I’m a fan of late night dessert, I Love Lucy rerun episodes that I can quote to you while we watch, Hobby Lobby trips in which I walk in wanting everything but walk out buying nothing because I can’t decide on anything, matcha ice blended drinks from Coffee Bean. Sometimes it’s just the little things that make my heart beat a happy tune. But of course, there are the more important things and people in life that you’re devoted to and true fans of. However significant or inconsequential, fandom is spurred by a convincingly positive experience.
I was reading Luke 23 one morning and was interrupted by what seemed to me like an unlikely fan of Jesus. (Stay with me on this one.) We take it up in Luke 23:32-43 after Jesus has been condemned and is now being hung on a cross. Crucifixion lasting several hours meant he encountered a number of individuals during this particularly disabling time.
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” …
One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
If you can imagine holding a magnifying glass, we are now going to zoom in on the nameless, but faithful criminal. An unlikely fan, the criminal’s encounter with Jesus was not exceptionally impressive. Within those last few hours, he saw men raffling off Jesus’ clothes, stripping him of his dignity (v.34); rulers sneering at him and unsuccessfully challenging him to save himself if he was really the Messiah (v.35); soldiers and a hopeless criminal mocking him and taunting him to prove himself (v.36-39). Jesus resisted the temptation to show them anything other than quiet humility and surrender. Any average person would have seen a powerless, defenseless, helpless man. Pity perhaps would have been the most natural response. But this unlikely fan saw a King who could save him. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” he said to him. What incredible faith. He may have been the first and only person at that moment who believed and understood the truth about Jesus and his spiritual kingdom.
In the darkest moment of Jesus’ life when he appeared to have nothing to show for himself, this man still put his faith in him. I want that type of faith – the kind that believes even when others don’t; the kind that stays strong when all hope seems lost; the kind that has confidence in that which is not seen. An unlikely fan, this criminal was welcomed by Jesus into paradise because of his faith.
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
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