Luke 23:26-56“The Crucifixion Of
Jesus”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at the first 25 verses of chapter 23.
1.1.1. We observed the three trials that Jesus was given before the Roman
governing authorities: Two before Pilate
and one before Herod Antipas.
1.1.2. In Jesus’ trials, we saw previously that it was obvious that He was
completely innocent of any of the charges that were brought against Him, for
the gospel writers tell us of six witnesses who proclaimed Jesus’ innocence
at this time:
1.1.2.1. Pilate (declares Jesus’ innocence three times- Luke 23:4, 14, 22).
1.1.2.2. Pilate’s wife (Matt. 27:19).
1.1.2.3. Herod Antipas (Luke 23:15).
1.1.2.4. Judas Iscariot (Matt. 27:4).
1.1.2.5. A Roman centurion at the foot of Jesus’ cross (Matt. 27:54).
1.1.2.6. One of the thieves on the cross (Luke 23:41).
1.2.
In our study today we are
going to look at verses 26-56 of chapter 23.
1.2.1. Jesus will be crucified on Friday morning and remain on the cross for
six hours. He will be taken down before
dark so that He can be buried the same day as the Law required and at the same
time not interfere with anyone’s plans for observance of the Sabbath. Then, in chapter 24 we will see that Jesus is
resurrected from the dead.
1.2.2. Jesus previously had given the sign that after three days in the grave
that He would raise again from the dead, however it must be the case that it
was part of three different days that He was speaking of, not three 24 hour
periods.
1.2.3. We will see that many prophesies of the Old Testament scripture were
fulfilled in Jesus on this day.
2. VS 23:26 - “26 When
they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of
2.1.
One of the aspects of
crucifixion that was intended to bring ultimate shame to a prisoner being
executed was to force him to carry His own cross to his crucifixion. This usually involved carrying only the cross
beam upon his shoulders, however in some cases a prisoner could have been required
to carry both beams.
2.2.
We can imagine that with all
of the things that Jesus has already suffered in His being beaten and slapped
and receiving 39 lashes with a cat of 9 tails that Jesus would not have the
strength to carry His own cross.
2.3.
Simon the
2.4.
It is interesting to
consider that for Simon the Cyrene that he literally had to take up Jesus’
cross and come after Jesus and that doing this most likely resulted in his
conversion.
3. VS 23:27-31 - “27
And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were
mourning and lamenting Him. 28 But Jesus turning to them said,
“Daughters of
3.1.
The large crowd that is now
following Jesus to
3.2.
As we consider all that has
happened on this night and morning with Jesus it becomes obvious that Jesus has
not been thinking about Himself. Jesus
is willingly submitting Himself to all that He has to go through in order to
redeem mankind. He did not resist those
who arrested Him and even healed the ear of the high priest’s slave after Peter
had cut it off. He did not defend
Himself to His accusers or judges nor try to manipulate Himself out of His
difficulty. He took every punch and slap
without cursing or assailing the one who hit him. Here when the crowd following Him is mourning
and lamenting Him He tells them with a broken heart to think about themselves
and to mourn and lament for themselves because of the judgment that is about to
come upon the nation of Israel for rejecting Him as their Messiah and refusing
to believe that He might be the Holy One of Israel.
3.3.
When Jesus says to the women
following Him, ‘‘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.’,’ this saying is inline
with Jesus’ Olivet Discourse in chapter 21 of Luke that prophetically predicts
the events of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as well as the events that
will occur during the 7 year Tribulation period of the book of Revelation which
lead up to Jesus’ Second Coming. See
also Luke 19:41-44. Things will be so
turned upside down during the fall of Jerusalem that people will desire death,
for the mountains to fall upon them, however because God is judging them they
will not find death.
4. VS 23:32-33 - “32
Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to
death with Him. 33 When they came to the place called The Skull,
there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on
the left.” - Jesus is taken to
4.1.
Jesus is led to be crucified
to a hill known as “Golgatha” in the Greek, which is word that means “skull.” The Latin translation of this word is “Calvaria”
from which we get our word “
4.2.
Since crucifixion served the
two purposes of humiliating and punishing the prisoner and also that of a warning
and deterrent to anyone else who might be tempted to consider transgressing
Roman law and authority, the place where Jesus was crucified on this day was on
the main road going in and out of Jerusalem.
