Luke 23:26-56
Please remain standing and turn
in your copy of the scriptures to Luke. Our reading today will
be chapter 23, verses 26 through 56. We are on the home stretch
of the book of Luke. In a few weeks, I think about
mid-August, we will continue with the work Luke has written
by picking up with the life of the early church in the book
of Acts. So today we land on the passage
that tells us about the crucifixion, death, and burial of the Lord
Jesus. So let us give attention to God’s
word, Luke 23, beginning at verse 26. And as they led Jesus 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. And there
followed him a great multitude of the people, and of women who
were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them, Jesus
said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep
for yourselves and for your children. 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. Then they will
begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills,
cover us. For if they do these things when
the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others
who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Jesus.
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. And Jesus said, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to
divide his garments. And the people stood by watching,
but rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save
himself if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers
also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying,
If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also
an inscription over him, This is the king of the Jews. One
of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying, are you
not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the
other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you are
under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly for we are
receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done
nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said to him, truly, I say
to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about
the sixth hour. There was darkness over the whole
land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed and the
curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out
with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed
his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he
praised God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. And all
the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they
saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breast. And
all his acquaintances, and the women who had followed him from
Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things. Now there
was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He
was a member of the council, a good and righteous man who
had not consented to their decision and action, and he was looking
for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked
for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped
it in a linen shroud, and laid him in a tomb cut in stone where
no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of preparation
and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him
from Galilee followed. They saw the tomb and how the
body was laid and they returned and prepared spices and ointments.
On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment. Pray with
me. Lord, without the preaching of
the cross, we are those without hope. Without faith in the cross,
we are lost and dead in our sins. Without the cross, sin would
not have been atoned for. And so we give you thanks for
this passage that reminds us of the humiliation of our savior
and the very beginning of the exaltation of his life as he
is laid in the grave and buried with the rich. Help us by your
spirit to receive your word with joy, to treasure it and to live
by faith out of it this week. Help us. We pray in the name
of Christ. Amen. You may be seated. During the
ministry of the Lord Jesus, crowds were not out of the ordinary. In fact, many times when you
read through the gospels, you read that multitudes came to
hear Jesus preach. crowds gathered to be baptized
in the Jordan River. People came to Jesus to receive
his touch. They came to be healed and they
came to gaze upon this strange messianic figure, this son of
man, this son of God, the savior of sinners. They often followed
Jesus from town to town. seeking some sort of good from
his lips or his hands or his life. But on this occasion, crowds
were gathered and they were gathered to witness Jesus being led away
to the cross, led away to the hill, to the skull, to be crucified. If you walk through this passage,
you’ll see there’s all kinds of cast of characters. There’s
Jesus faithful followers who stood at a distance, perhaps
in horror at what was taking place to their beloved savior.
Then there were the gawkers, we might call them, the people
that slow down on I-40 when you’re trying to get somewhere and there’s
a fire truck and an ambulance and a highway patrolman and there’s
a car that’s missing a taillight because it got sideways with
another car and traffic just stops for miles. You know those
sorts of people. That’s the other crowd. that
gathers. But there’s also the rulers.
They follow Jesus to the moment of his death. They want to make
sure he is good and dead. They want to pinch his toe and
make sure there is not a breath of life left in him. And so as we encounter this passage
of scripture today, we see that on this occasion, as crowds gather,
Jesus is being led away. He’s being led away to the place
of the skull, to the place of the cross. He is in the hands
of soldiers. He is under Pilate’s orders to
be crucified. Now you understand at this point
in Jesus’ life, it is Friday morning. It is good Friday. It
is probably sometime middle of the morning. It’s between nine
and most definitely before noon. Jesus has had all the trials
we’ve looked at a week past where he had three religious trials,
three Roman trials. He has been beaten by the Roman
guards, 40 lashes less one. He’s had a crown of thorns placed
on his head, a purple robe placed upon his body. He is about to
be marched through the city where he will be ridiculed. Now stop for just a moment there.
