One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23
As we spend this week remembering Jesus, who died and rose again for us, these lines from John Calvin’s commentary on Luke 23 can help us.
I can almost hear the astonishment in Calvin’s voice as he considers what happens here:
I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith; and so much the greater admiration is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which it affords so magnificent a display.
I still hear that astonishment as Calvin contemplates the height to which this sinner rises in confessing Christ. This little narrative should astonish us into seeing and worshipping Jesus today.
A robber, who not only had not been educated in the school of Christ, but, by giving himself up to execrable murders, had endeavored to extinguish all sense of what was right,
suddenly rises higher than all the apostles and the other disciples whom the Lord himself had taken so much pains to instruct; and not only so,
but he adores Christ as a King while on the gallows,
celebrates his kingdom in the midst of shocking and worse than revolting abasement,
and declares him, when dying, to be the Author of life.