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Luke 23.32-43: Jesus is taunted on the cross
We use a pair of boots to stand side by side with Jesus while he is mocked, but still offers mercy.
And so to the place – Golgotha: the place of the skull, the place of death, and the place of mockery.
The leaders mocked as they watched Jesus being nailed to the cross, ‘He saved others, but he doesn’t seem to be able to save himself,’ they sneered.
The soldiers mocked as they gambled for his clothes, and offered him sour wine as he gasped for air: ‘Come on, if you can, save yourself!’.
A criminal mocked as he hung on a cross next to him, ‘Come on! If you’re the Messiah, save yourself, and save us at the same time!’.
But not everyone mocked. The other criminal next to him could see the truth, ‘Stop! Don’t you fear God? We’ve been condemned rightly; a fair punishment for our crimes, but this man – he’s innocent’.
Then he turned and looked into the eyes of love and gasped, ‘Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom’. No more mockery, no more lies, just the truth spoken in love. Jesus turned and said to him ‘Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’.