Do you ever marvel at the tiny, seemingly unimportant little kindnesses God strews on our path? For me, it’s an easy entrance onto a busy highway, a reminder when I’m about to forget something important, the sweet scent of rain…
Recently, I had to have blood drawn for routine lab work. That experience is usually an ordeal – first an endless wait in the lobby, then I become a pincushion as the phlebotomist probes several small veins for enough blood to fill a vial. This time, the wait was short and the lab lady was skillful. She extracted the needed sample with only one stab. I left feeling like the Lord had done a miracle for me!
A Request from a Thief
And that brings me to Calvary.
Listening to a sermon about the crucifixion one day, I was struck by the plea of the thief on the cross, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23.42) I was suddenly flabbergasted. There they were, two men dying on crosses. Their immediate death wasn’t a mere possibility. It was a 100% certainty.
Check out the crowd on Golgotha: The thousands Jesus had fed and healed, the horde who had hailed Him the previous Sunday – these were the ones who had demanded His execution. But they were probably back in Jerusalem, now, going about their own business. Judas had betrayed Him. Simon Peter had denied Him, literally sworn he didn’t know Jesus. What about Andrew, James (brother of John), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot? Where were they? As far as we know, John was the only disciple there, waiting with Mary at the foot of the Cross.
If Jesus’s closest followers and best friends had headed for the hills because they had no clue that Jesus even had a future, what was this thief talking about? What kingdom? How would Jesus be remembering anybody when He was dead?
The Gift of the Father
How did that thief know what we all know now – that Jesus’s Kingdom is not of this world? That Jesus’s Kingdom was waiting in the wings, about to step onstage three days later? Did even John understand?
Perhaps…just perhaps, that thief was the Father’s gift to Jesus. One moment the whole lost world is far away, uncaring, not interested. The next moment, Jesus has a convert.
And so, as Jesus is suffering on that cruel Cross, the thief next to Him “gets it.” The rest of humanity are lost sheep, wandering in darkness, but God the Father sends a lost soul to His abandoned Son to say, “We’ve got this. This thief understands – he’s just one tiny drop, but a flood will follow. Your sacrifice, My Beloved Son, has already won a heart, and millions are coming!”
Of course, such a message wasn’t news to Jesus. He had understood it since the beginning of time. But in the midst of His agony, perhaps that simple request from His lowly companion was a sliver of sunshine in the gloom of Calvary.
A simple, reassuring gift from a loving Father.
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∙ Blogs with a Spiritual Theme
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