LUKE 23:39-43 DEATH ROW CONVERSION

Written by , Rector of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Virginia
 

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”
⁴³ Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

How did the one thief figure it out? In the hustle and bustle of public execution, with the unusual addition of religious tumult, and the humiliation and pain of the condemned, it is difficult for us to fathom that the others being crucified would have had any concern for their fellow sufferer, let alone make comments about him. Yet, while one of them joined in the mocking, the other expressed faith in Jesus. We can only attribute his confession to an act of the Spirit. But, after all, is not that the action underlying our faith also?

We know that the “wages of sin is death” and that we are all sinners, thus have earned eternal death. We are condemned through our sins, and therefore, represented by the two criminals on the cross. Jesus is crucified right in front of them. Both saw the same evidence and heard the same testimony, but while one chose to reject Jesus, the other embraced him in faith.

The eternal turning point of our lives is the moment that we acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world. What is important is not why we turn to Jesus, or how we come to know who Jesus is, or with a certain exception, even when we come to believe in Jesus, but rather that we do so. Of course that “certain exception” is the moment of our death. There is no biblical evidence for conversion after death, as much as we would like that to be the truth.

The three crosses of Calvary remind us that every conversion is a death row conversion. Which will it be, the wages you have earned or the free gift offered? What about those you love, who are all hanging on the hillside with you?

Lord, touch my life and the lives of those I love with the same saving knowledge that you gave the thief crucified with you. Make us see the truth about our own sinful nature and that of your perfect love. May I live my life as a confession of my faith in you and a proclamation of your free gift of redemption. Amen.

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