In death on the cross Jesus suffered extreme weakness. He was submitting to the Father’s will. He was showing the fulness of that submission. He was submitting to the sheer humanness of being truly weak, and mortal in that weakness. We can identify with this. He did not rescue the thief who believed in him, and was on a cross beside him. He promised comfort after death, not before, for this guilt-confessing thief. The other thief there on a cross taunted Jesus, asking him to save himself and them. This man was rebuked for such taunting by the thief who was more believing, who acknowledged guilt, and acknowledged that Jesus was still going to have kingship in a kingdom, even though he died. Yet Jesus did not end the suffering and death, not of himself, nor of the ones beside him. He might have used the one strength he had in that state of weakness, the fact the Father loved him and heard his prayers, but he did not even ask the Father to rescue them or himself. There was grace that came from Jesus. Even in this extreme time God’s gift of grace was there in how Jesus was able to offer comfort despite the nearness of death. When weakness removed all earthly hope, the only thing which remained was grace to give comfort to others. It was still there in Jesus. The thief with faith had it too. He was enabled to speak graciously to both the other thief to rebuke him, to confess their deservedness of this death, to confess that Jesus had done no wrong and did not deserve death, and then to turn and show great faith in Jesus, asking Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom. Jesus too had grace to acknowledge death was coming but after it Paradise for himself and the thief with faith. In what Jesus said there is a tremendous lesson, that the death of the believer is a death in body, which might be deserved, but even if deserved, does not mean death in spirit too. Spirit can still be saved. That spirit can still be in fellowship with the spirits of those who die but do not deserve death. Punishment is sometimes necessary, but the spirit can still be saved, even if the punishment is death. Later the apostle Paul would apply this teaching when dealing with those who most grievously sinned. The fellowship of believers might need to shut out the grievous wrongdoer, but in doing so, it could save the spirit of the wrongdoer, even if the wrongdoer died in it. Previously in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus had been confronted with a woman being on the point of capital punishment for being adulterous after she was caught in it. His grace at that time saved her. Then he saved her even further by commanding her to be adulterous no more, to sin no more. Now on the cross however, he was confronted with a believing thief being similarly punished with capital punishment, yet here Jesus showed a new lesson, still in grace, that there was hope for the believer even after death, and the spirit could be saved even if the body is punished with death.
