Luke 23:39-43 "The Two Criminals"

                Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at how some of the people surrounding the cross treated our Savior as he was nailed there to that tree.  We’ve look at how the people gathered around him hurled insults at him.  Mind you, these are no doubt some of the same people who lined the streets shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David.  Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  Some of the same people that cheered as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the day forever celebrated as, just as we do today, Palm Sunday, were the very same ones who hurled insults at him only five days later.  We’ve also spent some time looking at how the officials of Jerusalem, the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Roman soldiers, all joined in with their mockery of Jesus as the promised Messiah and coming King.  We’ve seen how all of these groups verbally and physically abused Jesus during his final moments of life upon this earth.  However, today we’re going to look at a little bit different type of witness to Jesus’ crucifixion.  We’re going to look at the two criminals who were there right alongside Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left, at the time of his crucifixion.  We’re going to see how we find ourselves as examples of each of these men, and we’re going to see how this shapes our interpretation of the cross.

                When we look at the each of the two criminals individually, we see both differences and similarities within them.  They are both men who have been convicted of a crime (most commonly thought to be theft).  As a result of their convictions, they were both sentenced to be crucified, and their crucifixions were carried out alongside that of Jesus.  Very quickly, it’s of note that Jesus’ crucifixion alongside criminals is yet another fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that finds its completion here at the cross.  As a matter of fact, Mark 15:28, after stating that Jesus was crucified with criminals, reads, “And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘He was numbered with transgressors.’”  In addition to this Old Testament fulfillment and these already listed similarities, both criminals, at the very moment of this account are experiencing the physical pain of the crucifixion.  It’s not simply that they are both going to be crucified, but that they are both in the midst of the most painful part of being crucified.  We’ll see that this point is significant in just a moment when we explore a little of their mindset during this account.  However, despite the similarities that existed between these two men, there is one glaring difference between the two:  their perception of Jesus and who he really is.

                We see that the first criminal has nothing really positive to say to Jesus.  He says to him, “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself and us!”  Now this doesn’t necessarily, at least on the surface, seem like anything derogatory towards Jesus.  However, I want to remind you very quickly of the language of the scribes and the people that we looked at a few weeks ago.  In their mocking Jesus, they all said to him, “If you are the Son of God, then...”  We made a connection between this line of questioning and that of Satan in his temptation of Jesus, where he too used this same phrase.  Well, “If you are the Son of God…” isn’t that far off from “Are you not the Christ?”  Both questions, or statements, in essence deny Jesus’ claim to be the promised Messiah.  They both deny Jesus’ authority that he rightfully has as the Son of God.  No doubt Satan was working all the way up to the end of Jesus’ life through the actions of those around him.  He was constantly attacking not only Jesus the person, but everything that he had been teaching and all that he came to do.

No one likes to suffer; that’s not news.  This isn’t even the first time this year that those words have been said from this very pulpit.  However, suffering has a way of showing the true intentions and true nature of a person.  This first criminal, as we said earlier, was suffering.  He was suffering the physical pain of the crucifixion, and he was probably also suffering the emotional pain of knowing that he indeed was about to die.  His priorities were not; however, on what came next for him, but on what he was enduring at that very moment.  He tells Jesus to “save [himself] and [them].”  And don’t think for a second that he’s talking about a spiritual or heavenly salvation; he’s just wanted to be spared the pain of death.  He was thinking about things from an earthly perspective because that’s all he’s concerned with.

Now, I want to press pause on the first criminal for just a moment if I can, and look very quickly at the other criminal there on the opposite side of Jesus.  We’re told in our text that after the first man questioned Jesus that, “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 deed; but this man has done nothing wrong.’”  You see, this man, who was enduring the same physical pain as the first, doesn’t see things the same way.  Make no mistake, he knows just as well as the first criminal that his time on earth is coming to an end, but his outlook is radically different.  Last year during our Maundy Thursday service (which is this Thursday just to remind you again), we were all blessed by hearing a phenomenal song about this event.  The song, entitled Thief, was originally written and performed by the Christian band Third Day.  I want to take just a second and read you the lyrics of this song.  It goes:

I am a thief, I am a murderer
Walking up this lonely hill
What have I done? I don't remember
No one knows just how I feel
and I know that my time is coming soon.
It's been so long. Oh, such a long time
Since I've lived with peace and rest
Now I am here, my destination
guess things work for the best
and I know that my time is coming soon
Who is this man? This man beside me
They call the King of the Jews
They don't believe that He's the Messiah
But, somehow I know it's true.
And they laugh at Him in mockery,
and beat Him till he bleeds
They nail Him to the rugged cross,
and raise Him, they raise Him up next to me
My time has come, I'm slowly fading
I deserve what I receive
Jesus when You are in Your kingdom
Could You please remember me
and He looks at me still holding on
the tears fall from His eyes
He says I tell the truth
Today, you will live with Me in paradise
and I know that my time is coming soon
and I know paradise is coming soon.

                You see, I think that this song, written from the viewpoint of the second criminal, so beautifully sums up the meaning of this passage.  The two men who were being put to death were guilty, and they were deserving of their punishment.  However, Jesus wasn’t guilty; he wasn’t deserving of any punishment but only praise.  Sure, he had been found guilty, but as we all well know, this was a false conviction.  This criminal, who is seeing his life come to an end, somehow knows that this man who others are hurling insults at is not a criminal or a heretic, but is indeed who he claimed to be.  He knows that this man is the Messiah.  This criminal lifts his head up and looks at Jesus and says to him, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  To which Jesus responds to him by saying, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”  This man is a criminal; he has already in his words to the first criminal admitted his own guilt.  Yet, when he asks Jesus to forgive him of his sins, Jesus tells him that he will dwell in Paradise; he tells him that his sins are forgiven.  I can’t for the life of me imagine what joy and emotions must have surged through that man’s mind and heart as Jesus spoke these words to him.  Or can I?

                Looking back quickly at the first criminal, we saw hardness of heart.  We saw a sense of self-preservation above all else.  We saw, in essence, a reflection of the world, not to dissimilar from the world that we find ourselves in today.  However, when it comes to the second criminal, we see something totally different.  Now, as we’ve said, their sins were similar, their circumstances the same, and their fates looked like carbon-copies of one another.  The difference between these two men, however, is Jesus.  The difference was the fact that one man looked to himself and the world around him as the ultimate reward, while the other looked to Christ as the ultimate priority in this world.

                So, what does this mean for us?  Well, it means a few things.  The first, as we already said, this is even more Old Testament prophecy fulfilled.  Second, just as Jesus forgave the sins of a criminal being put to death, he has the power to forgive our sins as well.  No matter how great and numerous our sins, there is nothing that the blood of Christ can’t wash away.  And finally, this is the picture of what conversion and a new life in Christ is like.  When we are concerned only with ourselves, when our number one priority is to see to it that we are taken care of, then we are like the first criminal.  However, when we become fundamentally and primarily concerned with Christ, it’s like we are a completely different person.  When we, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” that’s when Christian conversion takes place.  That’s when the Holy Spirit begins his work of regeneration and growth.  That’s when, as the apostle Paul says, the old self dies and the new self is born.  Romans 6:6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”  When our eyes are opened and our minds focused upon the One True God instead of ourselves, then the salvation that was earned there upon that cross becomes our reality.  It becomes ours, and we will all come to know that reality in Paradise.  We will all come to know the joy that the second criminal felt when Jesus told him that he was to dwell with him in Paradise forever.  Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.