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.’
When all seems lost in life, especially the life of faith, when we are near
the end of our hope and God seems to have abandoned us, remember the two
criminals who hung next to Christ. They represent the two courses which can be
taken in the end.
One is to embrace our anger, bitterness and pain, clutching it to ourselves and
letting it destroy us and our hope. Lashing out at God we demand that he save
our earthly lives which we cling to in desperation. We blackmail him, suggesting
we will abandon all belief in him unless he shows his hand and bows to our
wishes. In doing so, we blaspheme and turn away from him and toward the abyss.
The road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take
it. (Matthew 7.13)
The other course is to accept our cross out of justice and holy fear of God. But
not stopping there we let our hope blossom into a petition. Ask, and it
will be given you. (Matthew 7.7) But we do not know what to ask for. Fear of
presumption and keen awareness of our wretchedness before God bring us up short.
Only remember me, Lord. But our God is the God of heaven and earth,
the God of all creation, the author of life, of the dead and the living. He is
the God of abundance beyond our dreams. Those who humble themselves shall
be exalted. We ask only to be remembered; Christ opens to us the very gates of
paradise.