THREE CROSSES
Jesus was crucified with two criminals. Three crosses, three very different individuals. One person died in sin, one died to sin and one died for sin. Let's see what we can take away from this situation and find out what we can learn from what each person was focused on.
1) The cross of rejection.
Luke 23:32-33, "Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left."
We learn from Matthew and Mark's gospels that they were robbers. But probably not in the sense as we know it since we might conclude that crucifixion for robbery seems a harsh and unjust punishment. It's understood that along with that they were revolting against the Roman hierarchy which compounded everything and brought about their current fate. The People's NT commentary states they had committed treason and rebellion. It also cites that Barabbas was probably their leader.
But there was a lot of mocking going on at Golgotha this day-all directed toward Jesus.
Luke 23:35-39, "The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
It says that the religious leaders sneered at him. According to Adam Clarke's commentary this carries the meaning that they 'treated him with the utmost contempt'. The soldiers mocked Jesus, the religious leaders mocked him and one of the criminals mocked him.
And in Mark's gospel, it says that those who passed by threw in their insults as well. They and the religious leaders were challenging him to come down from the cross and they would believe in him. That's a whole lotta mocking going on.
As if being beaten to within an inch of your life and having nails driven into your wrists and feet and hanging naked on a cross in the midday blazing sun wasn't suffering enough, now let's add insults to Jesus' injuries. How much can one man endure?
We see the first criminal hurling his insult at Jesus in combination with the others. "Aren't you the Savior? Well then, save yourself, and us." Even though he says, 'save yourself, I believe he really only cared about himself. It's just that he knew that in order for him to be rescued Jesus had to first rescue himself. I don't think he really cared about Jesus' freedom, he only cared about his own. Selfishness will keep us far from Christ.
While it's noteworthy that he believed Jesus was able to save himself and them; the only salvation he was looking for was physical. He may have called Jesus the Christ but he wasn't looking for spiritual deliverance; merely a situational deliverance. Unfortunately, he wasn't concerned about his spiritual death sentence.
People are like that today. They want Jesus to get them out of their physical predicaments but they don't look to him to be freed from their spiritual predicament. That's probably because they don't think they're in one. They either don't think about their life from a spiritual standpoint or if they do they think because they're "good" people there's nothing to worry about. Sadly, this criminal, who only cared about his physical problem, would soon have to face his spiritual problem when he died.
John 8:24, "If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." If we don't believe Jesus is Savior and Lord, if we ignore his salvation, if we don't submit to his control over our lives, we will likewise die in our sin. This criminal died on the cross of rejection.
2) The cross of reception.
Luke 23:40-43, "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.”
Interestingly, in Mark and Matthew's gospel, it states that both criminals were hurling insults at Jesus. This would obviously mean that this criminal had come to the point of conviction, realizing that he was wrong and that Jesus was suffering unjustly. We don't know what if any exposure this man had to Jesus before this point, but I'm sure he was knowledgeable of the reputation of Jesus.
The first criminal knew that Jesus was known as the Christ, so it's safe to say that this criminal knew some of the things that had been said about Jesus. He may have even known about some of his miracles. But regardless as to any prior learning of Jesus as the Savior, he came to that understanding now as he hung on the cross.
Before this point if he had heard any of Jesus' teachings he wasn't willing to accept them. But now, in the moment of truth, regardless of the ongoing criticisms and unbelief, he was someone who believed that Jesus was the Savior. He feared God's wrath and he wanted Jesus to spare him from it.
"Don't you fear God?" It's like he's saying, ''Don't you realize that before long your life will be over and you'll be standing before God's throne? What will you say in defense for chastising his Son?"
The same question needs to be presented to us. We might be going along through life, living however we want, doing what we want without giving much thought to God or his ways. And if we were honest we would have to answer, 'no, I don't fear God'.
