Who says so?
Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43).
Our world is surrounded by death – close to us at times – via the media all the time but again usually at a distance – and then from time to time there is the 'famous death' when we are bombarded with images and messages – maybe a politician like John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill or Benazir Bhutto, or it is royalty such as Diana, Princess of Wales, or adventurers like Edmund Hillary or entertainers such as Heath Ledger and uninvited almost we see and hear what happened to them and often also their funerals. Because death is final – the end in this world – its significance is profound – feared – dealt with in countless ways. At heart is the desire to comfort – more so should the deceased be young or die in a horrible way – we want to find comfort and what could be more comforting than these words: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise".
I suspect you're all nodding your hearts in agreement – your hearts are surrounded with a warm glow in the midst of the coldness of death by such words. And so you may not hear me right – and consequently wonder what I've said – when I tell you that I have come to the conclusion that these words are some of the cruellest words I have ever heard. I suppose I have been hardened and jaded by the pop religion that permeates our society – the weird mix of humanism and works righteousness that wafts over funerals that talks about good people 'always' helping, 'never' being mean or nasty, 'constantly' being a good person and the pronouncements or implications that this person is now in a better place. Neighbours, friends, aunts, grandparents, celebrity followers, historians, whomever can make eternal statements as blithely as discussing sporting results – something quite frankly that I am more cautious about until I know a few things. It appears to me that people trot out the sentiment of such words as "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" as almost a right owed to us for dying, a reward for living!
Who says so?! By what authority do we say that someone is in paradise?!
Hands up if you own Paradise – so be it – you can say what you want but if you're like me and have no title deeds over Paradise, then like me, you no credibility in pontificating about Paradise in the face of death. In fact such words could easily blind people to the truth of life and death and what paradise is all about and offer false hope.
So when I hear these words or sentiments similar to them, I check, analyse, and am cautious – because the words are a promise and I so want this promise to be true – and so I ask 'who says so?'.
Tonight the words are heard from the cross from Jesus who was being executed on charges of blasphemy, a Messianic pretender, and because it was expedient for Pontius Pilate to do so. Not alone but with two others, Jesus suffers crucifixion, a savage beating beforehand, and the torturous death by painful suffocation. Jesus dies differently – there is something about him – his battles and raging is not against those around him but perhaps at the powers and principalities we cannot see – but his death is different and it is noticed by the thief on the cross and the centurion. Jesus doesn't speak directly to the centurion – though perhaps he was in earshot when Jesus asked his father to forgive – but he does speak to the thief who fears God and calls his partner in crime – the other thief – to do the same. Death awaits all three and yet Jesus has the nerve or audacity to say, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise". He is dying when he says this! Its almost like the perfect crime! Who is going to check whether he and the thief are in Paradise? You won't know until after you're dead!
Well, I do know! Not because I am clever or because the words are ours by right but because I have looked at the speaker and discovered that in Jesus we meet God, who is over all things in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth. His death and resurrection for us breaks the power of sin to condemn us, breaks the hold of death over us and so if Jesus says these words to us, then what wonder and joy and comfort they can be. If anyone else says them without reference to Jesus, then the comfort is hollow and the lie will eventually compound the grief.
Humanity is surrounded by death – which we try to keep at bey as best we can – and delude ourselves along the way that we are not rebellious toward God – and hence we so often give ourselves false comfort by even taking Jesus' words and making them our own in the vain hope of comfort. The words only make sense and their promise given is comforting when we look at the speaker and if he's not on a cross dying for you – for you – then don't listen.