A Thief Tells His Story in The Most Unlikely of Places
“Tell us your story again Tobiah!” Ha ha…I chuckled quietly at the request. I get asked to tell my story as often as I am asked “Have you seen Jesus today?” or, “Doesn’t the River of Life taste great today?” . To be honest…which frankly, is the only way you can be here, I enjoy telling my tale as much as I like traversing the streets of gold, or chatting with the ancient heroes. It’s a tale I call, The Thief and the King.
The most curious ones are the recent arrivals; those who have read about me for many years and want to hear the tale for themselves. Me, Tobiah…a thief, can you imagine! Of course they don’t know my name from the writings, it is not given, but they learn it soon enough. I join the crowd that has gathered, all basking in His eternal light, marveling at the sights around them, and begin to tell my story again.
A Thief From Samaria
As you might have guessed, I am called Tobiah. A common enough name in Sebaste…which you probably know as Samaria. I’ll spare you the boring details of my childhood…they aren’t important. Here is my story.
“I began taking care of myself at a very young age, and before too long, I began stealing what I needed to survive. I was a pretty good thief. Not good in the moral sense, but good in that I usually did not get caught. I was not proud of my life, but I was not ashamed either…it was just, well, it was life…the only one that I knew.
The Man at Jacob’s Well
My first encounter with Jesus was just a couple of years or so before His, or rather…our crucifixion. At the time, I was sojourning in a small town in Samaria, a town you all may know as the one where Jesus met the Samaritan women at Jacob’s well. I knew her as Mahlah, but as many times as she was married…it’s hard to say if that was her true name. She usually went to draw water by herself.
One day, she came running into town from the well, without her water jug I might add, talking about some man she had met there while drawing water. She was very excited and pretty insistent that we come see, saying “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
Normally, I wouldn’t have bothered, but this woman typically kept to herself. She was called many things, none of them good, and for her to coming running, drawing such attention to herself, was unusual to say the least. The Christ? Is that possible? I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a look for myself.
An Encounter with Jesus
Heading up to the well, I passed some men I didn’t recognize, and kind of assumed they must be with this other man. I made a mental note to check them out later. Usually strangers are an easier target for my skills. Arriving at Jacob’s well with several others, I stopped in my tracks as I recognized who I was seeing. Recognized isn’t the right word…I had not seen him before, but the signs were all there that this must be the man Jesus that so many had spoken of.
I watched, and I listened. He preached forgiveness, and repentance. He spoke words different than the law…whether Samaritan or Jewish, yet the words were not contrary to them either. Jesus’ words were just…truth. Though my heart was intrigued, my brain was telling me that with all of these here at the well, it might be time to take my leave of this town. Of course for me that usually meant, take a lot of things, and then leave…quickly!
The Travels of a Prophet and a Thief
Over the next couple of years I skipped around from town to town, as my “profession” dictated. I would often hear that Jesus had just been there, and sometimes was still there in the town, teaching in the synagogue. As a Samaritan, I was not allowed in the Jewish Temple, so I could only catch glimpses of him on the street.
One time though…just thinking about it makes me smile, I was practicing my craft among a very large crowd of people that had gathered in a remote place to listen to Jesus. We all heard him teach of love, the law, and the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Oh boy did those guys hate that! One day we listened for hours and hours, when suddenly everyone realized it was late, no one had eaten, and we still had to travel back home.
What happened next was what you know as the “Feeding of the 5,000”. I was there! Of course with the women and children it was much more than that…and we ate. All of us. Somehow, some way, every basket that came around was full of delicious bread and fish. I never saw mules or packs or sacks or wagons or anything that might account for this food being here or being transported. Jesus simply raised a basket above his head to bless it, and when it came back down, it was full!
The Thief Follows Jesus
After this, I could never get this man Jesus out of my head. Was he the Christ? Perhaps he just a prophet? Was he more than this? Although I am a thief, I was not stupid. Many of the words he used and the answers he gave to the those scheming Sadducees and Pharisees implied that he was the Son of God, the expected Messiah. Surely this was what made them so angry.
