Forgiveness – My Story [Inspired by the crucifixion of Christ as told from the perspective of an unnamed thief circa 31AD]

      

Seven hours is a long time when you’re in trouble. 

I keep goin’ over this in my head ‘til it hurts – “how did I wind up here?” 

*Sigh*. I’m guessin' it started when I was a youth – I got mixed up with some fellows –one of’em was the son of my mother’s sister; they were bullies and stole stuff from people who were naki, real weak. It was scary first time, but when you poor and your pockets all of a sudden got coins in'em, the fear just goes away--like a scared bird--when you hear them coins clinkin' together - mmmh – you feel rich! But, uh, if I was gonna tell the truth – course not somethin’ I be sayin’ to my partners, I really was scared each time we stole stuff from people cuz I kept asking myself, how many more times can we get away with it? But later, when there wunt nothin’ to eat, hungry took over fear; no sech thing as free food. 

Ev'rythin' was goin' good enough...somedays you gettin' enough for some food and somedays you be gettin' enough for food and shoes, and even a decent robe! Then one day, this rich man who look like he was a lawyer or sumthin was gone on the road that goes from the Engedi in the wilderness all the way to Jerusalem and Samaria. You see, there’s this little spot on the road up between the mountains so travelers can’t see what’s in front of ‘em or behind’em. It’s real wind-ee, you know? So this rich lookin' ol’ man had a bunch-a bondsmen – so you know he had coin -  they went afore him with this noisy rattlin’ cart fulla loot; couldn’t hear much by that noise. Too many of’em to try to steal from that stash. But, when they gone afore enough so you couldn’t see’em and they couldn’t see you or them master, we made our move. One of our gang gagged the ol’ man an’ pull’him down off his donkey; you could hardly hear his little whine. The fellow what’s grab’him kept him down, while the rest of us pick’d his pockets an’ stole the purse hangin’ on the animal. When we got our plunder, the fellow who was holdin’ the ol’ man down told him not to make any noise or else… we ran back to the thicket where we been hiding. I was shaking ‘cuz we never in all the time we be doin’ this – we never hurt somebody to make’em bleed; I mean the ol’ man was alive but he was scared-er than me. Never been so scared in my life! This was the most hard we e’er done to somebody – they just usually throw their money at us and run. Now, I’m the one who runnin’. I also thinkin’ – when we first started working this shohd, this robbin’, we bein' just glad to get a coin here, a coin there, but, y’know, we was “lucky” – we got away erry time! An’ we stole from a lotta people. This one, this time though -- I swore on my father’s head this gone be my last time. We could sell alla stuff we had store, an I buried some coin for me when nobody lookin’. I beg’ the gang to lay low for a while ‘til this blew over. Are greedy leader  he laughed at me. He always greedy – we threw fists once ‘cuz he wanna take mos'of da plunder, but this time he says layin’ low might be a good idea. Says we won’t be stealing for a while. I liked the sound of that, and it made me feel good an' comfutable to hear'em say so. 

Well, he was right, but not the way I wanted him to be right. 

We made it to our reggla cave where we like tuh go ‘cuz it hides from the main road. But this time, some kind of way, they found us. Where’d we mess up? We tried runnin’, but the soldiers come up on us. Guess we muss’v  run outta  “luck.” Our leader and one of the other fellows tried  fightin’ their way out – I kept tellin’em to stop, stop man, then one of’em hit one-uh the soldiers and him an’ the leader tried gettin’ way to the wilderness; in the end, though, well--they didn’t make’it. I tried to bribe the soldiers with the purse – they like bribes, but they wont having' it today for some reason. The soldiers then tie' me up with leather straps and rough rope; they make me walk all da way to Jerusalem. I knew what was comin’. Jewish men never gets a fair trial no matter what. The Romans always wanted to make an example of criminals. Ha - muss’v been my turn.

Seven hours is a  l o n g  time. A long time. 

