"The last day"

Finally the day had arrived. Finally the hour had come. “Finally, my last day on earth” he told himself. The wait had been excruciating, but now it was here. The day of his execution had finally arrived. “Ah! The smell of fresh air, these guys need to provide better prisons. But who cares, my life here is done. This is it. This is where and this is how things are going to end. I have no regrets, I have done nothing wrong. He deserved it, he deserve to die. How could he ever have thought he could get away with it, that guy I killed he deserved it. So what if they call me a murderer? So what if his wife is a widow now? So what if I have had sleepless night because of the guilt? I did right, or at least I hope I did.”

His thoughts went on; it was the day when Pilate would release one that the people would ask for. But he knew he was not one among them, he was a criminal and the cross was already decided for him. And he had accepted it. Really he didn’t have a choice; the concept of forgiveness was unknown to men. God punished men for their sins, and so did men.

The soldiers started flogging him and as they hit him, they brought out his cross. And put it on his shoulders even as they hit him. “Ok this is heavy? Never thought it would take all my strength to carry this. Ouch! This is now starting to hurt, can’t these guys go a little slow with the flogging.” Just then another hit, hit after hit, his skin tore, flesh started to show. The pain grew and it was no longer bearable. Sure he was a hard hearted criminal, but he was not cut out for this, no human was.

The walk continued to Golgotha, he raised his head up and he noticed he was not alone in this procession. There was a Man ahead of him, He as more beaten than him, “The soldiers have been ruthless with this Man. Surely He must be a serial killer or one of those big time criminals. But why are these women crying?” he wondered. There was another criminal behind him, he was been flogged just like him, he looked like the usual criminal, but this is Man ahead of Him. There was something different about Him, “Why were people weeping for a criminal?” He couldn’t understand.

“Who is He? Why has He been so ruthlessly flogged? And why are people crying for Him?” He could hear people whispering something around him about the Man. Through all the whispering he could make out that this Man, was called Jesus. “But who is He? What has he done?” His curiosity grew.

Finally they made it to Golgotha, and slowly each of them was nailed to his cross. And their crosses were raised. Now he started to experience the pain, his criminal friends had told him about. His brain was blanking out with pain. There was no way of telling what was causing the pain. Every part of his body was in pain.

Through all this pain, he was still curious to know more about the One who was beside Him. He could see priests from the temple mocking Him, what were they saying? He then heard one of the priests say “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” Out of everything the priest had said two phrases hit him the most ‘God’s Messiah’, ‘The Chosen One’.

“Could this be possible?” he asked himself. “The last day of my life and I get to meet the Messiah. Could this be possible? This can’t be. What is the Saviour of the world doing on the cross? This can’t be.”

Just then he heard another priest say “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

“Enough is enough!” he thought to himself, “Can’t these guys see we are dying? What kind of priests are they? Won’t they let a man die in peace?” Even as he thought all this, a thought hit him. The Man hanging next to him had not retaliated. He had not spoken a word. The thief was surprised. “Who is this guy? Those whisperers on the road what were they calling Him? Jesus. Ah! Yes Jesus, what a beautiful name, doesn’t it mean salvation. Just look at him” he told himself. “Why is He quiet? Why does He not retaliate? Wait He is trying to pull up. Is he about to speak? Yes He is.” As he thought this Jesus spoke “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

As Jesus said these words the criminal’s heart broke, “Oh! What love is this? Did He just forgive them? No He didn’t. Who is He? Who is this man?” The criminal’s life flashed before him, his flaws, his sins, and the murder. One by one, moment by moment, the guilt he was trying to run away from gripped him. Just then he heard the other thieve say “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

He could bear it no more he screamed out at the other thief “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Surely this was his last day on earth. And also surely it was his first day in heaven.

That providence, that grace, that mysterious love awaits us all. It’s upon us. We can mock Him, or we can accept Him. We can keep Him out or we can bring Him in. It’s upon us. We can spend our life worrying about our last day on earth or we can spend the rest of our life awaiting the glory that comes after the last day. It’s upon us.

Do not let His passion go in vain.

Biblical reference: Luke 23