Lent: Week Two

Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

I'm a big fan of C.S. Lewis's "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic" argument - particularly the point that you can't say the sort of things Jesus said and be "just a good man." Yes, Jesus had admirable ethical standards, but he also says some things which seem incompatible with the idea of him being just a good man. One of those statements is what he says to one of the thieves on the cross.

We'll remember that Jesus is hanging on the cross when he says this, in physical agony, and speaking to one of two men who, in another gospel were "heaping scorn on him." He's sleepless, beaten, weak, thirsty, (mostly?) naked, and still being mocked.

This thief says almost nothing - certainly he doesn't repent of his sins and ask Jesus to be his personal Lord and Savior. The Romand Road is not yet written. He merely acknowledges that Jesus is innocent and asks to be remembered in Jesus' kingdom. Then Jesus says the sort of thing that a sane, honest, normal person simply cannot say.

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."

He offers a guarantee that this man will be in paradise. "Truly... you will be..." How could any man make such a declaration, especially a person whose crimes deserved crucifixion? Would you dare to promise anyone - on the basis of what this thief said - eternal paradise?

Either Jesus has inhuman knowledge of the destinies of others, or Jesus has the authority to determine them, neither of which is something to be regarded lightly. I believe both are true, and I think both are things a man who's merely sane and noble does not go around claiming.

In other scattered thoughts about the verse:
1) "Today... in paradise" - Today says "right away" to me. That the man's pain on his own cross will not last long, and then it will be over with paradise to come.

2) "you will be with me..." - Jesus promises not only paradise, but companionship. You won't be flung off to paradise to while away the endless ages alone, but in fellowship with Jesus. I'm reminded of how Jesus goes to prepare a place for us "that where I am there you may also be."

3) Jesus made lots of "Truly I say to you..." statements. That this is his last says to me that even in the grip of death, Jesus is not mastered by it.