THREE LETTERS

Luke 23:32-43
     Christmas and Easter are probably the most lauded holidays on the calendar. Subsequently, these two celebrations see church pews filled with the most congregants than any other day.  Pageants and cantatas center around these two events more than any other and most people can recite the Biblical accounts without hesitation. It was upon reading Luke’s account of Holy Week that something jumped off the page at me. It was just a three-letter word, but I cannot recall ever reading or even hearing it in all the retellings or productions.
     I am speaking purely from a personal perspective. In all of the sermons, movies, pageants, cantatas, depictions, etcetera that I have ever seen or heard retelling the events of Holy Week, when it comes to the thieves who hung on the crosses to the left and right of Jesus, I have always seen them depicted as already in position until Jesus makes His way to the top of Golgotha. However, it was in this part of my reading that I saw that three-letter word that stopped me in my tracks: L E D.
     Luke 23:32 says, “There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death.” The thieves walked the path WITH Jesus to Golgotha. They experienced the crowds, the yells and jeers, the spitting…all of it. AND, the thieves witnessed Jesus’ demeanor, words, love, and restraint to it all. They saw Jesus’ ripped flesh from the cattails, a punishment far worse than any other prisoner before or since. They watched as Jesus bore His cross on shoulders that were unrecognizable as belonging to a person. They stepped in His bloody footsteps; they had to stop when He fell and Simon of Cyrenia picked up His cross; they saw into His eyes; they were with Him.
     Then the three make it to their destination. They are laid upon their stakes and are crucified. The criminals listen as the mocking comes from some in the crowd about saving Himself. They watch as the soldiers cast lots for His clothing. They listen to the response of Jesus asking God to forgive them. They watch as Jesus gives His mother to John and John to His mother.
     It is in this three-letter word, L E D, that the blasphemy from the thief challenging His deity and demanding He save Himself and them is even more treacherous and the response of the other thief even more profound. Jesus had been teaching them both the entire journey. No synagogue; no grassy hillside surrounded by disciples; no parables. He was being Jesus; one got it while one missed it.
          Which one of these thieves is most like us?  Before we stroke our piety, let us be honest enough to look at our lives. Has Jesus walked with us showing us Who He is for us to just miss it?  Have we heard the stories so many times and watched the pageants with all of their spectacular lighting that we have just become numb to His impact?  Do we claim Christ as Savior but never pick up another’s burden and help them carry it?  Do we sneer at Jesus when we do not get our way and demand that, since He is Christ, He should make it all go away?
     Yes, that one, small, three-letter word really held a lot of power in my reading. God’s Word is always living, and it is always grabbing my attention. May I never cease praying for God to keep my heart and mind open to all that He has to say and teach me through it. And may I never miss the power in the small words.