Jesus’ Mercy: “Today You Will Be with Me in Paradise”
This post by Chris Anderson is from a NEW BOOK called Sundown to Sundown: Meditations on the Twenty-Four Hours Preceding Jesus’ Death (Day 24).
“And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.” (Luke 23:33)
Jesus slouched on the cross. A living, breathing scab. His face marred so that He barely resembled a man. His every sluggish breath an agony.
He hung between two thieves, their very company adding to His shame and yet fulfilling biblical prophecy. As Isaiah 53:12 predicted, “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Luke 22:37). He was counted as a common criminal—not only by His murderers, but—astoundingly—by God Himself.
The Eternal Dividing Line
Jesus hung between the two thieves the way He has always stood among men and women—an eternal Dividing Line. Jesus is the great Continental Divide—the One parting people for eternity, the difference between heaven and hell.
Jesus hung between the two thieves the way He has always stood among men and women—an eternal Dividing Line.
Initially, both criminals cried out in disdain, finding some perverse relief for their own pain in hurling barbs at Jesus. Matthew tells us, “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him” (Matthew 27:44).
But over time, one of them paused. Tradition has assigned him the name Dismas. Dismas’ life had been squandered. He likely had broken his mother’s heart and brought shame on his father. His futile life was reaching a brutal end. And yet, he used his terrible perch on the cross to watch the Lord Jesus, to listen, to reflect. He had heard but one statement from Jesus: “Father, forgive them.” And in time—just in time—he was won over.
The other thief continued to rail on Jesus: “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39). Though his words might sound like the seed of faith, they were mere mockery, an echo of the jeers he had heard from the mob. Ironically, had Jesus acted on the man’s words and saved Himself, He could not have saved anyone else.
The Good Confession
Dismas had heard enough. He had listened as hundreds of people mocked Jesus from the foot of the cross. Once he ceased from his own abuse of Jesus, he likely listened in silence, not daring to offer a reproof. He had no right. The people were better than him. But this man, his fellow criminal, was a peer. Dismas felt some strange sense of duty. He rebuked the other thief, acknowledging their common guilt and contrasting it with Jesus’ innocence: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:40–41).
And then He spoke to Jesus, offering the simplest of prayers. “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
Just one sentence, but it contained eternity.
He acknowledged that Jesus is a King. He confessed that Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. He didn’t directly ask Jesus for entrance into that kingdom. He deserved no heaven, no mercy, no hope. He simply asked for a remembrance, for a kind thought from Jesus when He Himself entered in. That would be enough.
Trophies of Grace
And it was enough. Jesus assured Dismas that that very day—in moments, really—he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:42).
Not just in paradise. With Him. That was the real grace of it all. Jesus had been the Friend of sinners in life. He was the Friend of sinners in death.
Students of Scripture have long noted Dismas as a trophy of grace. He had no opportunity to do good deeds, no chance at reformation, no time even for baptism. He was a notorious sinner. Hopeless. Damned. Lost.
But he believed in Jesus, and it changed his eternity. When he breathed his last, he awakened in paradise. Not the grave. Certainly not purgatory. Paradise. Spurgeon writes, wistfully, that the thief was Jesus’ “last companion on earth” but His “first companion in paradise.”1
He believed in Jesus, and it changed his eternity.
Indeed, it’s a miracle that any of us believe and are saved. Alexander Whyte, the preacher of countless biblical biographies, writes of the hope we sinners should draw from Dismas’ story:
The swiftness of the thief’s repentance, and faith, and confession, and pardon, and sanctification, and glorification, is something very blessed for us all to think about, and never to forget; and, especially, those of us who must make haste and lose no more time if we are to be for ever with him and with his Lord in paradise.2
The other thief, it seems, died in his defiance, taking his mockery of Jesus to his grave, and to his horrors beyond the grave.
Ken Gire writes, “On either side [hung] two thieves, teetering between life and death, between heaven and hell. Teetering until one, at last, [reached] out in faith.”3
Every person teeters in the same way. Jesus, ever in the middle, is the great Dividing Line.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:18)
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:12)
On which side of Jesus are you?
NEW BOOK AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!
What if you could step into the final 24 hours before Jesus’ crucifixion and witness His love, suffering, and sacrifice firsthand? Sundown to Sundown is a 31-day devotional that journeys through the most profound day in human history, following Jesus from the upper room to Gethsemane, from Gabbatha to Golgotha. Each meditation unpacks the depth of His words, prayers, and trials, helping believers slow down and behold the wonder of Christ’s love.
[1] Charles H. Spurgeon, 12 Sermons on the “Cries from the Cross” (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1994), 28-32. The sermon is titled “The Believing Thief” and was preached on April 7, 1889.
[2] Alexander Whyte, Bible Characters from the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1990), 532-33.
[3] Ken Gire, Intimate Moments with the Savior: Learning to Love (Grand Rapids, MI: Daybreak Books, 1989), 107.
