To the question: Who was the first to enter heaven after the Fall? given by the author Nabster the best answer is No one has yet entered heaven.
All people will go to heaven or hell only after doomsday.

Reply from 22 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Who was the first to enter heaven after the Fall.

Reply from Mikhail™[guru]
After the Fall, they kicked out from there, but no one came.

Reply from Rose[guru]
In the Christian Greek Scriptures, the word "paradise" is translated from the Greek word paraʹdeisos. In the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, this word is used to describe the garden of Eden, which apparently was a garden or park protected on all sides. Elsewhere in the Bible following the account of paradise in Genesis, references to paradise refer to 1) the Garden of Eden itself, 2) the whole earth when it becomes like Eden in the future, 3) the spiritual prosperity of God's earthly servants, or 4 ) to a spiritual paradise in the sky, reminiscent of the Garden of Eden.
Based on these definitions, Christ was the first to enter Paradise after his resurrection in heaven.

Reply from Believer #134[newbie]
no one, although there are two prophets in heaven, Jesus and one more

Reply from ROM[guru]
Jesus was the first to enter, he opened the way for people when there was no longer the light of faith, only he continued to believe and taught this to people, to himself he said this: I am the light of the world - which means I am the light of the world, knowledge in general. It is possible that this will await us in the future, since faith is contrary to the fallen mind, since it puts itself in first place, the mind, having been in the darkness and not finding God there, returns and says - if I have not found God, then he does not exist, and that means I am god. This can be easily seen in atheistically minded people who go against their inner fear and put pride first, like me.

Reply from Yustam Musabekov[guru]
perhaps Lazarus. In any case, the Bible says that he went to heaven.

Reply from John of Christ[guru]
The first to enter heaven was the thief hanging with Christ on the cross. The one who repented and recognized Christ as Lord.

Reply from Milka[guru]
There is no heaven yet

Reply from Everything is just as gentle...[guru]
“They led two villains with Him to death. And when they came to a place called Execution, there they crucified Him and the villains, one on the right, and the other on the left...
One of the hanged villains slandered Him and said: “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”
The other, on the contrary, calmed him down and said: “Or are you not afraid of God, when you yourself are condemned to the same thing? and we are condemned justly, because we accepted what was worthy of our deeds, but He did nothing bad.” And he said to Jesus: remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom! And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” "
The repentant thief received the nickname “The Prudent” in the Christian tradition and, according to legend, was the first to enter heaven. His name was Dismas.
And yet, Rustam and Lazar confused me.
.

Reply from Yatyana[guru]
The first to enter heavenly paradise was the good thief.
The example of this robber is an encouragement to the boldness of faith.
The cross is the altar on which the Lord Jesus Christ made his sacrifice, and opens Heaven to us. – All our happiness comes from the cross. “He is the key that opens the doors of heaven for us.” The cross will appear on the last day, carried by angels and archangels.
Christ opened paradise to us, which remained closed for five thousand years, because on this day, at this hour, God brought a thief there, meaning by this two things He accomplished: one, that he opened paradise, the other, that he brought in the thief. He returned to us the ancient fatherland, today he again brought us to our native city and gave an abode to all human nature. “Today,” he says, “you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The rest of the righteous Abel and others were in the bosom of Abraham. Luke 16:22 The beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.
Elijah and Enoch were taken to heaven. And there are many floors in the sky.
2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or out of the body, I don’t know: God knows) was caught up to the third heaven.

Today we heard the Gospel from Luke about the first of the human race in paradise - the prudent thief. We cannot comprehend the mercy of God, which makes the last first. This saint is depicted on the northern doors of the St. Nicholas chapel of our temple. And one of the parishioners, soon after this image appeared, without making out the inscription, asked: “Is this Christ?” - pointing to the prudent robber.

