Zephaniah 1:8-11 - On that day

1:8,9

It is now made clear that the immediate context is the destruction of Jerusalem. The officials and relations of the king would be the ones who were benefiting from the current way that things were done, but judgement would come upon them. There is no escape from the Lord’s judgement.  “Clad in foreign clothes” is a reference to adopting the ways of pagan nations. “Stepping on the threshold” is also a reference to a pagan activity if worship. “Violence and deceit” go along with worship of idols. We see this today, and throughout history. When a people stop worshiping God, violence and deceit come in, for such a people lose moral bearings. In Judah this was happening to a people who maintained some pretence of worshiping God, but in reality were not. Likewise in history there have sadly been times when the “church” has stopped worshiping God in reality, and violence and deceit have ensued.

1:10,11

What will happen on the day of the Lord? The merchants who had made money by economic exploitation would suffer. In all societies that are going awry there are groups who make money. This can be done in overtly criminal ways, such as drug dealers, or human traffickers. Or it can be done in “respectable” ways, ie by legal trade that exploits people. But a day of reckoning will come, and a reckoning from which there will be no escape. Note that Zephaniah mentions specific areas of the city, thus making it all very real.

Zephaniah 1:5-7 -Be silent

1:5,6

The priests may have claimed to still be worshipping the Lord, but they would go up to the roofs of their houses and bow down to the stars, and also worship Molek, or Milcom. We should bear in mind that this worship of idols often involved sexual immorality and child sacrifice. They neither sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him. Today there are many in the church who do not seek the Lord, who pay no attention to what He has said.

1:7

“The day of the Lord” is a motif of Zephaniah, it is what all the prophecy is about. For a long time men seem to get on with doing things the way they want to do them. In Judah priests worshipped idols, here were various unjust and corrupt practices. Powerful nations seem to be able to do whatever they want. Yet a time comes when it is “the day of the Lord”, when His purposes come to light. We see this in events in history when there is a partial fulfilment, at the end of time there will be the final and everlasting day of the Lord. So people who are wise, and nations that are wise will stop their boasting and be silent before the Lord.

We can now see a clear reference to the cross, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice that will consecrate His people. Now the Jews would probably take this as referring just to them, as we know that sacrifice would consecrate peoples from all nations. In the immediate context this would refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the people of Judah would themselves be the sacrifice.

Zephaniah 1:1-4 - I will sweep away everything

1:1

The word of the Lord came to Zephaniah. we are not told how the word came to him. Nowadays if someone claims to have a word from the Lord, how do we judge whether or not it is indeed from God? The first thing we do is test it against Scripture, if anything is contrary to the Bible then it most definitely is not a word from the Lord.

Zephaniah was a descendant of Hezekiah. Josiah was a reforming king, but one who has succeeded two evil kings.

1:2,3

These words are reminiscent of God’s word prior to the flood (Gen 6:13). The complete destruction implied may be not totally complete. In Noah’s day we know that God spared some of mankind, and some of the animals. In v 3 NIV has “the idols that cause the wicked to stumble”, ESV has “the rubble with the wicked”. Whatever the details, widespread judgement is about to come upon the earth. So here we see the immediate and long term application of prophecy. In the short term it applied to Judah and the surrounding nations. longer term it looks ahead the God’s judgement upon the whole earth.

1:4

The judgement will come on all people, starting with the people of God! Imagine how this would have sounded to the people Zephaniah was speaking to, his own people. They thought they were safe, they thought they were living under God’s protection, but His hand would be stretched out against them. Jeremiah warned against the same complacency. Sin was their biggest problem and they were ignoring it. Jesus encountered exactly the same reaction when He came to earth. Peter also warns that judgment begins with the house of God (1 Pet 4:17). Any teaching that thinks we are immune from God’s judgement in the senses that it doesn’t matter how we live is a most dangerous and wrong teaching. The primary reason for the judgement is the idol worship. All remnants of Baal worship would be removed, along with all the priests that served Baal.

