Today's reading: Psalms 117-118; Luke 23
I have never considered before just how incredible it is for the criminal on the cross to ask a dying Messiah to bring him into His kingdom.
Many (or maybe all) of Jesus' followers were despondent after His death, wondering where things had gone wrong. They were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but the Messiah, in their understanding, doesn't die. He was supposed to be a spiritual and military hero, stepping into Jewish history, overthrowing their enemies, and establishing an eternal kingdom with Israel as the seat of power. Failing to meet these expectations, and others, was a big part of what led to some of the clashes and animosity between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, but at times also led to confusion and issues with Jesus' own disciples. Jesus even had to rebuke Peter for rebuking Him for talking about His coming suffering because Peter, while declaring Jesus as the Christ, had no category for His suffering. In fact, I personally think this was why Judas betrayed Jesus. I think Judas really did believe Jesus was the Messiah, but he was an opportunist and was following Jesus for the position and glory it would give him when Jesus established His kingdom. So I think that Judas was doing one of two things in giving Jesus over to the Jewish leaders; either cutting his losses and trying to get something for his time and energy spent following Jesus around when it looked like He wasn't going to establish a kingdom, or trying to force Jesus to stop dilly-dallying, crush His enemies, and take His kingdom then and there.
The point here is that even those closest to Jesus, those who heard Him speak of His coming suffering, had no category for their Messiah dying, so how much less so this criminal hanging on the next cross over?
And yet, what does the criminal do? He looks over at the beaten, bloodied man, nails through wrists and feet, hanging next to him on the cross, and says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
What faith this criminal had!
It was one thing for people to trust in Jesus when He was running around, performing miracles, and meeting their expectations, but this man first places his trust in Jesus as He is actively, and in a seemingly very final way, failing those very same expectations.
Whether it was what he had heard about Jesus in the past, or something about how He suffered on the cross, there at the end, this man decided that Jesus was who He said He was. I'll bet he was just as confused as everyone else about how or why the Messiah was hanging on a cross, but he recognized who Jesus was and that was enough. He didn't need to understand why things were playing out the way they were, or how it was going to end up with Jesus taking His kingdom, all he needed to know was that Jesus was the Christ, and with that knowledge, he trusted.
If I'm being honest, very often I don't have as much faith as this criminal did. I have so much more to go off of; I know of the resurrection, I know how the story ends, and I have seen God work in history and in my own life, time and time again; and still there are times I stop and struggle to understand how God could possibly be working through whatever situation or scenario I'm looking at. But I know who Jesus is, and I know God is faithful, and that is always more than enough to keep trusting.
God, give me the kind of incredible faith and trust in your goodness, power, and faithfulness, despite my questions or struggles, that this man had on the cross!
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