Provided by: JesusFilm.org
Greenlit by Antoy Grant

Lanuage: ENGLISH
Length: 9 mins

In a beautiful animé style, a prisoner watches as Jesus gets flogged in Pilate’s courtyard. He remembers Jesus teaching and wonders why they’re hurting an innocent man. Horrified, he remembers his own crime.

He’s in an alley with a rich gentleman. Holding him up with a knife, he tries to take a box of coins and belongings. The thief is nervous so when he tries to go after the man, he fumbles. The man fights him with the box. Coins go flying. The thief accidentally stabs the man in the struggle. He claws at the coins and runs.

The crowds in the courtyard scream for Jesus to be crucified. The thief, another man, and Jesus are loaded with the beams for their crosses and march to Golgotha. The thief looks curiously to the crowds who scream that Jesus is innocent.

They arrive and nails are driven through their wrists. Each man is hung on a cross, their feet nailed to a wooden shelf. They hang in agony. Like the crowd, the other thief demands that Jesus save Himself and them. But our thief claims Jesus is the Messiah and asks that Jesus remember him. Jesus promises him they will be in paradise together that day. A dark storm overwhelms the hill and Jesus dies.

The thief passes away with a gasp and sees Jesus in a beautiful place.

What does the thief realize when he looks at himself next to Jesus?

Why doesn’t the thief ask to be freed from the cross?

What do you see as freedom and hope?

Using existing audio loops from the JESUS film, My Last Day visually translates JESUS for the next generation. The story provides an eyewitness account, demonstrates a life transformed because of Christ’s sacrificial death, and imparts knowledge of the resurrection to the viewers.

The thief sees Jesus from his cell and remembers what Jesus taught. He knows Jesus hasn’t done anything wrong. He sees, in Jesus, what it means to be perfect, to be completely right with God.

When the thief looks at his own crimes, he’s horrified to see just how guilty he is. He’s stolen, and killed a man. He sees a big difference between himself and Jesus. But they’re both receiving the same punishment.

As the two thieves and Jesus hang on their crosses, the crowd yells at Jesus to free Himself. Jesus has claimed to be the Son of God. The sign that should proclaim His crime reads: King of the Jews. The Jews expected a king to come and save them from Roman oppression. They thought they were fine and only needed to be freed from a sinful world. The other thief even asks Jesus to free Himself and them, too. But the other thief realizes he needs to be from much more than his punishment on the cross. He sees Jesus for what He truly is: a living sacrifice for the many ways we disobey and walk away from God. He doesn’t ask to be freed from the cross. But he does ask Jesus to remember him in heaven, to represent him, to free him from his guilt before God.

And Jesus promises that He will. He promises that for all of us. He doesn’t promise freedom from earthly things: pain, poverty, wealth, careers, etc. But He does promise a renewed relationship with the Father through His sacrifice on the cross. He promises that we can be free from the guilt of disobeying God.

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