"You Will Be With Me In Paradise"

"Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise" - LUKE 23:43.

JESUS and the two criminals beside him were suffering as they felt their life draining away. (Luke 23:32, 33) Both of the criminals had been speaking abusively of Jesus, so they clearly were not his disciples.  (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32) But one of them had a change of heart.  He said: Jesus, remember me when  you get into your Kingdom.  Jesus replied: "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise." (Read Luke 23:39-43.) Nothing suggests that this criminal had accepted the message about "the Kingdom of the heavens," which Jesus preached during his ministry.  And Jesus never did say that the man would get into the Kingdom.  (Matthew 4:17)  Jesus was speaking about  the future earthly Paradise.  Why can we say that?

The repentant criminal was likely a Jew.  That criminal said to the other: "Do you not fear God  at all, now that you have received the same judgment?" ( Luke 23:40)   The Jews worshipped one God, but people from the nations believed in many gods. (Exodus 20:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 8:5, 6) Had those criminals been men of the nations, the question adked might have been, "Do you not fear the gods at all?"  Futhermore, Jesus was sent, not to people of the nations, but to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24) God had revealed to the Israelites that he would raise the dead.  The reepentant criminal may known about this, and as is words suggest, he assumed that JEhovah would resurrect Jesus to rule in God's Kingdom.  The man apparently hoped that God would also resurrect him.

Next time: "You Will Be With Me in Paradise" -Continue

From the jw.org publications