I got hanged onna stake next to two other fellows – one was a rebel who tried-duh get some other Jews to go up on the Roman governor. He be a thief too like me and he was very angry. The other man was this Rabbi I heard ‘bout – he been upsettin’ all da villages, and making the Pharisees mad. The soldiers ha'done a number on him – he was beat up bad, and looked like they tortured ‘im; he looked half dead. He really muss’v done somethin’ wrong for all that! The fellow on my other side started cursin’ him, callin’ him a blasphemer. An’ sayin’ he was God anna  new king! I tol’ the beaten up man “if yous a god, get us down offa these crosses!” I added my own cursin’ ‘cuz I was angry I got caught an’ now here I was. Hangin’ on a crossbeam. I asked him, “if you god then why you hangin’ on a crossbar like us? Why they treat you so bad? What kind of god are you?” Only, I wished right then he was God, ’cuz seven hours is a long time to hang on a crossbar ‘n’ stake.

The day wored on, an’ the sun’s heat made the air feel like it’s full of needles. The angry fellow kept on with his rilin' on the tortured man; kep’ callin’ him Yeshua, which kina made me laugh ‘cuz the name means “God saves.” Yeah, right. So I’s in and out of consciousness. But one of those times I start thinking about it -- then I 'emember seein’ this Yeshua walkin’ with a crowd some time afore all of this. . .hey! He’s da one that healed the lame man! That man’s legs were all messed up – he’s always beggin. I’s on the edge of the crowd but I saw most of it with my own eyes. Thought it was a scam though… It was hard to remember who this Rabbi was ‘cuz I mean his face so messed up. An’ I heard him mumblin’ words I just barely make out over the angry fellow’s yellin’ – like, he was talkin’ to somebody and tellin’em that the people should be forgiven. 

Seven hours is a long time to hang on a crossbar and stake… 

So I come to ag’n. Angry fellow looked all used up. The Rabbi, Yeshua, was really lookin' bad and in lotsa pain. But his words—his words about forgiveness was still ringin’ in my ears – I saw what he done; I was even one of the people that the wild man John baptized. For repentance. I, I remembered seein’ Yeshua near the river one day and the wild man John said that Yeshua was the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Someone even said that He was The Messiah!! Was it true? Could it be true? I prayed for the first time in a long while that it could be true an’ that I was next to somethin’ or somebody divine. 

I was in the seventh hour on this cross and know’d my life would soon be over... 

Then Angry fellow woke up and tried to yell at Yeshua again—pantin’ with each word. With the little bit of force I had left I told angry man “to stop cuz this man, Yeshua, is innocent. We’a payin’ for our sins, but this man he’s not sinned.” I heard myself say those words like an echo. Was I still alive, then? I looked up, then the Rabbi Yeshua looked at me with eyes that seem to look all the way into my soul.  An' I felt somethin' like I nevah be feelin' before. I felt peace!  There was something ‘bout them eyes. 

With slow breaths I ask the Rabbi, the Messiah: ‘Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And the Lord, the Lamb, hangin’ next to me, and still lookin’ in my eyes said, “Truly I will remember you and you will be with me in Paradise.” 

I was forgiven! I am forgiven! I wanted to shout it out loud, but it came out in gasps. I prayed to God in heaven “toda, thank you” and tol’ the Rabbi, The Messiah Yeshua, with tears in my eyes, “toda , toda,” and I wont sure why; I just knew inside somethin’ had happened I didn’t deserve. 

See: seven hours is a long time to hang on a crossbar ‘gainst a rough wood stake only knowin’ ‘til right now, my last hour, my life had no meaning. This seventh hour changed everything—I was forgiven by Him.

Then the soldiers broke Angry man’s legs and he cried out loud cursin’ the emperor; he died just a little while later. An’ then a soldier stuck a spear in The Messiah’s side and water and blood came out. When the spear went in, I heard’im scream what should have been a scream heard all over Judea!, but his voice was thick with pain and the scream a whisper. After a short while, He said real soft strainin’ his voice, ‘I am a-thirst,’ then another soldier ran and got him a sponge soaked in vinegar, but a'fore he could suck good on the sponge, I heard him say, “It is finished.” And he died. 

Seven hours is a long time to hang nailed to a rough wood cross. 

I heard a soldier say that this Rabbi Yeshua, My Messiah, was truly the Son of God. And then I knowed -- I knowed for sure I was forgiven an’ I was gonna see my Lord in Paradise! 

An’ then it was my turn. In my head, my face was smilin’; I had spoken with the Son of God – the Son of God!! uhg! the soldiers broke my legs, then the world around me became dim, dim, then dark.

Seven hours is a long time to hang on a rough wood cross. But, 

Paradise is forever! 

