This is the story of two men.
It is a familiar story. Not because we’ve heard it many times before, though many of us have. It is found in all four of the Gospels.
It is a familiar story because it is a story we understand well. It is indeed our story.
Two men.
Painfully confronted by their sin.
Two men.
Facing the consequences of their sin.
Two men.
Standing condemned by their sin.
Though the characters change and the sins vary, it is a scene played out countless times over the course of human history.
Two very similar men hanging on crosses well deserved for crimes they willfully committed.
There is no sympathy is extended toward them, nor should there have been.
Criminals the both of them.
They were getting exactly what they deserved, what the law demanded.
It was a death sentence.
And more troubling still, what would happen next would be no better for these sinners.
They were paying their debt to society, but there was a far greater punishment to come for their sin debt.
They were about to experience, after the full extraction of Roman justice, God’s wrath.
There they were, guilty as charged, before God and man.
Two angry men.
Caught, convicted, and condemned.
Both men, in these their final moments, gave the crowd what exactly what it wanted.
Defiant, loud, and angry.
Venomous words of contempt flowing liberally from their mouths –
directed at their executioners, at the onlookers, at the gawkers,
directed at another,
directed at One who hung there with them.
He was not like them.
His demeanor was different. He was, even in that moment of pain and agony, controlled.
Though screamed at and mocked, His response was so very…different.
Rather than respond in hate like the two other men, compassion.
He cried out not “avenge me” or “forgive me!” but “Father, forgive them!”
They stood guilty, but this One was different.
They bore blame rightly, but He was blameless.
Their faults were well documented.
No fault could be found in Him.
There this One hung, between two angry, guilty men.
It was strange. Though He too was sentenced to death, His crucifixion was different. The two men hung in a testimony of guilt, He hung there guiltless, a picture of innocence.
While those two men hung in despair, this One seemed to be carrying so much more.
It was as though the very weight of the world’s sin hung on His shoulders.
The eyes of the two criminals turned to this One.
While the beginning refrain sounded the same, now both were singing different tunes.
The criminal to one side still mocked, cursed, and reviled this sinless One hanging with them.
“If you are who you say, save yourself! Get yourself off that cross! And us too!”
Through clinched teeth, hardened by disbelief and hate, refusing to see the truth, the criminal saw the One and rejected Him.
The other criminal, in this moment of profound need, looked to the One and saw something, SomeONE, different.
He was guilty, but this One was not.
While his fellow criminal derided the One, this man somehow someway understood.
“We’re guilty, we’re getting what we deserve! This One has done nothing wrong.”
Without any formal theological training or deep religious insight, he turned to this One.
This King of the Jews.
As he turned to this One, all he could think to say is all he knew to ask.
“Please remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”
Helpless, hopeless, a sinner condemned.
He looked to the One.
And he heard the most beautiful words he had ever heard in his entire life.
Spoken now at the end of a terrible, wretched chapter of life. Words that instead began a wonderful new story that would be read throughout all eternity.
Spoken by this One.
“Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.”
The wretched sinner was redeemed.
A guilty criminal saw this One, Jesus, turned to Him found life in the midst of death.
Another guilty criminal saw the One, refused and turned away from Him
In a matter of a few hours three things would happen.
- Between two criminals, This One, Jesus, would die bearing the sins of man. Bearing the sins of even the criminal that hung next to Him.
- A criminal would die in his sins. He opened his eyes to eternal condemnation. He was guilty as charged and would bear the punishment for his sin. God’s wrath was poured out on the sin of his life and he was crushed under it. He stands condemned for all eternity.
- The other criminal would also die. Equally guilty of his sin. Yet, because he turned to Jesus, he would open his eyes to eternal joy, at home with the Lord. He was guilty as charged but another paid the price for the sin. God’s wrath was poured out on the One and He was crushed for it. That criminal is enjoying eternal life because Jesus paid it all.
It is a familiar story.
We all stand guilty.
All the evidence of our lives is stacked against us.
Left to ourselves, we find ourselves no better off than those two men.
Yet there is One who is different than us. One who was sinless and blameless.
We deserve punishment for our sin, to be crushed by the weight of our transgressions.
He has no sin of His own to bear but instead willing takes on ours.
This One, Jesus.
Some will hear of the One, see the One, know of the One, and will believe on the One.
They will trust Him to pay the debt they cannot pay.
In simple faith, turn to the One.
They will find life. They will find forgiveness.
Some will hear of the One, see the One, know of the One, and like the other criminal, turn away from Him.
They would choose to face their sin on their own.
Like the criminal on the cross, they will be crushed by their sin, forever condemned.
It is a decision we all must face.
Turn toward Jesus or turn away from Him.
We are one of the two criminals.
Which one are you?
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.