Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 NIV).
Three people were executed by the Roman government outside of Jerusalem at the Place of the Skull the morning after the Passover meal. Luke tells us the other two men had committed crimes, and he states that Jesus was crucified between the other two men. Both “criminals” insulted Jesus at first (see Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:32). Then one of the “criminals” had a change of heart, which Luke reveals. That “criminal” went from ‘hurling’ insults at Jesus to rebuking the other criminal for doing the same thing.
Then that man said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
And the response by Jesus? His response remains an epic promise of the entire Bible: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
One contextual challenge to explain is how Jesus could promise that they both would be in paradise that very day. Jesus would end up dying, physically and spiritually, on the cross. After dying, His deceased body was put in a tomb. Now He was spiritually resurrected, and He went to Hades, which was revealed by Peter: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison…” (I Peter 3:18-19).
Granted this passage has a variety of interpretations, and I discussed this challenging passage when doing a series on the book of I Peter back in 2013 here in Scripture Love Blog. Even the wording in the Apostles' Creed regarding where Jesus went to after dying is debated. Here I summarize, and I start by saying the atonement made by Jesus on the cross was for all people of all time. The spiritual act of atonement transcended time and space.
Back to the revelation given by Peter, thanks to the ministry of Jesus, after He suffered and died as the substitutional sacrifice on the cross, all people who had passed away since the separation between God and people had the opportunity to turn to Christ and be saved. But if Jesus was in Hades spiritually after dying on the cross, preaching the Gospel, how could He be with that “criminal” in paradise? Considering a Jewish day started after sundown, there were only a few hours left in that “day.”
Then at the crack of dawn on that Sunday morning, the body of Jesus would be resurrected, in a transformed state where Jesus was once again Himself, God the Son in full. (As a human in this world, Jesus accepted certain limitations, still being God, by becoming fully human.) And He would remain in the world for forty more days (see Luke 1:3). Then Jesus ascended into heaven.
We must realize a critical spiritual fact revealed by Jesus in John 2:24, “God is spirit.”
I will always remember Labor Day of 2009, which was a warm Colorado day. Being a holiday with no classes at Colorado Christian University, I used the free day to read chapters in the textbook for my “Introduction to Theology” class. Due to my negative comment to come about the textbook, I add the professor for that class was, and still is, one of the great Christians to serve at CCU. But sitting on a rock on the shore of Clear Creek, the reading seemed so dry compared to the life around me as many students from the Colorado School of Mines, and even one group of CCU students, floated by me on inner-tubes there on Clear Creek. Yet it turned out to be a wonderful place to read that dry textbook, because after hours and hours of reading in “nature” with people frolicking all around me, I appreciated the fact that God created everything before me. That helped me to digest the doctrine that God is “omnipresent,” meaning that He can be everywhere at once.
Telling that man that they would be together in paradise “today,” it can be literal in a sense. Being spiritually resurrected immediately after the crucifixion, Jesus was back to being Himself without self accepted limitations. Jesus, who had subjected Himself to time and space by becoming fully human, was once again “omnipresent,” thus He could have been in heaven as well as Hades.
Then as Scripture reveals, for the sake of us "fallen and finite" human beings, a John Stott phrase, there was the resurrection, physical and spiritual, for anyone to see at the Garden Tomb, on that glorious Sunday morning.
Though not something I can mentally comprehend: God, who is spirit, transcends time and space!
God is with me, even when I feel lonely.
Disparity continues between my life as a follower of Jesus, and my interactions with people and circumstances in this world where there is so much emptiness, so much disappointment, and so much hurt, in contrast to the promise of paradise by Jesus.
Getting personal, I express how as a Christian in my fifties, I have long felt a missing facet of my life. There has long been a desire of my heart to be married, which has never been fulfilled.
During the pandemic of 2020, isolating and social distancing was an adventure I accepted, and I did a good job carrying it out, yet through it all I realized it was so unnatural.
During that time, I did some consideration of the Garden of Eden. Now that was natural for people! There was no attire, and masks were never needed.
But even in the Garden of Eden, there was the temptation for going against the will of God. The essence of eternal life is not only purity, yet perfection. And God wants eternal life for everyone! Though that opportunity was lost in the Garden of Eden, that gift is offered to everyone now by Jesus who took the punishment for sins on the cross.
This statement by Jesus requires us to trust Him!
Going back to my studying on the rock by Clear Creek, over many years I walked the path there many times. It was a frequent Sunday afternoon walk. Such an activity was a blessed time of seeing the world, exercising, thinking, and praying! Yet nice as those walks were, I was not stepping into paradise.
God is perfect, and we must trust Him that His kingdom of heaven is indeed the paradise which continues to elude us in this fallen world.
Jesus made the ultimate promise. I believe Him.
Hunter Irvine
Scripture Love Blog
