Question was raised this week concerning an individual who, despite ongoing profession of faith, is involved in a long time affair. "Why won't they do right when you can show them from the Bible that what they are doing is wrong?" the questioner asked.
While not personally acquainted with the delinquent party, the answer in such situations is usually simple. The issue is not ignorance but rather will and choice - a course of action by which, in time, one can become deprived of both understanding and capacity for understanding (Rom. 1:18-28).
There is, however, a biblical response to knowledge wherein greater enlightenment ensues. "In Your light," writes the Psalmist, "shall we see light" (Psa. 36:9). At this point, Scripture offers few examples more graphic than that associated with our Lord's crucifixion in terms of one of the thieves crucified with him.
Having initially joined his fellow villian in reviling Jesus for failing to intervene on their behalf should he indeed be the Christ (Matt. 27:44), the second thief then responds to a seemingly inexplicable impulse to recognize the justice of his own fate and injustice of Christ's. Despite his anguished state, he affirms his guilt and defends Christ's innocence (Luke 23:40-41). While lacking all the "Yeah, ho verily" formalities of our own pieties and practices, his so doing nonetheless constituted an acceptable act of contrition and recognition - even if limited in terms of all its implications - of the character and rightness of Christ.
The result was immediate. In a moment of insight far exceeding that of even the Twelve, the thief then requested Christ's remembrance "when you come into your kingdom." To those standing by, the illogic of addressing a dying man in terms of "When you become King" would almost certainly have been seen as the delirium of an expiring individual crazed with pain. To the contrary, it represented an impartation of divine revelation. Jesus answer: "Today you shall be with Me in Paradise" (vs. 43).
The primary focus of Good Friday rests, of course, on our Savior's sacrifice of the Cross. As per the apostle Paul: "God forbid tht I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14).
At the same time, there is another point of significance. Why the acceptance and impartation of revelation to a common criminal rather than one of more devout background and inclination? Who is to say, other than this: What greater example of the grace of God - that undeserved benevolence upon which we are all dependent?
Burl Ratzsch
