Luke 23:39 Commentary and Bible Study

We are not told the names of these thieves and nor does the Bible give any details about their lives prior to their crucifixion, but we learn that, as they hung there on that day, they were divided from each other for ever. Not only did they both leave this world, but one died in unbelief and perished in hell; the other, though no less guilty of his crimes, recognised his Saviour beside him and, trusting in him, received the forgiveness of all his sin and went that day to be with him in paradise.Although these two men were to experience such vastly different eternal destinies, it would have been hard to tell them apart if you had been there a little earlier in the day. At this earlier point, both thieves were echoing the insults of the chief priests and scribes. And yet the thieves were certain to die the same death as Christ. It is strange how a common hatred for God will make friends of the most unlikely parties. These two thieves who had probably never darkened the door of the temple found themselves having more in common with the religious bigots of the day than they did with the one who was crucified between them. Before we are converted to God, we too would rather be identified with any group or society except Bible believing Christians.This is one of the most amazing things that we find recorded in the Gospels. When the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross, achieving salvation for us, bearing the punishment and the penalty of our sins, even while he was there doing it, so great was his heart of love that he was ready alongside that work to give a demonstration, if you like, almost a public demonstration of how he can change lives and how he can save. He is going to deal with a poor lost soul and save him in full view of this hostile crowd. If these two thieves hanging beside him did not themselves personally murder, certainly they would have been part of those murderous gangs that practiced on the roads leading to the capital city, those groups of bandits. Here were some who had been rounded up. They would, of course, have been outcasts, people from outside the city. In any case, they would never have been worshippers, they would never have been people with any pretence of religion. Possibly, they were ex-slaves, but surely people with a very unhappy and wretched background in life, so that they ended up killing, stealing, interfering with the lone travellers. Now both of them were being executed publicly. They didn't execute people that easily in this particular manner; this particular kind of public execution was reserved for the very worst. It was an exhibition as well as an execution, and it was a deterrent, put on to try to convince the inhabitants of the city that the forces of law and order were in control. Now the significant thing about this is that one of these thieves underwent a most amazing change of attitude. At the beginning of this execution, both the thieves were hostile to Christ. We read that particularly in Matthew 27:44. Both of them had previously reviled him, and they had done so with great bitterness, almost as if he was responsible for this dreadful conclusion to their lives. They were venting their hate upon him, berating him, shouting at him. The pain in their own body was somehow being worked out in hostility towards the one who separated them, the one who was hanging, crucified in the middle of them, nailed to that cross. We read here that one of the malefactors railed on Christ, that is, hurled, poured abuse upon him, picking up the same scornful expressions that the chief priests and the leaders were using. He shouts, ‘If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.’ Of course, he is not serious; it is not a sincere appeal for help. It is mockery: just his way of heaping abuse and vitriol. But as time goes on, one of them undergoes this profound change.