Lenten Reader | Day 39

April 7th, 2023

Be With Me

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

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.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:32-43

Jesus hung on the cross, flanked by a criminal on each side. As the three of them suffered, the two criminals wrestled with the idea of what suffering is all about. Notice their two very different reactions: one of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at Jesus: “Aren’t
you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked the first. “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.”

For the first criminal, suffering was simply an unwanted, inescapable end to the human experience. There was no purpose in the pain. In fact, the value he saw in this “Messiah” was for Jesus to end the suffering. If Jesus would not end it, he was of no use to this criminal.

But the second criminal saw things differently. He had hope that the present suffering was not the end. That there was something on the other side of it. Something better. He asks Jesus to remember him. Jesus, however, offers something better. He tells the man that he will be with him. Jesus offers him his presence. Just as I am with you now, Jesus tells him, I will be with you then. It’s the same promise he offers to his disciples before ascending into Heaven in Matthew 28:20: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus is with the criminal on the cross. He will be with him after he dies. Jesus is with us. So know today, that suffering is not the end of the story. But if you find yourself in the midst of it today, know that God is in it with you. He is with us, now and forever.

Andrew Day