It really seems impossible to tell the difference. A man resembling Christ with a cross. And he is clothed with the holiness that Christ has, because Christ came to give us all that He has, taking upon Himself what we have. What a robber has. It is difficult for human consciousness to comprehend how someone who has lived such a life can be counted among the saints. But he is the first to enter heaven, Christ Himself canonizes him, giving him access to the Holy of Holies.

On some icons we see, together with the risen Christ, only this one righteous man in paradise, where there are many mansions, as the Lord says, but they are not yet occupied by anyone. A host of Old Testament prophets and righteous people, led by the Forerunner, rushes to the gates of paradise, while the prudent thief is already in paradise, the very first, ahead of everyone, shining with the dazzling whiteness of his heavenly wedding clothes.

We must see again what happened at Calvary. How Christ was crucified along with two thieves. Why did they do this? So that the contempt and hatred that people naturally have for the monsters of the human race may extend to our Lord. People tend to judge everyone in the same company together. They do not tend to distinguish one from another. Looking at the crucified, they could conclude that He was also a villain, because the punishment was the same. And moreover, he is the worst of villains, because he was crucified among them.

We hear in all the Gospels, except the Gospel of Luke, that the thieves who were crucified with Him reviled Him. As if they were saints compared to Him. “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” Obviously, of all the people, this thief, who never ceased to revile the Lord, had the least reason to do so. And another, a robber like him, gradually began to understand a lot.

The Lord was crucified among the thieves in order to satisfy the righteousness of God for the evil done to Him by sin, submitting to the utmost outrage that could be committed against Him by the worst of people. So He became sin and a curse for us all. And the darkness from the sixth hour to the ninth hour shows the darkness that covered the soul of the Lord. God commands His sun to shine on the righteous and the wicked, but even the light of the sun was taken away from the Lord when He became sin for us. The Jews often demanded a sign from heaven. And now it was given to them, but such a sign that showed their absolute blindness.

The Tree of the Cross, planted on Calvary, becomes the Tree of Life in the midst of paradise. “Father, forgive them,” are the first words that Christ utters on the Cross. And the prudent thief is the first witness, the first in the human race, blessed by the power of this prayer. The light that will touch his heart in a few moments will be a sign of the forgiveness of the Heavenly Father, promised to everyone who turns his gaze to Christ. As God said to Moses: everyone who looks at him will be saved.

The prudent thief is not only the first to testify to the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Through his eyes, the Church learns to see the crucifixion itself in a new way. The word of the cross, which the apostles will preach about, comes for the first time from his lips. Looking at Christ, incomprehensible in His meekness and long-suffering, but as truly close to him as any other person, he begins to forget about his own suffering. He doesn’t know how this happens, but the presence of the One who suffers and dies next to him, just like him, and with him, changes everything. From his lips comes the word that we all know, and which of all the prayers that the Church knows, composed by its greatest saints, are the shortest and most perfect prayer words: “Remember me, Lord, when you come in Your Kingdom.” Many crosses and monuments on the graves of believers are imprinted by them.

Every word in this prayer is precious. First of all, this word “Lord”, the main thing in every Christian prayer, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, as the Apostle Peter says, after the miracle of Pentecost took place. And no one can, says the Apostle Paul, call Christ Lord, only by the Holy Spirit.

Among all the insults of the blasphemers of the Lord, among the raging crowd, the leaders of Israel who manipulate this crowd, among all these “Save yourself! He saved others, but he can’t save himself!” - only a prudent thief has faith in the One who can save him. His faith is all contained in one word: “Lord.” He says: “Remember me.” He asks for nothing, only for the mercy of the memory of God: keep me in Thy memory.

These words, “Remember me, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” make us reflect with fear and trembling on the mystery of human salvation. Who gave this man the knowledge that the crucified Lord was next to him? Rejected and ridiculed by everyone, he will come to earth again, but in heavenly glory. When will it come and how will it come? He who is now dying, like him, like every man, will be alive again. Not just alive, but will appear as the King of all living.

