Which Criminal Are You?

Recently, I had a member of our church ask me: “So was your father a criminal?”

This person had heard me tell my father’s story of working in organized crime, but apparently it hadn’t dawned on him until that moment that my father was actually a criminal.

I said, “Yes, my father went to jail twice. So, he was indeed an ex-con.”

Some people find that shocking. I don’t. It’s been a fact of my family life for my whole life, so it doesn’t seem unusual to me. It’s part of my normal!

But I realize that for some, the question posed in my sermon title is shocking: which criminal are you? I invite you to ponder that question as we read Luke 23:32-43. Listen for God’s word to you…

Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

I often like to imagine what it would be like to be one of the characters in a Bible story. In this case, it is no fun to imagine what it would be like to be one of these criminals on a cross. But we are not so much unlike them as we may be tempted to think. Perhaps we have not committed crimes worthy of execution by an earthly court of justice. But the Apostle Paul tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). According to the Bible, we have all committed crimes against a holy God, even if they are crimes no one else knows anything about. And the Bible tells us we all deserve death for our cosmic rebellion against the creator of the universe. If that is a shocking idea, then maybe we need to spend time soaking our minds and hearts some more in the overall message of the Bible.

So, personally I believe we are not so unlike those criminals who hung next to Jesus. The key question is: Will we be like the one who hurled insults or the one who humbly asked for Jesus to remember him?

This story, as Luke tells it, raises all sorts of questions… who were these two men crucified with Jesus? What were they like? Were they married? Did they have children? Were any of their family members looking on as they were crucified? What crimes had they committed worthy of a Roman sentence of execution? Matthew calls them robbers, brigands. Luke calls them “workers of evil”. Were these men perhaps Zealots? Revolutionaries? We will never know for certain.

All we know about these two men is revealed in the Gospels. The first one speaks 9 words in the NRSV translation. It is also nine words in the Greek. I don’t know how many words it would have been in Aramaic. Luke is the only one of the Gospel authors to give us the words of the criminals crucified with Christ. He is the only Gospel author who shows a personal interest in these two men.

So, the first criminal says, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

This criminal doesn’t really believe that Jesus is the Messiah. He is not asking a sincere question. He is mocking Jesus. After all, if Jesus is the Messiah, what is he doing here, hanging on a cross?

The first criminal’s second sentence is rather ironic: “Save yourself and us!”

It is precisely because Jesus is dying to save that criminal, and in fact, dying to save all of us, that he cannot save himself. Jesus is offering himself in the place of sinners. This is the sum and substance of Luke’s theology of the cross.

Jesus’ prayer to the Father is as much for this first criminal as it is for everyone witnessing and participating in the crucifixion. And, I believe, Jesus’ prayer is for us as well: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

How often do parents say to their children: “Think of what you are saying,” or “Think before you speak”?

But we don’t do that, do we? Do we ever really think of what we are saying, think before speaking?

This first criminal did not know what he was saying. He did not think before speaking. He just said it. Out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth spoke.

Do any of us really know what we are doing in life? Do we really know why we do the things we do?

I learned early on in ministry with children it is pointless to ask them, “Why did you do that?” Every time I used to ask that question… I would get a dazed look from a child followed by utter silence. Children do not know why they do what they do. Neither do most of us.

Do we realize how each of our sins, whether spoken, enacted, or merely felt, nail Jesus to the cross?

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

I believe the forgiveness of Christ and the Father flows through the cross, flows from the cross, to every person who has ever lived or ever will live. God’s forgiveness flows from the cross to you and to me. His agape love calls out to us, in spite of our unknowing sins.

I wonder: was this first criminal hopeless because he spoke words of blasphemy? Was he cutting himself off from the forgiving love of Christ?

I imagine he was doing just that, at least for the moment. The gift of Christ’s forgiveness, though offered to all, is not received by all. And the gift must be received in order for the action of forgiveness to fully take effect.

But I wonder: how far did the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ, extend to this first criminal? Certainly, he mocked Jesus, and rejected his forgiveness, at that moment. But Jesus says nothing from the cross about this man’s eternal destiny.

We confess in the Apostles’ Creed our belief that Jesus “descended into hell”. This phrase has been interpreted in different ways. But the idea itself goes back to Scripture, to 1 Peter 3:18-19…

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison…

One interpretation of the phrase: “he descended into hell”, based upon 1 Peter 3:19, is that between Jesus’ death and resurrection he went, in the Spirit, and preached to people in hell.