Zephaniah - Introduction

Bibliography

Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, David W Baker, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, IVP (1988)

Another little foray into the Old Testament. The first verse in the book tells us about all that we really know about Zephaniah. He was a descendant of Hezekiah, one of the good kings of Judah, and he operated in the time of the reign of Josiah, another of the good kings. Hezekiah had introduced various religious reforms, and had seen off the Assyrians with divine intervention. However, there was never any deep rooted change in the nation. As soon as Hezekiah had gone, the next kings, Manasseh and Amon brought back the detestable practices that Hezekiah had swept away. Josiah did bring in more reforms and acted against pagan practices. Given the nature of Zephaniah’s prophecy it could be argued that he must have given his message in the early stages of Josiah’s reign, before the reforms took hold. However, this is by no means certain, as it is possible that pagan worship persisted in parts of the nation, despite official policy.

Zephaniah was probably contemporary with Nahum, Habakkuk and Jeremiah. His name means “the Lord hides” or “the Lord protects”.

The message of Zephaniah has one overriding theme and that is “the day of the Lord”, and he focuses with equal weight on two aspects of this Day. One is the judgement on Judah and the other nations, and the other is the blessing of Judah, of God’s people. Blessing and judgement are part of the gospel as well. Whenever we focus on just one of these we are going astray. Nowadays the common error is just to talk about the blessings of the gospel, totally neglecting the aspect of judgement. It is only when we look at both together that we start to see the full riches of the gospel.

Luke 24:48-53 - Great joy!

24:48,49

The disciples had been witnesses to the things that had happened. They had been with Jesus, seen Him do and teach all sorts of things. They had witnessed the suffering, now they had witnessed the resurrection. Jesus would send the “what my Father has promised”. This is the Holy Spirit, and this is prophesied in Joel 2:28-32. Peter referred to Joel in his first sermon. Jesus then instructs them to stay in the city until they are clothed with power from on high. This happened at Pentecost. We are meant to be clothed with power. Now, this does not mean we become super beings or have an easy life. The early Christians were still men and women! They were persecuted, with most of the apostles dying for their faith. But they also had power. This involved doing miracles, it involved powerful preaching, it involved effective evangelism.

24:50-53

Jesus then led them to Bethany and lifted up His hands and blessed them. Jesus was then taken up to heaven. There is no indication of when this took place, and many more details are given in Acts (also written by Luke). Why does Luke round things off so suddenly? He is marking the end of one phase and the beginning of another. In John’s gospel Jesus stresses to the disciples that it is good, even essential, that He goes away so that the Holy Spirit will come. Luke is stressing the same message. The departure of Christ was a good thing, which is why the disciples worshipped Him with great joy. Note the importance of worshipping Jesus. If Jesus was not God, then it would indeed be blasphemy to worship Him. So they stayed at the temple praising God, and in Acts the next phase, the phase we are still in, begins.

Luke 24:44-47 - Preaching repentance

24:44

Jesus then reminds them that He had told them all about these while He was with them, but they had been completely blind. And these things were written about Him in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms. This last bit is particularly important. We might sometimes think that in the case of the messianic psalms it is us reading things back into them, but Jesus tells us that the Psalms were pointing to Him as well as the prophets and the Law.

24:45

“Then He opened their minds”. We need Jesus to open our minds in order for us to see the truth of the gospel. Now this gets some people all upset for we see ourselves as fully autonomous, able to decide for ourselves to believe in Christ. And some see this as taking away human responsibility. But the truth is that we are completely dependent upon God. If He had not created us in the first place we would not even exist, so where does that leave our “human autonomy”? However, the Bible also tells us that we are responsible. Indeed, Jesus has said many things in the gospels that imply human responsibility. So our utter dependence upon God for everything, including our coming to see the truth of the gospel, and our continued growth in Christ, are true, but human responsibility is also true. Now we may not be able to work out how these things can both be true, but God doesn’t seem to have a problem with it, so neither should you or I.

24:46,47

Now this is so important. Jesus here is summarising what the Old Testament says. Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, and Psalm 16-8-11 are relevant here, but they are not the only ones. The “raised on the third day” part is more difficult, not the rising, but the third day part. Jonah would seem to be what Jesus is thinking of. Now look at what the message is that Jesus says will be preached, “repentance for forgiveness of sins will be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. The gospel message is a message of repentance and forgiveness, all too often we preach a message of forgiveness with no mention of repentance.

