They crucified Jesus on a hill called Calvary between two thieves, like a common criminal. The mob gathered around the cross, mocking him and tossing insults. One of the thieves took up the refrain, pouring the bitterness and frustration pooling in his soul out on Jesus. The other thief knew there was something different about the man crucified next to him. Something Divine. Something that offered him hope in the midst of the darkest hour of his life.

The unnamed thief had hit rock bottom and was facing the nebulous uncertainty of the grave with nothing left to lose and no hope. In a moment of clarity he reached out to Jesus. He had heard about him, I’m sure. It was hard not to have heard about Jesus given the amount of attention he drew whenever he traveled. He was a healer. That above all else made him popular. He was also a man known to have fed thousands of people with barely any food. He was also reported to be the Messiah, the Son of God. 

When the thief looked at the bloodied man beside him, gasping for air as he was, he recognised the Divinity that lay just below the surface of His humanity and he grasped for it like a lifeline. He begged Jesus to give him hope. Eternal hope. And Jesus didn’t fail him. 

Jesus needed the thief as much as the thief needed him. To the thief Jesus represented hope beyond the grave. To Jesus the thief represented the assurance that his sacrifice would not be in vain.

Surrounded by a jeering and thankless mob, relishing his suffering, it would have been easy to wonder if his sacrifice would mean anything. The twelve men he had invested in so intentionally and tirelessly had all forsaken him. One had betrayed him. The other, one of his closest disciples, had denied him. The people he had worked so hard to reach had called for his death. Exhausted, overwhelmed and dying it would have been easy for Jesus to get discouraged. For his humanity to surge to the forefront threatening to overtake his divinity. 

And yet the request of that one dying thief snapped him back to reality and reminded him of who He was and why He had come. Why he was hanging on a Roman cross when He could be sitting on the throne of the universe worshipped by unfallen beings. 

Turning to the thief and locking eyes with Him Jesus promised him the one thing that He had come to give, the one thing that his death on the cross guaranteed; eternity. On the cross when Satan was tempting him to believe all was lost, that one repentant thief reminded Jesus that his sacrifice would not be in vain. If all He had to show for everything He had endured was the salvation of one man, then He would suffer and die without complaint because that one soul was worth the best gift of heaven. That one soul was enough. 

Never forget that truth. If you were the only sinner walking the face of the earth, Jesus would have left heaven to be nailed to that cross for you. Because you are worth the sacrifice.