Was this not the reason for the mockery of those crucifying Him? And they captured this contempt, which Pilate ordered to be inscribed above the Cross. These words were before the eyes of the thief: “This is the King of the Jews.” And the soldiers who dressed Christ in scarlet mocked Him: “Hail, King of the Jews.” They placed a crown of thorns on His head. But the prudent thief did not doubt this Kingdom. And he recognizes this Kingdom, and he proclaims this Kingdom to everyone.

An amazing, unheard of thing, someone will say, “The Cross is before your eyes, and you are talking about the Kingdom.” What do you see that would resemble the Kingdom, dignity? A crucified man, dying from torture, surrounded by hooting and spitting, torn apart by whips. Are these signs through which one can recognize the King? But a prudent robber does not stop at external appearances. He sees with the eyes of faith.

And the faith of this man, the inexplicable contradiction of all external evidence, is evidence and proof of the glory of Christ crucified, Who by His power transforms a perishing soul. The righteous will live by faith, says the Apostle Paul. But the wicked, adds Blessed Augustine, is justified by Christ. And He justifies him when he believes in his heart and confesses his faith with his lips. So the prudent thief believed in his heart and confessed his faith with his lips.

It is often said that the existence of evil in the world prevents many from believing. Indeed, one of the thieves blasphemed God while standing next to Him. But we must not forget that it was at this time that the prudent robber found faith. He is our teacher here, showing that faith is primarily a gift of God. The answer to the humility of the human heart, which by the gift of God is completely changed. And such a change in the human heart is a greater miracle than the creation of heaven and earth. The Holy Fathers compare the signs that accompanied the death of Christ - an earthquake, an eclipse of the sun, disintegrating stones and many dead people rising from their graves - with the miracle that was revealed with the heart of the prudent thief. He was harder than stone in confessing this faith, because grace worked through him. Before us is the confession of faith of a person to whom faith in Christ is revealed for the first time, but also the confession of repentance of a person who admits his sin. “We accept what is worthy according to our deeds,” he says to his fellow sufferer. He expects everything from Christ, and at the same time brings deep repentance.

He reproaches another thief who reviles Christ. He addresses all people, without exception, who in their sorrows find themselves unable to confess faith in Christ God. We are also on the cross. The insults you throw at the Lord affect you first of all. Anyone who accuses another of sins of which his conscience accuses him is condemned first. And whoever blames another for a misfortune for which he himself is guilty must be the first to be punished with the same executions to which he condemns the other.

The prudent thief admits his sin. He expects the impossible from Christ crucified on the Cross. And he finds the exact words: “Remember me, your companion in suffering. Don’t forget me when you come in Your Kingdom.” Where, when this Kingdom will come, in what centuries - it does not matter. He hopes for salvation in the distant future. And then he hears in response: “Today, today, you will be with Me in paradise.”

The Lord says: “Amen, I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” “Amen,” which the Savior uses at the most solemn moments, when He proclaims the most essential truths of our lives, in which His grace is present in a profound way. And Revelation tells us in precisely these words: “Thus says the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.” On behalf of the Lord Himself, the Apocalypse calls to us.

“Today, today,” says Christ, “you will be with Me in Paradise.” I don't need to store it in memory, it will be now. I won’t need to look for you somewhere, I’ll take you with Me, we’ll go together. What does this “with Me” mean? Saint John Chrysostom says: it is a great honor to enter heaven. But there is an even greater honor - to enter it with the Lord. This “with Me” means a shared life with Christ, participation in the same destiny to the end. We know that this is how the Lord calls His apostles, so that they will always be with Him, as He says. Thus, at the Last Supper on the eve of His Passion, He says: “With my desire I desired to eat Easter with you before My suffering.”

This “with Me” is included in the High Priestly Prayer of the Lord: “Father, those whom You have given Me, I want them to be with Me where I am.” This is what humanity has come to. To Moses, when his courage left him and he began to look for an opportunity to evade the messenger of God, the Lord said: “I will be with you.” “With You I want nothing on earth,” says the Psalmist, seeing the temptations of the world and the prosperity of the wicked. And Christ Himself is called Immanuel, “and it is also said: God is with us,” as Isaiah prophesied and as the Angel announced this to the righteous Joseph.

