UNIONISTS

  • Home
  • Thoughts
  • Sounds
  • Sights
  • Gatherings
  • Evidence
    • From the Word
    • From Outside Sources
    • From Our Readers
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Thoughts
  • Sounds
  • Sights
  • Gatherings
  • Evidence
    • From the Word
    • From Outside Sources
    • From Our Readers
  • Contact

A "Glimpse" of that Crucified Criminal who Believed

6/12/2023

0 Comments

 
191
Two criminals crucified with Jesus

Luke 23:32,39-43
TWO CRIMINALS WERE ALSO LED out with him for execution…
     One of the criminals hanging there covered him with abuse, and said, “Aren’t you Christ? Why don’t you save yourself—and us?”
     But the other one checked him with the words, “Aren’t you afraid of God even when you’re getting the same punishment as he is? And it’s fair enough for us, for we’ve only got what we deserve, but this man never did anything wrong in his life.”
     Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
     And Jesus answered, “I tell you truly, this day you will be with me in paradise.”
Later that evening…
TOWARDS THE END, he would cast his glance to the left—to the now-empty cross of the teacher—and his struggling breaths would continually offer up last words. He offered up his last words perhaps one hundred times that evening. (They had broken his legs an hour or two before this.) When he turned his gaze, his darting glimpse a fragmentary impression of the scene, he would snatch another look at that empty cross; consider it. From the horizontal downward, the vertical was a river’s delta of dried blood. Its color veined and spider-webbed its way down to the earth. The earth below had a black puddle; blood drops all around. The empty cross seemed to tell a story he didn’t fully understand.
     The flesh of his hands and arms was beginning to tear from the full weight of his body hanging—his broken legs sagged, twisted, beneath him. Each and every breath was shallower; agony. He could hear the groans of his former partner-in-crime, farther past.
     When the end came, it came, mercifully, quickly.
     The breaths became exhausting, exhausted.
     He could feel his head start swaying forward and to the right.
     His neck now held no power to hold it up…


    And when he “awoke,” he was walking through a grand overwhelming door (more like a gateway), all of gold, entering into an impossibly cavernous interior space. He was vaguely aware of infinitudes of forms—huge glorious figures and radiant-faced individuals—watching him: but he focused all his attentions on continuing forward.


     For there—up ahead—up a three-stepped stairway ending in a molten golden dais—was the Throne of Heaven and--
 
     Him.
 
     The happy thief, for the second time that day, spoke aloud his name:
 
     “Jesus!”
 
     And the man on the Throne smiled and said to him: “Now didn’t I tell you?”
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Themes

    All
    Abiding
    At The Right Hand...
    The Cross
    The Father
    The Holy Spirit
    The Incarnation
    The Inheritance
    The Resurrection
    The Son
    The Way
    The Work Of The Gospel
    Unity In The Body
    Worship

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A.
[email protected]

All Rights Reserved

Picture