“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

Recently, I remembered these words of Jesus to the criminal who hung beside him on a cross, over and over, as a kind of hymn or refrain among the quieter moments of my thoughts.

“Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.”

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

There’s not much to be said about it, and perhaps the less said, the better. Yet it strikes me, this is why – or what – I believe, and always will. Something that cuts to the heart, supremely meaningful.

“This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

What a promise, and what a hope. What an inversion of all merely human fears, turning upside down and inside out all merely human inventions – by which I mean, those inventions which are scarcely human if at all, defying the image of the Redeemer.

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

Shame and guilt. Sin and crime and punishment. Torture and ignominy and condemnation. All these, He brushes aside with a few simple words.

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

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“Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.”

What a hope, and what a faith. Don’t marvel. Don’t be astonished. Accept it. The remarkable thing is how hard it is for us to see it. The astonishing thing is the veil that covers our eyes with thoughts of authorities and judgment seats, obscures our vision with guilt and condemnation that He never made or caused to be.

“Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.”

The simplest thing, and the truest. Striking solid rock that all our fears cannot wash away, and like the sea they ebb and flow. Crash against this rock, and then fall back, to reveal it’s still standing there.

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

The promise spoken to our deepest fear. Past the intellect, past thought and logic and reason, where feeling alone runs deep – where pain and terror and horror wash us away.

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

Faith, that the promise holds true, even when I don’t, or can’t, believe it. When it seems far too far away to grasp. Its touch ephemeral besides the torment and the horror. Forgotten, if remembered at all.

“This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”