Easter - Lord, Remember Me!

And Matthew 27:44 adds, “In the same way the robbers who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on him.”

[ PP - CRIMINAL ON CROSS ]

This goes on for some time, but then something very interesting happens. Listen to Luke 23:39?43. "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself & us!’

"But the other criminal rebuked him, ‘Don't you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’

"Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’"

D. As we hear these words, we need to realize that by then Jesus & the two thieves had been hanging on their crosses for several hours. Their pain & agony was reaching its peak. The suffering & misery of hours hanging in the hot sun had taken its toll.

PROP. In the midst of that, these two thieves begin to speak again to Jesus. And as they do, I invite you to listen to their requests, & then listen to the answer that Jesus gives.

I. THE TWO REQUESTS

A. There are two different requests, given by the two thieves as they hang on either side of Jesus. And by their requests it seems to me that both of the thieves showed they knew something about Jesus.

The first thief began with a question, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself & save us!" It is almost as though the thief is saying, "Everybody thinks you're the Christ. So if you are, then why are you going through all this? Come down from the cross, & take us down from our crosses as well."

B. The 2nd thief looks at Jesus, & in essence says, "Don't do that, because if you do, then the kingdom will never come to pass." We wonder where he got this idea.

Maybe in his childhood, as he sat in the schools of the synagogue & learned about the laws that God had given Moses - maybe he learned that a holy God cannot overlook the unholy activities of man. And that sin requires a blood sacrifice.

Somehow, & we have no idea how complete his understanding was, but somehow he understood that Jesus was a sacrifice for sin, paying the price so that God's eternal kingdom could be realized among men.

And while his knowledge must have been incomplete, he did possess enough knowledge to say to Jesus, "Don't come down, but please remember me when you come into your kingdom."

C. By the way, the Greek verb tense that Luke uses here indicates that these two thieves kept saying these words to Jesus. It wasn't just once, but again & again they spoke to Him in this way.

One was saying, "Save yourself & save us. Come down from your cross." The other was saying, "Stay on the cross. Set up a kingdom for us that will last forever & ever." Their words kept coming at Him again & again.

Jesus could have said, "All right, I will come down from the cross." Folks, please realize that Jesus had the power to do that. He could have come down from the cross, & taken the thieves down as well.