Devotion: Gospel Gems from the New Testament — Luke 23:42-43

A Love Stronger Than Death By Paul Wendland Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42-43) Seeing is believing. So they say. But I guess I'm getting a lot more suspicious about what my eyes are seeing these days. It's all about images, it seems, yet you wonder if there's any substance beneath the glossy surface. And when images can be massaged and manipulated so that a fiction like Forrest Gump can shake hands with dead presidents, well, you wonder if anything you see is real. But the problem runs a whole lot deeper, as you and I both know. Our problem is more than just a matter of the way we play around with pictures these days. The crucifixion account makes it clear to us all how hard it is for any of us to see straight. We judge by what our eyes see, and we invariably see what isn't there. By nature we're all sin-blinded and short-sighted. God must give us new eyes. What I mean is: who saw a King at Calvary that day? Not the people. They could only look on in horror as one of their own met his end at the hand of the Romans. Not Pilate. His mocking sign said in effect, "This is the only kind of king you Jews will ever have: this sad pathetic man who hangs on the cross." Certainly not the chief priests: all they saw was a pretender, their enemy who had threat- ened their power and their position. Finally, he was getting his comeuppance. "He saved others, but he can't save himself."

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9) But here's the great miracle, God gave new eyes to one dying thief. The man began to take stock of himself, and he began to look at the world a whole lot differently than he had been. He came to re- alize that he was getting the punishment that he deserved. He could no longer join in with the taunting and the mockery of the man in the middle. As he listened to his words—praying for his enemies—and as he watched the quiet dignity with which Jesus bore the grief and the sorrow, this thief began to see not only an innocent man, but a king. The King. "Lord remember me when you come in your kingdom at the end of time in all your glorious power," he said.

And how did that miracle come about? What did he see in that marred face, in that bruised body, in that one so disfigured by suffering that you had to wonder whether it could even be human? What did he see in the one who was so weak, covered over with shame, heaped over with curses, and groaning under God's justice? This thief saw that Jesus suffered—not because he had to or because he deserved it--but because he wanted to. He bore this because he loved sinners. He was willing to become weak, willing to become nothing for sheer love of you, for sheer love of me. Under the weakness, the thief saw a powerful love. A love so powerful that is quite literally stronger than death. That's what he saw, and it changed his heart forever. In return Jesus gave him this promise that has breathed God's comfort to many who are struggling with sorrow and death, "Truly I tell you, not at the end of time but today, this very day, you will be with me in Paradise, in the garden of the blessed." We who live in these shadowlands still struggle sometimes in trying to see what is real. We are trou- bled by falling revenues and rising budgets. We worry about our missionaries, our schools. We won- der if everything will be okay. Could it be that we haven't yet grasped the message of the cross: that right there where God seems gone, he is, in fact, most near to us all and most powerful to save. If he appears to hide himself under the face of suffering, let the Word help you see things truly. Right then where God seems weakest, to be nothing at all, he is strong and mighty to save with a love is stronger than death. Do you doubt it? Look again at that man in the middle, suspended between earth and sky. Ask your- self: why is he doing this? Why is he letting this happen? The only answer, the only answer is: a love—God's love—that cannot die. By the power of that love Jesus will rise again and rule in tri- umph over sin, over death, over all that was and is and is to come. That's the power of God's gospel love seen in the face of Christ. Look at him and know: God's love is stronger than death. And then let's take another look at whatever ails us and see it differently. Paul put it best: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). That's the truth! That's the way it is!

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