SUNDAY LESSON, 3/13/22
JESUS’ LAST WORDS: “TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE”
Luke 23:39-43
This coming Sunday, we will be studying the second phrase spoken by Jesus while hanging on the cross: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
These words were addressed to a violent criminal who was being crucified alongside Jesus. There’s was no sympathy for him, because he got what he deserved. He may have been surprised to see this stranger being crucified along with him and another criminal, because it was supposed to be their partner in crime, Barabbas, to be executed with them.
At first, he and his fellow-criminal join the Jewish rulers and soldiers in insulting Jesus, but then something changed within him. Instead of hearing Jesus pleading to His executioners for mercy, He prays to God to have mercy on them. Although his fellow criminal is demanding that Jesus, if He is the Christ, to save him from the cross, he looks at Jesus and merely requests “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
LUKE 23:39-43
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? 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.[a]”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