                                                               ~The beginning~

                    ~by an unnamed thief at Calgary in Judea circa AD 31~

Special Mid-Summer Bible Conversation on Hard Sayings in the Bible (Reserve Question B - bear our cross)

 

Reserve B, Jesus said that we each would need to bear our cross daily (Luke 9:23; also 14:27). What it means and what it does not mean:

• In the days that Jesus walked the earth, what did the people understand a cross to be? Jewelry, a logo? No–it is an instrument of torture and execution. 
• In Jesus’ particular circumstance, what did the cross mean?  --For Jesus to be on the torture stake or cross signified the sacrificial death for which He came to earth to live as a human. It was only through such great sacrifice that Jesus could effect the restoration of relationship with our Creator. 
• What does that mean to us in reference to the cross? Look at 1 Corinthians 6. Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit was writing to the Corinthian church a strong letter of admonition because of the practices in which they were engaged – practices that were immoral and unloving. He had to re-tell them, and explain to them what it actually meant to be a Christian. That it could only happen because Jesus died for them. But it wasn’t a death like the deaths they were accustomed to. Jesus’ death was one of sacrifice to redeem mankind from God’s wrath because of our sin estate. 
• Also, because it was a redemption and not a ritual, i.e., something of value was exchanged for releasing or libertating someone, look at what Paul is led to write in verses 19-20.  We do not own ourselves, we have no absolute rights to ourselves. As those who are saved and are being sanctified, that life of submission to Christ is what we are to be living daily according to Luke 9:23 (also see Romans 12:1-2). 
• What it does not mean, but what we have been taught to think it means: When Jesus instructed us to bear our cross, He wasn’t talking about people getting on your nerves or having problems, or even having chronic problems with this or that, chronic health issues.  No. Jesus expects those who are saved to be living their lives for Him – sacrificing ourselves, destroying our pride and so-called “rights” to independence. Eve coveted independence, to be her own "captain"; look where that got us. We are instead to live a righteous and holy life – which is opposite of what persons in the world do, which is the essence of the answer in Question E.

Therefore, let us not cheapen Jesus' instructions to us about bearing our cross; do not diminish the seriousness of Jesus' statement with a somewhere-along-the-line made up definition that our cross is some nagging problem or person. Is that why Jesus came to earth?

 

Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, Donald S. Whitney.*
Question 3 – Are You More Loving?

As written at John 13:34-35, Jesus said that love is the clearest mark of a Christian. “By this all will know you are my disciples.” The author states that if we are growing in our love for others – especially in our love for Christians – then we are growing as a Christian.

The chapter offers a number of scriptures on the importance of love being the mark of Christians that are worth meditating upon:

·       John 15:12,17;

·       Romans 12:10, 13:8;

·       1 Corinthians 16:14; Galatians 5:14; Ephesians 5:2

·       1 Thessalonians 4:9; Hebrews 10:24, 13:1

·       James 2:8; 1 Peter 1:22, 4:8

·       1 John 3:11,23; 1 John 4:21; 2 John 5

Love is the badge and character of Christianity; without growth in the most important Christian distinctive – love – then we are “nothing”. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

When love grows colder, our sin increasingly manifests itself and we look more unlike Jesus. We lose patience, we are prone to be unkind, envious of others; when we are challenged about our lack of love, we quickly list all of the personal sacrifices and other proofs of our love (1 Corinthians 13:4). As our hearts harden or we become bitter, we become less courteous, we begin to look at our “rights” as more important than others’ and their needs, we are more easily angered, and more inclined to find fault in others, keeping score of their offenses (1 Corinthians 13:5).

So what kind of love are we to have? The author picks a scenario of loving family – nothing means more to them than their children; loving family means spending holidays together, sharing meals and other acts of intimacy; loving friends means being devoted to one another, and as the family circle and friendships grow, our love grows as well – correct?

The author answers: The Bible alone – not our own hearts – should be our standard both to define love and to describe it in practice (compare Jeremiah 17:9). We often classify as love what the King James Version of the Bible calls “natural affection (Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3 KJV). In normal circumstances, parents love their children, family members love each other, and people love their friends and are good neighbors; this is true of both Christians and non-Christians. This is because God made humankind in such a way as to be able to naturally love certain people. Sometimes it seems to us that true love is at its height when we find others attractive and they are pleasing to us. Yet our love and happiness is regulated by whether the person continues to please us. There is also a “quid pro quo” kind of love. When our love is reciprocated, then, surely, that is true love, right? Yet with all of the emotion that may be expressed in those kinds of love, we cannot measure our growth in Christlikeness by these kinds of love.