Since it was the time of the Passover, we can be sure that multitudes of
people on this day observed Jesus’
crucified upon His cross.
4.2.1. Crucifying Jesus in such a public way surely backfired on those crucifying
Jesus on this day however for multitudes came to witness and be influenced by
the man whose cross bore the words “King of the Jews.”
4.3.
Luke doesn’t include a lot
of details about how the soldiers went about crucifying Jesus, he just states
that they crucified Him. We know from
the other gospels that they drove a nail into each of Jesus’ hands, however the
gospels do not state specifically that they drove a nail through His feet. However, Psalm 22 tells us prophetically that
the Messiah would have his hands and feet pierced.
4.4.
Here we are introduced to
the two thieves who were crucified one on each side of Jesus. These men had committed a terrible crime of
robbery and according to Warren Wiersbe the word used in Matt. 27:38 for these
robbers means, “one who uses violence to rob openly.” This indicates that these two thieves had
used a weapon in the process of robbery and possibly committed a murder
also. They were not just thieves who had
snuck in somewhere and secretly stolen some goods, they had committed “armed
robbery.”
4.5.
Prophesy was fulfilled with
these two thieves for in Isaiah 53:12 Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah
would be crucified with malefactors, “12 Therefore,
I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with
the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the
transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the
transgressors. “
5. VS 23:34 - “34 But
Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are
doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.” - Jesus asks the Lord to
forgive those who were crucifying Him
5.1.
In Jesus’ Sermon On The
Mount He had taught His disciples that they were to love their enemies and pray
for them, here Jesus is practicing what He preached and interceding for those
who were unjustly crucifying Him.
5.1.1. Isn’t it awesome to have a Savior who practices what He preaches?
5.2.
Just because Jesus prayed
for these men does not mean that their sins were forgiven them at this
time. Those who are hardened in sin and
refuse to repent can never be forgiven until such time as they have a change of
heart and come to repentance before the Lord.
5.3.
The gospel accounts reveal
seven utterances which Jesus made from the cross:
5.3.1. Luke 23:34,
“34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what
they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among
themselves.”
5.3.2. Luke 23:43,
“43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me
in
5.3.3. John
19:25-27, “25 Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus
were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and
Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple
whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then
He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple
took her into his own household.”
5.3.4. Matthew 27:46,
“46 About the
ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?””
5.3.5. John 19:28,
“28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already
been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.””
5.3.6. John 19:30, “30 Therefore when Jesus had
received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up
His spirit.”
5.3.7. Luke 23:46,
“46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having
said this, He breathed His last.”
5.4.
Psalms 22 is a Psalm in which the Psalmist wrote about
himself and yet in which prophesy was enfolded as the Holy Spirit encoded many
things that occurred during Jesus’ crucifixion including the fact that men
would cast lots for His clothes, “1 My God, my God, why have You
forsaken me? Far from my
deliverance are the words of my groaning. 2 O my God, I cry by day,
but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no rest. 3 Yet You
are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of
6. VS 23:35-37 - “35
And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at
Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of
God, His
6.1.
The mocking of Jesus here
has to do with the fact that the people were taunting Him saying that if He
truly were the Son of God and had great powers then let Him deliver Himself and
come down from the cross. They mock
Jesus saying that if He is the King of the Jews as He claims, then let Him save
Himself. If He can save others, let Him
show His powers now and save Himself.
6.1.1. Many people do the same thing to God that this crowd at the cross did
to Jesus. They taunt the Lord. They tell the Lord that if He is God then let
Him perform some incredible miraculous work and demonstrate this truth. However, though the Lord is capable of
performing mighty miracles even beyond our ability to conceive, He normally
does not respond to people’s taunts. The
Lord honors a person’s faith and expects them to have faith in Him and His
ability, and then He will work mightily in their life and do great things with
and in them. As I have said many times,
faith is the conduit through which the Lord works in our lives.
6.2.
The people on this day did
not realize why these things were happening to Jesus, and thus they were
mocking Him. They didn’t understand that
Jesus was willingly making His life a sacrifice for mankind in order to pay the
sin penalty that each of us owed to the Lord because our sin of not obeying God’s
Laws and serving Him with our life.