In a couple of months when Advent swings back around into the life
of the church, we will sing about Jesus, born in Bethlehem, born
to the Virgin Mary, suffering as a rich king from heaven, but
being born in a cattle stall. One of the things that we understand
about the life of Jesus is there is a humiliation of Jesus and
an exaltation. Or to put it the way the apostle
Paul does in the book of Corinthians, he who was rich for our sakes
became poor in order that we might become rich. This is the
fulcrum of redemptive history taking place on the streets of
Jerusalem. He who was rich left the heavenly
places and became poor. He lived in a peasant family.
He never had a whole lot, but his life on this day is about
to get poorer. This is a man who has been beaten
to death. Don’t want to be gross or graphic. Maybe some of you have seen Mel
Gibson’s portrayal of this in film, you generally don’t survive
a Roman beating and you certainly don’t survive the cross. But Jesus here is the scapegoat. Now, he’s not just the scapegoat
for us, the people he came to save. He is the scapegoat for
Barabbas. Remember in Jesus’ trial, The
people of God wanted him to die. They wanted him to die so much
so they begged that Pilate release Barabbas, a known criminal, a
known convict, a person it would not take much to prove his guilt. And Jesus is swapped. He is a
scapegoat for the people, but he’s also a substitute for sinners. He who knew no sin became sin
in order that we might become the righteousness of Christ. And so here is Jesus, the scapegoat,
the substitute for sinners, sentenced to die in Barabbas’ place with
two others, no doubt Barabbas’ fellow robbers and criminals
along with him. He’s sentenced to die, and verse
27 says, a great multitude of people A great multitude of people
and women mourners were lined up to follow Jesus on what we
call the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow, the way of suffering,
the way of the cross. Maybe some of you have been to
the Holy Land. And you’ve been to the city of
Jerusalem. You’ve been to Zion, the city
of peace. And you have walked the Via Dolorosa. You’ve been on the way of suffering.
Maybe some of you have grown up in a church tradition that
has recognized the 14 stations of the cross. And so you understand. Well, you don’t understand. You
recognize what’s taking place. You don’t understand because
you will never, ever have to go through what Christ went through
in the passion of his life, the suffering for sinners. But you
are familiar with these things. A great multitude of people and
women mourners followed Jesus. Executions of the Roman style
were rather public. It was meant to be a deterrent.
Some of you probably grew up where your mother left the wooden
spoon on the kitchen stool. And that was meant to be a deterrent,
right? You do what mama says or that wooden spoon will not
be stirring cookie batter, but it will be reminding your behind
who is boss and what is right and true. Well, a Roman execution
was rather public. It was a ghastly event. And so
Jesus will be marched through the city out to the place of
the skull. He will go to the cross. And
the entire city, in fact, everyone within earshot, everyone within
reach of fence post gossip will know exactly what is taking place
in the city. No one will want to cross Pilate
or the Roman authorities in that city. For Caesar is Lord, and
in his realm, there will be obedience. And so Jesus’ execution was like
no other. It was a public one. It was like
all others. It was public. It was normal
to have these events take place. It was meant to be a deterrent
that others would remain silent. obedient to the crown. Verse
48 tells us crowds had assembled for this spectacle. What a contrast. Crowds coming to hear Jesus preach.
Crowds coming to hear Jesus’ words of life. Crowds coming
to see him heal. I think you’ll find very interesting
in our passage today, Jesus carries right along in his ministry.
