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44
A Call to Stand Apart
truth—Jesus could have taken Himself down from the cross, but had
He done so and saved Himself, He could not have saved sinners.
Throughout His agony, Jesus found comfort in one brief conver-
sation, initiated by a request from the repentant thief beside Him.
When the soldiers bound the thieves to their crosses, both of them
had ridiculed Jesus, but as the hours passed, a change came over
one of them. This man was no hardened criminal. Earlier in his
life he had seen Jesus’ ministry and had been convicted by what he
heard. But those convictions were diminished by the accusations of
the priests. Led on by a poor choice of friends, he immersed himself
[54]
in a life of sin that ended in his arrest, trial, and sentence to die.
While most people in the crowd at Calvary ridiculed Jesus, there
were some who heard and recalled His words and deeds of compas-
sion and quietly defended Him. As the thief heard these people talk,
it reawakened his earlier convictions. Turning to the other thief, he
asked, “Don’t you fear God, seeing you’re suffering the same fate?”
The dying thieves had nothing more to fear from human beings, but
what about God and the judgment? The repentant thief moaned that
they were receiving the results of their criminal lives, but looking
at Jesus, he exclaimed: “This man has done nothing wrong.”
Luke
23:41
.
The more the thief thought about it, the more his doubts began
to evaporate. He recalled all he had heard about Jesus, remembered
those He had healed, those whose sins He had forgiven. He glanced
at Jesus’ friends weeping below him, read the sign above Jesus’ head,
and, little by little, the Holy Spirit brought the chain of evidence
together. He recognized in Jesus the Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. In a strange mixture of hope and fear, the thief
reached out to Jesus and begged, “Lord, remember me when You
come into Your kingdom.”
verse 42
, NKJV. Instantly he heard this
astounding assurance: “You will be with me in paradise.”
verse 43
.
As Jesus also looked over the crowd below Him, He noticed
His mother and John. Sensing the end for Jesus was near, John
had brought her back to the cross. As He approached death, Jesus
thought of the needs of His mother. Looking into her grief-stricken
face, and then at John, He said to her, “This is your son.” Then to
John He charged, “This is your mother!” John fully understood the