6.2.1. In 2 Cor. 5:17-21, the apostle Paul wrote about Christ’s mission and
how His death upon the cross affects the lives of those who receive Jesus as
their Lord and Savior, “17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have
come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us
to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely,
that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were
making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
6.2.2. Likewise, in Col. 2:13-14 the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians
about the fact that upon Calvary’s cross that Jesus was accomplishing something
very important for mankind, namely that He was canceling out the certificate of
debt consisting of the sins that each of us has committed, “13 When you
were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made
you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against
us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed
it to the cross.”
6.2.2.1. God didn’t give us 10 “Suggestions,” He gave us 10 “Commandments,” each
of which begins with, “Thou shalt not.”
Whenever we break these “Commandments” whether in action or thought,
commission or omission, we have created a sin debt to God. Jesus paid our entire sin debt for our entire
life upon
7. VS 23:38-43 - “38
Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE
JEWS.” 39 One of the criminals who were hanged there was
hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” 40
But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God,
since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 “And we
indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for
our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he was
saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” 43 And
He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in
7.1.
Pilate had asked Jesus in
our previous study if He were the King of the Jews, trying to find out if Jesus
were a threat to cause an insurrection of the Jews against Rome, and Jesus had
affirmed to Pilate that He was such, however He also told Pilate that His
kingdom was not of the world, for if it were of this realm then His servants
would have fought. Now, Pilate in
sarcastic mockery of both Jesus (for His claims which Pilate considered
delusionary) and the Jews (who were
crucifying their King), not that Jesus said that He was the king of the
Jews but rather that Jesus is the king of the Jews.
7.2.
John 19:20 tells us that
this inscription that Jesus was the king of the Jews was written on Jesus’ cross
in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek so that virtually every person passing by in
route to and from Jerusalem would see the saying and be able to read it.
7.3.
We see here that on this day
one of the thieves followed the crowd and mocked Jesus, ‘hurling abuse at
Him.’ However, the thief crucified
on the other side of Jesus observed what so many were refusing to acknowledge
on this day. He understood that Jesus
was being punished unjustly. This thief
was one of the six people on this day who proclaimed Jesus’ innocence of any of
the crimes He was charged with. This
thief rebuked the other thief asking him if he feared God. Then, he tells the other thief that they were
there being crucified because they deserved such punishment ‘for our deeds’
but of Jesus he states ‘this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then this thief asks Jesus to remember him
when He comes into His kingdom. Jesus
tells the man that He shall be with Him in
7.3.1. These two thieves paint a picture of redemption for mankind. Here we see two men, both of whom are
transgressors of the Law, a transgression that will result in their death. They are being punished as their due because
of their sins. However, one of these two
men calls out to Jesus to save him and as a result of the contrition of his
heart and his appeal to Jesus, he will no longer suffer eternal death but when
he passes from this life he will go to spend eternity with Jesus. And, there is absolutely nothing that this
man has done that has caused him to be worthy of receiving this eternal life
except to place his faith in Jesus, bring his heart into contrition with Jesus’
will, and call out to the Lord to save him.
This man’s salvation is the result of God’s grace and mercy not any work
that he has performed, and, the man hasn’t even been though baptism in water as
a Christian. Salvation for men, women,
and children comes about as a result of faith through God’s grace and not as a
result of works, as Paul writes in Eph. 2:8-9, “8 For by
grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
7.3.2. It is ironic that though many people saw Jesus perform mighty and
wonderful miracles and though did not believe in Him that here a man sees Jesus
be punished and crucified and comes to have faith in Him. To a degree the thief on the cross must have
understood the incarnation of Jesus and its implications for Jesus was relating
to this man on his own terms, condescending to the man’s level, meeting him where
he was at, and dying in his place.
7.4.
There has been discussion
about exactly what Jesus meant when He told this thief, ‘Today, you shall be
with me in
7.4.1. First of all, the word ‘
7.4.2. Secondly, Jesus was either telling the man that that very day that he
would be with Jesus in Paradise, or He was simply telling the man that he would
be with Him in Paradise and he was making this statement on this day.
