Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, – 20th November 2022 — Gospel: Lk 23,35-43
Proof of Jesus’ Kingship
While Jesus hangs upon the cross, the narrator presents the mockery of three groups in descending order of social status. In all three cases the mockery focuses upon the pretended “messianic” claims of Jesus and the capacity to “save” himself. The leaders scoff first, let the one who saved others save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one. Ironically the Messiah was to save others precisely by giving his own life, and in so doing, he himself would find life (9,23-24; 17,33). Next the soldiers mock him by offering him vinegar. They hail him as “King of the Jews”, the title that featured in his Roman trail (23,3) and now stands in the inscription attached to his cross (23,38). Like the rulers, they do not see that Jesus is saving himself on the cross and passing into the kingdom of God where he would drink of the fruit of the vine (22,17-18).
The humiliation reaches its climax from a third direction: that of the criminals crucified with Jesus. The criminal on Jesus’ left taunts him about “salvation” in terms that echo the taunt of the elders. The man desperately needs “salvation” from his terrible death; a rescue from the present plight upon the cross. But seeing Jesus, the pretended messiah, reduced to the same impotence as himself, all he can do is join in the bitter taunts of the others. Instead, the man on Jesus’ right turns everything around. His words record a total process of conversion. He rebukes his mocking fellow for lacking a salutary fear of God. He owns his wrongdoing and admits the justness of the penalty they have incurred. He recognizes the total innocence of Jesus. Having distanced Jesus from himself and his fellow criminal in this respect, he then truly and genuinely turns to him for salvation. He exhibits his close relationship by addressing Jesus simply by his personal name. The plea acknowledges that Jesus is King but recognizes as well that his kingdom is not simply identifiable with the Messianic kingdom of conventional expectation; it is one to which Jesus is going even as he dies upon the cross. The criminal does not seek a high place in this kingdom; he simply asks that Jesus keep him in mind when allocating places in it.
Having recognized the nature of Christ’s kingdom, the criminal receives from Jesus the assurance of “salvation” not in the distance future, not even tomorrow but “today” itself. The Lord’s peaceful response was in some respects a mockery of those mocking him. Jesus assures him that he will have a foretaste of “salvation” in his own company in Paradise “today”. This is the great Lukan “today” (4,21; 19,9), that transfers salvation from the remote future to the present on the basis of one’s renewed relationship with God. The essence of salvation is not to be saved from physical death but to be “with Jesus”, to accompany him on the “exodus” to the Father now underway. The proof of Jesus’ kingship is to be found in saving others, not himself. The man’s conversion of heart and faith in Jesus has readied him for this salvific journey.
