Meet The Thief On The Cross

Meet the thief on the cross.

He was a thief and a murderer. We don’t know who he killed or why. But the Romans thought he deserved killing so they sentenced him to be crucified.

His life, as well as his death were both meaningless to those who knew him and crucified him.

Yet, for a few brief moments, this no-count, common criminal would take center stage in God’s redemptive plan for mankind. A few words from him, as he was taking his last breaths, would give mankind eternal hope that it’s never too late to come to Christ.

Meet another thief on the cross. Her name is Karla Faye Tucker.

She was the product of a broken home in Texas. Karla Faye turned to sex and drugs at age 12. When she was 14 she followed her mom, a rock groupie, into prostitution. After  a wild weekend of sex and  drugs she and three other friends burglarized the home of a friend. During the course of the burglary Karla Faye butchered a woman in the apartment with a pickaxe. After a lengthy trial a Texas jury convicted her of first degree murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. In February, 1998, after 14 years in prison Karla Faye became the first woman executed in Texas in 135 years.

While in prison Karla Faye met Jesus Christ and became an authentic follower. Her story of her conversion gained national and international attention. She taught Bible studies on Death Row and impacted both men and women for Christ during her years in prison.  Karla Faye was a powerful witness for Jesus Christ and a positive influence on the women she left behind on Death Row. In fact, she was so influential that the women on Death Row changed the name from Death Row to Life Row.

Just like the thief on the cross, at the end of her life Karla Faye Tucker was at peace. She knew she would wake up in the arms of Jesus. She knew where she was going. She knew that despite the choices she made, she was a child of the King.  She would enter the Kingdom of God adorned in a flowing white gown. She was forgiven of all her sins.

Karla Faye committed an unspeakable act of violence. The thief on the cross committed murder.  Juries of their peers condemned both to death. Both thieves, after their last breath on earth, would meet their Savior face to face. Never to leave His presence.

Want to meet another thief on the cross?

Do you think you’re a better person than the thief on the cross? Than Karla Faye?  After all, you didn’t butcher anybody, did you? You’ve never killed anybody. right? Heck Karla Faye was a prostitute and a druggie. She deserved to die for what she did, didn’t she?

Guess what. So do you.  You and me deserve the same fate as Karla Faye. We’re just as bad as the thief on the cross. God’s word tells us,

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”  James 2:10

In other words, if you break even one itsy bitsy tiny law, you’ve broken the whole law. If you lied, if you copied your friend’s answers on a test, if you cursed at a bad driver on the Interstate . . .you’re toast. Romans 6:23 affirms for us that,

“The wages of sin is death.”

But for believers, death is nothing to fear. Hanging next to the thief on the cross was the Savior of the World. He took that thief’s sins and bore them all. He took all of Karla Faye’s sins and gave his blood so she could have eternal life.

He did the same for you and me.

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