As he is beaten within inches of his life, as he is bleeding
to death, as he is suffering and in great agony, he’s endured
the longest day of his life. He went through a night that
never ended and trials that were unjust. He is now on the way
to the cross and you’ll see, unique in Luke to the other gospels
accounts, Jesus is still ministering to those who need the Savior’s
gaze, to those who need the Savior’s touch, to those who need the
Savior’s words of life. I don’t know what this event
would be like in today’s day. My guess is there would still
be crowds. There would be iPhones. In fact, I saw recently on the
news where in, I think the country of Indonesia where they’re under
a Sharia law, uh, they still do public beatings. Uh, if you,
um, have a girlfriend and you have a little smoochy in public,
that’s against the law. You and girlfriend are going
to get a public beating and on it goes like that. That’s the
way it is in some parts of the world. Still, I don’t know what
that would be like in our time when we have, uh, an execution,
and there are very few these days. I think nearly half of
the United States have banned executions. There is no capital
punishment in near half the states of our country. I don’t know
what it’s been like with Cove it, but we really don’t hear
about executions. If we do, it’s a blip in the
news at 3 30 this morning or 5 30 in this morning. So and
so on death row for the last 30 years, they they were put
to death. So it’s not a public event as
it used to be. We would probably have protest
and other things. But Jesus is led away by Pontius
Pilate’s soldiers and the crowds have gathered to witness this
spectacle, to witness this awful event. And as Jesus is led away
and begins the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, his agony,
his Strength, the trauma is all taken its toll. And so Simon,
a man from North Africa, is conscripted to take Jesus cross. Now, it’s not the whole cross.
It’s the beam, the cross beam. The post would likely be at the
site of execution. But you can imagine this hundred
pound piece of lumber. And Jesus cannot physically carry
it. The several thousand feet, the
nearly half a mile it would have taken to get outside the camp
where criminals, cursed ones, were hanged on a tree. So exhausted Jesus has his cross
carried by this man, Simon. Do you know Simon came for the
Passover? He did not come to bear the cross,
but can you imagine what the rest of his life would be like?
In fact, we’re told through the gospel of Mark and we understand
through Paul’s ministry in Rome that his two boys came to faith
and they continued in the heritage of believing in the cross of
Calvary and following Jesus in this world. There’s ladies, there’s
daughters of Jerusalem, as Jesus calls them, they are professional
mourners. And on the way to execution,
you can imagine a criminal would have no loved ones, mom and dad
and family long ago lost. He’s lived a shiftless life.
His friends are in the club of criminals for sure. And so these
mourners would gather along the way of crucifixion and mourn
out loud for the death, the impending death of these criminals. They
would also offer, because of their physical condition of having
been beaten within inches of their lives, they would offer
a drink that would soothe the mental anguish, the physical
anguish. The book of Proverbs says, give
strong drink to those who are suffering. And so their duty
was to be professional lamenters along the way. And here we see
Jesus continuing his ministry. Jesus is a prophet, a priest,
and a king. And here we see the prophet at work. Remember, Jesus
entered Jerusalem at his triumphal entry, and there were very few
hosannas, very few praise the lords. And Jesus wept over the
city as he saw the panorama of the beautiful city of Zion, the
thousand year old city of David. He wept. And remember, he said,
Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, would that you knew this day what would
make for peace. Remember a day or two later in
Jesus passion week ministry, he tells the people it’s going
to be rough. And about 30 years in AD 70,
in fact, is when it took place. Rome will destroy this city. And that’s exactly what Jesus
prophesies. Daughters of Jerusalem, he says, weep not for me, weep
for yourselves and for your children. For days are coming when people
will say, blessed are the barren, blessed are the childless. Blessed
is the mother who did not have a child to nurse for the days
are coming. AD 70 is when it took place.
The days are coming when for four years, Rome will lay a siege
against Jerusalem. The people will starve. You read
Josephus and other historians accounts of life in Jerusalem
under the Roman siege and life was terrible. Just put it this
way. Someone surrounds your house.
They board up your windows. Nobody’s coming in. Nobody’s
going out. You have no light. You have no life. Your freezer
runs out. They cut your electricity. They
chop your water line. They cut your sewer line. And
you’re a sitting duck. As we say, you can’t crack your
window because they’ll get you. I’m probably going to give some
of you nightmares. But that’s what a siege was like. It was
like for a whole city. That’s when Joshua fought the
battle of Jericho. They laid a siege on the city.
