David Gooding comments on the repentant thief: Personally he had never thought much of kings, had never felt like obeying any of them. But a King who would pray forgiveness for the very men who were spiking His hands and feet to a cross…you could respect a King like that. He wouldn’t mind being in His kingdom and obeying Him. But what chance had he, a self-confessed anarchist, of being allowed so much as to enter His kingdom? And yet had He not prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?” If those men could be forgiven because they had not realized exactly what they were doing, then certainly he hadn’t realized before how wonderful God’s King was. He hadn’t meant to rebel against a king like that…“Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingdom.” At once, to that poor broken rebel against man and God in the last few hours of his tortured life, there came clearly and without reserve that most kingly word from the King of kings Himself: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”