I wonder if the first criminal on the cross got to hear Jesus’ offer of forgiveness a second time, even in the shadowy darkness of hell.

I believe Jesus descends into each of our individual hells. He rattles the bars of our prison doors. In fact, he opens the gates of our jail cells and bids us come out.

King David once wrote…

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

Jesus is descending into our darkness today and he wants to make it light, if we will just receive him.

So much for the words of the first criminal. But what of the second? He rebukes the first criminal: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 

Here again we get Luke’s theology of the cross. Luke is making it clear to us, through the words of the second criminal, that Jesus is without sin, and that he suffers in our place. As Paul put it:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Luke is the only Gospel author who takes note of the fact that the two criminals are not united in their insults and blasphemy. Mark says, “Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (15:32) Matthew says, “In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (27:44) John does not mention the response of the criminals to Jesus. But Luke, having “carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (1:3) corrects the story of Mark and Matthew. The criminals were not united in their blasphemy, Luke tells us. Rather, one of them expressed faith in Jesus.

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

Nine words in English and in Greek, but how different are these nine words from the nine words spoken by the first criminal! These nine words, by the grace of Christ, were enough to secure a place in paradise for the second criminal.

People often ask: do you believe in death-bed conversions? I answer: “Of course!” The second criminal on the cross was converted moments before his death. Christ can change any life in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But it’s better not to wait until you are at death’s door to make your decision for Christ. Who knows what state you will be in? Perhaps you will be doped up in some hospital or taken instantly in an accident. Who knows what further opportunity you will have to come to Christ? But you know that you have today, this moment, to respond to Christ’s offer of forgiveness for your sins. The Apostle Paul says, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2) And the writer to the Hebrews says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7-8)

It doesn’t take fancy words or long speeches to accept the forgiveness of Christ for your sins. Nine words are enough: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Would you make those words your own today?

If so, Jesus will respond to you in a similar fashion as he did to that second criminal: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

The one difference for that second criminal from you and me, was that there was no waiting for him. The Holy Spirit can give us assurance that we will be with the Lord someday. That criminal on the cross went to Paradise that day.

These words of Jesus were probably a great surprise to that second criminal on the cross. This man was simply hoping that Jesus would remember him in the day of resurrection which all Jews of that time expected at the end of the age. Jesus told this man a secret he did not previously know anything about, namely that there is a place of bliss for believers in Christ between death and resurrection.

Some people wonder, how could Jesus have been with that man in paradise that day if he was to descend into hell between his death and resurrection? Or if Jesus was in paradise with that criminal on that day, why did he later say to Mary Magdalene: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.”? (John 20:17)

I would imagine there are many mysteries here that we cannot fathom. But I also surmise that this logical problem did not occur to Luke. He might not have known anything of the Gospel of John, or the later teaching of the church regarding Jesus’ descent into hell.

And do we really know if these teachings are inconsistent anyway? Would it not have been possible for Jesus to go, in the Spirit, from heaven to hell in one day? And do not his words to Mary Magdalene relate to his bodily ascension to the Father, not his ascension in the Spirit?

At any rate, let us not miss the great hope disclosed to the second criminal, just because of logical questions that arise in our Greek-thinking minds. The great hope disclosed to the second criminal on the cross is that—for those of us who trust in Jesus—the moment we die we will be with him in paradise.

And what is paradise? In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the word for paradise designated a garden, like the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:8-10, or a forest like that mentioned in Nehemiah 2:8. In the New Testament this word is used in only three places: here, and in 2 Corinthians 12:4 and in Revelation 2:7. Paradise refers to a place of bliss and rest between death and resurrection. It corresponds to what Jesus called on another occasion “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:19-31).

Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 12 about being caught up to “the third heaven”. The first heaven is the sky. The second heaven is what we call outer space. The third heaven is the abode of God. Paul also calls it paradise. Then in Revelation 2:7 the risen and reigning Jesus says:

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about this interim state for the souls of believers in Christ between death and resurrection. But what more do we need to know than what Jesus said to the second criminal on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”? What can be better, what greater bliss is there, than to be with Jesus?

And that bliss can be our hope as we say with the second criminal on the cross: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”