It is never too late
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”Luke 23:43
Reflection
He has no name in the gospels — tradition calls him the "good thief", but good he was not: he was a criminal crucified for crimes he himself admitted ("we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds"). No time to restore what he stole, no chance to be baptized, not a single good work on the balance, not even able to fold his hands to pray — they were nailed. And it was to this man, in the last minutes of a wrong life, that Jesus guaranteed: "TODAY shalt thou be with me in paradise".
Notice what that man did with the very little he had: first, he acknowledged his own guilt (while the other thief mocked and demanded). Then, he acknowledged who Jesus was — and this is the most impressive faith of the New Testament: the disciples fled, Peter denied, the crowd mocked, and a condemned man, looking at a bleeding Jesus, defeated in everyone’s eyes, saw A KING: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom". He believed in the crown when only the cross could be seen. And he asked for little — only to be remembered. He received everything: company ("with me"), place ("in paradise") and deadline ("today").
That scene is the definitive demolition of salvation by merit. The first human being to enter paradise by the hands of Christ was a criminal with no résumé, saved minutes from the end, by pure faith and pure grace. There died, once and for all, the theology of "first I get my life together, then I go to God": he got NOTHING together — he was gathered up. If the thief’s cross teaches anything, it is that the distance between any person and paradise is never a lifetime of merits; it is one sincere sentence said to Jesus.
Two warnings live inside that grace. The first: there were TWO thieves — same sentence, same distance from Jesus, same day. One mocked, the other believed; the cross saved neither automatically — faith decided. The second: the thief was saved at the last hour, but no one knows which is his own last hour — postponing the decision betting on "later" is gambling eternity on a clock you do not control. And if you carry someone in your heart who is "too old, too wrong, too far gone" to change: the thief’s cross says otherwise. While there is breath, there is time. It is never too late to say "remember me" — and Jesus’ "today" still stands.
Prayer
Jesus, thank You because Your "today" reached a thief without merits — and it reaches me. I do not come with a résumé; I come with his sentence: remember me in Your kingdom. And I ask You for those I love who think it is too late: reach them before the end, as You reached the man on the next cross. Amen.
Put it into practice
Think of the person you consider a "lost cause" (or who considers themselves one) and do two things: pray for them today by name — and, if possible, send a message reminding them that it is never too late for God.
To reflect on
If a crucified thief entered paradise with one sentence of faith, what excuse still sustains the "later I’ll get right with God" — yours or of someone you love?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).