And for seven days, nobody went in, nobody came out. Well, Jerusalem
will be under the most awful siege by the Romans in about
30 years. And Jesus is saying, don’t weep
for me. I can bear this cross. But what you are facing, the
judgment you are facing in the days to come, you will not be
able to bear. In fact, you will say to the
mountains, fall on us. And you will say to the hills,
cover us. And so here’s Jesus on the way
to the cross. Here’s Jesus under immense physical and spiritual
trauma. He’s been beaten within an inch
of his life. And he looks at these women and says, get out
of this hell hole. It’s not safe here. Run for your
lives. Put your faith in almighty God. And so Jesus on the way to the
cross with these multitudes. He continues to preach and he
continues to warn of the day of judgment that is to come.
Now Luke is a brief gospel. He’s brief in the gospel when
he speaks of the cross. And you’ll notice all that he
says about Jesus’ crucifixion. They took him away, the two robbers
with him, and they crucified him. No description, no talk
of it. Because Luke’s emphasis here
is the ministry Jesus continues. And his ministry as a prophet
to the daughters of Jerusalem, warning them of the days to come
is significant. But notice what Jesus Does as
the helpless Savior Luke says they they crucified him And then
Jesus prays for his captors forgive them for they know not what They
do Now I don’t know about you, but back in the younger days
when you get in a schoolyard scuffle And somebody would say
something to you, you know, your mama joke, or you’re ugly, or
you’re just a little girl, you know, that kind of thing. What
did we do? Did we just sit there and take
it? Oh no, we fought back. And as you get older, what do
you do? Well, you turn the air blue. And if you’re, you know,
big enough and strong enough, you throw a punch, you throw
a kick, or we get into road rage these days. Not so Christ. He
was reviled, he was mocked, he was spit upon. You can imagine
as he is crucified, not only is he enduring the suffering
of being beaten within inches of his life, but he is now nailed
to the cross and the spit is still in his beard from all the
officials of Israel who mocked him. and reviled him and who
cast wicked words at him. But in the ministry of Jesus,
he says, forgive them. This is Jesus the priest. He’s interceding for those who
will face the wrath of God for their sins. And he says, forgive
them. He seeks the good of his enemies. And what a lesson that is to
us. We get on the news in the evening and we hear another case
of road rage. I think it was the other day,
a father and son leaving a ballgame and somebody’s tailgating or
doing something and there’s tall fingers extended and all the
rest and guns are pulled out and there’s shots fired. And
I mix up the news stories because there are so many, but I think
I heard a father died in one case this week and a child in
the car died in another case this week. We need to keep our
mouths shut. We need to be like the Lord Jesus.
The world will revile us. They will say wicked things against
us. And we need to keep our mouth
shut and press on and mind our business. And it won’t just avoid
road rage. It will make us a great witness. Our call is to be Christ-like. And we live in a complaining
world, don’t we? We live in a world that loves clashes. We love to
complain. And so Jesus, in the midst of
his suffering, prays. Now, isn’t this interesting contrast? The high priest, the leaders
of Israel who live in their palaces, who wear their robes, they love
places of honor and titles and honors through the town. Here’s
the real high priest, scorned. The true high priest, despised.
The great high priest, mocked. The real My high priest, after
the order of Melchizedek, he is surrounded by dogs, as Psalm
22 says of him. He is without strength and they
are gloating and they are dividing his garments. They have pierced
his hands and his feet, and he is hanging there as a spectacle
to all that they might see. They’re treating his life as
a game. bargaining for his clothes. They
are scoffing at him. If you are the true son of God,
save yourselves. If you are the chosen one. Oh,
you’re the king of the Jews. The sign over your head at the
top of the cross says it, save yourself. The crowds, the leaders
were jeering at him. We’ve got him. He’s finally going
to be dead. And there are two criminals to
the right and left of him. One criminal begins to mock him.
