THE SECOND WORD FROM THE CROSS
‘Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’
The dying thief desired to be near the Lord.
I. His is no fragment of repentance; it is the full conversion of the whole man to God.—The last act of a man’s life is not more momentous than the first, except it prove what the character of the whole man is. If God judge a man by the last thing he did, it is not because it is the last—what is time to God?—but because it is the expression of his whole life. Jesus knew that in this relenting word, ‘Remember me,’ the penitent in one bound leapt into his Saviour’s arms. His confession was irrevocable; his will invincible. Had he lived a thousand years he would have been found faithful; and Jesus accepted him wholly, at once and for ever.
II. Our Lord adapts His promise to the particular desire of the longing heart.—He does not usually address Himself to the sensuous nature of man, but now to a man of low spiritual attainment He promises the most intelligible comfort—paradise, refreshment, rest. The promise suits the need.
III. The rest begins at once; repose and refreshment come with the beginning of conversion. ‘Peace, peace to him that is afar off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him.’
Archdeacon Furse.
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‘ “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Surely it was a consolation to our Lord in the midst of His sufferings to pronounce these words—to open the door of Paradise for one penitent soul. At once He answers, graciously, giving more than is asked—(more than either we desire or deserve—Collect for Twelfth Sunday after Trinity). What a striking instance of Christ saving to the uttermost! How it shows that none are too wicked for His Spirit to regenerate, for His love to purify and save! May such a promise be ours, when we come to die!’
(SECOND OUTLINE)
FIRST-FRUITS OF THE PASSION
‘Father, forgive,’ has been spoken. The words have died upon the ear, but they live for evermore.
I. So the Father, hearing the prayer of the suffering Son, gives Him at once one soul, earnest of all the souls that are to follow. One soul, and that, as one would say, the most unlikely soul of all, the soul of one of those criminals who hung beside His Cross. No sooner had the Lord prayed His prayer, ‘Father, forgive,’ than on His ear falls the sound of the prayer of the poor penitent, ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.’ Oh, sweetest music to the ear of the dying Christ! There is a soul turning to Him. There is one to whom He may extend mercy and happiness. Think how the angels must have joyed over this one sinner that repented,’ this one sinner, whose mighty privilege it was to be the first-fruits of the Passion, and to give the first thrill of satisfaction to the dying Saviour.
II. So the fruit of the Cross ripens.—Not intercession only, but now the ripe fruit of pardon. A saved soul; one soul actually saved by the great sacrifice, as it were by anticipation and before the ‘It is finished’ could be uttered. It was indeed the earnest that God would surely hear the intercession of the Son, when you find that the Cross could thus at once melt the heart and win the love of a dying criminal. Oh, marvellous change for that penitent soul. Yesterday a criminal; this morning a convict; before night with Christ in Paradise.
III. The lesson for us is, that if our sins bring us to misery and grief, to a very crucifixion of punishment in this world, we may yet, like that penitent thief, look to the Cross of Christ, and be received with Him in Paradise.
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‘One thief, it has been said, was saved upon the Cross that we might hope, and but one, that we might fear. Does the cross that we have to bear soften us or harden us? Sickness, poverty, bitter trials, they are meant to soften us, to bring us to Christ, to refine our earthliness.’
(THIRD OUTLINE)
THE ROYALTY OF GOODNESS
What shall we specially note in this scene for ourselves?
I. The royalty of goodness.—Outwardly there was nothing to show that Jesus was a King. The scene of the Cross must have been a sordid scene. We must think of it not as it has been moulded by art into forms of earthly grace, but in its stern, dread reality. And thinking of it so, what we deduce from it is surely this—the compelling power of goodness forcing itself upon the heart of the criminal.
II. Let us note this touching desire for remembrance.—‘Remember me.’ Is not that the true key-note of real penitence? We would so gladly forget, and so gladly have our sins forgiven; but real, deepest penitence does not ask to be forgiven; it says, ‘Remember.’ It flings itself into the arms of Divine forgiveness. It is not a hiding away beneath, it is confession before the face of the Saviour.
III. And then, for our comfort, let us read out of this story the hope that it contains.—True penitence, even at the eleventh hour, is not refused. Thank God, it can come to the most hardened sinner. No case could outwardly be more desperate than that of the thief. What did he plead? Nothing; no merit past, no future in which he could make reparation possibly. There was no hope of mercy for him in this world, yet what he could he gave. He was sorry; he accepted his punishment, threw himself upon Jesus.
—Rev. Lionel G. B. J. Ford.
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‘We have not the right ever to despair either of ourselves or of others. We may never say that any habit, ingrained in us as it may be, is too strong to be overcome, or that our hearts are too cold and callous to be changed. “I am too old,” one said, “for religion now.” Even at the last moment the illumination may come, and we shall see in an instant, and be saved.’
(FOURTH OUTLINE)
DIVIDED BY THE CROSS
What is it which God looks down upon with so much pleasure, which the angels rejoice to see?
I. A soul come back.—It is a soul come home, come back. Here we have a wonderful illustration of how God seeks and wins. This man was not a penitent; he was a robber, going about in those bands which haunted the mountains of Judæa, just as years and years ago there were bands of robbers infesting the forests in this country. What shall win him back, what shall bring him back to his God? Then he was to suffer death as a criminal; he was to be hanged upon a cross as a felon. Was it too late then? Was there no chance that this man might yet be touched? There was only one way—that God should place His own Son on the Cross next to him. God is seeking each one of us; He has sought us all our lives. God makes a last appeal to us. He brings His Own Blessed Son to die on the Cross next to us that we may witness His suffering; and we humbly pray, ‘Lord, remember me!’ and the blessing comes back swift and sure, ‘To-day, to-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.’
