The Thief Gets It!

I've been reading my Chronological Bible for, I don't know, three or four years now! I've given up on reading the Bible in a year because it becomes just another entry on my to-do list. So, I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to finish this Bible, and I'm going to do my best to be completely present with every passage I read. I'm not rushing through just so I can check it off my list.

I am currently finishing up the gospels, and today's reading included the part in Luke 23 where the thief asks Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom." And it struck me... While the disciples cowared in fear and utter disappointment in their leader and the religious leaders gloated in their apparent success, the thief understood everything Jesus had been trying to teach them for the past three years.

The disciples had spent nearly every waking hour with Jesus for years! He even let them in on some explanations that he didn't give to the crowds. But they still didn't quite get it yet. Their hopes and dreams came crashing down that day, and they had no idea which way to turn.

But in one agonizing afternoon on a cross, next to the Creator of the Universe, the thief got it! He didn't say something like, "If you're really who you say you are..." He wasn't looking for an earthly kingdom like so many of Jesus' followers were. Something told him that there was more... more to this King of the Jews than everyone else was seeing. Something told him that there really was a kingdom and that Jesus would be there soon.

That's so like God... to reveal himself to a thief on a cross, while the rest of us argue about who will sit on his right and his left, clamor to feel more important or successful, or wallow in our failures, or try to get our "needs" met. And he was there all time, waiting for us to get to the end of ourselves so that we could see him.

Lord, help me to "get it."