Now, Don’t want to be too graphic, but how in the world could a
criminal being crucified get up enough breath to lift himself
and to say these words to Jesus? What hatred and darkness must
have been in his life to at his last moments of life to be hating
Jesus so, but the other criminal rebukes him. And this is where
we see Jesus as a king. He’s a prophet and telling the
daughters of Jerusalem about the days to come. He’s a priest.
Father, forgive my captors for they know not what they do. But
look at his kingship here as this other criminal rebukes the
other. Do you not fear God? He says
to the other. Do you not fear God? You are
condemned to die. It is your due reward. We have
we have done what was said of us. It is true. Do you not fear
God? Keep the third commandment in
a sense, he’s saying, defend the holy name of God. We never
know the moment of salvation for another. Ordinarily, we believe
it comes through the preaching of the word. It can happen through
evangelism. It can take place as parents
tell their little ones over and over who God is and what he has
done. But how about on the cross? Luke
is so wonderful to tell us of Jesus continuing ministry along
the way of suffering. And even while there on the cross,
this criminal calls Jesus name. He says to him, when you come
into your kingdom, now, isn’t that a contrast? All the jeering,
if you’re the king of the Jews, save yourself. If you’re the
Messiah, if you’re the son of David, save yourselves and us. And he says, when you come into
your kingdom, what is he saying? I believe you. At that very moment,
the spirit opened that man’s eyes. He softened his heart and
in some special salvific way, he said, I believe your king. And when you come into your kingdom,
you make sure not to forget me. And what is Jesus so tenderly
do today? Today, when your crucified body
is dead. We’ll be together in paradise. What a wonderful ministry Jesus
has, even while on the cross. Yes, he’s taking care of the
sins of his people as the scapegoat. He’s offering himself as the
sacrifice for sin, but he is saving this man, this particular
man, this very moment and assures him of salvation. Now there’s
a couple of strange events that follow. It gets dark. Now remember, it’s Passover.
And what time of year does Passover take place? It takes place at
full moon. And you know what full moon is
like. The sun is usually high. And what else can you see during
the day? You can see the moon. It’s not going to get dark for
a really long time during a full moon stretch. But it’s middle
of the day, and it turns dark. It’s a cosmic darkness, a darkness
of judgment. And then we read that as Jesus
Says his last words, Father into my hands, I commit my spirit
to you. The temple’s curtain was torn
in two. Remember, there was a curtain.
It was 90 feet tall. It was a thick curtain. If you’ve
got drapes in your house, you’ve got nothing like these. These
were thick, heavy, thousands of pounds, and it’s torn from
top to bottom, from bottom to top. And so we remember that
in this moment of cosmic justice, when the satisfaction was made
for sins, there was no longer need for a high priest to enter
the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Remember, this
is Passover. This is Yom Kippur all in one. Jesus is the offerer and he is
the offering. And at that very moment, at his
death, All the sins of the people that God would save were laid
on this scapegoat. And so that curtain torn in two
and Hebrews, the book of Hebrews tells us that in the death of
Jesus, a new way has been opened and we don’t enter the holy of
holies, but once a year and that through a high priest, we have
free and full access to the throne of grace 24 seven, whenever we
need, we run straight to our high priest, Jesus. who when
he had made satisfaction for sins and ascended into heaven,
he sat down because his priesthood, his work of atonement was completed
and his priesthood only continues now in his daily prayers for
us. These are strange events, but
with great significance. And notice the response of a
continued number from the crowd. There was a centurion. There
was a centurion who watched this front row seat. And as the darkness
came, and you know the other gospels tell us of an earthquake.
The other gospels tell us that the tombs were opened and people
received back their dead. The curtain of the temple was
torn in two and news of all these cosmic events must have gone
round the city. And the centurion says, certainly
this man was innocent. What better declaration could
you hear? What better words could a person
witnessing the event of the cross say? This man was innocent. Well,
actually he wasn’t. All the sins of the saints were
laid on Jesus. He who knew no sin became sin
for us in order that we might become the righteousness of Christ.
