Who were the other two men on the crosses?

Silhouettes of Three Crosses

Who were the other men on the crosses with Jesus?

They were us. You and me.

They were everyone who has ever heard the name of Jesus.

It’s a simple story.
Quite short. Twelve verses. In Luke’s Gospel.
And Yet – it tells the story of every one of us.

Introduction

I’ve heard different things about what these two men did. Some say they were common thieves. Others that they were guilty of murder.
But if we read the verses, all it says is they were criminals.

Looking up the Greek word translated as criminal, we find

κακοῦργος [kakourgos /kak·oor·gos/] adj. From 2556 and the base of 2041; TDNT 3:484; TDNTA 391; GK 2806; Four occurrences; AV translates as “malefactor” three times, and “evil doer” once. 1 a malefactor.  ¹⁾((Strong, J. (2001). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.))

Looking up malefactor, we find – Malefactor | Define Malefactor at Dictionary.com

1. a person who violates the law; criminal.
2. a person who does harm or evil, especially toward another.

So it could be either a murderer or a thief.

One other useful piece of information has to do with why people were crucified – as opposed to some other form of punishment by death.
It had to do with their low social status.

Finally – notice there was one man on Jesus’ right, and the other in His left.

With these things in mind – let’s look deeper into how these two men can represent all of us.

One on the right – the other on the left

One on the right. The other on the left.

The sheep on his right. The goats on his left.

The ones on the right are given the inheritance of the kingdom prepared for them. The ones on the left are told to depart.

Low social status

We all fall short of the glory of God.

Compared to Him – we are all of an incredibly low “social” status. Whether we are a thief, a murderer, or something else – we compared to Jesus, we are no different from each other.

The words of the men

^{Mt 12:33} “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. ³⁴ You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. ³⁵ The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. ³⁶ But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Some will be acquitted by their words. Others will be condemned.

Amazing as it may seem, these two men really do stand for each of us.

Let me tie this together, in case you haven’t quite seen it.

I think the right & the left – as well as the low social status should be obvious enough.

The words though – they also cover all of us.

“Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

This is the person who knows who Jesus is – and has rejected Him. Pretty straightforward.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”

This is the one that’s maybe not so obvious.

I never really thought much about this until yesterday. I’m recovering from pneumonia right now, so I have lot’s of time to think, pray and be alone with God. Yesterday, the question of these two men came to mind. That they represent us. All of us. At least, all of us who have heard of Jesus. Whether we believe Him – or even believe In Him.

The man who said “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” is told “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

But I think there are some “mysteries” behind Jesus response.

First – we don’t know what this person did. But in order to get the response that he did from Jesus – there had to me at least a mustard seed size faith within the man. Remember – we looked at how words could lead to either acquittal or salvation. But also consider –

^{Mk 16:15} He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

There is also belief – faith. The words by themselves don’t necessarily mean anything. It’s what is in the heart that matters. Jesus knew what was in this man’s heart when he asked to be remembered. Implicit in this remembrance was forgiveness.

Someone saying these same words, while believing in their hearts that Jesus wouldn’t save them – maybe because what they did was too bad to be forgiven – would have the words, but not the faith. Would they have received the same answer? I doubt it.

And maybe that’s why the Bible doesn’t say what these men did. It certainly would have been easy enough to put it in.

The problem then would be that a line of sorts would have been drawn in the sand. Anything worse than what the forgiven man did, might have been considered unforgivable. For instance – if he was identified as a thief, some would say that a murderer would not have received the same response from Jesus. Had he been identified as a murderer – some would say that a mass murderer would not have received the same response. And on and on. No matter what was identified – someone would come up with something worse – and say that Jesus would not have forgiven that person.

But that doesn’t seem likely. Jesus would have forgiven the person, as long as the tiniest little bit of faith was there, no matter what they did. Notice again the first few verses –

^{Lk 23:32} Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Jesus forgave even the people who were killing Him. In the middle of the verses about the two men being crucified with Him. These verses didn’t have to be here. He could have forgiven the people killing Him – and then the verses about the other two men could have been included. But it wasn’t written that way.

As Christians – we say we believe that Scripture id breathed by the Holy Spirit. If we truly believe that, then we also believe The Holy Spirit wanted the verses about forgiving His killers included within the verses about the other two men. Indicating that it didn’t matter what the other two men did. If Jesus would forgive His own killers – He would forgive anything. With apologies to those who believe in the 7 deadly / unforgivable sins – I believe these verses say otherwise.

^{Mt 12:30} “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. ³¹ And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ³² Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Conclusion

So there we have it.

There are really only two choices.

Right or left.

Sheep or goats.

Faith or not.

And these two men really do represent everyone.

One is obvious. The one who mocks Jesus.

The other – not so obvious. As it really is in life. The words are there for many people. But is the faith? We cannot know. But Jesus can – and does.

Consider these verses about faith –

The first from The Healing of the Boy With an Evil Spirit –

And even the apostles in Sin, Faith, Duty

^{Lk 17:5} The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
^{Lk 17:6} He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”