And these words of promise from the Lord are the focus of our meditation this evening. Though they were spoken to this one thief, who was crucified with Jesus that day, they are meant for all sinners. They are meant for us, who, though we deserve both temporal and eternal punishment on account of our sins, have been brought to repentance by the Holy Spirit, so that on the day Jesus calls us home we too might hear these words of promise, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” You see, the thieves represent all sinners. And they show us that there are only two kinds of sinners - those who repent of their sins and those who do not. The former cease their reviling of Jesus, cling to His words of promise, and die in hope, while the others continue in their unbelief and railings against Jesus, and they die in despair. Like these two thieves, we justly deserve to receive the due reward for our deeds - death. These two happened to be suffering execution, because of some infraction they had committed against the state. We may not be able to identify with them as bad citizens. I don’t think anybody here is a murderer in the eyes of the state. None of you are imprisoned or awaiting execution. And yet, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” We may not have broken the 5th commandment in the eyes of the state, but we have in the eyes of God; we’ve broken it in our hearts, just like we’ve broken all the rest of His commandments. Whether in word or deed, by what we have done or left undone, we have sinned against God. We do not fear Him and are therefore liable to the hell of fire. And so, like these two thieves, we are all under God’s sentence of condemnation, and that from our conception, as “there is no one righteous, not even one.” “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Now, on the one hand there are those who, when they hear God’s Word of Law exposing them as sinners worthy of death, continue to revile and rail against God in unbelief and unrepentance. They mock and blame Him for their suffering, as if He were somehow at fault for it, while they even try to justify their sinful behavior. They maintain that God is unjust for pronouncing such a harsh judgment against nice people like them, who really haven’t done anything bad enough to deserve hell, and can’t understand why God would allow any suffering at all, let alone the suffering and death of His own Son. These kind of people say to Jesus, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” They speak for the devil and all those who would keep Jesus from giving His life as the sacrifice for our sins. They want Jesus to end all suffering and death, and yet they don’t realize that they are the ones who introduced it.
On the other hand, there are those who are like the second thief, who was just as guilty, just as deserving of both temporal and eternal death, just as much of a sinner as the first one. But when he heard the words of Christ he repented of his sin and then even began to rebuke the other. We here tonight who trust in Jesus for our salvation are like this thief. We have stopped our railing against the Lord, repented of our sins, and now even expose the sin of the world with the words of God’s Law. But to take away any notion that we contributed in any way to our conversion, the Apostle Paul writes that it was by God’s grace through faith that we are saved, and that even this ability to repent and believe doesn’t come from ourselves. It is a gift of God worked in us by the Holy Spirit through the hearing of the Word about Jesus. And so, the repentant thief had a change of heart, not because he decided to make this change himself, but because the Lord changed him. At that moment, the thief became a Christian, a saint, a believer in Christ. And though he could not be baptized, he was crucified with Jesus, which is just what the Lord does for us in our Baptism. Just because he came to faith in Christ, it did not mean that the thief could now come down from his cross. Notice that he didn’t start demanding that Jesus get him out of this predicament; he did not pray that the Lord release him from his temporal suffering. The cross is part of the Christian life. The thief didn’t ask Jesus to take the cross away; instead he prayed that the Lord remember him when He came into His kingdom, and Jesus gave him the assurance that that very day he would be with Him in paradise.
There are many things that we will have to suffer in this life, including physical death. Some of the things we suffer are the natural consequences of sinful behavior. For example, if we were to murder someone, we might have to face the death penalty. If you speed on the highway, you may get a ticket. But with His words of promise, Jesus assures repentant sinners, that even though we may have to suffer the consequences of sin in this life, we will not have to suffer the eternal consequences of hell in the next. Though the state may not forgive us, we have the comfort in knowing that for Christ’s sake God forgives us. Jesus went to His cross so that our crosses might no longer harm us. With His shed blood He atoned for all our sins, so that we might spend eternity with Him in paradise. And with His resurrection from the dead, He proved that He was able to keep this promise, both to this repentant thief and to all repentant thieves, murderers, adulterers, and gossips alike.
And so these words are for you and me here tonight. Like this brother of ours who hung at Jesus’ side, by God’s mercy you have been brought to repent of your sins and to look to your crucified Savior for the forgiveness of your sins, the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. And Jesus guarantees all this with His promise, “Truly, I say to you, you will be with me in paradise.” Whether it’s today, tomorrow, or years from now, you can know that you will not be separated from Him when you die, but that where He is, there you will be also. God will allow nothing in all creation, not even death, to separate you from His love for you in Jesus Christ. You are baptized into Christ; you’re a child of paradise! Cling to these words of promise, and depart in peace. Amen.