7.4.3. In any case, the bottom line is the fact that Jesus was promising this
man that as a result of his faith and repentant heart that he would be spending
eternity not in the hell that is reserved for the devil and his angels and all
of those who are not God’s people in this life (see Rev. chapter 20), but
rather with the Lord and in the Lord’s presence and kingdom.
8. VS 23:44-46 - “44
It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until
the ninth hour, 45 because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the
temple was torn in two. 46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice,
said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He
breathed His last.” - Darkness covers the land for three hours, and
then Jesus cries out and dies
8.1.
Jesus will spend a total of
6 hours upon the cross on this day, and we read here that three of those hours,
beginning at the sixth hour, were shrouded in a divine darkness that covered ‘the
whole land.’ This darkness evidently
ended after Jesus breathed His last.
8.2.
According to Exod. 10:21 and
following, three days of darkness preceded the first Passover when the children
of Israel were delivered from Egypt and slavery, and here three hours of
darkness preceded this Passover when Jesus was upon the cross paying or penalty
so that we could be delivered from slavery to sin and death and thereby be able
to be transported to live in the resurrection life of Christ.
8.3.
According to Warren Wiersbe,
this saying by Jesus, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,’ was
a prayer that Jewish children prayed every night before bed and very similar to
the prayer that mothers in our country often pray with their children before
bed, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I
should die before I awake I pray the Lord my soul to take.’
8.4.
Here we see God working in
miraculous ways on this day:
8.4.1. There was ‘darkness’ that came over the land for a period of
three hours.
8.4.1.1. The Passover always occurred during the full moon and there is no way
that with a full moon, and with this being the middle of the day, that any kind
of eclipse of the sun could occur. This is a divine blockage of sunlight that is
occurring at this point in time.
8.4.1.2. Many have conjectured that this darkness occurred because the Father
could not look upon His Son when the sin of the world was upon Him, and/or
because the Father wanted to conceal His Son from any further shame as He hung
stretched upon the tree. After all, the
Law stated that everyone who hung upon a tree was cursed (Duet 21:23).
8.4.1.2.1.
Paul wrote in Gal. 3:13
about what Christ did for us in becoming a curse for us by hanging upon the
tree, “13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”” Moses outlined from the Lord to the people
that there was going to be great “blessing” for all who kept the Law of
Moses which the Old Covenant under Moses was based upon, and great “curses”
for all who did not keep all of the Law.
Because all of us are sinners we have never been able to keep all of the
Law of Moses and thus we rightfully should inherit all of those curses. However, through accepting Christ’s work for
us upon
8.4.2. An “earthquake” occurred and the ‘veil of the temple was torn
in two.’
8.4.2.1. In Matt. 27:50-51, we read that it was when Jesus cried out with a loud
voice and yielded up His spirit that an earthquake occurred and the veil of the
temple was torn in two. This event must
have corresponded with verse 46 here and when Jesus said that He committed His
spirit to the Lord.
8.4.2.2. The tearing of the veil of the temple symbolized that the Old Covenant
was nullified and that the way to the Lord no longer involved going to the
temple, observing the sacrifices and the feasts, and keeping ceremonially clean
according to the ordinances of the Law of Moses. Also, under the Old Covenant the temple veil
symbolized that men could not come into God’s presence, for then only the
priests could go into the Holy of Holies, and then only once a year. Now the torn veil reveals that access to God
is continually available for all, and the way of entry is not through a veil
but through Jesus Christ. In Hebrews
chapters 9 and 10 the author of that book speaks of these things concerning access
to God and the temple veil, and in Heb. 10:19-23 we read, “19 Therefore,
brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of
Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us
through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a
great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a
sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us
hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is
faithful.” This tearing of the veil teaches us that
there is no other way to come to God but through Jesus Christ.
9. VS 23:47-49 - “47
Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God,
saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.” 48 And all the crowds who
came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began
to return, beating their breasts. 49 And all His acquaintances
and the women who accompanied Him from
9.1.
The darkness followed by the
earthquake and the tearing of the veil of the temple made an incredible impression
upon those who were before Jesus’ cross.
These events were understood to be miraculous and divine in origin and
evidently convinced all who were present both of Jesus’ being innocent of all
charges, and that He was the Son of God.
