Seven last sayings

Saying two text

Then the criminal said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into power!” Jesus replied, “I promise that today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43

Talk about a death-bed conversion! What a chancer! Hanging, said Dr Johnson, wonderfully concentrates the mind and this is one concentrated criminal.

Life has come into focus.

Deep inside, something is finally understood.

He doesn’t join the soldiers in humiliating the broken God on the cross next door. After a life spent trying to be noticed, to be someone, he knows he is about to be no one, to be forgotten for good. A dying fly, swatted onto the floor of history.

Yet some mysterious instinct tells him that maybe if this one life on the next cross will notice him, will remember him… he will never be forgotten again. How did he know that weakness and vulnerability are invisibly tied to strength, to another kind of power?

You will be with me today, in a place of unimaginable harmony, a place where this strange passage called life will be known for what it is, a place we sometimes called paradise. You will be with me today, says Jesus Christ, as if there was no doubt about it, as if we can take him at his word.

When we remember someone, we give them extra life. When Jesus Christ remembers us, we can never be forgotten again.

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