Luke 23:42 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Lord, remember me— This man seems to have entertained a more spiritual, rational, and exalted notion of the Messiah's kingdom, than the disciples themselves at that time: they expected a secular empire; he gave strong intimations of his having an idea of Christ's spiritual dominion; for at the very time that Jesus was dying on the cross, he begged to be remembered by him, when he came into his kingdom. It may be said, indeed, that he hoped Jesus would exert his miraculous power in delivering himself from the cross, and setting up his kingdom immediately; buteven on this supposition, his faith, though not clearer and more extensive, must be praised as stronger than that of the disciples, who, because their Master was crucified, had almost universally despaired of his being the Messiah. However, the answer which Jesus made to his request, Luke 23:43 and his acquiescence in that answer, must be acknowledged as the strongest presumption in favour of the extensiveness and propriety of his faith. His petition certainly discovers great modesty, humility, and consciousness of his own demerits. He begged only for a remembrance; he knew himself so sinful, that he durst ask no more. He owned Christ publicly; he pitied him; he hoped in him; and confessed his power and authority in the future world. It must be allowed a striking act of faith in this man, to believe, amid such circumstances, that Jesus was the Just one, Christ the Lord, and a king about to enter into his kingdom. Bywhatever marks he discovered this truth, he excelled the high-priest, and Pharisees and doctors of the law, in his idea of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom; nay, and as we have observed, he excelled the apostles themselves, though they had been for some years instructed by Christ himself in the nature of that kingdom. The Jewish priests had condemned Christ as an impostor; but he owns him to be the king of the Jews. They expected a temporal king; but he ratifies what our Lord had said, and intimates that he knew his kingdom was not of this world. Peter had denied him, when before his judge; but this man, though he sees him hanging on the cross, owns him for his Lord. Though he saw him expiring, he addresses him as the Lord of life. Amid his own sufferings, he regards only the sufferings of Christ; and was raised to entertain hopes of the pardon of his sins, and to a belief of the mission of Jesus; and, no doubt, obtained, on the cross, the full pardon that he longed for. It is but justice to this argument, after what we have said on the preceding verse, to insert what is urged on the contrary, which we shall do in the words of Dr. Doddridge; who observes, that some have inferred from the words when thou comest into thy kingdom, that this malefactor had learned something of Christ in prison;—and have urged the possibility of his having exercised perhaps a long and deep repentance there, against the supposition of a sudden change, which has been generally imagined in this case: but Christ's kingdom was now so much the subject of public discourse, that he might, on that day, and indeed in a few minutes, have learned all that was necessary as the foundation of this petition. I cannot therefore but look on this happy man, for such he surely was, amidst all the ignominy and tortures of the cross, as a glorious instance of the power of divine grace; which, as many have observed, perhaps taking the first occasion from the preternatural darkness, wrought so powerfully, as to produce, by a sudden and astonishing growth, in his last moments, all the virtues which could be crowded into so small a space.