There’s another interesting response. There are people, it says, those
who gathered to see this spectacle, they went home beating their
breast, pronouncing woes upon themselves, no doubt. What in
the world has happened? A good man has died. I think
I read recently There was an execution, maybe in the state
of Texas, might have been in South Carolina. I can’t remember
which. But most are pretty sure an innocent man went to his death.
And that’s generally the reason we oppose the death penalty in
our country. Because our justice system, you
know, it’s not perfect. And so we don’t want a person
not guilty to face the ultimate penalty for something they did
not do. This is a scary thing. And what do these people realize?
They realize something horrible has gone wrong with the justice
system. Something wrong has been done
here and it’s in their hearts. But notice Jesus’ acquaintances,
the women who followed him, his disciples, no doubt they stood
at a distance. Could you imagine as a decent
human being coming near any of this? You couldn’t, you wouldn’t
want to get near it. You couldn’t stand to hear the
sights and the sounds and the smells and the sensory events
of such a Roman ghastly execution. And so his acquaintances stood
at a distance. There’s a wonderful end to this
story. Our Bible tells us about Joseph
Arimathea, or at least the book of Luke does. Another gospel
tells us Nicodemus, the one who came by night to Jesus and earlier
in the gospel accounts. Those two were on the Sanhedrin.
Those two were probably the two no votes for Jesus execution. They were looking for the kingdom
of God and they wanted to give Jesus a decent burial. Most.
Well, every executed criminal in Rome would have been left
to hang, left for the flies, left for the gnats, left for
the deterrent factor of hanging on the cross. No criminal would
want to endure that. Then their bodies would probably
be taken outside the city to the dump, to Gehenna, what’s
often referred to as Sheol in the Bible. It’s where the fires
never stop burning. It’s how they handled their trash. They didn’t have the blue trucks
on Tuesday and recycling every other Tuesday like we all do.
So they burned their trash and they burned the bodies. but not
so Jesus. And this is the beginning of
Jesus’ exaltation. We think his exaltation begins
when he rises from the dead. But Jesus, though he will lay
in death’s bonds for some time, he is buried. He is wrapped in
a shroud. The spices are there. The women,
these two men, they want to take care of his body, and he is buried
with the rich. And so we begin to see Jesus
rise from his utter humiliation as he is buried in the tomb. The shame is over. His naked
body is now clothed with burial cloth and he is put into the
sepulcher. Now I want you to think, fast
forward a few moments in your brain, if you will. This hatred
that was expressed by the religious leaders to Christ it will continue. As we, in the weeks and months
ahead, pick up our study of Luke’s writings in the book of Acts,
we will see that as Jesus’ disciples are left on earth to preach and
proclaim the gospel, when they give the message of the cross,
they are met with stones. They are met with whips. They
are met with chains. They are met with all kinds of
opposition. And so when Jesus ascends up
into heaven after his resurrection, there are 120 followers. But what can they do with the
message of the cross? What can we do with the message of the
cross? Well, we can put our faith and hope in God who saves because
our lives are without hope in this world without the cross.
But we can preach and proclaim. They had 120 disciples on the
day of Pentecost. And what did Peter do? Did he
build a climbing wall and start a youth group? Did he get a rock
and roll band up and rent out a stadium? They didn’t do any
of that. What did they do? They preached
the clear, plain message of the cross, which Paul says in other
places is an offense. And 3,000 were added that day. Friends never lose sight of the
power of the cross, not only to save you from your sins, but
it can heal and help this dark and dying world. Pray with me.
Our Lord and God, we thank you. We bless you for the work of
the cross, for the power of the cross. And we pray that today
this word would strengthen us as we see that our Savior was
crucified and dead and buried all for our sakes, all for our
sin. Lord, he is the scapegoat. We deserve to hang there, but
he was sent in our place. What a great act of love and
mercy. Help us to remember this, to
treasure it, and to live out of your grace because of what’s
been done for us in Christ Jesus. Amen.