When Yeshua, Jesus was crucified, he was crucified between two criminals, one on His right and the other on His left (Luke 23:32-33). In Luke’s account we see the interaction of the three on their crosses in Luke 23:39-43 as follows, “One of the criminals who hung there heaped abuse on Him. ‘Are You not the Christ?’ he said. ‘Save Yourself and us!’ But the other one rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same judgment? We are punished justly, for we are receiving what our actions deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”
We know all three died; so where are they now? The obvious one is Yeshua, Jesus. Continuing on in Luke’s story, we know that Joseph of Arimathea received His body and laid it in a tomb cut in the rock, where no one had yet been laid. Very early on the first day of the week, women came to the tomb to find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Later that evening, He appeared in His glorified body to eleven of his disciples who were gathered together. Forty days later, many witnessed his Ascension as described in Luke 24:50-53, “When Jesus had led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, praising God continually in the temple.” He is currently “seated at the right hand of God” as Sha’ul, Paul, tells us in Colossians 3:1. That was the easy one as it is directly said in Scripture. What about the others?
I heard a message from a pastor a few months ago that was the impetus for me writing this piece. In that message that pastor claimed that Jesus and the criminal on the cross that said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” were, in fact, together in Heaven that very afternoon (today). It sure sounds that way when Jesus’ response was, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Couldn’t be any plainer, “today you will be with Me in Paradise.” End of story on that one. Or is it? Let’s turn to John 20:11-17. There we will find, “Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means ‘Teacher’). Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” This is three days after the crucifixion. Yeshua, Jesus says that He has not yet ascended to the Father. He says he is going to but hasn’t yet. Wait a minute, I thought He told that criminal that “today you will be with me in Paradise.” That was three days ago. He just said He hasn’t been there yet. Did He lie? If He did, He can’t be the Messiah. Since He didn’t lie, we must have misunderstood what he told the criminal.
We are reading an English translation of a Greek translation of a Hebrew document. I recommend that you consider my earlier piece on the Bible for details on this. Neither the Greek nor the Hebrew have punctuation and neither have uppercase characters. That means every capital letter that you see denoting the beginning of a sentence or indicating a proper noun, a name, in English is the interpretation of the translator. It also means that every period, every comma, every quotation mark, etc. is an interpretation of the translator. The punctuation can change the meaning. With that information, please reconsider Yeshua’s words, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Do you see it, that pesky comma? As it is shown here it contradicts His later words in John 20. But what if we read it like this, “Truly I tell you today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” Do you see the change? I moved the comma. Now, there is no contradiction between the two. He did tell him, on the day of the crucifixion, that he would, eventually, be with Him in Paradise. Now we can’t use that statement to say where he is today.
The two criminals are currently in the same place, in the grave awaiting the resurrection that each has attained. At the point where Yeshua said, “I have not yet ascended to the Father,” there were only a few people that had ever been resurrected, the rest are in the grave awaiting the resurrection that each has attained. Let’s consider some other things happening between the crucifixion and when He spoke those words. Turn to Matthew 27:51-53 where, as Yeshua was dying, we read, “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.” I have read over this passage for years and never really considered what happened to these people that came out of the tombs. They are never mentioned again. There must be a reason that they are in the story but what is it? Any ideas?
These people came out “after Jesus’ resurrection.” They are seen by “many people.” And then, never heard from again, or are they? We’ll get to that. Yeshua told Mary that He had not yet ascended to the Father but that He was going to soon. Why? His ascension isn’t for another forty days. You have to consider on what day all of this is happening. Look at Leviticus 23:9-11, “The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.’” This is happening the day after the regular weekly Sabbath during the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that is the first day of the week. That day is a commanded Feast, First Fruits. This is the day that this Feast is being fulfilled by our priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7). These “holy people who have died” are the literal First Fruits of the resurrection. Yeshua, the Hight Priest, took these people to His Father and presented the First Fruits of the Resurrection and then returned to Earth. How many were there? We can’t be sure, but we can be sure that there were at least twenty-four. How? Let’s read Revelation 4:4, “Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.” Yeshua, at his first coming, is fulfilling the Spring Feasts to the day and hour. The Spring Feasts had been rehearsals for what He is accomplishing at that time. They are now, today, remembrances for what He did. Sad part is that most people that believe in Jesus don’t keep the Feasts, don’t know the details about what He fulfilled and don’t truly remember because this is the Greatest Story Never Told.
There are four resurrections found in 1 Corinthians 15:22-24, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.”
1. Christ
2. The firstfruits (the previous paragraph)
3. They that are Christ’s at his coming (His Second Coming)
4. The end resurrection, where the white throne judgement happens.
There is another translation/interpretation problem here. Notice that I struck out cometh. It is in italics in the KJV which means that it was added by the translators, an interpretation. This insertion corrupted the plain meaning of the text, the fourth resurrection. A better insertion to clarify meaning would have been to add resurrection after “the end.” And the translators missed the comma after Christ in the list so I placed it where it should have been. That period after “at his coming” shouldn’t be there either as it breaks the list of the four resurrections.