Those there on this day now knew that this was not the death of any
ordinary man, nor even a good man, nor a prophet, rather this was the death of
the Son of God. Israel had succeeded in
killing He who was the hope of Israel, her Messiah. Now, she had to face the wrath of Almighty
God. This is what all present understood
at this moment in time.
9.2.
Incredibly, the death of
Jesus turned from being a scene of mocking and hurling abuse at Jesus to one of
mourning and lamenting and the beating of breasts because of the horror of
realizing only too late what the nation had done and what had happened to God’s
Son.
9.3.
From the various gospel
accounts of this day, we realize that present to the end and watching Jesus
from a distance were:
9.3.1. Three Marys: Mary the mother of
Jesus whom Jesus upon the cross gave orders to be placed into the apostle
John’s care, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses.
9.3.2. A woman named Salome.
9.3.3. The apostle John.
9.4.
John 19:31-37 tells us that
as the soldiers were collecting the bodies off of the cross just before sundown
that they came to Jesus, however they discovered that he was already dead and
thus they did not break His legs to bring about His death (a man with broken
legs would not be able to push himself up for each breath to inflate his lungs
and thus would soon suffocate). Instead,
the soldiers stuck a sword into Jesus’ side and blood and water came out. The water and blood indicated that Jesus had
been dead for awhile and that his blood had already separated in his heart and
lungs.
10.
VS 23:50-53 - “50 And a man named
Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man 51 (he
had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a
city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; 52 this man
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it
down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock,
where no one had ever lain.” - Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the
Sanhedrin, obtains the body of Jesus and takes it down wraps it in a cloth and
takes it and lays it in a tomb he owned
10.1.
There were two secret
disciples of Jesus among the Sanhedrin:
Joseph of Aramathea, and Nicodemus, the man who came to him at night
(John 3). These men were surely not present
when the deal was struck with Judas to betray Jesus nor at Jesus’ trial for
they would have dissented from the vote that was required to be unanimous in
these cases. Evidently, a quorum of the
Sanhedrin was assembled and was all that was deemed necessary to make these
decisions.
10.2.
Joseph is described in the
gospel accounts as being rich and from the area of Aramathea, however no one is
really sure where this is located. He
immediately goes to Pilate in order to properly bury the body of Jesus. Many believe that Joseph of Aramathea had
received a revelation from the Lord about Jesus’ death and that the Lord had
spoken to him to buy a grave near the site of the public crucifixions for there
is no other reason that a rich man from a distant area would own such a
tomb. He was possibly just waiting on
this day to go and to ask for the body of Jesus so that he could bury Jesus in
his tomb.
10.3.
This tomb belonging to
Joseph of Aramathea was evidently located in a garden near the side of a hill
and was actually cut out of the side of that hill.
10.4.
The gospel stories reveal to
us that after obtaining Jesus’ body that Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus
evidently washed Jesus body and wrapped it in a linen with 100 pounds of spices
(see John 19:39), the amount normally reserved for a king. It is possible that they bought these spices
earlier after receiving a revelation about the Lord’s impending death.
10.5.
Joseph’s asking to bury
Jesus’ body helped fulfill the law in Duet. 21:22-23 to be fulfilled, “22 “If a man
has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on
a tree, 23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you
shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God),
so that you do not defile your land which the Lord
your God gives you as an inheritance.”
11.
VS 23:54-56 - “54 It was the
preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 Now the
women who had come with Him out of
11.1.
The women following Jesus
were possibly the most dedicated of His followers for they were the last to be
with Jesus upon the cross, the first at the tomb on Sunday morning, and the
first to be told by angels at the tomb that Jesus had been raised from the
dead. Jesus elevated the status of women
from being mere possessions of men to being equal heirs with men. Even today, I believe that there are more
women who are spiritually minded than men.
11.2.
These women leave the tomb
after they follow Joseph of Aramathea and Nicodemus to see where Jesus is
buried, and then they go to prepare spices and perfumes so that after the
Sabbath they will be able on Sunday to give Jesus’ body the best burial possible.
12.
CONCLUSIONS:
12.1.
Have you placed your faith
in Jesus and His completed work upon