Holy Week 2023 Reflections
Here’s another astonishing thing about Jesus. Even while hanging from the Cross, in excruciating agony, shame, and fatigue, He was still saving people!
Case in point was the thief who was crucified beside Him. A composite reading of the Gospels will show that he started out hurling insults at Jesus and taunting Him to save Himself (Matthew 27:38-40).
Then, for some reason, he had a change of heart and asked Jesus, “[R]emember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:39-42).
Thus we have one of the Seven Last Words: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (v 43).
Wait a minute. That’s unfair!
There were thousands of people who led upright lives, but this miserable criminal had the express lane to Heaven!
Shouldn’t this thief make some penance for his sins? Like make restitution, do some charity work or something? Oh, wait, he was nailed to a piece of wood.
The thief implicitly acknowledged Jesus as his King, but he was not vetted, he did not pass some tests, he had no backers or character references.
So Jesus took him into His kingdom… just like that?
It’s so unfair. But it was unfair in the thief’s favor!
That is the reality of salvation. God sacrificed His sinless Son for us sinners. Jesus got the raw deal, took the bullet, absorbed the blow, while we get to be forgiven, cleansed, and adopted as children of God. His Heavenly Father was being unfair, but He was unfair in our favor.
We are as helpless like the thief; there’s nothing we can do to deserve such grace. But it’s there. Again like that thief, the response is a genuine repentance and embracing Jesus as our King.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Yes, God is unfair. But this is one instance I am grateful for it.
April 7, 2023
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