What the three youths once did in the Babylonian furnace, when they refused to bow to the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had placed in the field of Deir and to which all peoples, tribes and languages ​​bowed, was done by a prudent thief. He believed in the suffering Lord, confessed Him as his Lord, like these young men. And before the Apostle Paul can say: “I have a desire to be separated and to be with Christ,” this prudent thief fulfills the apostolic word with his life and death.

The holiness of this man lies in the fact that he recognized the Messiah King in the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. And every time in all the numerous comparisons of the prudent thief with other saints that the holy fathers offer, he finds himself ahead of everyone. He is compared to Mary Magdalene. But she recognized Christ when He called her by name, and here we see that the Savior does not turn to the prudent thief first. He is compared to the Apostle Paul, when he went to Damascus and persecuted Christ. But the one upon whom the light shone heard a voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” But with the prudent thief we do not see this light and do not hear this voice. We only know that his faith was so deep that this light and this voice, invisible and inaudible, were in his heart.

The prudent thief did not need many years to achieve the salvation of his soul. In an instant, the ray of the Divine, touching his soul, shone for him as the sun of eternity. To become a saint and to become a man, grace is necessary, without which no one can know what it means to be a saint and what it means to be a man.

All saints call upon us to always reflect on the miracle of the prudent thief. Forgiveness is given to him so quickly and grace surpasses his prayers, for the Lord always gives more than is asked. He asked the Lord to remember him when he came in His Kingdom, and the Lord said to him: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Life is being with Christ, because where Christ is, there is the Kingdom.

The word of Christ about the mystery of repentance is fulfilled on the prudent thief. Publicans and repentant fornicators go ahead into the Kingdom of God. The Holy Fathers compare the prudent thief with the prodigal son from the Gospel parable, to whom his father offers infinitely more than he dared to ask. Bring him quickly the first, the best clothes, the clothes of immortality. The feast of the kingdom is ready, and joy fills the heavens.

The mystery of the salvation of the prudent thief makes us think that the suffering that the Lord endured on the Cross, bleeding, exhausted in agony, dying among the robbers, like a thief, was accepted by Him for the sake of love for every person, without exception. “Remember me, Lord” - probably from here, from these words, with such undoubted hope, the Church intercedes for every Christian who has passed into eternity, proclaiming to him “eternal memory.” And asks for repose with the saints.

And we, seeing how our loved ones leave us, are increasingly convinced that a much larger number of people are being saved than we may sometimes imagine. The Lord vouchsafes to bring repentance to those who were far from Him, perhaps even blasphemed Him all their lives, and just before His death, according to His prayer, which He prayed on the Cross for all people, including those who crucified Him: “Forgive them for not they know what they are doing,” and through the prayer of the prudent thief, the light of salvation is revealed to them.

However, we must remember that it is not for nothing that the holy fathers look so closely at the image of the prudent thief. Because there is a danger of taking too lightly what was acquired for us at a great price.

St. Augustine says: “The Lord had mercy on the thief at the last hour, so that no one would despair, not a single person, because there is not a single hopeless situation. While a person is alive, he can still turn to the Lord. But He pardoned only one, of the two only one, so that no one would place too much trust in His mercy.” Lest we turn out to be that robber who is on the edge when we do not have enough depth of faith in the hour of great trials. The Monk Theodore the Studite says: “This is his end! What ours will be like, we don’t know, and what kind of death we will die, we don’t know: will it come suddenly or with some kind of foreknowledge?” “Will we then be able to be morally reborn in an instant and spiritually exalted like the “companion of Christ,” “who let go of a small voice and found great faith”? Will sudden death not take us away, leaving us deceived in the hope of repentance before death? - says Saint Cyril of Alexandria. “Therefore, sinner,” says Blessed Augustine, “do not put off repentance for your sins, lest they pass with you into another life and burden you with an excessive burden.”

