The “Bad Thief On The Cross”

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modestobruce

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I was always taught that the good thief was promised paradise but the bad thief was condemned to eternity. I don’t understand why he would have been judged in that way. He simply asked Jesus why He didn’t save Himself if He truly was who He said He was. It seems like a normal question to me.
 
He was also a bandit/insurgent (depending on whom you ask), which was why he was being crucified in the first place.
 
The good thief acknowledged that he was a sinner and that Jesus had done nothing wrong. The bad thief seemed to question Jesus. My feeling is that Jesus told the one that believed in him that he would be saved. The bad thief had to suffer the consequences of his sins, the same as all of us do.
 
He wasn’t asking a normal question. He was mocking Jesus and saying save yourself and us! meaning take me down from this cross. So he was not repentant of his sins but only focused on his earthly life. He wanted to be ‘saved’ on his own terms not God’s.
 
modestobruce said:
I don’t understand why he would have been judged in that way. He simply asked Jesus why He didn’t save Himself if He truly was who He said He was. It seems like a normal question to me.
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We are saved through faith, and faith is the impetus for forgiveness and mercy. His question was one showing his lack of faith. Dismas, on the other hand, accepted the power and glory of Christ as the Son of God and Savior, opening the door for mercy and forgiveness.

We are no different than the two hung on the crosses next to Christ…we are, like those two, sinners. But through our faith that God offers us forgiveness, we can obtain the promise of salvation.

The two are also a lot like Judas and Peter. Both were guilty of the same sin. Judas denied the ability and power of Christ to forgive, and Peter arrogantly denied the need for Christ to save him, thinking he could do it all himself.

And in the end, because of faith and lack of faith, the two were judged differently. But we must not confuse judgment with condemnation. Christ, as he told us in the Gospel, does not condemn, he only judges…those condemned, condemn themselves through their lack of faith.
 
I was taught that in grade school and it always bothered me. I asked a priest about it recently and he responded that it was his lack of faith that caused his damnation. I was always bothered by this because it seems perfectly resonable to ask Jesus why He didn’t save Himself. Just thinking about being nailed to a cross and flogged in a desperate state, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have said something similar. I just don’t hear disrespect or anything bad in the thief’s comment.
 
We can’t even say with certainty that Judas is in hell, so I don’t think we can say that the unrepentant thief is in hell, either. We can only judge his actions and pray for his soul.
 
Thom18 said:
We can’t even say with certainty that Judas is in hell, so I don’t think we can say that the unrepentant thief is in hell, either. We can only judge his actions and pray for his soul.
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Correct, there is no canonization process that can confirm that someone is in Hell. We count miracles as evidence of salvation, but there is no way to confirm damnation.
 
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When I was in seminary then I had a Mass said for this so-called “bad thief”. My formation priest did this without question.

Dear God, have mercy on that pained and confused man hanging on the cross near our Lord at their crucifixions.
Amen.
 
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