That's Jesus for you
"Today you will be with me in Paradise!"
Who said that?
"Before this day is out, you'll be with me in Paradise."
Who said that? What day was that?
The massive crowds were singing his praises, the church leaders urged their flocks to come with them to hear him, his friends glowed in admiration and pride for their hero, the people with the power supported his cause, good women laughed out loud at the spectacle of it all and the power to heal flowed from him like Niagara! No wonder he thought it was a heavenly day—the world was glorious, his message had been understood and the nations rejoiced in it. No wonder he could speak words of assurance to a desperate man! The world was at his feet.
That was the day?
Hardly!
"Today…Paradise!"
Today! While the legionnaires of the Empire ruled the country and the world, dealing out misery and death as the way to peace and prosperity—that day he said "this very day!"
Today! While lunatic leaders who didn't know what they were doing yet knew how wise it was to railroad an innocent man to death to maintain the status quo.
Today! While he hung on a public gallows, thirsty, streaked with spit and sweat and blood, rejected by his own people, dismissed as another failed rebel by Rome, deserted by his closest friends and abandoned by his Holy Father?
Arrrgh! What nonsense he spoke!
He spoke as if he was in control. But how could he be in control, for pity's sake, when there he hangs on a public gallows, with a raging thirst and helpless women sobbing their hearts out?
Yes, it's awfully sweet. The way he spoke tenderly to that poor wretch. How it warms the heart. It has that soft chamber-music sound, like something Mendelssohn wrote. It's like something you'd expect in a quiet bedroom; a sad dying one hears a word of warm assurance. "Today you will be with me in Paradise."
But it wasn't a whispered promise in a quiet bedroom, was it? It might even have been half-shouted so that it could be heard above the surge of voices and weeping and hoarse yelling and jeering.
He looked at the rage and the stupidity, the hunger for power and the vested interests and knew exactly what he was looking at and still claims that the future lay with him!
If we can't rejoice with that dying thief we're lacking something we desperately need to be fully human but we need to go beyond what these words of Jesus meant for that poor soul. We need to remember the day on which he spoke such words and what they mean for the world.
He looked at a world that will crucify people—good and bad—and insisted that the future lay with him. He was making a claim and not just a promise! Can you beat that? That Jesus for you!
Don't let the world fool you! Look at it and acknowledge it as brutal and rapacious and treacherous as it is and can be. And then, if you listen really hard you'll hear:
"Today…Paradise."
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.