Sometimes in our ignorance we don't think there's any need to fear God because I'm ok; me and God-we have an understanding...I live my life how I want, go to him whenever I need something and when it's all over he lets me into heaven because I'm a pretty good egg. Yeah, I mess up every now and then but God understands...he knows I'm really a good person.
If that's how we think then we're mistaken as to how God judges. We think it's a system of checks and balances and we always conclude that our good deeds outweigh our bad ones so we're good to go. But we don't realize that one sin makes us a sinner and we are now separated from God because of it and if we don't become right with God before we die we will be forever separated from God.
And we are not able to save ourselves; only Jesus can do that. So we need to have a fear of God's judgment. If we don't acknowledge that we're not good enough without Christ and therefore we need his salvation then we're fooling ourselves. Jesus died for nothing if we can be good enough without him.
But even if we do acknowledge all that and we come to Christ for salvation it's not a license to live however we want because we now have our 'get-out-of-hell-free-card'. Just because our sin debt was paid doesn't mean God doesn't care about our sin. God's not up there wagging his finger at us when we sin going, 'naughty, naughty'.
In fact, I believe he judges our sin more strictly now because we know better. If you make a mistake at work because you were ignorant of the situation then you will probably get off with a warning. But, if you go back and commit the same error you will be held accountable because you can't claim ignorance this time.
1st Pet. 1:14, "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." At one time we didn't know better but now we do. We were convicted, we repented, we were baptized and we committed to live our life for Jesus. We have received grace, we know the love of Christ and we now have the Spirit of Jesus living in us.
Therefore we have the ability to be like Jesus and we have the power to resist temptation. We are responsible and obligated to properly respond to the immense gift we have received. So, knowing all this, if we go back and live in sin we are inviting the consequences that come with knowing better but doing it anyway.
2nd Pet. 2:20-21, "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them."
When we came to Christ we found the better way; we came to know love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. To then respond to all that by going back into the worldly ways we have been set free from, we will be worse off in the end because we had the blinders removed and we had the power of the Holy Spirit enlightening us to the truth and giving us the ability to resist temptation and live for Jesus yet at some point we decided the world was better.
If after we have known the forgiveness of Christ we then turn our backs on him and walk away, the end result when we meet God will not be pretty. I don't know exactly how it will be worse than if we had never known the way of righteousness but I don't want to find out.
"This man has done nothing wrong". The religious leaders had him crucified yet this criminal recognizes that Jesus was an innocent man. How he came to this conclusion we don't know. Perhaps he knew some things about Jesus and based on the charges against him saw a contradiction.
Barabbas had been set free instead of Jesus. Perhaps this criminal knew that the one who should've been crucified next to him, Barabbas, wasn't. The one who truly was guilty and deserving of crucifixion, along with him, was set free and Jesus took his place.
Friends, we are Barabbas. We are the ones who have sinned, we are the ones deserving of death but Jesus took our place. In humility, this criminal recognized his own guilt in light of Jesus' innocence. I don't know if the first criminal recognized his guilt or not but he didn't humbly accept it; he wanted to be released from the consequences of his actions.
But not the second one. He didn't ask to be released from his situation; he saw the greater need. He wanted to be released from the penalty for his spiritual actions. So he humbly asked Jesus to remember him. "Don't forget me, Lord. Please have mercy on me".
"When you come into your kingdom." Thought to refer to Jesus' second coming. It's interesting that when Pilate put up the sign on Jesus' cross that read, King of the Jews, the religious leaders were indignant and wanted it changed to read that he claimed to be king. But here we have this criminal recognizing Jesus as king.
All of what he knew about Jesus may not have been enough to make him a follower before now but at least he had a change of heart before it was too late. The Holy Spirit had revealed the truth to this man and he was open to it. The Holy Spirit reveals himself to every person but it's only those who have ears to hear who will benefit from it.
We see from the convicted and repentant criminal's reaction that it's never too late. It's not wise to put it off since we don't know when the end or our end will come but it's good to know that as long as the breath of life is still there the opportunity remains for one to be born again.