Let this light of hope touch our hearts, connecting our cross with the Cross of Christ - a light that no darkness can absorb. The greatest sinners, if they bring genuine repentance, receive not only forgiveness of their sins, but a place in God's paradise. This is the whole meaning of the Lord's Passion on the Cross. He died to buy for us not just forgiveness of sins, but eternal life. Christ suffered on the Cross to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all repentant sinners. Through the Cross Christ enters into Paschal joy. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Lord convinces us that all those who repent with genuine faith in Him go to Him after death. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents more than over ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent, then what joy will there be when all sinners bring repentance, like the prudent thief! To those who die with repentance, the Lord gives a taste new life- immediately, today, before tomorrow comes, the day of His Second and Glorious Coming, when this joy will be revealed in Divine fullness.

Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, member of the Union of Writers of Russia

To the question: Who was the first to go to heaven after death? And where did the others end up before him? given by the author Brunnhilde Soulful the best answer is According to the Gospels, he is a robber who hung at the right hand of Christ. He asked Him before his death - pray for me in the Kingdom of Your Father. And he also stood up for Christ in front of another robber. He said: We are at least condemned for our deed, but He suffers completely innocently. That's why I was the first to go to Paradise...
Oksana
Enlightened
(28271)
Let's make a reservation right away: the Bible is talking about the representatives of the kingdom of Israel, the Jews. There were peoples at that time who did not know the hellish realms at all. Today, experts in the Slavic Vedas claim that the Slavs had the worst thing - purgatory. Where a person underwent a kind of sanitary treatment, was cleansed of heavy energies and went to higher spheres. But it was NOT HELL. This is first of all. Before Christ, all Jews went to hell (this is according to the official version of the church) - starting from the first people made - Adam and Eve. Only Enoch and Elijah the prophets escaped this fate - they were taken alive to heaven. Everyone else, including the prophets, went to hell. There were simply different places in hell, better and worse. Christ descended into hell and brought out both the prophets and the righteous... But the first, even before Christ, to go to Paradise was a robber. He went to Paradise, and Christ went down to hell. There is an apocrypha of Nicodemus: The Descent of Christ into Hell. It can be found on the Internet. Just type in a search engine: apocrypha or apocryphal gospels.

Reply from 22 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Who was the first to go to heaven after death? And where did the others end up before him?

Reply from The stones are crying out[active]
You can't get to something that doesn't exist yet.
Heaven will come later, when there are all conditions for it on earth.

Reply from Catherine[guru]
Dismas (the thief crucified with Jesus and repented) was the first to go to heaven. Before this, paradise was closed to people due to the fall of Adam and Eve. And the souls of people, before the appearance of the savior, were reborn (reincarnated)

Reply from CATashechka[expert]
The first is the robber. And before that, all the dead went to hell (Sheol), the righteous - separately, to a place without torment ("Abraham's bosom")

Reply from ~Dauren~[guru]
No one has ever been caught after Judgment Day. And the last prophet will be the first to enter heaven.

Reply from Solomon --[active]
Regarding the robber. Luke 23:43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
There are no punctuation marks in Greek. And where to put a comma before or after the word “now” is up to the translators to decide. But think about it, did Jesus go to heaven that same day? He only resurrected on the third day. And then he appeared to the disciples for another 40 days. Can we say that he was already in heaven? Think again. He said this to a Jew who was reading the Law of Moses and when Jesus told him about heaven, what associations arose in him at that moment? He read about paradise in Genesis chapter 2, where Adam and Eve lived. This was heaven on earth. And what should that thief think when Jesus said, “You will be with me in heaven”?

(according to tradition on the right hand), repentant, believed in Christ, humbly expressed his desires before Him and received from Him the promise that “now” he would abide with Him in .