I found myself trying to work in places I suspected Jesus was going, and eventually just started following the crowds that were following Him. I was more interested in what He was doing than what I was doing.
After a while, I knew I needed a change, so I headed back to Samaria for a time. I wanted to pull off a big job, one that could sustain me for a while. Then I would join the crowds following Jesus, instead of just following those crowds. I knew that if I could get in and out of the Temple of Augustus in the Roman area of Samaria, there would be plenty of gold inside that cult worshippers had offered.
One Crime Too Many
The Temple of Augustus in Samaria was sort of a symbolic counterpoint to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. It was also built by Herod, but was completely under Roman control. Stealing from a temple under Roman control carries the death penalty, but I felt confident in my skills.
Unfortunately, or…I suppose fortunately in my case, the constant distraction of pondering this man seeped into my work and I got careless. One night, I was caught red-handed as you say, or rather gold-handed I suppose. I expected a quick trial and death, there was no gray area here. Oddly, I was not sad about receiving death, rather I was disappointed I had not learned more about the man Jesus.
A Scheduled Crucifixion
I did get a brief reprieve when I learned that I would be crucified in Jerusalem during the Passover feast. Those crafty Romans knew there was nothing the Jews would enjoy more than to see a Samaritan hanging on a tree outside of their city. Perhaps it would garner them a small measure of favor with the Jews.
The day arrived and I found myself trudging to Golgotha with two other thieves. One was beaten so badly I could not quite discern is features, but he looked vaguely familiar. He couldn’t even carry his own cross beam. It wasn’t until we were painfully nailed to the cross and lifted up that I realized I was hanging next to the man Jesus himself! If I had any doubts, some of the jeers from the crowd confirmed my fears; this was Jesus.
In my shock, I forgot my own pain. What could he have possibly done wrong? I knew the religious elite didn’t like him, but how in the world did they convince Pilat to crucify him? It was plain that this was the work of some crafty Jews that seemingly wanted Jesus out of the way, as they continued to walk by and mock him.
The Assurance of Salvation
I was pondering these things when the third man who was crucified with us began to join in the mocking, saying “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”. I’m not quite sure what he hoped to accomplish…he would be dead soon as well, and it made me angry. I suppose it was the years of pent up frustration mixed with the certainty that somehow, I knew Jesus was innocent. His teaching flashed before my dying eyes as I quickly relived the last couple of years of my life. I realized that I had been hoping, somehow, someway, that he truly was the Messiah and that my life as a thief would give way to something better.
My anger boiled over and I rebuked the other thief, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And I then I turned and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
What I heard then, Jesus’ reply to me…is why you are all here, why we are all here! The promise of salvation. Jesus looked at me and said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Oh my dear friends…it wasn’t just the words, but the strength and absolute certainty in His eyes. My new friend here, Dr. Luke, have you met him yet?…he records the words very accurately, yes…but he could not see the eyes. Jesus’ eyes bore a love and strength no man or woman could ever resist.
A Thief Enters Heaven
Well my friends, you know the rest of the story. The sky turned black in the middle of the day, and eventually the Roman soldiers came around to break our legs. I can tell you that crucifixion is every bit as painful as you have read about. There was this horrible moment where I could see that Jesus had died before we did. They didn’t even need to break His legs. I felt lost and alone and wondered if it would be true. Would I really be in paradise today, or was it just the words of a dying man trying to comfort a condemned thief?
Like you, there was nothing I could do but to trust the words of Jesus; “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Eventually I closed my eyes in the sleep of death and opened them in Heaven. Jesus was already here, of course, and in his subtle but ever-present humor he asked, “What took you so long?”. His words were true, and by simply believing that he was the Son of God, this former thief is here with you, enjoying His kingdom.