The Gospel of the Thief

In one of the most tragic moments of Jesus' life on this earth, he interacted in just a few hours with three thieves. A thief is someone who appropriates what belongs to others, but in Jesus' days, it also had other connotations that we will see later.

One of them was the famous Barabbas. It could be said that he was a famously notorious criminal, a fame achieved through delinquency. The thieves were not just thieves, or not only thieves; they were political activists. The very reason why Jesus was there, according to the Romans' criteria; the inscription placed on the cross above his head proves it, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” He was accused of self-proclaiming himself king.

According to historians, crucifixion was a punishment that the Romans applied only to political rebels, social revolutionaries, and subversives. Historical antecedents attest that, during the years that Rome dominated the province of Judea, only seditious or sympathizers with them were crucified, never any thief. Theft, robbery with violence, were not capital crimes in Roman law. So, the parallelism between politicians and thieves is mere coincidence.

We already know the cause for which Barabbas was a step away from crucifixion, and he was one of the wrongdoers with whom Jesus interacted in his most difficult hours; the other two were not as fortunate as Barabbas, they were crucified, one on each side of Jesus. However, despite the fame of Barabbas, I believe without fear of being wrong, that these two are by far the most famous, although paradoxically, we do not even know their names; they are only known as thieves, because in the gospels of Matthew and Mark they are called that, but John only says that “two others” were crucified, while Luke calls them wrongdoers, a sufficient reason to have been at Golgotha. In the scriptures, we find that:

“Neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:10),

Therefore, one must not minimize the offense; they themselves acknowledge that they have come to the death penalty with their own merits.

Next, for further analysis, the dialogue recorded in the gospel of Luke between the three crucified:

“And one of the wrongdoers who were hanged reviled him, saying: Save yourself and us.
But the other answered, rebuking him, saying: Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly suffer, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said to Jesus: Remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Then Jesus said to him: Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43).

As we will see, it is absolutely irrelevant for this study to refer to the last line of the text, which has been the subject of many other linguistic, semantic, and theological studies; perhaps later we will focus on a particular analysis.

With the immense pain they must have felt, these two thieves, one of them insulted Jesus and challenged him. The challenge is not related to the cause for which Jesus was crucified: sedition, but to the fact of being the Savior. Yet the attack is not new; the Lord knew it:

“Surely you will tell me this proverb: Physician, heal yourself.” (Luke 4:23)

He said it to those who listened to him preaching on a Sabbath in the synagogue, but also, while hanging there, some yelled at him:

“You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself; If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40).

Those who shouted had heard Jesus, but it seems that the thief repeated what he heard, and in passing, if you save yourself, save us as well. The mockery irritated the other condemned, to the point of saying:

“Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?”

In the Bible, there are approximately fifty references to this criminal typification, but only in this case with positive traits. A clear evidence that this man was not indifferent, and I am not referring to the intense physical pain that he surely felt at that moment, but to the manifestation of human sensitivity to the awareness of his condition of wickedness, to the recognition of his state. We do not know what his paths in life were, his offenses and crimes, but he, unlike the other thief, feared God.

Fear is the feeling of danger before the real or fictitious threat of losing material or mental integrity. The fear of God is the same feeling of fear, but without the danger to physical or psychic integrity. The sensation is similar, but in one there is danger and in the other there is not.

That fear is the respect produced by the contrast between the immense grandeur and holiness of God, with our baseness and wickedness. This man fears God. That fear is the only way to reach God, something fundamental and essential for being saved.

I emphasize, we are confronted with the irrefutable biblical proof that the fear of God is the only way that allows God to work. There are people who distance themselves from the church, from the fellowship of believers, from religious practices or formalities, they can distance themselves from holiness and draw near to sin, to wickedness, for a long time even, but if, like the thief, they fear God, salvation is just a step away.

Just like the thief, even if you have only known Him from afar, you are not baptized, even if you have distanced yourself in your youth, even if you do not tithe, do not attend a congregation, do not keep the commandments, even if you live in sin, (because sin lives in us always). It does not matter what condition you are in, if you fear God, salvation is at the door, even if you feel that you’re kilometers away from Him. You just need to come close, take the step, which is what the thief did. I still call him a thief to reaffirm that moral condition, the past, mean nothing; they are no impediment to be able to take the hand of Jesus.

“And he said to Jesus: Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

It was the only thing missing, what the Lord was waiting for, and the only thing he expects from all of us, that we want, that we extend our hand, that we knock on the door. That we manifest simply, humbly, and truly, our longing to be with Him, to be saved. To fall on our knees, willing to ask for forgiveness, not out of fear of the consequences, only from the fear of God. That wanting reveals that we are susceptible to being transformed.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

The one who said and existed needs nothing more to transform us, so that the thief who died on the cross as such, rises without being one: Fear God and want to be saved.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8).

Neither by faith are we saved, that would be a merit, and salvation is a gift, a present; nothing is done to obtain it; it is not earned, it is not obtained by any merit. So why then a Christian life, a healthy life, why attend church, why be faithful, why faith, why a life of prayer, why keep His commandments, why do or not do, for all that the thief did not do? All of this and more has nothing to do with salvation; what the Lord asks us to do or to stop doing is what God wants for us to live well, healthily, to be happy, to live in harmony with one another, and as an expression of our gratitude for the ineffable gift, while we wait for the moment of transformation.

So it is not relevant at all whether the thief would go to heaven at that moment or later; the transcendent thing is the promise of salvation, that he would be with Jesus for eternity.