The Greek language has different words for different kinds of “love” illustrated in part above: philia – deep friendship; eros – a romantic or carnal love; ludus – playful love; pragma – a longstanding affection; storge – a familial love; philautia – love of self; and agapé love – sacrificial love. Jesus, during His humanity, would have had a storge love for his family, a philia love for His friends – natural affections. However, when He gave the command to love one another, the word for love that He uses is agapé – a sacrificial love. It was that kind of love that brought Him to earth and placed Him on the cross. He did not come just to heal short-lived bodies, but to save sinners who are held captive by sin and its resulting forever death. By Jesus’ death on the cross we experience the love of God unto eternal life. One of the most loving things we can do for anyone is to give them the words that can lead to immortality in a radiantly glorious body, to not just speak the words, but sacrificially do the deed (1 John 3:18).

Growing in love, becoming more loving, we will want to examine whether our agapé love for other Christians is growing stronger (1 John 3:14). Secondly, has our love for the lost grown? Jesus’ experience with the rich young ruler, allowing him to admit that despite all the ‘perfect’ keeping of the commandments, he fell short of loving God and loving others. Jesus did not compromise His salvation message—He made it clear that the man must first forsake his ‘god’ – i.e., his possessions, and put Christ first. The author poses questions (paraphrased): Do we share the gospel message with the lost in a way that they can hear it; do we season our message with the salt of love? The more we begin to look like Jesus, the more we manifest the fruit of the Spirit and the more loving we will be to everyone, even our ‘enemies’ (Luke 6:27,32) Thirdly, when we examine our love for family, do we see observable growth, or are we living like enemies with our family members? Do we use harsh, harmful words, do we belittle one another, do we beat on one another either physically or psychologically? Do we become easily offended or put off when we cannot have our way? Do we act with gratitude to one another, and would our family members readily say, without compulsion, that we love them more and more?

The Bible says that the motive of Christian love at its best includes something that nonbelievers are incapable of knowing, as found at Romans 5:5, which tells us that “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Love begins with God; to love like Christ is to reverse every instinct in our fallen natures. The author, quoting Maurice Roberts in his article “The Supreme Grace of Christian Love,” published in The Banner of Truth, February 1989, relates that true Christlike love is against the grain of nature. Under the amazing power of grace in us through the Spirit, what our humanity cannot do, true Christians must do. Mr. Roberts notes in his article that he’s known Christians for whom the emphasis of their lives is growing in orthodoxy and knowledge; love is only relative. He further says that while God’s love is a gift to us through the Holy Spirit, it is not a spiritual gift like the gifts described in Romans 12 and Ephesians 4 – given to some and not to others. All true Christians receive God’s gift of love; we are accountable to Him in how we use it and grow in it. Do we pursue being more loving (1 John 4:8), meditating on this gift of God described in the scriptures noted above and any others we may find in the Bible on God’s love? Do we love like our Father loves? Does our love look like we belong to God the Father? Do we delight in imitating God (1 John 4:7; Ephesians 5:1-2)? Are we willing to identify those relationships where we most need to grow in love and to take the initiative in showing love in those relationships, not expecting anything in return? If we are choosing to imitate Christ, then we must be the initiator. Jesus did that.

*The foregoing represents my personal reflections on a study by Dr. Donald S. Whitney, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health. (2001. By Donald S. Whitney. NAVPRESS. ISBN 978-1-61747-187-2) Quotations and excerpts are from that source, unless otherwise identified. For the 2023 Lenten season I provided these thoughts to my local congregation's Bible study group. The questions are not, however, constrained by a particular liturgical season, holiday, or age group: these are questions every Christian may find useful in fulfilling God's command at 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!" The church at Corinth looked a lot like many of our churches today.

Holy Week - Jesus Last Days on Earth and The Cross, Death and Resurrection

 I have created slide decks that were converted to MP4. (the PDFs will be distributed separately)
The first two - about Nisan 8-12 - are linked to  below.