II. The Cross as the divider of men.—Again, there is another thought which is suggested, How the Cross divides men! Is it not strange that the only man who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ at that moment in the world, the only one who really believed in Christ, was the dying robber upon the cross! All the others had gone. The disciples had fled. A few women in their tenderness and love stood at a distance from the Cross. They had lost all hope; only the robber could say, ‘I believe.’ There was the Cross a dividing power amongst men. These two men, the two malefactors, crucified one on one side and the other on the other, had witnessed the same suffering, had had the same appeal made to each of them. They had heard the same prayer; and yet what was the effect? The one was made penitent and the other was hardened. And the same spectacle is going on all through the ages.
III. The appeal to the individual.—Let us remember that the greatest obstacle to our coming to God is not sin in its outward form, but sin and self-righteousness. ‘Lord, remember me!’ How the cry rings out! ‘I am suffering and deserve it.’ Was there ever a greater confession of sin than that? ‘Lord, remember me!’ Was not that a great, stirring appeal of faith? And the answer was as sure and certain: ‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.’ What did our Lord actually mean? How can I say? I only know this, that He meant that the man should be with Christ. And the lesson for us is surely a pressing one, something for to-day, for our own lives. We who watch by the Cross may not be as that man actually was; but is there no sin in our lives to-day, no secret thing that is eating the very heart out of all our religious exercises, no wayward will which we cannot bring to be subdued and to be submitted to the eternal Will of God? Oh that to-day the call might reach some of us!
Rev. T. G. Longley.
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‘The penitent thief proved himself in this last distress to be one of the greatest men that ever lived in the world. If you analyse his speech you will find that in philosophy, in audacity of thought, in width and penetration of conception, no greater speech was ever made by human lips. What did this dying malefactor do to prove his intellectual greatness? He saw the Lord in the victim. What did all the other minds round about Him? What vulgarity always does—they defied the impotent, crushed the worm. In so doing they did not debase Christ; they wrote themselves little men. Little minds have all little scales of proof. If Jesus had come down from the Cross, and taken the two thieves with Him, that would have been conclusive. This malefactor, a man who could have played with thrones and nations, did more than see the Lord in the victim. He saw life beyond death. Consider where he is: on the cross, his life oozing out of him in red drops, but he is not conquered; he dies to live. “Lord,” said he, “remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” ’
(FIFTH OUTLINE)
THE WORD OF GRACE
The first word was the word of Forgiveness. I should like to call this the word of Grace. When they crucified our Lord, of course they did it with all the malice conceivable. But malice did a beautiful thing for me. They hoisted Him up between two malefactors—‘Jesus in the midst,’ a sinner on either side.
These poor men never had a chance, brought up amid evil associations, cruel, hard, covetous, with the odour of hell about them. At last to both of them comes a chance: they find themselves dying beside the Saviour; it is the one opportunity of their lives. One seizes it, and becomes the Lord’s companion, not only in death, but in everlasting life. Was there ever such a beautiful story? He goes home, and is with Christ in Paradise—the first fruit of the Passion. It was his chance, and he seized it.
I. You must always hope about people who are dying that there may be a chance.—I wonder what made the thief turn and confess the Saviour. Was it, do you think, that he turned and read the sweet little gospel over the head of the dying Saviour: ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews’? Was it the sacred Name Jesus? There is a great power in that Name. There never was such a name as that; and when it was put above the Saviour on the Cross it was the ‘Name above every other name.’ The little sweet gospel which they wrote over the Saviour was the thief’s one opportunity, and he seized it, and went home to heaven.
II. What about the other thief?—Did not he die by the side of the Saviour? Yes. Is he damned? According to an old picture the angels are carrying off the soul of the one man, and the devils the soul of the other. But I do not read that in Holy Scripture. Is he damned or was he saved, do you think? I cannot tell you, I do not know; but I do know one thing about him—he suffered, and he suffered, bad as he was, by the side of the Saviour. What about these thousands of people who have no religion, to whom the chance does not come? Are they all going to be damned? What are you going to say, who have been to Calvary and seen the sight? At least you can say this, ‘I cannot tell you what will become of these men; they have not had a chance, and I have had ten thousand chances: I cannot say, but I leave it to the mercy of Him Who tasted death for every man. God help them, and God help me, a poor sinner.’
—Rev. A. H. Stanton.
(SIXTH OUTLINE)
THE SINNER RESTORED
How does Jesus help sinners in this blessed second word from the Cross?
I. He assures the sinner of the reality of His restoration.—‘Verily to-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’ Is it not one of the great miseries of sin that it robs us of our faith, our hope, our trust in God’s mercy and love? Jesus helps us by assuring us of the reality of the restoration; and forgiveness is a fact attested by multitudes in every age of history at every time.
II. Jesus helps us sinners by teaching us the method of restoration.—The robber was not released from his hard bed of pain, the penalty not remitted. Yet amid it all he had peace because he was forgiven. Punishment is to the true penitent transformed, and that which while you are impenitent and hard of heart is a crushing, fiery vengeance that will not let you go, that very thing when you are penitent becomes a healing, purifying discipline, which you can bear with even a kind of joy because you know that your Saviour bore it before you.
III. Then Jesus teaches us the blessedness of restoration.—‘To-day’ with Him in Paradise. ‘To-day.’ How prompt is the response of love! So it is with the forgiveness of sins. At once the sinner is welcomed, pardoned, cleansed, relieved. ‘With Me.’ What blessedness is that! How strange it is that the last should be as the first, and that this penitent robber is the very first who shall know the full meaning of that great promise! And the blessedness of restoration is seen in the fact that the storm-tossed, sin-driven soul is at rest in Paradise.