Failure
“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, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’” (Luke 23:40-43)
The criminal is under the same death sentence as Jesus. By his own admission, it is a punishment that he deserves. The man believes that he has failed at life to such a degree that his crucifixion is just.
Yet, then we see the criminal succeed in a way that all others have failed. When he becomes the first person to publicly recognize that Jesus’s kingdom exists outside of this earthly life. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
How did the criminal reach this conclusion?
We don’t know how much of the execution process this man endured alongside Jesus. Scripture doesn’t specifically link them together until they are being led out to the crucifixion site. But by then, Jesus’s body bears the evidence of all that He has experienced. A crown of thorns pierces His head, and He is so badly beaten that it is impossible for Him to drag the crossbeam through the streets by Himself.
Perhaps the criminal notices a discrepancy between the way that he and Jesus are being treated. Despite His innocence, Jesus is bearing the brunt of the derision and torture. Despite the hate, Jesus is responding with love. Even love for the criminal dying beside Him.
Here, in the last hours of his life, the criminal has a life-transforming encounter with Jesus. He is given a hope and future. His story is a reminder to us that Jesus’s love will never fail us, not even in our most desperate circumstances.