Slide Deck 1 -- Nisan 8-10

Slide Deck 2 -- Nisan 10-12

The next slide deck has two links in it that are not accessible through the movie: 

(20+) Watch | Facebook and a link to the first Passover: Exodus 12 NASB - The Passover Lamb - Now the LORD said - Bible Gateway

These slides go from the close of Nisan 12 to the Last Supper and the. Two separate slide decks will follow; one dedicated to John 14-17, which will be posted, and a second, "The Stations of the Cross", which will be made available as a PDF.

Blessed Are The Merciful, For They Will Receive Mercy

 

 

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. What is this mercy? It is critical for us to know what it is since Jesus desires us to have mercy (Matthew 9:13 (Jesus was quoting from Hosea 6:6)). It is forgiving one another (and yourself), i.e., not seeking retaliation for the harm done to you by another. It also refers to compassion we feel for others who are weak, poor, ill, anxious, and in other ways disadvantaged. Also would include the “outcasts” of society who, either through fault or no fault of their own are “disconnected” to the greater community. In some versions of the Bible, mercy is also translated as lovingkindness, an apt description. While the Bible is replete with examples of God’s mercy to the nation of Israel and surrounding nations, among others, our greatest example of mercy extended to others is that of God’s mercy in Christ, even though we cannot fully comprehend this mercy of God. The reason is because we cannot comprehend how God views sin: to Him, sin is abominable, He hates sin because of what it does to those He created in His image; He knows that in addition to separating us from Him, sin has the effects of destroying our bodies with each succeeding generation, making us weak and helpless against its ravages; He knows that sin always results in death. We are born with death already in us because of sin. We are sinners – no matter how “nice” we may seem. Even in the face of such inborn rejection, even though we are sinners, God still loves us so much as to send His own Son to live as a human and to become the only option for removing the penalty of sin. Jesus’ single sacrifice for all sin, the basis for restoration with God, is an undeserved mercy and forgiveness. God’s example lets us know that we, too, are responsible and accountable to God for the mercy we show or do not show to others. Do we forgive others who violate us or otherwise hurt us? Forgiveness is not easy, as our own inborn sin rebels against forgiving and forgiveness because we want to get even and make the offenders suffer. We sometimes even feel that foregiveness of one's sins against us leaves us damaged and scarred, vulnerable and humiliated. Actually, not forgiving does more harm to us; the bitterness against that person can produce murderous thoughts - ask me how I know - and can bring a stress that wears on your body and emotions. Our bitterness makes us vulnerable to more bitterness because we a duped into thinking that our bitterness is control over our circumstances. Bitterness exacerbates the wound inflicted upon us so that it scars us emotionally; the more we feed into it, the deeper and wider the scar becomes; the scar cannot heal over because the bitterness continues to ooze into it. We are duped to think that being a person who forgives is humiliating - that it weakens our stance before others. If and when we understand that forgiveness means to surrender our desire to get even and make payback happen, we begin to understand the power of God that enables us to forgive. That God will gladly make His Spirit abound in us so that we will have the forward-facing will and desire to forgive. Our forgiveness takes us out of bitterness' imprisonment, frees us to thrive knowing that our Heavenly Father will even more freely forgive us for our messing up. 

Mercy is a high bar; the opposite of mercy is unforgiveness and wrath. We cannot receive mercy if we choose not to forgive. Jesus actually commands us to be merciful as recorded in Luke 6:35-36, that we may look like children of our Heavenly Father. God is so willing to pour out mercies on us; in fact, His mercies to us are fresh each morning! (Lamentations 3:22-23) Because Jesus is Light, He tells us that we must be light also. We show this light when we are merciful to others. (John 8:12; Matthew 5:14; Ephesians 5:8

Explore

1.  Can you name a mercy that God has recently extended to you? How did it make you feel?

2.  Can you remember a time when it was very difficult to extend mercy to a particular person or persons? What made it difficult for you?

3.  Given all you have read about mercy and the One who extends it, what do you think it means to “walk in the light”?


Bonus: "Mercy" - Elevation Worship and Maverick City

Mosaic Law Ceremonies and Offerings -- and Advent

 Please see how the intent of Advent or the coming of Christ was prefigured in the Old Testament in my earlier blog - My Word Does Not Return to Me Empty - Part 1.