Calvary

At Golgotha

A last minute check-in. Like the Proverbial cat with nine lives, he and his sidekick had always caught the last bus out of town. Perennially on the fast lane… to nowhere. Always thirteen minutes away from the far reaching arm of the law.

This time round, the ground under them turned flat for miles on end. Or so it seemed. With their high-spirited behavior now in glaring full view, it didn’t take another day for them to end up here – suspended in mid air, on a dirt hill outside town.

Until now ironically, theirs was a story without hope. All that changed when, for lack of what to do, they joined the crowd to beat up on a man equally condemned. The man in the middle.

Somewhere down that trajectory, something gives. With his strength waning and with a heart full of conviction, Johnny makes his plea. He was about to learn that life is better lived on a train than a unicycle. And today’s train was headed to glory land.

“Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.”

Remember me. Not my life-long misdeeds. Not my Shenanigans. Not even that I mocked and insulted you as I hang here next to you. Remember me. Remember me.*

Meanwhile, this scoffer to the left, he has underestimated the power of God to save Him. Someone should have told him; love is the exception to every rule. And that the doors were still wide open even for a venom spewing fellow like him.

Regardless of how far gone we are, Jesus still repeats the promise and makes the invitation. Not another run-of-the mill, cheap downtown restaurant-type invitation. No. Even in the throes of death, He has it all figured out to the last scintilla of detail. His invitation is grand. His invitation is to paradise. Nothing less.

Beat that.

*Matthew 27:44, Luke 23:39-43