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Luk_23:40. Dost not even thou fear God?—It is not, therefore, the blaspheming of Jesus in itself which gives occasion for this outspoken rebuke, but the frivolous forgetfulness of God, the lack of the fear of God which manifests itself in the words of a man who is now suffering the same punishment with Jesus, whom he blasphemes, and who, therefore, now at least ought to have exhibited a more serious temper. But now the powerful antithesis with this word: ἐí ôῷ áὐôῷ êñßìáôé , comes before his awakening consciousness of faith, and he expresses, as strongly as possible, the heaven-wide distinction which exists between the Saviour and the companions of His fate.
Luk_23:41. And we indeed justly, sc. ἐí ôῷ êñßìáôé ἐóìåí .—He knows himself to be before God a man as guilty as the companion of his fate, although he censures his blasphemy.
This man hath done nothing amiss, ïὐäὲíἄôïðïí .—Nothing censurable, evil. Comp. 2Th_3:2. “The mild expression denotes innocence the more strongly.” (Meyer). Even had the robber said nothing more than this, yet he would awaken our deepest astonishment, that God—in a moment wherein literally all voices are raised against Jesus, and not a friendly word is heard in His favor—causes a witness for the spotless innocence of the Saviour to appear on one of the crosses beside Him. This murderer is the last man who before Jesus’ death deposes a testimony in honor of Him. But now he soon shows a yet clearer and firmer faith, while he directs his look upon the middle cross, and now begins to speak no longer of, but to, Him Himself.
Luk_23:42. Jesus, remember me.—He desires no instantaneous liberation from the cross, on which he on the contrary is convinced that he must die, but he desires solely and singly that our Lord in grace may remember him, and receive him into His kingdom. Undoubtedly he is not wholly free from earthly Messianic expectations, and here is thinking not of the heaven in which our Lord after His death would be, but he represents to himself the moment when the Messiah comes in His kingly glory to erect His kingdom upon earth, and desires that he then, awakened from the grave, may enter in with Him into the joy of his Lord. Comp. Mat_16:28. But even on this interpretation his prayer is assuredly one of the boldest and most surprising that has ever been utrered. A crucified malefactor, the first that has fully understood the deep sense of the superscription over the cross, and becomes the herald of the royal dignity of our Lord, in the same instant in which the Messianic hope of the apostles themselves was most vehemently shaken—of a truth this phenomenon may be called one of the brightest points of light in the history of the last hours in the life of our Lord! And even if we assume that he had previously heard and seen our Lord; that he, although a murderer, could not yet have been a hardened felon; that he attentively observes Jesus in the last hours, and that the approach of death had filled him with the deepest seriousness, yet all this clears up for us only a part of the riddle, which finds singly and solely its full solution in the faith of God’s free grace, which has in this very moment in fullest abundance glorified itself in the robber, while it had, we may believe, even previously prepared him by all the circumstances of his life for this courageous faith and this sincere conversion, which comes to light here in him in so surprising wise. An examination of the history of the psychological development of his inner life, which commends itself by great originality, see in Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. p. 1568. Only in this way does it become explicable how he in clearness of knowledge, in strength of faith, as well as in courageousness of confession, could be so far prominent above all others, and behold now a source of life and a royal throne in the cross, that even for the most advanced disciples was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. [Trench’s conjecture appears to be a reasonable one, that this robber may have been a companion of Barabbas, and that both these ëῃóôáß may have belonged to that class of turbulent zealots for freedom who had already begun to appear in the Jewish land, and who, like the Greek Klephts in Turkish times, united audacious wickedness with a perverted but ardent feeling of devotion to their country. The fact that Barabbas had just about this time “made a sedition,” which implies accomplices, who were not like himself released, but doubtless punished, lends weight both to the conjecture that some vague Messianic longings may have been mixed up with his crime, and that this man may have been a participant of it. A nature led through the very strength of noble impulses into crime, might well be more receptive of Divine grace in the hour of utter disenchantment and of mortal agony, than that of a common ruffian. Of course, this must remain only a conjecture, but I think we may be free to say, a not improbable conjecture.—C. C. S.]
Luk_23:43. And Jesus said unto him: To-day.—We can but faintly guess what, for the suffering Saviour, a word like this must have been. Over against all the voices of blasphemy He has observed steadfast silence; but such a petitioner He permits not to wait a moment for an answer. He promises to him something much higher than he had desired—the highest that he could pray or conceive—Paradise, and that even to-day, and in fellowship with Him. Senseless is the combination To-day with ëÝãù óïé , of which Theophylact already speaks, and which is vindicated in particular by Roman Catholic exegetes, in order as much as possible to weaken the proof which has always been derived from this word on the cross against the doctrine of Purgatory. It is self-evident that our Lord spoke to-day, not yesterday; never has He so pleonastically expressed Himself; moreover, on this interpretation the so thoroughly definite promise would lose all precision. But now there is implied nothing less in it than first the assurance that the murderer should die even to-day, and that with the Saviour, while He had perhaps feared that he should have to languish slowly away, hanging yet one or several days upon the cross [as we know was frequently the case in crucifixion, before death ensued.—C. C. S.]; a promise which was fulfilled a few hours later by the crurifragium. But at the same time our Lord promises him Paradise, a word whose whole sweetness in such a mouth, for such ears, could only be experienced if one had himself hung there with the Saviour upon the cross. We have, however, by this Paradise to understand not the heavenly Paradise, 2Co_12:4; Rev_2:7, but that part of Sheol which is opposed to Gehenna, and which was also named Paradise, and moreover, apparently, “Abraham’s bosom.” Nothing else could the forgiven one understand, who unquestionably had grown up entirely within the sphere of the Israelitish popular expectations; nothing else could the Saviour have had in view, since He undoubtedly from His death-hour to the resurrection morning, must abide in the condition of separation. “Dubium non est, quin Christus ita locutus sit, quomodo sciebat, a latrone intelligi.” Grotius. In the assurance of a being with the Lord in this Paradise, there is at the same time included for the Penitent Thief the promise of the resurrection of the just, and of further participation in the blessings of the Messianic kingdom. Respecting the Jewish popular conception of the future state, comp. Sepp, iii. p. 557 seq.
