NOTES for Luk 23:35-43

There is such a concept as "the moment of truth." It is an instant when a veil falls from our eyes, as it were, and we suddenly see something as it really is. It is not always a pleasant instant, but blessed is the one who has lived through it; he will always seek this authenticity afterward, not agreeing to any deception.

The "wise" thief, as he is traditionally called, experiences a moment of truth just before his death on the cross. Undergoing terrible torments of pain and suffocation, he looks at Jesus, suffering in exactly the same way, naked, lacerated, bloodied, dying, and he sees in Him... a King and Lord! And not an ex-King who has lost His Kingdom and is perishing, but the coming King entering the fullness of power. This is an astounding insight, the gaining of faith that opens the Truth. Therefore Jesus answers him that already today he is entering paradise, into that fullness of life which God has prepared for all who believe in Him and in the Son sent by Him.

In essence, the principal difference between Christianity and Christians is that we all become disciples of Jesus of Nazareth when with the heart we grasp the glory of His Kingdom in His Cross.

There is such a concept as "the moment of truth ". It is such an instant, when the veil falls from our eyes, and we suddenly see anything how it is in reality. It isn't always a pleasant instant, but blessed is the one who experienced it, for he will then always look at this genuineness, and will never accept any deceit.

The "sensible" robber (as they used to call him in the Legend) goes through the moment of truth before the death on the cross. Feeling terrible torments of pain and suffocation, he looks at Jesus who also suffers, naked, tortured, covered with blood, dying, - and sees in Him a King and Lord! Moreover not as an ex-king, who is losing His Kingdom and perishing, but as a King to come, entering in the plenitude of power. It is an astounding recovering of sight, appropriation of faith, opening the Truth. That is why Jesus answers him that already this very day he enters paradise, in that abundant life that God reserved for every believer in Him and in the Son sent by Him. In fact, the main difference between Christianity and Christians is that we become all disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, when by heart we comprehend the glory of His Kingdom through His Cross.

Unlike the other evangelists, Luke, in his description of the crucifixion and death of Jesus, places the main emphasis not on His suffering, but on God's mercy and forgiveness. Luke does not describe Jesus' agony and death pangs, His thirst, His despair, or His being abandoned by God. His last words are a traditional Jewish prayer before sleep. His final actions are a prayer for the forgiveness of His executioners and a promise of paradise to the robber who showed even a drop of humanity. In His answer to the weeping women, He shifts the emphasis from pity for Him to compassion for the people who await grief and trials.

The Crucifixion is one of the central themes of the Gospel, of Christian teaching, and of prayer. And in this image of the suffering Son of God we must learn to see the image of His boundless mercy, forgiveness, and trust. Then our contemplation of the Cross will become for us as well a source of strength to love and forgive.

Death for a human being is an unnatural event. And for every human being in any condition - even after the fall, and even for the last sinner. Because humanity was originally conceived as something deeply unique. Unique not as a species, since every living creature as a species is completely unrepeatable, but as a person. That is why death turns out to be something utterly unnatural for a human being. With animals, even the most highly organized, everything is different. An animal is not a person; it is only an expression and embodiment of its genus, species, subspecies - of what in the biblical Poem of creation is named by a Hebrew word that could be translated as "type" or "variety." The death of an individual animal changes nothing fundamental in the existence of the genus, species, or subspecies to which it belongs; the main thing is the preservation of the species as a whole.

It is not so with the human being. Here every concrete person matters. And that person's importance increases as the fullness of humanity grows. From the biblical point of view, humanity is above all likeness to God. If one could imagine a person who had completely lost the image of God - not figuratively, as people sometimes say of something similar with regard to those who have fallen very low, but literally - such a person would mean no more in God's eyes than any animal. But such a thing, thankfully, does not happen: when applied to a human being, the loss of the image of God is always only a figure of speech and never a statement of actual fact. In that case death inevitably becomes the destruction of the personal uniqueness and unrepeatability that a human being possesses as the image of God. It is no accident that in all times and among all peoples death has been viewed as an evil and an anomaly, as something that cannot define the human path completely. From this come all teachings about the afterlife, about the immortality of the soul, about death's inability and lack of right to gain full power over a person.

In Yahwism, and therefore in Judaism, there is no teaching about the afterlife, but there is the idea of universal resurrection. Yahwism and Judaism await the complete victory of the God of life over death. And yet the One who brought into the world the fullness of the life of the Kingdom passes through death. Not some imaginary or illusory death, but a fully real one. As full and absolute for Him as His life is full and absolute. For the God-man always exists in absolute reality, whether the reality of life or the reality of death. The absence of life is experienced by Him in the same fullness as its presence. And if the fullness of His life is the Kingdom, then the fullness of His death is Sheol, what in Greek is called Hades, hell, that complete absence of life, its underside, its inversion, which in fact stands opposed to the Kingdom. Into such a hell the Savior descends as He dies.

But with God only life in all its fullness is absolute. Death for Him cannot be not only absolute; it cannot even be a reality for Him. It is real only for the world separated from God, the world in which the Messiah's earthly ministry took place. And therefore Resurrection inevitably follows death - as the triumph of the fullness of God's life over that which by definition cannot triumph. Jesus knows of this triumph, but His knowledge does not make temporary death in a world separated from God any less real for Him. The disciples do not know of it - and despair seizes them. Meanwhile, the day of Resurrection is drawing near.