Last and First

In Luke 24 we have: 
     the last incident of Jesus earthly ministry,
          the last meeting of human need -
 A man who typified all mankind's response to God -
     a thief!
Here is a man fastened to a cross,
     next to another thief, and next to the Savior,
          a man whose freedom is at an end,
               whose days are at an end.

Here is a man awaiting the falling of the final curtain on his life.
     His only possession now is a cross,
          his only tomorrow is the time it takes for life to abandon his body.

The here and now was all he possessed,
and yet, somehow in the midst of his anguish,
he caught a Glimpse of a dimension he had never known.

His eyes were opened, 
     and he saw himself.
          He saw his Lord,
               and he saw a Kingdom.

Somehow this condemned man, rejected by society for his sin,
     and disqualified from a place among the living,
            Saw ...

He saw what the studiously religious Jews around the cross could not see,
     He saw what the disciples who had traveled with Jesus for three years could not see.
          What he saw at that moment,
          not another single person on earth could see.

He alone on that day saw with open eyes a Realm beyond the Visible.
     He alone Understood.

He comes with the simplest of words -
     a confession and a recognition, "Lord."
Other lords had exercised dominion over his life but now he sees only one Lord.
     and to this Lord he surrenders what is left to him - his own free will.
He sees the Lord of a Kingdom,
and he turns from the earthly to that Kingdom.
There is a recognition, and there is a faith.
He no longer seeks anything on earth below;
nothing except that wondrous Kingdom which somehow is made real to him.

The fig tree failed to recognize Jesus - and died.
This man recognized Him and entered into Life beyond all the power of death.

This man was the forerunner of all through the ages have said ... 
                     
                           "Lord ..... remember me."