The death of Christ on the cross is both horrifying and glorious. The crucifixion of Jesus is equal parts despair and hope. Without the cross, there would be no covering for our sins. Without the cross, there would be no resurrection and way to eternal life in Jesus. The cross is central to all we believe. For all its importance, it is impossible to relate to Jesus as He hung there.
Few in all of history can relate to His immense suffering. None can relate to shouldering the weight of every sin, past, present, and future. We marvel at the sacrifice and love of Jesus, but we cannot feel what He felt that day. There were two others, though, to whom we can relate. We are not so different from the two criminals who hung beside Jesus on that most terrible and wonderful day.
Most of us have never committed earthly crimes that warrant the death penalty, but each of us has committed sins that damn us to an eternity in Hell (Romans 3:23; Matthew 25:31-46). The men who hung next to Christ were likely insurrectionists. In the Gospels, scholars often translate the Greek word “lēstai” as “thief”, “robber”, “rebel”, or “criminal”. Another translation of the word is “insurrectionist,” as it was when referring to Barabbas (Matthew 27:15-26). It would not be typical for common thieves to be executed under Roman law. But any offense deemed to undermine Roman authority was punishable by death and death on a cross. Are we not all insurrectionists guilty of rebelling against God’s authority?
We can relate to the two men on the cross because we are just like them. Too often, we live in open opposition to the rule of Christ and His laws. Mark and Matthew tell us that both these men were heaping insults on Jesus and mocking Him along with the chief priests and gathered crowd (Mark 15:32; Matthew 27:44). But while hanging on the cross, one man reconsidered who Jesus was (Luke 23:39-43). Something about the demeanor of Jesus or the words He spoke changed the heart of this criminal.
We can relate to that. Every time we read our Bible or spend time in prayer, our hearts stir and we are driven to our knees in repentance for all the ways we have sinned against our Lord and Savior. I once heard Sinclair Ferguson speak about the repentant criminal, relating how this was the worst day of his life. Sentenced to death, the rebel would know this day was the last day of his life. But it was the best day of his life because it was the first day of his eternal life with Jesus. Doomed to Hell with no hope, no recourse, and no appeal, there was nothing left but fear and despair. In the middle of his darkness, a light broke through. Hanging next to Him was the hope of all mankind, the forgiver of all his sins. Hope had come, and the one man seized it.
We have the same choice today. We can relate to either of the two criminals hanging next to Jesus. From the one who reviled and heaped insults on Christ, we recognize our rebellion and rejection of God’s authority. If we continue on that path, we will die in our sin, forever separated from the love and glory of Jesus. Or we can align ourselves with the other man, recognize our hopeless condition, confess Jesus as the holy Son of God, and ask Him to remember us when He comes into His Kingdom (Luke 23:40-43).
Three men died on a cross that day. One finds himself banished to Hell for eternity. One is spending eternity in Heaven. And one gloriously raised Himself from the dead, defeating death, and providing the way to eternal life for you and me (Isaiah 25:8; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; John 14:6). Praise the God and Savior of all mankind! Praise Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords forever.