All four evangelists speak in more or less detail about two thieves crucified with Jesus Christ (, ,), the most complete story about this is given by the Evangelist Luke ().

The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus gives the names of the thieves crucified with Christ. The unrepentant robber, who was to the left of the Savior, was called Gestas. And the other, the prudent thief at the right hand of Christ, is called Dismas. In the medieval Byzantine ancient Russian tradition, a prudent robber is called Rakh.

For what crime was he crucified? Prudent Robber

Word robber, used in the Synodal Translation of the Holy Scriptures, also has the following meaning: rebel (terrorist). Considering that Judea was occupied by the Roman Empire at that time, a translation such as partisans.

In those days, theft was not punished by crucifixion, so it can be assumed that the robbers crucified next to Christ the Savior waged an armed struggle against the invaders, and did not trade in robbery.

On the meaning of the penitential feat of the Prudent Robber

Priest Afanasy Gumerov:
A great change took place in the soul of the robber. He turned out to be worthy of heaven. The grace of God healed him, but we should not belittle his personal merit. The converted robber accomplished three feats. First of all, feat of faith. The scribes and Pharisees, who knew all the prophecies about the Messiah and saw numerous miracles and signs performed by Jesus Christ, turned out to be blind and sentenced the Savior to death. The thief was able to see God incarnate in a man chained, like himself, to a cross and doomed to death. What an amazing power of faith. He did and feat of love. He died in suffering. When a person is tormented by unbearable pain, he is entirely focused on himself. The former thief, being in such a state, was able to show compassion for Jesus. When another robber slandered Him, he calmed him down and said: “He did nothing bad” (). Do we have so much love for Jesus Christ, who receive so many benefits from God? The prudent robber accomplished the third feat - feat of hope. Despite such a dark past, he did not despair of his salvation, although, it seemed, there was no longer time for correction and the fruits of repentance.

Legends about the meeting of the Prudent Thief with the Holy Family

There is a later popular legend that it was a prudent robber who saved the lives of the Mother of God and the Baby Jesus on the road to Egypt, when Herod’s servants were killing all the babies in Judea. On the road to the city of Misir on Holy family robbers attacked with the intention of profiting. But righteous Joseph had only a donkey on which he sat Holy Mother of God with the Son; the possible profit of the robbers was small. One of them had already grabbed the donkey, but when he saw the Infant Christ, he was surprised at the extraordinary beauty of the child and exclaimed: “If God had taken a human body for Himself, He would not have been more beautiful than this child!” And this robber ordered his companions to spare the travelers. And then the Blessed Virgin said to such a generous thief: “Know that this baby will reward you well for preserving him today.” This robber was Rakh.

Another legend conveys differently the meeting of the prudent robber with the Holy Family. E. Poselyanin describes it this way: “Seized by robbers, the travelers were brought to their den. There lay the sick wife of one of the robbers, who had an infant. The mother's illness had a hard impact on the child. He tried in vain to suck a drop of milk from her exhausted breast. The Mother of God saw the suffering of the child, the torment of the unfortunate mother. She walked up to her, took the baby into her arms and put him to her chest. And from the mysterious drop that penetrated the fading body, life instantly returned to the withered child. The cheeks brightened with color, the eyes sparkled, and the half-corpse turned back into a cheerful, blooming boy. This was the effect of the mysterious drop. And in this boy there remained for the rest of his life the memory of the wonderful Woman, with whom he, dying, was healed. Life had not been kind to him; he followed the path of crime trodden by his parents, but spiritual thirst, the desire for the best never left this ruined life. (). Of course, this baby turned out to be Rakh.

The prudent thief in church hymnography

The prudent thief is remembered in the Good Friday chants when reading: “ You have vouchsafed the prudent thief in one hour to heaven, O Lord.", and his words on the cross became the beginning of the third antiphon ("Blessed") of the Liturgy and the Lenten succession of figurative ones: " Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom».

Does Christ’s salvation of one of the thieves testify to the fact that salvation does not require effort and repentance is quite accessible just before the death of the body?

