Living like a Dying Thief

Luke 23:40-43 "39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
40But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

42Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

"I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." What comforting words, I hope I am not the only person that imagines Jesus telling us those words. Really it sets away our feelings of being left behind or that we will not be forgotten. Isn't that our plea every day, and the plight of our faith that god is to remember us and we to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This life means nothing to me if God would forget about me, I would like to feel like my faith will be sufficient enough to get into heaven just like this thief. That is comfort but with one exception, we're still living. I fear I have put myself in a bad position this way. That particular thief already lived his life to his actions, and dealt with the choices he made. Luckily, in a small time frame he realized his wrong doings.

If I set up that thief as a model for my faith life then am I going to do the sames things as him? First off I am not saying that the thief was lying in his last words. I always hated the idea of living the sin life and later coming into terms with God. I mean this criminal has come to terms with the fact he is dying, and that he lived a wrong life. The thief was paying the price for all the sick and horrible deeds that he did, and he felt remorse that Jesus was a good man.

The other criminal yelling, "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!" Do we try to do that too much in our own lives? This criminal could of said these in words like they were of one kind, like Jesus was a criminal. That is how many people would think of Christ later because instead of us trying to live a Christ-like life, we portray the image that Christ-is like us. Say you don't or do but as a Christian we are always under watch from others, believers or non-believers.

What personalities of the criminals are reflected in our lives? I don't think that they were a coincident for them to be crucified next to Jesus, which is why I like that Luke goes into this account e\dea to be like the thief asking for Jesus to remember him. Sitting on that cross dying, you don't have time to lie to yourself about anything and pure brutal honesty about yourself is definitely to come out.

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

This doesn't make sense unless you look at it in the context of the times. If you were carrying a cross it was a death sentence. You were a dead man. Why would Jesus tell us to take up something as scary as death happily? For the same reason that thief saw the light near the end of his life, of the speck we focus on we miss the huge picture and the true happiness that lies in looking at the whole thing.

Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.