There is a wonderful sentence in Augustine. I wish I could remember the Latin. It is even finer in Latin than in English. “Do not despair; one of the thieves was saved. Do not presume; one of the thieves was damned.” This sentence has a wonderful shape. It is the shape that matters.
—Samuel Beckett, quoted in David Cunningham, “Do not presume,” Christian Century, March 23, 2010, 30-31.
So spoke the playwright when asked about his two characters in Waiting for Godot. Beckett seemed to suggest they were modeled on the thieves crucified beside Jesus.
One of the thieves mocks Jesus. The second asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Jesus tells the second one, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
It’s not clear what happened to the first thief. Tradition has assigned him, in art and story alike, the role of villain. He gets, we presume, what comes to those who mock God. Oddly, though, in the gospel Jesus doesn’t engage this mocking thief in dialogue at all. There’s no mention of his fate. We are the ones who create balance, shaping our theology to match our sense of fair play—good vs. evil, heroes vs. villains—where perhaps none exists. When it comes to grace, scripture avoids balance the way nature abhors a vacuum. Grace isn't fair!
I’d rather re-punctuate the second part of Beckett’s supposedly-Augustinian sentence, removing the semicolon: “Do not presume one of the thieves was damned.” It suggests something far more challenging than the tidy dualism of good versus evil. Perhaps we go too far filling in the other thief’s blanks. If we have confidence in the overflowing grace and mercy of a loving God, isn’t it possible that Beckett’s balance gives sin more credit that it is due? Isn’t it just as likely that Jesus welcomed both thieves into God’s presence?
There were not only two crosses on that hill. There were three. I believe the One who died in the middle reconciled the whole world to God—thieves and sinners all—in a moment of mystery and grace.
Along the Way, I wish you God’s peace on today’s stage of your Lenten spiritual journey. May Christ’s companionship bless you with confidence for the day, comfort you in trouble, and put a spring of joy in your step.
I've been wondering for some time now exactly what Jesus meant when he said "Today you will be with me in paradise." The conversation was about guilt; the thief recognized that Jesus was unjustly punished. If the saving power of the cross is in flushing out the demonic and exposing it, is it not then also in revealing the paradise the demonic has perverted?
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to wonder if Jesus didn't mean: "Now that you see as I see, you are with me in paradise."
But then, I'm told I think too much.
I like where you're going with this. Where there is justice--as well as the recognition of injustice, there is God's realm coming into being.
ReplyDeleteIt still leaves me wondering about the other thief. Does he have to realize the injustice of it all--or even acquiesce to the Roman justice that condemned him--in order to know salvation, whatever salvation might in this case mean>