For a Hebrew person, the name David represented strength, wisdom, conquest, leadership. Despite his recorded moral misadventures, the Jews remember him as their most illustrious leader. When they suffered terrible persecution under foreign rulers who enslaved and oppressed them, they remembered David and hoped for a king with the talents and capabilities of David. The prophets had assured them that another king will arise from David’s stock, an anointed one (Christos), who, like David would be strong, a conqueror of nations, with power to establish the prosperous reign of God. The two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus voiced their disappointment with Jesus who, they thought, was this new king: “We were hoping that he would be the one to set Israel free” (Lk 12:21).
From every indication He failed the “king” test. He was at best a wannabe-king. No real king would stand before another king handcuffed as he defends his kingship under interrogation. What definitely showed Him a weak earthly king was the crown He wore made of thorns, and not gold. The reactions of the individuals around the cross reveal a taunting deserving of an impostor or one of the “deplorables.” Like them or hate them, the Romans have incredible sense of humor—seen in Pilate’s inscription written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek to ensure that anyone in the world who could read saw and read it: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” It was a mockery to both Jesus and His Jewish folks. Pilate kind of says: “What a king you have in this one ...try another.”
Yet, in this gloom and doom, someone saw a true king, and he was a thief. Church tradition holds that this thief, Demas, who was meeting Jesus a second time in his life was a Judean Robin Hood. Their earlier meeting occurred during the flight to Egypt by Jesus and His parents. Demas and his friend—the other thief—accosted the Holy Family to rob them. Demas seeing how lovely the Baby was could not bear to lay hands on them or steal their possessions. He was quoted as saying: “O most blessed of children, if ever there come a time for having mercy on me, then remember me and forget not this hour” as he escorted the family out of harm’s way. That second meeting happened at Calvary as he hung beside the One he had, thirty three years before, protected. This was the juncture at which the mercy of God would be extended to him: for, as long as a person’s heart beats, the door to God’s merciful heart remains open.
Mercy is the balm of God’s love. Mercy is the door to God’s heart. Mercy is the highway to heaven. God doesn’t wish to pull us kicking and screaming along this road. He asks us to make an introspection so we may hear the sound of His voice in our consciences where He rules supreme. It is in our conscience that He has established His government house, His Supreme Court and Congress. We may try, but we cannot escape that court of God. We may protest the voice of conscience, but it never ceases to point to us the good and the evil in our lives. God would not send Fr. Jo to your homes to monitor how you live, whether you cheat on your wife...your employer, your taxes; whether you pray and teach same to your children, whether you use artificial birth control, whether you visit pornographic websites in your computer and other devises, etc., etc. It so happens, though, that because these are based on truth, whenever we speak of them, your conscience is disturbed. That’s the true meaning of kingship.
Nearing the close of the Jubilee Year of Hope, this gospel story tells us that God’s mercy endures forever and it’s never too late to embrace it. As king, Jesus invites us as He invited the good thief to walk with Him as a companion of the garden or paradise. Paradise is a Persian word for “a walled garden.” And like a Persian king, who, wishing to do a favor to his subject would invite him as a companion of the garden, Jesus invites the good thief and us to walk with Him in the honored place of the garden of heaven (Barclay).
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo