Lent reflection

The words from the cross

Major John Waters continues his series for Lent and reflects on ‘the word of salvation’

‘ I TELL you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23:43 New English Translation). In Mark’s account the two men crucified with Jesus revile him but Luke portrays one of them as acknowledging his own guilt and recognising the undeserved fate of Jesus. Whether he also recognised the nature of Jesus’ death we have no way of telling, but if he did then he perceived something of the divine purpose more acutely than even the closest associates of Jesus.

It may be that he was attempting to give some comfort to Jesus by a muted acceptance of the inscription Pilate had caused to be attached to the cross: ‘This is the king of the Jews.’ No matter what others thought, he at least believed!

One Greek document says that in his reply Jesus also said: ‘Be of good courage.’ There is little support for the addition of these words but it is not difficult to imagine something like: ‘The pain of this horrible death will not last for ever and what follows will be of inestimable blessing, so be courageous.’

At all events the thief received more than he might have expected for his kindness.

Paradise is a Persian word for a park or garden, possibly a walled garden, and was adopted into both Hebrew and Greek. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word is used to describe the Garden of Eden, which itself came to represent an earthly copy of the heavenly state. Jewish belief concerning the after-life was confusing; different and even paradoxical ideas could be held at one and the same time, but reflected in this saying is the belief that after death the souls of the righteous would go immediately to this heavenly estate.

This was the promise Jesus gave to the penitent thief; not a vague hope sometime in the future when the Kingdom of Christ ultimately would be established but on that very day he would enjoy the same privilege as the innocent man beside him on the cross – a place in Paradise.

The critics of Jesus would have considered such a promise blasphemous, just as they did when Jesus forgave the paralysed man: ‘The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Luke 5:21). But, as John writes in his Gospel, such authority had been given to Jesus by the Father. Indeed that authority had been granted for the express purpose of salvation – not only in the future but also in the present: ‘For you granted him authority over all people

‘‘ The pain of this horrible death will not last for ever and what follows will be of inestimable blessing, so be courageous

’’

that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent’ (John 17:2 and 3).

The Church has been slow to recognise the truth of this assertion, and as late as 1853 F. D. Maurice was deprived of his professorship at King’s College London partly because he maintained that the New Testament word ‘eternal’ was concerned with a quality of life on Earth now as much as it might refer to the life to come in Heaven.

Salvation begins here and now, a present experience found in our knowledge of Jesus that is, as Olive Holbrook wrote, at the same time a ‘portent of immortality’.

This is the lamp to pilgrim given, This is my passport into Heaven, Portent of immortality, That God, through Jesus, dwells in me.

(SASB 164)

This is what Jesus gave to the penitent thief and this is what he still offers to all.

MAJOR WATERS LIVES IN RETIREMENT IN BIDDULPH MOOR