Truly I Say Unto You
Luke 23:43
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

We learned last week that the first words uttered by Jesus while on the cross were a prayer for His enemies.  This second phrase which we are about to read is an answer to prayer, and it was an answer addressed to one single human being as if he were the only human being alive.  Now read with me Luke 23:43.  “And He said to him, "Truly I say unto you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Jesus is in the business of hearing and answering the prayers of individuals – people just like you and me.  In this passage of Scripture, we find Jesus hanging on the cross between two thieves.  Now, most theologians concur that the word used for thief is not the same word with the same interpretation that we would have in our language today.  The late Dr. William Coble believed that it carries with it the idea of a rebel, one who was at odds with the current Roman occupation.  Clovis Chappell believes that he “was not a thief, in our sense of the word, but a revolutionist.  He, with his companion, had belonged to the Jewish underground…guerrilla bands…that…had sought to prey upon Rome as ruthlessly as they felt that Rome had preyed upon them.  Thus, the man who offered the prayer that brought so rich an answer was a man of violence, whose hands were deeply stained with human blood.”