Faithbase

Well, I'm here in Santa Barbara this week. We came for a wedding and yesterday we had lunch with some old friends And the question came up He was asking me Papo Which one is the character in the Bible that you identify with the most as I was thinking about it He came out and said identify with a thief on a cross so I Wanted to look at closely That particular passage because I remember that somewhere he said that both of them were mocking Jesus And then somewhere else he says that one of them actually was defending Christ. So let me look at that I don't know if he's of interest to you, but it's it got me intrigued, you know And since we just came out of the Eastern season, I think that this is good to to review So in Matthew now, we all know that Matthew was one of the Apostles and so was John now Luke as many of you know wrote primarily under the influence of Paul and Mark wrote primarily under the influence of Peter now mark being the first gospel kind of dictates what? Matthew and Luke also talk about and John is not at one of the synoptic gospel. John talks about something completely different But anyway, not completely different, but he's focusing more on the deity of Christ. So Matthew 27 Starting on verse 38 says then two robbers were crucified with him one to the right and another on the left and those who Passed by blasphemed him wagging their heads and saying you who destroyed the temple and building in three days Save yourself if you are the Son of God come down from the cross Likewise the chief priests also mocking with the scribe and the elder said he saved others Himself, he cannot save if he is the king of the Jews or the king of Israel Let him now come down from the cross and he will believe him He trusted in God letting deliver him now if he will have him For he said I am the Son of God Even the robbers plural who were crucified with him Reviled him with the same thing now, this is Matthew so we can go back and say, okay What did Mark say since he's kind of the foundational of the gospel? What did he say and basically Mark says the same thing, you know, I just get down to the very last part mark 15 verse 32 Let the Christ the king of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe Even those again plural who were crucified with him reviled him Now John who was really probably the only true witness to the crucifixion because we know from the gospel that he was present Doesn't talk about this. He just mentioned that there were two thieves They were crucified one to the right and one to the left of Christ Now Luke is the only one that gives us detail now Remember Luke is the one that went around and researched to give a detailed account to Theophilus right so what we read in Luke 23 starting 39 says Then one of the criminals who were hanged Blasphemed him saying if you are the Christ save yourself and us But the other answer we rebuked him saying Do you not even fear God seeing you're 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 I surely I say to you today. You will be with me in paradise Now What do we do with this Luke is saying one thing Mark and Matthew are saying two different things John doesn't even mention it all together is Then the Bible contradicting is the word of the gospel Contradicting each other. I don't think so because I mean we weren't there so we don't know exactly what happened but bottom line is you could have some eyewitnesses that referred what happened to Matthew to Mark and They might have been on one side Listening to maybe only one of the thieves they couldn't hear both Maybe they were there for a limited amount of time. So both of them were mocking him But then they didn't catch the repentant heart or the second thief We really don't know the details, but I think I think Most likely what happened probably both of them said hey If you are true the Son of God Get down and get us out to please, you know do us a favor But then perhaps one of them had a softer heart When he heard Christ saying forgive him for they don't know what they're doing They might may they might have made a big impression on that person. It's in a wait a minute He has the courage of actually forgiving these people there is something different about this person and Perhaps coming to grasp with these in his own iniquities with his own sin He realized you know what I need forgiveness and that's why he's pleading and asking for forgiveness Now the second part too when Luke says you will be with me in paradise Well that today also is kind of controversial because depending on where you put the coma I tell you Today you will be with me in paradise is one version. So that means today, you know today Friday You will be with me in paradise Another version says I tell you today coma You will be with me in paradise at a later date and I subscribe actually to the second one for one reason is in Particular when we read John 20, we see that Christ tells Mary don't touch me because I have no ascended to the father yet And this is on Sunday So he's telling the thief on Friday. You will be with me in paradise But then he's telling Mary on Sunday. I have not yet ascended So put forth all anyway, my mind is kind of quirky But the bottom line to all of this is that there are these two camps and that really represents humanity you have one group that is guilty and in his In its sin the group in its sin and its guiltiness still doesn't recognize the power of Forgiveness and then you have the second group that actually come to grasps with our inadequacies and says you know what? I need to be cleansed. Please cleanse me. This is it for today kind of on the run. Ciao