The first two are complete as we documented above. We anxiously await the fast approaching of His Second Coming for the third resurrection. The fourth isn’t until after Satan has been loosed for a short time and then is thrown into the lake of fire, still at least a thousand years in our future (Revelation 20).
So, which resurrection(s) will the two criminals be made alive in? Obviously not the first two. The criminals were not yet dead when Yeshua died and the graves were opened. That leaves the third or fourth. The third is for those that are “Christ’s at his coming.” This third resurrection is for the Bride, that is Israel. I didn’t say Church, I said Israel. Please follow the link to get those details. Neither criminal will make this resurrection for, as Revelation 14:12 says, this is for “the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.” Neither criminal “kept his commands.” Salvation is of grace (Ephesians 2:8), reward, reigning with Yeshua, is of merit. Neither criminal earned this reward. At the fourth and final resurrection, when these two are raised, the books will be opened. The one that put his faith in Yeshua will be saved by grace, the other will probably find himself in the lake of fire. Obviously, that decision is way above my pay grade, but I believe that is probably how it plays out.
Shall we consider another punctuation issue that changes the meaning? Consider Matthew 24:4-5, Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” Since there is no punctuation in the Greek this is translated from, the quotes around “I am the Messiah” are an interpretation. Should they be there or not? If they are there, Yeshua is saying that someone will claim to be the Messiah that isn’t. Without the quotes it would be interpreted that someone claiming to be a Christian, preaching Jesus, actually saying that Jesus is Jesus, is deceiving people. It would make sense that the interpreters prefer the quotes since they may also “preach Jesus” and wouldn’t want to implicate themselves as deceivers. Personally, I think the ambiguity is intended; I think it should be interpreted both ways. The first case, someone claiming to be the Messiah that isn’t is obviously deceitful. What about the case of someone claiming to be a Christian preaching Jesus?
We will consider Yeshua’s words in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:17-20. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He immediately confirms that He did not come to abolish the Law, that is the Torah. He came to fulfill, that is make full, make complete, not end. He said that not the tiniest bit will disappear before everything is accomplished. Everything isn’t accomplished; there is so much prophecy to be fulfilled in our future. So, since He says that the Torah has not been, and will not be, done away with, anyone interpreting Sha’ul, Paul, as saying that it has, is lying. Sha’ul cannot contradict Yeshua. Let me say that again, Sha’ul cannot contradict Yeshua! Remember, Peter warned us in 2 Peter 3:15-16, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” And, just so we are clear, in Malachi 3:6, God Himself says, “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.”
So, anyone that claims to be a Christian and “preaches Jesus” that says the law has been nailed to the cross, sets aside one of the least of these commandments and teaches others accordingly, is a deceiver and will be called “least in the kingdom of heaven.” It’s amazing that we can read Yeshua’s own words in Matthew 5 and then allow Sha’ul to say those words are null and void when God Himself says He does not change. The author of Hebrews, possibly Sha’ul, says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Want to be called “great in the kingdom of heaven?” Practice and teach the Law, that is the Torah, the writings of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy!! All. Of. It. Those are the words of the Messiah who says in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commands.” He is the God that does not change that gave the commandments to Moses at Mt. Sinai, those commands.
The book of Acts confirms this in chapter 15. In this account, some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” This caused quite an argument, so the apostles and elders met to consider the matter. Coming out of that meeting it was agreed that they would tell the new gentile believers four things to do, or, should I say, not do: abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood. Why these four? These are gentiles coming out of pagan religions. These are all pagan practices, so they needed to get that dealt with quickly. Is that all that is ever expected of them? They were not told to not commit adultery, to not steal, to not murder. Are those okay for them? Of course not. The very next verse, verse 21, says, “For Moses has been proclaimed in every city from ancient times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” From this it can be surmised that the apostles and elders expected these new believers to be in the synagogue every Sabbath, not Sunday, where they would hear the rest, they would hear Moses read (You can find the Weekly Torah Portion here). What did Moses write? The Torah. This is all before printed Bibles so unless you were very rich, you did not have your own copy of the scriptures. They would need to hear it read each week in the synagogue where they would learn the Torah incrementally. In hearing it every week, they would eventually come to realize the circumcision is part of the Torah and could then voluntarily choose to be obedient and be circumcised. In the next chapter, Acts 16:3, we read, “Paul wanted to take him [Timothy] along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.”
Obviously, since Paul circumcised Timothy, circumcision was not the issue here, the “why” was. The issue was getting circumcised to be saved. This is confirming what Sha’ul, Paul, wrote in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.” Salvation is by grace. What are these “good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life?” Our good works are our manifestation of the two greatest commandments as stated by Yeshua, Jesus in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law [Torah] and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Yeshua wasn’t creating anything new here, He was quoting the Shema (שְׁמַ֣ע) from Deuteronomy 6, “Hear [and obey!], O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” How do you love God? Yeshua Answered that in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commands [my Torah].”
Let us strive to be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
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