Luke 24:38-43 - Not a ghost

24:38,39

“Why are you troubled?” The answer might seem obvious, but when God is at work, even if something goes completely against everything we have come to expect, we do not need to be troubled. Jesus shows them the wounds in His body. So we see two things about the resurrection body. On the one hand it is very different from our mortal bodies, yet at the same time it is absolutely real. We love to separate the physical and the spiritual, but in God’s kingdom both go together.

24:40-43

Jesus showed them His hands and feet to demonstrate that He really had been crucified. The crucifixion was absolutely real, the resurrection was absolutely real. Then it says “they did not believe it because of joy and amazement”. The events seemed too good to be true. Jesus then asked them for something to eat. They gave Him some broiled fish, which Jesus took and ate in their presence. Why is Luke telling us, and his original readers, all this? To demonstrate beyond all doubt the reality of the resurrection. There are those who speak only of a spiritual resurrection. Such people are fools, and there is absolutely no evidence for a “spiritual” resurrection. There is a mountain of evidence for the true resurrection of the Bible.

Luke 24:33-37 - Peace be with you

24:33-35

The two disciples then returned to Jerusalem. A wonderful thing had happened to them and they needed to tell the other disciples. Note that the desire and motivation to spread the good news does not come through training or technique, but through an encounter with the risen Lord. Verse 34 seems a little strange. It either implies that Simon was one of the two disciples on the road, or they are confirming that Peter had indeed seen the Lord when he claimed to have done so. The latter is the more likely, and they then relate what had happened to them on the road to Emmaus.                                  

24:36

There is further evidence here that the risen Christ was not quite the same as before the cross. Here He just suddenly appears among them. “Peace be with you”. The common greeting in most of the New Testament letters is “grace and peace”. The disciples were wondering what on earth (or what in heaven) was happening. When God is involved, if we are committed to Him, then peace is His gift to us.

24:37

But while Jesus came to bring peace, the disciples were “startled and frightened”. Yet again we see that they quite simply were not a bunch of gullible fools. People do not rise from the dead! The resurrection was totally unexpected for them, and against every preconception and mindset that they had. The message of the resurrection was not a result of wishful thinking.

Luke 24:28-32 - Heartburn!

24:28,29

They eventually arrived at the village of Emmaus. Jesus continued as if He was going further on, but the two disciples urged Him to stay with them, and Jesus agreed to do so. The text implies that this was actually what Jesus had always intended, yet He wanted them to specifically ask Him to stay with them. There are some things that God will not do unless we ask Him. Now a daft way to approach this is to start asking questions like “what would Jesus had done if the disciples had not asked Him to stay?” Well I have no idea, and it isn’t a problem to God, so it should not be a problem to us either. What we do with our lives matters, and God has again and again encouraged us to pray and ask, so we should pray and ask!

24:30-32

Jesus then took bread, gave thanks and gave it to them. There are similarities between this, the Last Supper and the feeding of the five thousand. Is it this similarity that led to their eyes being opened? Or was their supernatural intervention at this stage? I tend to favour the latter. We know the spiritual blindness shared by all men is only removed by the work of the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus disappeared from sight. Now why did that happen? Perhaps we need to understand the purpose of these appearances, and the reality of the resurrection. First, this does not in any way imply that Jesus was a ghost! But it is definitely true that He now has a resurrection body, and that body is different from our mortal bodies. Resurrection is not merely a revival of the old body, but a radical transformation. Now the two disciples believed, the worst thing that could happen is that they would hold on to the risen Christ (John 20:17). Jesus needed to ascend to the Father and the Holy Spirit would be sent. We do not need Jesus here now! We do need to know that He is risen, but we do not need His physical presence. Indeed, that is a recurrent theme in the post-resurrection appearances.

The disciples remark that their hearts were burning within while Jesus talked with them and opened the Scriptures. Jesus’ presence is real, and now God makes His presence real to us through the Holy Spirit.

Luke 24:19-27 - How foolish you are!

24:19-24

Jesus continues to “play dumb”, asking them to expand. They reply that it is Jesus of Nazareth. Then they tell Him who and what they thought Jesus was. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all people”. So He was a powerful godly man. They clearly held the chief priests responsible for His death, despite it being the Romans who actually carried out the deed.

