Kathleen Rushton connects Jesus’s announcement of his ministry at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel with his last words before he died in Luke 23:35-42.

Luke writes that at the beginning of his public ministry Jesus came to his home town of Nazareth. There he entered the synagogue and read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, who has appointed me to bring good news to the poor, who has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Lk 4:18).

These words summarised Jesus’s entire focus — to preach the good news of the reign of God, bringing “good news to the poor” (Lk 4:43). The phrase “the reign (basileia) of God” appears 38 times in Luke. This reign Jesus proclaims is about the unlimited love and mercy of God especially for the despised and disenfranchised poor, among them women, outsiders, sinners and Samaritans. Jesus preaches the good news until his last breath on the cross.

Hope and Forgiveness

Luke reshapes Mark’s execution scene, where Jesus dies in abandonment and rejection, into a scene of hope and forgiveness. He inserts the prayer: “Father, forgive them . . . ” (Lk 23:34). He distinguishes the onlookers from the scoffing religious leaders, soldiers and one bandit who mock Jesus with variations of “save yourself”. In contrast, “the other” victim owns his wrongdoing and admits the justice of his punishment. He is the fourth to acknowledge that Jesus dying beside him is innocent (23:40; 23:14, 15, 22).

Ancient Context

Many ancient people, including the Romans, used crucifixion as a punishment. The most detailed accounts of this form of execution are found in the gospel passion narratives. Crucifixion was meted out to both men and women — 22 cases of women have been found in records. In the time of Jesus the punishment of offenders was not controlled by regulations. Crucifixion aimed to shame and publicly humiliate the victims and executioners had no rein on caprice or sadism. Christians can spiritualise Jesus’s death and miss the horror of crucifixion as way of controlling an oppressed people, or by particularising it to Jesus alone.

Luke uses a generic term to describe the victims crucified with Jesus. It means bandit, evildoer or criminal — a term with a decidedly criminal sense. It’s used three times in the story: for the two who are led away to be crucified (Lk 23:32); to name the one on his right and the one on his left (Lk 23:33) and for the one who derides Jesus (Lk 23:39). Luke, also, used this term earlier in the Gospel — when Jesus protested at his arrest: “Have you come out with swords and clubs as if I were a bandit?”; when the Samaritan fell among bandits; and when he cleansed the temple, Jesus accused the sellers of making God’s house into a den of bandits.

“Jesus, Remember Me”

The bandit who asked Jesus to "remember me when you come into your kingdom" received the response: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." These are the last words spoken to Jesus in Luke’s Gospel and the last words Jesus spoke to a person in his pre-resurrection life.

Biblical scholar Raymond Brown says that the bandit’s way of addressing Jesus is “stunning in its intimacy” for nowhere else in any Gospel does a person address Jesus simply by his name: “Jesus.” Elsewhere, Jesus’s name is qualified to suggest reverence, for example: “Jesus Son of God” (Mk 5:7; Lk 8:28)) or “Jesus Son of David” (Mk 10:47; Lk 18:38). Only demoniacs or others seeking healing use Jesus’s name (Lk 4:34; 8:28; 17:13; 18:38).

The bandit has the spontaneity of a disciple — one distinguished by their willingness to accept Jesus’s invitation and follow him spontaneously. However, the bandit does not wait for an invitation. He anticipates the words of Jesus to disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you” (Lk 11:9).

“With Me”

When Jesus’s dying companion asked him to remember him, Jesus offers more — the intimacy of discipleship. At the last supper Jesus had said to the Twelve: “You are those who have stood with me in my trials” and that they shall eat and drink at his table in his kingdom (Lk 22:28-30).

Now on the cross Jesus promises the bandit that he “will be with me.” Being with Jesus suggests not only being in the company of Jesus in paradise but, like the Twelve, he will share in the resurrection. Jesus began this promise with “Truly (Greek amen) I tell . . .” which gives solemnity to his words. Nothing can separate these dying companions from God’s loving mercy.

Even as death approaches Jesus completes a final act of liberation of the bandit, connecting his ministry first declared in the Nazareth synagogue to the good news for this poor one — a captive is released and an oppressed one goes free. Jesus’s emphatic “today” — “today you will be with me” — points to now and links this incident with moments of salvation or revelation described throughout the whole gospel story (Lk 2:11; 4:21; 5:26; 13:32-33; 19:9; 22:34, 61).

For Us

We are invited to discover the reign of God now among us — to be hope and love and mercy in our world.

Salvation is not in the remote future or even tomorrow but “today” in our present. We are “with Jesus” — companions developing a fuller relationship with others, with Divine love and with life in our world.

We can take the words attributed to Teresa of Avila as our own: “Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on Earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which Christ blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are Christ’s body. Christ has no body now in Earth but yours.”

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 267 November 2022: 24-25