Three Crosses

August 6, 2017

“Printed over him was a sign: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!” But the other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him—he did nothing to deserve this.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” He said, “Don’t worry, I will. Today you will join me in paradise.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭23:38-43‬ ‭MSG‬‬

This is a familiar story and as I read it today I was struck by the stark contrasts in the passage. It is easy to look at it and see the bad thief versus the less bad thief. Some might even consider the thief that spoke up for Jesus good because he did what we might consider a good deed. But the contrast between the two thieves is not what I was drawn to. I was drawn to the contrast between them and Jesus.

In one hand you have the thief yelling at Jesus. Belittling who He is and telling him to save himself. Then you hear the next sentence. The one where the thief says save us. See he didn’t care about Jesus, who He is or what He could do. He only cared about himself. In that one sentence I could see selfishness and manipulation. The thief might have said save yourself, but his focus was on Jesus saving him. He was not concerned with any one else. Compare that to Jesus. The Son of God come to heaven for this day. The day where He would go to the cross. He knew what the day would entail. He knew the pain it would produce, the suffering. He knew how hard it would be, but still He came. He didn’t try to manipulate anybody into helping Him or changing His circumstances. He didn’t try to force anyone to like Him or change the circumstances to meet His needs, instead He just came. Without regard to the agony that He would face because He didn’t do it for accolades. He didn’t do it to puff His chest out and say “Look at me.” He didn’t try to take someone to the cross with Him. He came because He loved us even when we didn’t love Him. Even when we try to manipulate Him. Even when we hurt Him He came.

So as we look at the three people who hung on the cross that day we see a picture of selfless love in the middle with one side displaying selfishness and pride and the other repentance and regret. The only goodness is the cross in the middle. I have to ask myself is that the cross I measure my life on? Or are there times when I am so consumed with looking to my right and my left to say I’m not as prideful as that person or what I did wasn’t as bad. This is not how I want to measure my life. I want to keep my eyes on the cross in the middle. That is my measuring stick.