Whether It Was Fitting for Christ to Be Crucified with Thieves?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting for Christ to have been
crucified with thieves, because it is written (2 Cor. 6:14): "What
participation hath justice with injustice?" But for our sakes Christ
"of God is made unto us justice" (1 Cor. 1:30); whereas iniquity
applies to thieves. Therefore it was not fitting for Christ to be
crucified with thieves.
Obj. 2: Further, on Matt. 26:35, "Though I should die with Thee, I
will not deny Thee," Origen (Tract. xxxv in Matth.) observes: "It was
not men's lot to die with Jesus, since He died for all." Again, on
Luke 22:33, "I am ready to go with Thee, both into prison and death,"
Ambrose says: "Our Lord's Passion has followers, but not equals." It
seems, then, much less fitting for Christ to suffer with thieves.
Obj. 3: Further, it is written (Matt. 27:44) that "the thieves who
were crucified with Him reproached Him." But in Luke 22:42 it is
stated that one of them who were crucified with Christ cried out to
Him: "Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom." It
seems, then, that besides the blasphemous thieves there was another
man who did not blaspheme Him: and so the Evangelist's account does
not seem to be accurate when it says that Christ was crucified with
thieves.
_On the contrary,_ It was foretold by Isaias (53:12): "And He was
reputed with the wicked."
_I answer that,_ Christ was crucified between thieves from one
intention on the part of the Jews, and from quite another on the part
of God's ordaining. As to the intention of the Jews, Chrysostom
remarks (Hom. lxxxvii in Matth.) that they crucified the two thieves,
one on either side, "that He might be made to share their guilt. But
it did not happen so; because mention is never made of them; whereas
His cross is honored everywhere. Kings lay aside their crowns to take
up the cross: on their purple robes, on their diadems, on their
weapons, on the consecrated table, everywhere the cross shines forth."
As to God's ordinance, Christ was crucified with thieves, because, as
Jerome says on Matt. 27:33: "As Christ became accursed of the cross
for us, so for our salvation He was crucified as a guilty one among
the guilty." Secondly, as Pope Leo observes (Serm. iv de Passione):
"Two thieves were crucified, one on His right hand and one on His
left, to set forth by the very appearance of the gibbet that
separation of all men which shall be made in His hour of judgment."
And Augustine on John 7:36: "The very cross, if thou mark it well,
was a judgment-seat: for the judge being set in the midst, the one
who believed was delivered, the other who mocked Him was condemned.
Already He has signified what He shall do to the quick and the dead;
some He will set on His right, others on His left hand." Thirdly,
according to Hilary (Comm. xxxiii in Matth.): "Two thieves are set,
one upon His right and one upon His left, to show that all mankind is
called to the sacrament of His Passion. But because of the cleavage
between believers and unbelievers, the multitude is divided into
right and left, those on the right being saved by the justification
of faith." Fourthly, because, as Bede says on Mk. 15:27: "The thieves
crucified with our Lord denote those who, believing in and confessing
Christ, either endure the conflict of martyrdom or keep the
institutes of stricter observance. But those who do the like for the
sake of everlasting glory are denoted by the faith of the thief on
the right; while others who do so for the sake of human applause copy
the mind and behavior of the one on the left."
Reply Obj. 1: Just as Christ was not obliged to die, but willingly
submitted to death so as to vanquish death by His power: so neither
deserved He to be classed with thieves; but willed to be reputed with
the ungodly that He might destroy ungodliness by His power.
Accordingly, Chrysostom says (Hom. lxxxiv in Joan.) that "to convert
the thief upon the cross, and lead him into paradise, was no less a
wonder than to shake the rocks."
Reply Obj. 2: It was not fitting that anyone else should die with
Christ from the same cause as Christ: hence Origen continues thus in
the same passage: "All had been under sin, and all required that
another should die for them, not they for others."
Reply Obj. 3: As Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. iii): We can
understand Matthew "as putting the plural for the singular" when he
said "the thieves reproached Him." Or it may be said, with Jerome,
that "at first both blasphemed Him, but afterwards one believed in
Him on witnessing the wonders."
_______________________