“Today thou shalt be with me in paradise”
The second word of the crucified Christ is to the penitent thief. It is a rather startling word. Paradise in the midst of the agony of the cross? The idea of the beauty and harmony of creation in the face of the ugly horror of sin and death? But is this not exactly what we have noted about the Passion and the Resurrection, namely, the opening out of eternal life as that which is prior and primary? And is it too much to see in this word something of the radical meaning of Christ the Good Shepherd who gathers us into his loving embrace even on the Cross? And is it possible to see in this second word from St. Luke its connection to the last word also from Luke’s Gospel, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit?” For the Eastertide refrain, as we shall see, is “because I go to the Father.” Everything is gathered into the love of God which is exactly what we see in the image of Christ the Good Shepherd.
We forget that the image of Christ the Good Shepherd is really a Resurrection image and one which conveys something of the ideas that belong to the Christian imaginary about paradise both biblically in terms of creation in Genesis and in antiquity in terms of Arcadia. They recall us to the ideas of a kind of peace and harmony between our humanity and nature and between our humanity and God. We forget the radical nature of this rather familiar and comfortable image of care though it is right before us. Jesus, who says he is “the good shepherd,” tells us that “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” In other words, the Good Shepherd is the Lamb of God.
As the Epistle reading from 1st Peter reminds us, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” and goes on to emphasize the sinless purity of Christ and his sacrifice for us. For “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” “For ye were,” he says “as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.” Wonderful images that signify to us the deep love of God for us in the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. This passage, too, is the part of the second lesson read at Mattins on Holy Saturday. Thus Christ, as the Collect teaches, is “both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life.” All under the embrace of the Good Shepherd.
The connection between the Passion and the Resurrection in terms of the image of Christ the Good Shepherd can also be seen if we consider what immediately precedes the gospel reading and what immediately follows it; in short, what frames the reading. First, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn.10. 10). That abundant life is eternal life found in our being embraced in the arms of the Good Shepherd. Secondly, what follows the reading: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father” (Jn 10. 17,18). Note too that the image of the Good Shepherd is seen in the context of bad shepherds, either thieves or hirelings, those who seek their own interest and not the good of others.
Christ’s second word on the Cross is to the penitent thief. He simply asks to be remembered by Christ in his kingdom. His prayer seeks forgiveness and acknowledges something of the greater good in Christ crucified. He sees in the suffering Christ something of the beauty and goodness of divine love. But is this not what all prayer means and seeks? Simply our wanting to be remembered and embraced in God’s eternal loving and knowing. And is this not at the heart of the Church’s being and mission? To act out of the love of the Good Shepherd whose care is the cure because he gives his life for the sheep. To know that we are known and loved in God is strengthening grace that shapes our lives in grace and in loving care towards one another.
All this is, I think, wonderfully illustrated in the mosaic in the apse of the 6th century church of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe, near Ravenna on Italy’s Adriatic coast. It is an image I have used before. There, in a paradisal garden (the garden of the resurrection perhaps?), St. Apollinaris stands in the center under the Cross, his hands extended in prayer. He stands in the midst of the sheep, indeed, twelve sheep, symbolic of the apostolic church. Above the vault of the dome those same twelve sheep, as it were, are ranged towards the figure of Christ whose hand is raised in episcopal blessing, alongside of whom are the symbols of the four evangelists.
The mosaic portrays the mission of the Church in the proclamation of the gospel and the cure of souls. St. Apollinaris is sent forth as a shepherd to the sheep under the sign of the Cross. He is sent forth even as the twelve apostles who are the sheep, too, of the shepherd are sent forth to be the shepherds of the sheep in the name and with the blessing of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd is he who lays down his life for the sheep, for he, too, is the Lamb of God. To put it all rather simply: the shepherds are also the sheep of the Good Shepherd who is equally the Lamb of God; a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly life, our cure and the one who cares for us.
Thus this second word from the Cross carries over into the radical meaning of the image of Christ the Good Shepherd in the logic of the Resurrection. All of the images in art and scripture about the Resurrection show us the Passion. Behold his hands and side but remember as well what he says on the Cross.
“Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise”
Fr. David Curry
Easter 2, 2023