Thursday, March 26th

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Thursday, March 26

Luke 23:32-43

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

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.”

As a pastor, I am convinced that there are far more “death bed” conversions than we can ever really know. Most of us live most of our lives pretending we will live forever because it’s simply too emotionally difficult to live in the constant awareness that we are mortal, that we will die someday. But when the time comes when a person can no longer pretend, when the prognosis is not good, when their family gathers around their bed, there is often a kind of “spiritual desperation” that comes over the one who’s life is slipping away.

I’ve seen and felt that desperation.

A person longs for answers the questions that may or may not be asked out loud.

“Have I been a good person?”

“What’s going to happen to me?”

“Am I prepared for the next life?”

“Is God pleased with me?”

Luke tells us that time has come for one of the criminals being crucified alongside Jesus. He writes:

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

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.”


This is a rather brutal form of a “death-bed conversion.” This man knows he will not survive the day. More than that he expresses with somewhat shocking self-awareness that he is getting what he deserves.

This is an utterly broken and dying man. No pretending. No delusions of immortality. Just a man staring at the bare naked remnants of a wasted life.

In other words, a man in exactly the right condition to receive the grace and hope of Jesus Christ.

With no where else to turn he turns to Jesus:

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Just that. No flowery words or formal confession. He has neither the words nor the time for that. Just an acknowledgment of who and what he is, and who and what Jesus is.

He is a dying man in need of forgiveness, grace and hope. Jesus is the King of heaven who offers forgiveness, grace and hope.

Jesus then speaks words to this man that he speaks to all who come to him in that same desperate faith:

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Pastor Brian Coffey