2. The beatitude uttered upon the Penitent Thief appears to have preceded the commendation of Mary to the disciple John (Joh_19:25-27), so that we have here before us in Luke, not the third, but the second word on the cross.—According to the course of the Synoptical representation, the mockery follows so quickly upon the crucifixion, and the scene between our Lord and the Penitent Thief so quickly upon the mockery, that it appears forced to insert the Johannean account between the one and the other event. On internal grounds, moreover, we consider it as much more probable that our Lord provided for His mother only after He had previously saved this sinner, than the reverse; the spiritual at every time with Him preceded the natural. The first word on the cross was for His enemies, the second for a penitent sinner, only the third for His sorrowing mother, while then finally the fourth reveals to us His own anguish of soul; thus does the circle draw ever closer together.
3. Brief as the utterance of the Penitent Thief was, yet there is nothing lacking to it that belongs to the unalterable requirements of a genuine conversion,—sense of guilt, confession of sin, simple faith, active love, supplicating hope,—all these fruits of the tree of the new life we see here ripen during a few moments. The address of our Lord, on the other hand, comprehends, as it were, in a short summary, the whole riches and the glory of redemption. The first word on the cross gives us a view into His High-priestly heart. His kingly character reveals itself in the second. Grace and majesty suddenly diffuse their bright beams through the night of the deepest humiliation. We wonder not that history gives us no account of an answer of the forgiven robber to the promise of the Saviour. On a cross there is not long or much speaking, and how, moreover, could he have found words for his thanks! But without doubt the consolation of this promise illumined his last hours, and he stands forth before our eyes as the first fruits of the millions of subjects whom the King of the kingdom of God has won even on His cross, and through the same.
4. The possibility of a conversion even in the last moments is undoubtedly established by the example of the Penitent Thief; the impenitent companion of his fate, however, proclaims quite as powerfully by his terrible end, how dangerous it is to postpone conversion so long.
5. The second word of our Lord on the cross contains a very significant intimation in respect to His Descensus ad Inferos, with which the yet further developed teaching of 1Pe_3:18; 1Pe_4:6, &c., is in no way in contradiction; but at the same time it renders not less than Php_1:23; Rev_14:13, and many other passages of the New Testament, a powerful testimony against the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.
6. The two robbers on the cross, the representatives of the whole human race in its diverse behavior towards Jesus. The crucified Jesus also the fall and the rising of many, Luk_2:34. The beatitude pronounced upon the Penitent Thief a type of the great judgment day.
Starke:—Men are not of one kind, as not in life, so not in death.—Brentius: It is an infallible token of a sound and true repentance when one acknowledges God’s judgment upon himself as righteous, and publicly praises the same.—The Christian is under obligation to deliver the innocence of the innocent.—How profitable it is to talk with the suffering Jesus.—The eye of hope must look farther than upon the visible things of this world, 1Co_15:19.—It is not the “with Me,” that comes first, but the “through Me.”—God’s acceptance of a fervent prayer is not delayed.—Brentius:—Christ has again opened the closed Paradise.—Man will after death be either with Christ or with the devil.—Whoever remains in his suffering steadfastly united with Jesus, will also remain united with Him in His glory.—Heubner:—The suddenness of this conversion should excite no doubt, for: 1. It is bound to no conditions of time; 2. there was found in the thief everything that precedes conversion; 3. undoubtedly there was here a miracle of grace in order to reveal the power of the death of Christ, even to coming generations.—This is what every poor sinner should daily pray: Lord, remember me.
Compare the well-known inscription on the grave of Copernicus: “Non parem Paulo veniam requiro, gratiam Petri neque posco, sed quam in cruris ligno dederis latroni, sedulus oro.”—The sermon of Chrysostom, De latrone, and that of Melanchthon in Bretschneider, Corpus Reform, ii. pp. 478–487.—The Passion Week’s sermons of Rieger, p. 641–643.—Saurin:—Sur les deux brigands, p. 403.—T. Theremin:—The Cross of Christ, the third sermon.—F. Arens, Preacher in Osnaburg:—The value of the grace on Calvary set forth in one of the crucified thieves.—Thomasius:—Our own death-hour in the light of this history.—Dr. J. J. Rambach: 1. The prayer of the malefactor; 2. the answer of the Saviour.—Palmer:—Christ between the robbers.—Krummacher:—The robber: 1. A look into the heart of both robbers; 2. into the great kingly word of Immanuel.
Luk_23:39.—According to the reading of Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford]: ïὐ÷ὶ óὺ åῖ ̓; after B., [Cod. Sin.,] C.1, L., Versions. The Recepta comes from Luk_23:37.
Luk_23:40.—That is, “any more than the mockers around, who at least have not a fellow-suffering to restrain them from impious cruelty towards a dying man.”—C. C. S.]
Luk_23:41.—Revised Version of the American Bible Union.—C. C. S.]
Luk_23:42.—The êýñéå of the Recepta is wanting in B., C.1, D., [Cod. Sin.,] Cursives, &c. Ἰçóïῦ is supported by the authority of B., C.1, L., [Cod. Sin.,] Origen, and the Coptic and Sahidic Versions.