“Today, You Will Be With Me in Paradise”
Luke 23:35-43
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 23:35-43 35 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.” 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews. 39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Tonight we consider the second statement from Jesus from His cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
As we know from the passion account, our Lord was crucified between two criminals. As the prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before it happened, “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Is 53:12). Jesus was counted as if He were the worst of sinners in order that we who are the worst of sinners might, by faith, be made His saints. He who is holy was judged to be worthy of death, so that we might receive forgiveness and everlasting life.
Jesus bore not only the physical pain of the cross, but also the humiliation of the cross. Most certainly, this was the most humiliating part of Christ’s entire state of humiliation which extends from His incarnation to His death and burial. There on the cross he was hung, stripped of His clothing, and mocked by the rulers: “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” Even the soldiers joined in the sport. They offered Him sour wine, something like vinegar, to quench His thirst. “Here, want a drink?” And they too called out, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” Most of us know what it’s like to be made fun of for one reason or another. But even the worst of that is only a shadow of what Jesus experienced here. He was mocked mercilessly while dying an innocent and excruciating death.
Our Lord’s mockers told Him to save Himself. And surely, He could have. He could have come down from the cross and put them all in their place, and there’s a little something in us that would have liked to see Him do that. But Jesus had come not to save Himself; He did not need to be saved. He came to save us; He came to bear our pain, our humiliation, the punishment for our sins, and to bear our shame so that we might be released from all of it. He showed Himself truly to be the Christ, the chosen One of God, not by retaliating, but by suffering it all on our behalf.
Even one of the criminals crucified with Jesus joined in the mocking: “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” Of course, Jesus was purchasing salvation for all of His haters and mockers in that very moment. But this particular criminal could not recognize that; sadder yet, he did not believe it, therefore he did not receive it. Even in death he was not repentant for his sins but was full of anger and denial. And Jesus became a convenient target for his impenitence and unbelief.
In this entire account, there is only one person who seems to get it; there is only one who sees Jesus for who He is and believes in Him, namely, the other criminal crucified with Christ. This criminal rebuked his counterpart, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” This second criminal did not complain about how unfair his situation was, or how he shouldn’t have received the death penalty. Rather, he acknowledged that he was most certainly getting what he deserved. He came clean before God; he did not deny his sin. He confessed it and turned to Christ.
What was it that brought this criminal to repentance and faith? Two things. The first was the cross itself. As he experienced in his flesh the penalty for his actions, any illusion of self-sufficiency before God was stripped away. He recognized how lost and helpless he was and how desperately he needed to be saved.
But there is one other thing that turned this criminal’s heart to faith. We don’t know if he had heard Jesus’ teaching prior to this; it’s possible. But one thing we do know; He had heard Jesus pray for those who crucified Him, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Even if that is all the criminal ever heard from Jesus’ lips, he knew that this Messiah was full of mercy and that He was offering forgiveness for all who would believe. That reality turned the criminal’s heart to hope and trust in Christ and to seek help from Him.
So, learn from this how to bear crosses in your own life. Do not be like the first criminal when you experience suffering or hardship; do not lash out at God in anger and denial because He’s not coming through for you. Rather, be like the second criminal and acknowledge that God is not at all unjust. For whatever suffering you must endure is only what you deserve. And ultimately, it is a gift – yes, a gift – meant to bring you to repentance.
God uses the cross to empty you of your pride and self-reliance and to show you how helpless you are on your own. He tests and tries you not because He wishes to punish you or make you miserable, but because He wants to save you so that your heart relies on Him alone for help and deliverance. And sometimes it takes the equivalent of having nails driven through your hands and feet before your heart is broken in repentance.
The fact of the matter is, we all must be crucified with Christ in order to be saved. We must all become that second criminal. Dying with Jesus in order that we may also rise with Him is what Christianity is all about. It begins in your Baptism, of which St. Paul says, “Do you not know that all of you who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Rom 6:3) Again, St. Paul declares, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20)
And finally, St. Peter writes, “Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by His stripes you were healed.” (1 Pet 2:24) This death of your sinful flesh and this rising up of the new life of Jesus in you is exactly what was begun and accomplished in your Baptism. It is what defines you as a Christian in this world.
So, when it comes right down to it, this criminal was forgiven and saved in the exact same way that you were: by grace, through God-given faith in Christ. Some have questioned how he could be saved without Baptism. But the fact is that, in a very real way, he was baptized into Christ. He was most certainly crucified with Christ, just as you have been at the font, just as you will be when you die. And he was given life with Christ in heaven, just as you have been life at the font and just as you will be given when you die.
For St. Paul writes in Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” And again, in Rom 6:3-4, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
The criminal said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” What an amazing statement of faith that is, that He would say such a thing to a man being put to death. He could not possibly have been thinking that Jesus was going to establish some earthly kingdom. And yet, even in this situation, the criminal saw by faith that Jesus truly was the King of the Jews, the royal ruler of God’s people who would establish an eternal and heavenly kingdom. And his prayer to Jesus is very simple, “Remember me.” Remember me and by Your mercy alone grant me entrance to your kingdom.
Jesus said to this repentant and believing criminal, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Paradise calls to mind the Garden of Eden and how things were before the fall into sin and the curse of death. Here Jesus bore the curse of death in order to break its power and reverse the fall. Here Jesus restored Paradise by putting to death the old order of things in His body so that He might bring into being the new creation. And it is all accomplished right here on His cross.
“Today,” Jesus says. All the work will be completed “today.” Easter will reveal and prove the victory of the cross, but everything that is necessary to rescue mankind and renew creation is accomplished once and for all on Good Friday.
“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Those two words, “with Me” define what Paradise is for us: it is to be with Christ. Where Christ is, there is heaven. To be in His presence is to have all that you need. With Him is the fullness of life and majesty and peace and happiness and pleasure.
“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” So it is also for all those who die in the faith, for that very day they are with Christ in heaven. There is no suffering in purgatory, there is no waiting around in limbo or soul sleep. The day a Christian dies is the very same day they are with their Savior who loved them with an everlasting love.
This means, of course, that you who believe and are baptized may face death without fear because of this saying of Jesus. Let these words of His ring in your ears as you lie on your death bed. “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Though your body must be crucified in death, your soul will be drawn into God’s glorious and eternal presence. And then, just as Christ’s crucified body was raised from the dead, so will your dead body be raised to life again on the Last Day. On that Day your soul and body will be rejoined to a life that is perfect and free from the curse of suffering and pain and decay and death. And you will see God in the flesh and dwell in His Paradise, His new creation forever.
So when you hear your Lord say, “Today you will be with Me in paradise,” these words of St. Paul to the Romans (6:4-5) are yours as well: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For if you have been united with Him in His death, you will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”
With Christ there is total and complete death to sin and the eternal joy of the resurrection in His paradise of heaven.
In the name of the father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
