Well Deserved

Luke 23:33-43

During a discussion about the Christian response to violence it was noted that violence is seen throughout the stories in the bible. Cain murders Abel. Joseph's brothers leave him to die in a pit. Pharaoh's army is drowned by Moses. War, death, destruction, disease, and more riddle the stories we read, learn about, and teach our kids. It would seem that the authors of the bible want us to understand that violence is how God defeats evil.

I believe the authors are misunderstood. The message I see throughout the bible is that God is always by our side, ready to bring us out of our pain and suffering with overwhelming love.

Today's passage is a great example of that extravagant love. As Christians we believe that Jesus is God incarnate; the face of Jesus is the face of God. If we believe this we need to look at how Jesus acted and reacted in his life situations. Here we are invited to witness Jesus being scoffed at, mocked, and derided all while Jesus hangs on a cross awaiting his death.

Jesus doesn't lash back with anger, nor does he return any of the people's hatred. Jesus does two things: he prays for the forgiveness of his tormentors and he invites one of the criminals hanging with him into paradise. Before being invited into paradise, though, the criminal actually comes to Jesus' defense, telling his partner in crime to recognize that they are on the cross for something they have actually done. Jesus, he notes, is being unjustly treated.

The stories don't tell us much, if anything, about the criminals hung with Jesus. All we have to go on is what criminals who are put to death are like. Of course, in those days someone could be put to death simply for saying something negative about Cesar. As such we really don't know what was in the hearts of those criminals. What we do know is that one of those criminals saw it fit to come to the defense of someone who obviously (at least to the criminal) was undeserving of the treatment he was receiving.

In the criminal's final moments he caught a glimpse of what it meant to live in a life filled with peace with one's self and hope for a better life beyond this one. How else could someone who is severely beaten, stripped naked, and hung on a cross until he dies still love. That love is what God's love is - one that when we fully receive it and share it with others we will live a life of peace and joy with unending hope of a life in God's presence.

I want to believe the criminal saw his paradise, not so much in an afterlife but in whatever moments of life he had left here on earth. After all, I think his show of love to Jesus deserves at least that.