How to Live Through a Bad Day 7 Encouraging Insights from Christ's Words on the Cross

CHAPTER TWO: ;Help Others Who Are Experiencing Your Same Struggle ; Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. -Luke 23:43 ; Exactly how soon the interchange took place isn't clear, but Jesus-suspended on a Cross between a pair of thieves also being crucified-was made the subject of a brief debate between the two. Luke's report reads: ; ;Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:39-43) ; ; At the beginning of the interchange, Jesus was only an observer-listener. He was on the Cross, but there were two others on crosses to the right and the left. They were criminals, and in an apparent coincidence of scheduling within the Roman program of execution, Jesus' bad day happened to be their day of destruction as well. Both men seemed to be aware of the claims that were made about Jesus and knew why He was there. But only one displayed cynicism and anger, swearing at Jesus and making a mocking reference to His power. The other criminal briskly challenged his counterpart: "Don't you have any respect? This Man doesn't deserve that kind of cynicism or bitterness. He hasn't done anything, but we're getting what we deserve." It was a clear confession of his sinfulness. Then in the same repentant spirit, and with a distinct and humble acknowledgment of Jesus' divinity, he made a request of the Savior: "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." ; Jesus' response is a study in divine mercy, in grace's readiness to give salvation, in God's immeasurable gentleness toward all who come to Him, and in the truth that it is never too late to seek God. It is a scenario that jangles the nerves of the religionist who would haltingly dispense salvation. It is as dramatic a statement that God's Son could make to say, "Those who come to Me, I'll never turn away." That's the gospel truth wrapped in this event, but there's a discipling principle as well. In Jesus' response to this bad day encounter, we're taught a second lesson in how to live through such days of our own: encourage others who are struggling or uncertain. ; Note two elements of Jesus' interaction with the repentant thief. First, the man was experiencing exactly the same thing Jesus was. Please capture that. Jesus could have been focused on His own problems, but He demonstrated sensitivity that remained available to the needs of other people around Him, even while dealing with His own pain. And in that action there was something more. ; Second, Jesus might have regarded Himself as the man's superior, but He readily responded as One engaged in the same bad day struggle. True, the thief was facing the day with infinitely fewer resources than Jesus had. Jesus was suffering, but He was-and is-the Lord; even the thief recognized that. Jesus had been pierced at hands and feet with nails, and tortured with a thorn crown crushed onto His head, but He is God's King. Yet it was not from either His spiritually royal role or as a moral superior that the Savior related to the one seeking succor for his soul. He met the man on the common plane of their suffering together on that bad day. JesusHayford, Jack W. is the author of 'How to Live Through a Bad Day 7 Encouraging Insights from Christ's Words on the Cross' with ISBN 9780785266174 and ISBN 0785266178.