"Should we come down from the cross?"

Two thieves were nailed on either side of our Lord. They both cursed and blasphemed; there was no difference between them at the beginning. The first one, the rebel that was on the left of our Blessed Lord represents the pain of those who say, 'Take me down.' The one on the right wanted to be taken up. The one on the left turned his head as much as he could and said to our Lord, 'If you are the Son of God, save yourself; save us.' He thought that our Lord was simply a healer. There are many today who are beginning to believe that this is the essence of Christianity-healing. The Lord does heal, but not always. There will not be a complete healing until the whole cosmos is renewed. Our Lord did not heal Lazarus, he allowed him to die. Our Lord did not release John the Baptist from prison. God does now and then heal. But healing is not the essence of his coming. That was all, however, that the rebel on the left wanted, just to be healed. As a matter of fact, if he were living today, he would probably never think of sin. If he had money, he would spend thousands of dollars on psychotherapy. But the thought of sin never entered into his mind-just the desire to be taken down.