then it might be too late.

This story about the two men who were crucified alongside Jesus teaches us that while it is never too late for a person to come to Christ, you’d better not deliberately put it off. That kind of spiritual procrastination has a way of turning your heart into stone. If you say “Later…” enough times, you eventually come to the place where you just don’t care anymore.

Augustine said “One thief was saved that no sinner might despair, but only one, that no sinner might presume.”

Two men died with Jesus that Friday. One of them died proving the hardness of men’s hearts; the other one died proving the goodness of God’s grace.