Easter gently nudges me to think about a robber entering paradise; a bandit, so wicked, only a death penalty could justify the magnitude of his crimes.

And yet, that Easter day in heaven, a gasp must have gone up within the Pearly Gates as they saw this brigand, laughing and joking with those who’d entered that day.

“Isn’t he the one who led a life of thievery, while we lived our lives serving the Lord?” they must have whispered, and Jesus must have smiled as he thought of the promise made to the second thief on the cross, even as he reminded them of his parable of the workers in the vineyard, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. ² He agreed to pay them a denarius^[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

³ “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ⁴ He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ ⁵ So they went.

“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. ⁶ About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

⁷ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.

“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

⁸ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

⁹ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. ¹⁰ So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ¹² ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

¹³ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. ¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

And Jesus smiles as he sees the thief, reformed at the last moment, speaking and joking with Mother Teresa and Billy Graham!

Any doubts, any of you have this Easter, about getting the whole nine yards whatever age you now are, in heaven?

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