a word of hope

For Lent, from a sonnet cycle, based on the seven sayings of the cross.  #2

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:40-43

Two thieves also climbed the rocky hill,
and were I one, I know what I would pray:
“Save yourself, and when you do, save me.”
Consequences are the hardest debts I pay.
“But we are getting what our deeds deserve”—
that’s what one broken malefactor knew:
“Unlike us, this man has done no wrong,”
he said, knowing and believing it was true.
But knowledge of what’s right is not enough,
is not the ground of his, or my, reward;
He did what I have often failed to do:
He looked up and recognized the Lord.
I must do that too to hear the master say,
“You will be in paradise with me. Today.”

©2001, Wally Metts