mccrory meditates

A few days ago, we received an email from a friend of ours who is unable to post comments from his locale (teaching English in China). We were engaged by his thoughts in response to the 2/29 blog and asked if we could post them as part of the blog rather than as a comment. Our thanks to Don for allowing us to do that and for being the voice of hobab's journey this week. We've posted his blog in quotes below. Dan & Bill

"I've been meditating about the choices made by the two criminals who were crucified with JC (Luke 23). It seems to me that the basic issues separating their requests of JC parallel the issues you summarize in your last paragraph. They both had a figurative "gun to their heads." There was no way they were going to get out of their desperate situations alive, and they knew it. And so like hostages in the mall or in the classroom, they had to make critical choices. Criminal #1 wanted JC to perform a miracle that would land him back into his life of crime. All he wanted was the cultural benefit (safety, comfort, security, a way out of his tight situation) of having a conversation with J. (Note that J does not even expend the energy to respond to him.) Criminal #2, however, had a sense that life with God was the better choice. All he asked was that J. "remember" him in the new kingdom. That was the request of faith that prompted J's response. I've noted, too, that nearly every word of J's response is hopeful...I, truth, today, you, will be, with me, paradise. Criminal #1 wanted release; criminal #2 wanted relationship." Don Mc Crory