They had hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. This implies two things. First, they thought all was now lost. Secondly, they still seemed to have been hoping for a political messiah. Then they reported what the women had seen, and that some of the disciples had been to the tomb and found it empty, but had not seen Jesus. It seems clear that they did not consider it a realistic proposition that Jesus was alive, and again we see that the early disciples were in no way gullible people who would readily believe that a man had been raised from the dead.

24:25-27

“How foolish you are ..” Well Jesus does not mince His words! We often think it is entirely reasonable that we do not understand, and that it is God’s fault for not making things clearer. Well, God has quite a different perspective on things! In the gospels Jesus told them quite plainly that He would have to suffer, but would then rise again from the dead, but the disciples understood nothing. Yet Jesus is actually pointing them back to the prophets, ie to the Old Testament. So Jesus began to show them from Moses and the Prophets how it was all pointing to what He did. By the way, this is our justification for one line of interpretation of the Old Testament, ie seeing how it points forward to Jesus.

Luke 24:13-18 - On the road to Emmaus

24:13-16

The appearance on the road to Emmaus is one of the most famous resurrection appearances. Two disciples were walking along the road to Emmaus. Emmaus was about seven miles from Jerusalem. We are only told who one of the disciples is, but they were talking with each other about the recent events. In fact the Greek word used can be used of debating, so their discussion was perhaps quite intense. As they were doing this Jesus came up and walked along side them. “But they were kept from recognising Him”. Why was this? There are two aspects to this question. First, why could they not recognise Him? We don’t know for sure, but several things can be said. One is that they were definitely not expecting to see Jesus, as far as they were concerned He was dead. In normal life if you see someone you know but in a context in which you never expect to see them there is sometimes doubt over who we are seeing. Next Jesus is not exactly the same, He has been raised from the dead, so there would be some differences as well. Then it says they were “kept from recognising Him”, so there may be a supernatural element to it as well. So there is then the second aspect of the question, why did God keep them from recognising Jesus. The reason for this will unfold. God wanted to take them from where they were in their (lack of) understanding, to a new level of understanding. Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination.

24:17,18

Jesus asked them what they were discussing. Of course, He knew what they were discussing. God knows all that we are thinking, He knows what we need. Yet He still asks us questions and wants us to pray. Why? Because He wants a relationship with us, and knowing ourselves is an important point in knowing God. Even though we read later that they had heard the report of the women at the tomb, it had not had much impact on them, for they were both downcast. Cleopas asked Jesus if He was the only one who didn’t know anything about what had happened in Jerusalem. Of course, Jesus is in fact the only One who did know what had really happened! It is interesting that Luke names Cleopas. Why did he do this, since nothing else is known about him? Perhaps it is because he was still alive and could be called on to testify to these events.

Luke 24:5-12 - Women witnesses

22:5-8

Why do you look for the living among the dead? These words remind us of Jesus’ word to the Sadducees, God is God of the living, not the dead. They then declare that Jesus is risen. They also remind the women that Jesus had told them He would rise again. Note that Jesus’ teaching was intended for women as well as men! It is also significant that the first witnesses of the resurrection were women. If the story was made up they would surely have chosen men as the first witnesses, given the cultural conditions of the first century. Note that they also reminded the women of Jesus saying He had to suffer. We must take the cross and the resurrection together, one without the other makes no sense at all.

24:9-12

The women told the things they had discovered, seen and heard. Luke names three of the women, but it is clear that there were more women who had gone to the tomb. The disciples did not believe the women, because their words seemed like nonsense. This knocks another of the sceptic's argument on its head. The idea is often given, implicitly if not explicitly, that the first century folk were somewhat gullible and would believe anything. This is not the case. They knew what death was, and that once someone was dead that was the last you saw of them. The New Testament witness is that a unique event has occurred.

Peter was not one of sitting around thinking, so he ran to the tomb to investigate matters for himself. When he got there he found an empty tomb. It seems that he is still not convinced at this stage, but he is wondering about what has happened.

