Lk. 23:43. And Jesus said to him: Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.
As man He is on the cross, but as God He is everywhere — both there and in paradise He fills all things, and there is no place where He is not. Some may ask: when the Lord says to the thief, "Today you will be with Me in paradise," how then did Paul say that none of the saints received the "promise" (Heb. 11:39)? Some answer: the apostle did not say of all the saints that they did not receive the promise, but only of those whom he enumerated. And he enumerated many others, but did not mention the thief. For listen to what he says: "all these"; clearly, he was referring his words to those whom he had enumerated, and among them this thief is not found.
Others said that the robber had not yet inherited life in paradise either; but since the Lord's promise is immutable and by no means false, therefore it is said: "today you shall be with Me in paradise." For there are, they say, such turns of phrase in the Lord's speech in which He speaks of the future as though it had already happened. For example, when He says: "he who does not believe is already condemned" (John 3:18), and again: "he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life" (John 5:24). Others distort this saying, namely: after "today" they place a punctuation mark so that the speech reads thus: truly I say to you today, and then continue: you shall be with Me in paradise. Still others, and, it seems, quite successfully, explain it thus: the blessings promised to us are not life in paradise or a return to it, but the Kingdom of Heaven, which is why we pray: "Thy Kingdom come," and not for the life of paradise. And let no one tell me that paradise and the Kingdom are one and the same. For the blessings of the Kingdom no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). But paradise was seen by Adam's eye, and the ear heard of it, for it is said: "of every tree of the garden you may freely eat" (Gen. 2:16). Although one tree was forbidden to Adam, nevertheless he both saw it and heard of it. Paradise also entered into the heart of man. For Adam rejoiced in his soul, since he did not abandon such activity and agricultural joy. Therefore, they say, Paul does not contradict this in the least. The robber received "paradise," but did not receive the "Kingdom"; he will receive it when all those whom he enumerated also receive it. At any rate, at the present time he is in paradise, which is a place of spiritual repose. Many have said this, and many times. One may say that nothing prevents the words of both the Lord and Paul from being true even if the Kingdom of Heaven and paradise are one and the same. For the robber, though in paradise or in the Kingdom — and not only he, but all those enumerated by Paul — nevertheless does not enjoy the full possession of blessings. Just as condemned persons are not in royal dwellings but are confined in prisons and guarded for their appointed punishments, while honored persons enter the royal chambers and abide in them, and then, when the time of distribution comes, are deemed worthy of royal gifts, so also the saints, though they do not yet taste full blessedness, nevertheless dwell in bright abodes, full of fragrance and, generally speaking, royal, even though they have not yet been deemed worthy of the final distribution of royal gifts. So too the robber, though he is now in paradise, nevertheless does not enjoy perfect blessedness, so that he might "not apart from us be made perfect" (Heb. 11:40). And this explanation, in my opinion, is the most correct of all. I say nothing of the fact that the gifts of the saints, manifested in everyday miracles, may rightly be called paradise, and that all of them, inasmuch as they have been deemed worthy of spiritual gifts and have received in them the pledge of the Spirit, are in paradise, though they have not attained perfection, and have received the Kingdom, as Paul says in the same Epistle to the Hebrews, though they have not received what was promised. By the word "promise" he evidently meant the fullness of enjoyment. Thus, they have not yet received all that was promised, yet they are in the Kingdom and in paradise. I ask you, marvel also at this: just as some king, returning from victory with trophies, carries behind him the very best part of the spoil, so also the Lord, having seized the very best spoil from the devil, leads it with Himself, returning to the original homeland of man, that is, to paradise. He was in paradise not by His Divinity alone, but also by the rational and intelligent human soul He had assumed, and He was in paradise with His spirit and descended into Hades with His soul. Having saved the robber, the Lord bound the instrument of malice, in accordance with His own prediction: having bound the strong man, He will plunder his goods (Matt. 12:29).
Lk. 23:44. It was about the sixth hour of the day, and darkness came over the whole earth until the ninth hour.
Once the Jews desired to see a sign from heaven; so then, here is that sign for them: an extraordinary "darkness."
Lk. 23:45. The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in the middle.
And the "veil" of the temple "is torn." By this the Lord shows that the Holy of Holies will no longer be inaccessible, but will be given over to the Romans, trampled and defiled. Or again, He shows that the veil is torn that separated us from the saints living in the heavens, that is, enmity and sin. For this constituted a great barrier dividing us from those living there. He shows at the same time that He was not crucified out of powerlessness. For He who performed such a sign could have torn them apart and destroyed them.
Lk. 23:46. Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said: Father! Into Thy hands I commit My spirit. And having said this, He gave up the spirit.
Having cried out with a loud voice, Jesus gives up His spirit. For He had the power to lay down His life, and "to take it again" (John 10:18).
Lk. 23:47. The centurion, seeing what had happened, glorified God and said: truly this man was righteous.
This voice and the other miracles served as an occasion for faith for the centurion. For Jesus was dying not as an ordinary man, but as the Master, and He called death a committing into safekeeping, since He was to receive His soul again. This is the first voice by which our souls were deemed worthy of freedom, since the devil no longer holds them, but they are committed to the Father. For before the death of Christ, the devil had great power over souls, but from the time the Son committed His spirit not to Hades, but into the hands of the Father, those held in Hades received freedom. Here is seen the fulfillment of the words once spoken by the Lord: "when I am lifted up... I will draw all men to Myself" (Jn. 12:32). For, lifted up on the cross, He drew the robber, He drew the centurion.
Lk. 23:48. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, returned, smiting their breasts.
Some of the Jews beat their breasts and, reproaching the crucifiers, openly acknowledged Jesus as a righteous man.
Lk. 23:49. All those who knew Him, and the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance and watched these things.
The disciples fled, but the women, this humbled and cursed race, remain and watch all these things, and for this they are the first to enjoy the justification and blessing flowing from here, as well as the resurrection.
And you, marvel at the hardness of heart of the Jews. They say: let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. Yet seeing greater miracles, they do not believe! For was not the darkening of the sun equal to coming down from the cross, the splitting of the rocks, the terrible earthquake, the raising of the dead, the tearing of the veil, and the alteration of all creation? Therefore let no one be perplexed as to why Jesus did not come down from the cross, but let him accept this without curiosity, considering that they would not have believed even then, had He done so, and nothing else would have come of it except that salvation through the cross would have been distorted. For the cross above all else is the glory of Christ. And so He, having performed greater miracles while they did not believe, accomplished two things at once: first, He endured to the end and accepted the cross, that great sign of victory; and second, He revealed that they were utterly insensible, having no good in them whatsoever, but were hardened in unbelief.
Lk. 23:50. Then a certain man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and righteous man,
Lk. 23:51. He had not consented to the counsel and deed of them; he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God,
Lk. 23:52. he went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;
Lk. 23:53. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
Joseph had not revealed himself before, but now he does a praiseworthy deed. Despite being a member of the council and a wealthy man, he boldly asks for the body of a Man who was crucified as a rebel and insurrectionist, and pays no attention to any danger, even though wealth is timid, but requests and honorably buries Him in a tomb hewn in stone, where no one else had been laid before, so that slanderers could not say that the body of another had risen.
Lk. 23:54. Friday it was, and the Sabbath was dawning.
Lk. 23:55. The women also, who had come with Jesus from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid;
Lk. 23:56. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
And the women, although they had faith in the Lord, did not have the kind they ought to have had, but a weak and small one. For, considering Him a mere man, they prepare ointments and spices according to the custom prevailing among the Jews, always observed over the deceased. However, on the Sabbath they remain at rest according to the commandment of the Law.