It's interesting that before he turns to Jesus to make a plea for himself he tries to get his friend to come to his senses. He wanted him to think about what he was doing mocking and speaking harshly to the one whom he had been convinced was the Savior of the world. He could've just let his friend spout off and then made his request of Jesus to remember him. But he had a heart for his friend.
We need to be the same way. When we encounter people who mock God in some way we should be willing to confront them with the same question, "What are you doing? Don't you fear God?"
"Today you will be with me in Paradise." This criminal had quite a day. In the morning he was in sin, in the afternoon he was in grace and by evening he would be in glory. Jesus recognized this man's heartfelt plea and responded with an eternal reward. It's like Jesus is saying, "you won't have to wait to be remembered when I come back, you're going to be rewarded for your faith today".
"In Paradise". The Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT), uses the word Paradise when speaking of the Garden of Eden. In Rev. 2:7 Jesus said, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God." And we know from Gen. 3:22 that the tree of life is in the Garden of Eden.
It makes sense that we would go there when our life is over. Adam and Eve were in that perfect place but after they sinned they were banished from there. So, having been born again, through Christ we have been made sinless, we are now able to go back to that perfect place.
Interestingly, though, In 2nd Cor. 12:4 Paul talked about a man being "caught up" to Paradise. That seems to imply that it's in the heavenly realms. I don't know exactly how to make sense of it all but I really don't care as long as I get to go there and be with Jesus. When my time comes I want to hear what the criminal heard, "today you will be with me in Paradise". This criminal was on the cross of reception.
3) The cross of redemption.
I spoke earlier about Jesus being mocked. Think of how that must've made Jesus feel. It was bad enough that he had been beaten to within an inch of his life, and it was bad enough that he had been stripped naked and crucified, hanging there in shame and agony.
But to top it all off he was dealing with insults and mocking from most of the people who were there. And when they dared him to come down from that cross and prove himself I have a feeling he was at least a little bit tempted to do it. But he knew it wouldn't have worked; they wouldn't have believed in him. But even if they did believe in him after doing that it wouldn't have mattered because all would've been lost; the mission would've been ruined.
Jesus knew he had to stay on the cross but it had to be frustrating to listen to all of those insults. But it also could've motivated him to finish the task set before him. All of their taunts and jeers just revealed all the more the need for Jesus to follow through with the mission.
He would die for the sins of mankind, be resurrected and provide the means of escape for all those who were held in slavery to sin. He wanted to provide the means to escape the corruption that sin caused. To be able to remove the blindness that caused these people to mock and insult and feel like they were doing nothing wrong.
Jesus prayed for the soldiers because they didn't know what they were doing. In their eyes they were doing their job; in their eyes they were just nailing a criminal to a cross. In their blindness there was nothing wrong with the cruel and inhumane treatment they were dishing out. And Jesus asked the Father to forgive their ignorance. Jesus didn't want the wrath of God to come down on them for nailing his Son to the cross and for casting lots for his clothes and perhaps enjoying what they were doing.
Jesus was willing to die for all of the people so they could be released them from the bondage of the evil one; the one who held them captive to do his will. Jesus' humility caused him to not answer his critics with insults of his own. His love caused him to remain on that cross and finish the mission.
Phil. 2:8, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." Jesus was willing to die the most degrading way to show the extent of his love. The Son of God was willing to hang naked on a cross and suffer the shame of crucifixion for us.
In one sense, all of what Jesus went though is a good depiction of our sinful state-shameful, bloody, tortured-a complete mess. In our sin we are in pain. Satan whips us, cuts us and beats us. We are stripped naked, exposed, humiliated, degraded and shamed.
So Jesus' torture and crucifixion is a good picture of what we are in our sin and what Jesus wants to free us from so we can be saved; so we can be transformed; so we can be resurrected like he was. Jesus died on the cross of redemption.