Metropolitan of Tashkent and Central Asia Vladimir (Ikim):
The story of the prudent thief turns despair away from us and gives us hope for God's forgiveness in our most serious sins, in our deepest falls. But in our pride and deceit we sometimes turn this sacred narrative into a source of temptation for ourselves.
“Let us live for our own pleasure while God tolerates our sins,” we say to ourselves, postponing saving repentance until old age or even the hour of death, slyly nodding to the example of the prudent thief. An insidious thought inspired by Satan! A crazy attempt to lie before the All-Seeing Lord! Which of us is capable of a feat of repentance, faith and love, similar to that shown on the cross by the pardoned thief? And if we find ourselves incapable of repentance in the prime of our strength and mind, then how will this accomplishment be possible for us in callous old age or among the horrors of death? “We must be careful that the weak person does not have weak repentance, and the dying person has dead repentance. You can go to hell with such repentance. Stop, you wretch! Not everything will be for you through God’s long-suffering,” says the saint.
“If the Lord forgave the robber, will he really not forgive us, who did not rob or kill anyone?” – with such thoughts we also indulge ourselves, not wanting to notice our own crimes. But we all commit robbery on the highways of life - if not the bodies, then we rob and kill the souls of our neighbors, and this is even worse than just robbery. Let us remember how many poisonous temptations we constantly sow along our path, how evil multiplies in the world from our sinful deeds and words - and where is repentance? For a prudent thief, the consciousness of his sins was more than torture on the cross - but we will not shed even a tear from our dry eyes or squeeze a sigh from our petrified hearts. And, in the words of the venerable one, “no one is as good and merciful as the Lord; but to him who does not repent, He does not forgive.”
The majestic and terrible picture of Golgotha ​​is the image of all humanity. To the right of the All-Loving One, a prudent thief is crucified - repentant, believing, loving, awaiting the Kingdom of Heaven. To the left of the Just One, an insane robber is executed - unrepentant, blasphemous, hating, doomed to the hellish abyss. There is not a single sinner among people, we all bear robber crosses - but everyone chooses whether it will be the saving cross of repentance or the destructive cross of resistance to the love of the Lord.
The prudent thief, who acquired holiness through the feat of repentance, now accompanies us to the Chalice of Holy Communion; we pronounce these saving words before communion of the Terrible and Life-giving Mysteries of Christ. May the Lord grant us, not with an evil heart, but in the humility of repentant sinners, to partake of His Holiness, repeating: “ I will not tell your enemies the secret, nor give you a kiss like Judas, but like a thief I will confess to you: remember me, O Lord, in your kingdom».

See also: K. Borisov

About the Baptism of the Prudent Thief

«… the thief received the sprinkling of remission of sins through the sacrament of water and blood flowing from the side of Christ"(teacher, Creations, vol. 4, p. 434).

«… What was the robber’s justification? He entered heaven because he touched the cross with faith. What happened next? The thief was promised salvation by the Savior; Meanwhile, he did not have time and was not able to realize his faith and be enlightened (by baptism), but it was said: “whoever is not born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (), There was neither chance nor opportunity, There was no time for the thief to be baptized, because he was then hanging on the cross. The Savior, however, found a way out of this hopeless situation. Since a man defiled by sins believed in the Savior and needed to be cleansed, Christ arranged it so that after suffering one of the soldiers pierced the side of the Lord with a spear and blood and water flowed out of him; from His side, says the evangelist, “immediately blood and water flowed out” (), confirming the truth of His death and prefiguring the sacraments. And blood and water came out - not just flowed out, but with a noise, so that it splashed onto the body of the robber; after all, when water comes out with noise, it produces splashes, and when it flows out slowly, it flows quietly and calmly. But from the rib blood and water came out with a noise, so that they splashed on the thief and with this sprinkling he was baptized, as the apostle says: we came to “Mount Zion and the Blood of sprinkling, which speaks better than Abel” (