<p>23:41 <i>But we indeed justly. For we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong</i>- The cross is capable of interpretation as some kind of judgment seat or throne. And significantly, there are men on the right hand and left of the Lord, one rejected, the other gloriously accepted. It is possible to translate the repentant thief as telling the other: &ldquo;Do you not fear God <i>when</i> you stand condemned?&quot;. Before Jesus crucified, we all stand condemned. And he stresses that &ldquo;we are condemned justly&quot; (Lk. 23:41), for it was evident to all that here hung a just / righteous man. He, there, the just hanging for the unjust, convicts us of sin. Somehow the repentant thief came to know Jesus in the deepest possible sense. Truly could he address him as &ldquo;Lord&quot;, perceiving already how the cross had made Him &ldquo;Lord and Christ&quot;. The thief knew that judgment day was coming, and asked to be remembered for good there. He was surely alluding to Ps. 106:4: &ldquo;Remember me, Lord, in the course of favouring your people. Visit me with your salvation&quot;. And this connection between the cross and the judgment was evidently impressed upon the thief. Doubtless he also had in mind the desperate plea of Joseph: &ldquo;Have me in remembrance when&hellip;&quot; you come into your position of power (Gen. 40:14 RV). The thief had perhaps meditated upon the implications of the Lord&rsquo;s prayer: &ldquo;Thy kingdom come&quot;. He saw it as now being certain because of the cross- &ldquo;when you come in your Kingdom&hellip;&quot;. And yet he felt as if he was in prospect already there before the coming King, as he hung there before Him on the cross.</p>