Yep. I find it interesting because my take on the whole thing is that Jesus is talking about the spiritual world from a “this world” perspective. That is, as far as the thief is concerned, it will be “today”, even though the concept is strictly one related to this creation, not eternity.
When I was in surgery for several hours, they put me under. There was no passage of time from my perspective when I was under. That is, I took my second deep breath, and in the middle of the breath I was waking up in the recovery room, several hours later.
So I believe that every
person (not to be confused with the flesh they occupied) that ever lived may be, from our perspective, sleeping, but on “that day”, they will be awakened, and from their perspective it is as if it is happening the moment their body died.
Am I right? I don’t know. Nobody does. And that’s the point. I think we need to be careful to not hang too much theology on figures of speech in the bible and focus on the message. A perfect example is the answer to this question regarding Peter denying Christ: Did the rooster crow once, or did it crow twice? The answer is that it doesn’t matter. The message from Christ was basically, before this day is out you will deny me. The rooster crowing was just a figure of speech to make the point.
Bingo!