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Illustration
Christ The King (Proper 29) - C
Luke 23:33-43
Leah Thompson
One simple comma is the difference between heaven and purgatory, and it makes that decision in today's gospel reading. Luke 23:43: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." If you put the comma before "today," Jesus is saying that the thief will join him in paradise this very day. If you put the comma after "today," Jesus is saying that the thief will join him in paradise, but it doesn't necessarily say when. The ambiguity of this sentence is appropriate for the Easter story. We are just as hazy on what to expect in the afterlife as Jesus' contemporaries were.
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