Luke 23: 26-56

26 As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' 30 Then
" 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"
and to the hills, "Cover us!"'
31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One."
36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."
38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
43 Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Points of Interest:

• ‘made him carry it behind Jesus’—Simon of Cyrene serves as a very vivid picture of Jesus’ call to his followers: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me’ (9:23). Unfortunately, it’s a complete stranger who unwittingly and unwillingly provides this image. None of Jesus’ actual followers are anywhere to be seen. Simon Peter, who just last night talked of dying with Jesus, has run away; so Simon of Cyrene has to temporarily fill in for him. Cyrene, by the way, is in North Africa, in modern Libya (IVP Bible Background Commentary 254).

• ‘including women who mourned and wailed for him’—it’s not quite true that all of Jesus’ followers have abandoned him. The men among the disciples are hiding, but the women continue to follow him to the very end.

• ‘what will happen when it is dry?’—another reference to the destruction of Jerusalem. Even on the day of his death, Jesus is more concerned for the citizens of Jerusalem than he is for himself. I think the point of Jesus’ image is if, during relatively prosperous times, people can so quickly turn on him and kill him, imagine what they will do to one another when times get rough. Indeed, during the Roman siege of 70 AD, much of the damage was caused by fighting among Jewish factions (IVP Bible Background Commentary 248).

• ‘Father, forgive them’—Jesus continues to follow his own advice from the sermon on the plain: ‘bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you’ (6:28), and, ‘Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned’ (6:37). To the very end, Jesus is giving generously to others, particularly to those who won’t or can’t give anything in return. Jesus is aiming at greatness. He’s living in such a way as to get the best possible rewards from God: ‘For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’ (6:38).

• ‘they divided up his clothes by casting lots’—it was common practice for the executioners to get the personal effects of the prisoner (New Bible Commentary 1017), but this is also a reference to Psalm 22. Psalm 22 (written by David, about 1,000 years before Jesus) bears some striking resemblances to Jesus’ crucifixion, including this division of clothes by lot, the sufferer’s great thirst, piercing of hands and feet, and being the object of mockery:
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
‘He trusts in the Lord, they say,
‘Let the Lord rescue him’ (Psalm 22:7-8).

• ‘THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS’—the charge against Jesus is ironically accurate. He’s being killed because he is the true king of the Jews, not because he falsely claims to be the king of the Jews. He is the son of the owner of the vineyard, being killed so that the tenants can take the vineyard as their own (20:14-15).

• ‘Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’—this criminal is pointing Jesus in the wrong direction: ‘For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it’ (9:24). Jesus is saving himself—and them—by submitting to death. When he first started on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus warned:
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows (12:4-7).
This criminal is afraid for his body, but shows no concern at all for his soul. Jesus, on the other hand, is showing respect for—and trust in—the one who has the authority to throw him into hell but the desire to save his life; as he prayed in Thursday’s passage, ‘yet not my will, but yours be done’ (22:42)

• ‘since you are under the same sentence?’—the moment before you die is not a great time to rack up new complaints against you.

• ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’—this second criminal reminds me of Jesus’ story of the tax collector who humbly asks for mercy and gets it (18:13-14). Criminal though he is—and as far as we know a complete stranger to Jesus—he is the only person we’ve encountered who believes that this is not the end for Jesus. Even as Jesus hangs on a cross next to him, this criminal believes that Jesus will survive and triumph.

• ‘the curtain of the temple was torn in two’—the curtain is the divider between the Holy Place (the priestly area of the temple) and the Most Holy Place (where only the chief priests could go, and only once a year). Perhaps this is the symbolic beginning of the destruction of the temple.

• ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’—this is the first line of Psalm 31:5, which continues, ‘redeem me, Lord, my faithful God.’ This is not some vague statement of trust. Jesus is truly handing his spirit over to God in a quite real and immediate way. Jesus, the very son of God, the Lord of God’s kingdom, the one who cast out demons, healed diseases, forgave sins, calmed seas, and even raised the dead, is now dead. He’s a completely helpless corpse. And his last words before dying are, ‘Father, I’m putting myself in your hands, and I’m trusting you to bring me back.’
Jesus is pushing to the utter limit the principle that it is always a good idea to be generous to others. He recommended to the rich ruler that he give all of his possessions to the poor to gain treasure in heaven (18:22). Jesus himself takes it a few steps further, giving his very life. This choice takes tremendous faith in God’s goodness and his power. Jesus is sacrificing himself to an incredible degree for the sake of others, but he’s not expecting that others will gain at his expense; even he can’t afford to do that when the price tag is his life. Jesus is trusting God to make this sacrifice worthwhile to him. Even in giving his life, Jesus depends on God to out give him: ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life’ (18:29-30)

• ‘a member of the Council’—apparently, not all the council members are Jesus’ enemies. Maybe the leaders of the council left any dissenters out of their deliberations, or maybe Joseph and any other members sympathetic to Jesus were simply shouted down.

• ‘placed it in a tomb cut in the rock’—the fact that Jesus’ body is placed in a tomb bought by this influential councilman brings to mind an odd little detail in one of Isaiah’s prophecies of the suffering servant: ‘He was assigned a grave with the wicked,/and with the rich in his death’ (Isaiah 53:9). Like Isaiah’s suffering servant, Jesus dies the death of a criminal (and would have simply been buried in a public burial ground with them except for Joseph’s intervention [New Bible Commentary 1018]) but is buried in a rich man’s grave. Even more than Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 (written about 800 years before Jesus) is startling in how accurately and vividly it portrays Jesus’ suffering—it might be worth finding a Bible and reading the entire chapter. Isaiah’s prophecy also offers what to me is the clearest (yet still fairly mysterious) explanation of why Jesus had to suffer in all of the Old Testament, maybe in all of the Bible:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:4-5)
All the way back in chapter 5 (5:31), Jesus declared himself to be a sin-doctor. He had come to the world specifically to heal people of their sin-sickness. Now, we see his method of healing. He somehow takes on himself the pain, the suffering, and the punishment for our sins. In effect, he kills off sin by having it die with him on the cross. It’s as if he undergoes sin-chemotherapy, but for all of us, not for himself. And by God’s great and mysterious power, this crazy plan works.

Taking it home:

• For you and your family: Jesus’ death is undeniably a very powerful story, but it’s also one that can be very difficult to grasp. Pray that God would give you a new understanding today of the meaning of Jesus’ death.

• For your friends: Pray that like Simon of Cyrene your friends would be drawn into Jesus’ story in surprising ways.

• For our city: While their companions are sneering, the second criminal and the centurion find in Jesus’ death something compelling and faith-inspiring. Pray that many people in our city would also gain a new appreciation for Jesus during these few days when there tends to be greater focus on him and his death. Pray that they would not be deterred by any cynicism about Jesus they see around them.