There are those who jeer at him, feeling a sense of justice at this 'blasphemer' who dared to threaten their Jewish customs. They have not understood who he is. They spit on him, curse at him, shake their fists at him, and cajole him to come down from the cross if he is indeed their king. The Roman soldiers look on at their handiwork, sneering condescendingly at the Jewish priests and crowd. To them, he is just one of many conquered victims whom they engage in this torture. To the Jews, they cannot believe in him. They cannot accept his miracles, his message, his salvation.

On either side of Jesus hangs two others. These two are criminals--thieves who by their own confession are receiving the due punishment of their evil deeds. All three men are hanging suspended before this angry and weeping crowd, knowing that death approaches-- death by suffocation from the inability to breathe as the tension on their outstretched arms grows with each passing minute. Yet in the midst of this horrible chaos of pain and exposed shame before friends and relatives, one thief begins to have second thoughts. He looks at Jesus, a righteous and innocent man. He has heard of the miracles that Jesus performed...the healings, the demons being dispatched into swine, the blind gaining sight and the lame walking, the raising of the dead friend Lazarus. He has second thoughts. Before, he did not know if these stories about this man were true. Little did he know that he would be hanging on a cross beside Jesus...but here he was, having second thoughts as he sees his own death approaching. Maybe the stories were true. Why else would the jealous Jewish authorities betray this man into the hands of the Romans? Perhaps they wanted to get rid of him because everyone was following after him. If the stories were true, could Jesus somehow save him? He knew that Jesus would not save him from the cross. Jesus had refused to save himself from this physical death. Perhaps, though, Jesus might save him from the justice of God in the afterlife. Maybe this young man from Galilee was indeed the Messiah mentioned in the book of Isaiah and in the Psalms. Even as Jesus was struggling with his own agony, he still quoted the scripture to the faces of hate before him. He even forgave them for what they were doing to him!

The thief's second thoughts then turned to action. He believed. He would appeal to the crucified Rabbi. "Jesus," he said. "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." In essence, he was saying, "I believe in you, Jesus. You are indeed who you have said that you are--the Son of the living God." We now see Jesus turn his head a bit toward the confessing man. "Truly I say to you..today you will be with me in Paradise." Jesus was going to take the spirit of this criminal with him into Paradise!

What of the other thief? He failed to find faith in Jesus as his comrade did. There was no promise from the Son of God. Just as the day was black, his fate was horrible. A miserable death..to be followed by no relationship with God--forever. All three men, the two on either side, and Jesus himself died that day. To ensure that Jesus was dead, a spear was thrust into his chest. The legs of the thieves were broken to hurry death as the total weight of their bodies would fall upon the outstretched arms, preventing a breath. As we watch they lapse into an agonizing unconsciousness, and then they expire. All three are hanging now on the cross as dead bodies while the wind howls, the thunder roars, and the earth quakes.

We see the limp, bloody bodies coming down from the crosses as the spikes are pulled free. Where are these men now? Where is the Spirit of Jesus...the one who could raise the dead? Where did he go? Being a man of truth, we must conclude that he went where he said that he would be going...to Paradise sometime before he showed himself to be risen from the dead--but he did not go alone. He took a new friend with him. Side by side they entered the gates of Paradise in the spirit realm. The believing thief..the man who never followed God during his entire life, walked with Jesus Christ right into the middle of receiving angels who lived in Paradise. Where did the other one go? Did he enter with Jesus, too? Jesus never said that he would do such. We must conclude that the thief who failed to confess belief in Jesus went elsewhere to be without the Light of God. He was dead...both physically and spiritually--without Jesus Christ.

God gave us this scene on the hill with three crosses and the crucified men upon them. It was the sign of the human condition. All humans die as they hang upon the cross of suffering in this life. The Son of God hangs suspended between us and dies a human death as we do. The thieves are representative of all of us and the choice in life that we have-- one choosing "Yes" and the other choosing "no". As we examine in our own mind the story of Christ, do we call out to Jesus to take us with him to Paradise, or do we die like the other thief, cynical about Jesus, with our sins unforgiven, going to our eternal home in hell? Which is it? This is the symbol of the three crosses, and it is the question which God poses to all of us. Will we accept His Son and live forever in glory with God, or reject Jesus, our only hope, and die into eternal darkness and agony?

If this story moves you--if you can recognize the truth of it, you can be like the believing thief. You can get out of this life with a free pardon before God. Accept the free gift and be received by shining angels and Jesus Christ as you walk into Paradise when you die. If you accept this gift of receiving Jesus and following him, you will also find that Paradise leaks out of the next existence into this one. The choice is an individual one that each of us must make before we die on our own cross of illness or catastrophe. Look at those three crosses again, and you will see that it is you hanging beside Jesus. What will you decide? Whatever it is to be, it is forever.