Luke 23:26-43--The Crucifixion

Luke 23:26-43
English Standard Version

The Crucifixion
26 And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. 27 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. 35 And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

​39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

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Pilate has given into the crowds and turned Jesus over to be crucified.  Jesus had already been flogged and beaten at this point and we are told by other gospel writers that He was not even able to be recognized as a man because of the severity of the floggings and beatings.  Yet in all of this they did not break any of His bones.  Jesus begins carrying His cross (the crossbeam), but the burden is too heavy for Him, so they compel Simon of Cyrene who was in the crowd to carry the crossbeam the rest of the way up to Golgotha.

Luke points out that there is still a group of women following Jesus that were there to mourn for Him.  This is likely that same group of women that we see mentioned by name at the foot of the cross and that found the empty tomb on Sunday.  Jesus told them not to weep for Him, but they were to weep for themselves and their children as Jesus knew what the end would be for Himself, but things were going to be hard for all those who were His followers.  In fact, Jesus says that the days are coming and were already upon them when it would be said that it would be better to have never had children because the parents would suffer great pain and anxiety about their children in this age because they will be rebellious against God.  Some people will even cry out for God to take their lives when they see how wicked the generations have become for they will be wicked and rebellious when they are young (green), and Jesus said that we have no idea what they will be lick (assuming that they will get worse) as they get older.  I think there is some foreshadowing though that dried wood is thought of as fuel from the fire where green wood is hard to burn.  Jesus seems to be hinting that a lot of the youth would rebel and set themselves on the way that leads to destruction and that the parents would mourn for them because they could do nothing to save their children and it would be terrible to have to watch your child rebel against God and know that you would be eternally separated from them because you would be with God in heaven and they would be separated from God's people in the place we call Hell or the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.

As I mentioned last time, Jesus would die between two other criminals.  They were called thieves or robbers most often, but like Barabbas, they too were probably murderers and insurrectionists (maybe even part of the Zionist group called the Zealots that wanted to overthrow Rome).  This was to fulfill Scripture that Jesus was counted among and died among the transgressors of the Law (these two were guilty, and they did not deny it).  We'll see more of the conversation between Jesus and the two thieves shortly.

Luke tells us of even more prophecy that was fulfilled when the Roman guards divided Jesus' garments among themselves and cast lots for His undergarment that was made out of a single piece of cloth (no seams) that they did not want to tear to divide it.  The crowds, soldiers, and even the two thieves that Jesus was hanging between mocked and ridiculed Him.  This was part of the torture that His mother and the women who came to grieve for Him (along with John the Apostle) had to bear as they heard all of it.  We hear the words of temptation that sound like the words of the devil, "If you are the Son of God.....," but that "if" could be translated as "since."  Satan knew who Jesus was, but he was encouraging Jesus to refuse to submit to the authority and the will of the Father and to assert His rights and privileges in a way that would prove His identity to everyone else (but He would sin against God in doing so).  Yet these mocking voices don't even realize they are saying the very words that God prophesied them to say hundreds of years ahead of time because God knew all that would happen before it happened and commanded His prophets to write it all down in advance so that we would understand that He knew all that was going to happen to Jesus and yet chose for Jesus to suffer and die this way and Jesus knew about it too and chose to go through with it.  This also helps us be certain that everything else we read in the Bible is true because we can no clearly understand those prophecies and see them coming true in the crucifixion, but we can be just as sure that the prophecies that we don't understand relating to the last days will also be just as sure to come true in a way that will be just as obvious that it is a fulfillment of God's Word since He's known that beginning from the end before time began.

After some time, one of the criminals is convicted of his sin and tells the other they should stop.  The criminals on the right and the left of Jesus likely had a list of felonies posted above their heads that all were worthy of death both by God's Law and the law of the Romans, yet the only indictment (Jesus was never actually found guilty of anything) above Jesus' head was that Pilate wrote for all to see that Jesus was the King of the Jews, and from what Pilate could tell, this is why they wanted Him dead.  Somehow this resonated with one of the thieves who realized Jesus had done nothing wrong and that He was who He claimed to be, and that meant that God the Father was still somehow some way going to give the Kingdom to His Son, that is Jesus.  So the thief asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom.  Jesus does better than that and assures this man of his salvation there and now because Jesus is the one who able to give eternal life to anyone He desires.  If Jesus only went to the cross so that this one man would be saved, that would be enough, but we know that Jesus' blood would pay for the sins of all of the Old Testament and New Testament saints past, present and future.

Jesus will die shortly after this at the appointed time (the time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed).  Jesus was still in control up to this point and He was still doing His work as it was not yet time for Him to rest.  That would not happen until the Sabbath day came upon them and Jesus would "rest" in the tomb, but before He dies He will proclaim in a loud voice, "It is finished!" meaning that nothing can be added to or taken away from His completed word of settling the accounts of all those who were ever to be part of the kingdom of God (including those from the Old Testament and who were contemporaries of Jesus, but died before His death, burial and resurrection--like Joseph the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus).  We'll study about the death of Jesus next time.