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.’
Luke 23:40-43
On Monday of this week, very sadly my 89-year-old Father passed away, after a massive stroke. I miss him very much already, he was always a strong pillar for me to lean on. He was quite a disciplinarian but ALWAYS fair and annoyingly usually right. But he was always there, and his passing has left a large hole in my life.
Yesterday whilst taking a break from all the final arrangements, 
I took my Dog, who is sat on his lap in the above picture, for a walk in the woods near where I live. As I write it is January, the depth of winter and the weather is cold and wet, as you can see from the photo to the right. The wet, damp and decay of the woodland I was walking through, and the bare trees and the sense of the end of a season matched my mood. It seemed to me that, there was no life left in this woodland, no hope at all.
Then my darling dog did her usual trick of running up behind me with a large stick in her mouth and rammed it into the back of my knees. This, of course, made me sit down rather unexpectedly in the mud. I sat there in the wet mud and looked up, and just for a moment the sun shone through the tree tops. Everything around me was transformed, the hope seem to flood back into the woodland, the hope of new life, the hope of rebirth of the woodland. Hope of the beauty to come, in a few months, when spring arrives, and life will burst forth throughout creation.
This, unsurprisingly, brought me back to “The Cross” and the death of Jesus, on the hill of the Skull nailed to a cross, between two criminals. The first criminal expressing the worldly opinion of doom and gloom, of ultimate despair. Not understanding and thinking God’s plan had failed, having no hope of life, no hope of a future, only ultimate death.
Up to that point, the first criminal was right, there was no hope, mankind was fallen and sin 
had separated us from God (Genesis 3) and the wages of sin is death (the first half of Romans 6:23) NO HOPE. So what is the point of life, there can only be despair if there is no hope. BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (The second half of Romans 6:23). You see the second criminal next to Jesus understood this. There is hope, Jesus was our atoning sacrifice, a one-off payment for ALL sin for ALL time, as a TOTALLY free gift to an undeserving us. Then having paid the price, Jesus, rose again to life eternal and ascended to be at the right hand of God.
Hope for mankind, for a mankind that believes in Jesus will live, even though they die (John 11:25). This is our “Covenant of Life” God’s promise to us, that if we believe in Jesus, even though we die we will have eternal life, with Jesus at the Right-hand of God. (Luke 22:69)