SCENE 66 TODAY (Luke 23:33-46)

As for me, this next event represents something like hallowed ground, second only to the very throne accommodating the One Who oversees these proceedings. We who have stayed the course in following this Messiah with our lives contend that the following event reveals the main standard of judgment for all creation. There’s simply nothing else on record that compares to it. There’s No One Else able to either assemble or fulfill such requirements. One practical reason for any objection to this phenomenon is the utter foolishness such things resemble and, to the extent that people are only committed to the confines of this life, such an objection would appear logical. We further contend that such objections only further prove the proposition that “truth is revealed, not discovered.” no matter how overwhelming the present-day supporting evidence. For this cause, we recognize from the Author Himself only the individual can assess for themselves their response to this given provision. One such example is given here, yet another item unique to Luke’s recordings, this specific promise given to the second offender’s petition, since far too many people are cherry-picking this exchange as another means to a false expectation. It’s much better to remember that this offender’s testimony is a great way to die but a lousy way to live, and not just because his legs were later broken to hasten his death. In fact, it’s worthwhile to note the first offender’s petition as well. Yes, I understand Luke records this offender as railing on Jesus, but I learned some time ago that everything a person does could be termed as a prayer, regardless of that person’s point of view, or ours. Even the Master Himself pointed to this matter a few days prior. What’s more revealing is the second offender’s unsolicited response to the first. Sure, he wouldn’t be the only offender who got “right” after he got caught doing “wrong,” but few would ever publicly call out a vain petition in association with fearing God under these adverse conditions unless God is directly involved in this offender’s perspective. There’s speculation out there that these two other offenders could’ve been among those who walked away from discipleship with Jesus some years prior and fell into felonious behavior. While I’m not fully convinced of this, I can say this possibility gives more significance to this event than Barabbas getting released from prison, to which the second offender speaks directly in his retort to the first. Meanwhile, here we are at the crossroads of history, pun intended. I still find it sobering that God will not violate His character in order to make me believe in something I don’t naturally want to believe in. This barbaric, preposterous event would qualify as one of those things, if not for the real tragedy behind this event, which isn’t “the cross,” for that’s an achievement that’s only shadowed by others yet unfulfilled. No, the tragedy is broken fellowship among the Godhead in order to facilitate this thing we glibly call salvation. Though the triune God is still God, Jesus permanently becoming a Man and the scars memorialized on His body are the visible proof of this tragedy over which He emerges triumphantly. I need to breathe for a moment, but for now, this is what we have to work with…though thankfully there’s more…