Luke 24:1-4 - The empty tomb

24:1-3

We had seen that the women knew where the tomb was, By the way, this counteracts one of the supposed arguments against the resurrection, namely that the women went to the wrong tomb. They knew where the tomb was in which Jesus was buried. So they took the spices they had prepared, so that they could anoint the body. Mark tells us that the women wondered who would roll away the stone so they could anoint the body (Mark 16:3). This tells us that the stone would have been too heavy for two women to move. However, when they got there the stone had already been rolled away. They looked into the tomb, and found no body there.

24:4

Two men in gleaming white clothes appeared to them. These were angels, in the Bible angels often appear as men. We can see here the importance of worldview. The materialist, or sceptic, who totally discounts the possibility of miracles or divine intervention, will see this part as further “proof” that the whole thing was made up. However, that pre-supposes that miracles cannot happen. So it is presupposing the very thing they are seeking to prove, so is an invalid argument. Conversely, Luke telling us about the appearance of angels does not prove anything either. However, let’s assume for a moment that the resurrection did happen. If it did happen is it unusual that angels would be at the scene? Surely not. The resurrection is a unique event in history, the supreme moment (along with the cross, the two go together!) of God’s intervention in the world. So the appearance of angels at such a moment is entirely consistent.

Luke 23:47-56 - Dead and buried

2:47-49

The centurion recognised that something unique, something special, had just happened. A Gentile soldier recognised the truth. The crowds had probably come with mixed motives, perhaps even to be entertained in a gruesome manner, or maybe just out of curiosity. Even for these people something touched them about the events. The thousands who got saved at Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost may have included people who had witnessed the crucifixion. Anyway, the public death of Jesus opened a door for the evangelisation of the early church in its first days.

Luke again singles out the women when he mentions the followers of Jesus. He says little about them, other than that they stood at a distance.

2:50,51

Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Sanhedrin, but must have been absent from the council when they met to decide Jesus’ fate. For we are told the vote was unanimous (Mark 14:64), and Luke tells us that Joseph did not support their decision or action. Luke stresses that Joseph was a good and upright man and was looking for the kingdom of God. As an aside, it is worth noting that throughout the Bible, and throughout the New Testament in particular, being of good repute and good behaviour is commended. We have a habit of “condemning” the church for being “too middle class” at times. Now there are problems, and all of us have attitudes that need changing, but good behaviour and character is a good thing and is applauded by the Bible. Conversely, bad behaviour and bad attitudes are consistently rebuked.

2:52-56

Joseph asked Pilate if he could take care of the body. He probably wanted to ensure that Jesus’ body was not just dumped, but at least received a proper burial. Otherwise Jesus’ body might have been given a pauper's burial. So Jesus’ body was placed in a new tomb. Tomb’s were often rock-hewn and would be used for several bodies. Preparation day was the day before Sabbath.

Some of the women followers saw where the body was laid, so they would know which tomb to go to to pay their respects. Luke stresses their observance of the Sabbath.

Luke 23:44-46 - Into your hands I commit my spirit

23:44,45

Matthew and Luke record the darkness coming over the land. There is no indication of how this happened. It may have been an eclipse, or a totally supernatural event. It doesn’t matter, and one is not less “an act of God” than the other. Luke dwells less on the time on the cross than the other gospels. The darkness signifies the turning away of God, the wrath of God on our sin. The curtain is the curtain between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. This is usually taken as representing the barrier between us and God being torn apart by the death of Jesus, though some have also suggested that there is also the idea of the temple no longer being the place of God’s dwelling. Whether this signifies one or other of these, or both doesn’t really matter that much. The truth is that the way is now open to approach God through Christ, and He comes to dwell within us by His Spirit.

2:46

Jesus then committed His spirit to the Father. There are some ignorant people who talk of the cross as “cosmic child abuse”. Such people really have no idea what was going on. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were working together in perfect harmony. For reasons that we can only faintly understand the cross was the only way of saving mankind. The cross is an act of love by God, it was an act of love carried out in agreement and in a relationship of love to each other, by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words here demonstrate His trust in the Father, His love for the Father.

Luke 23:39-43 - The death penalty

23:39-43

In Luke 23:39-43 we read of two criminals, both equally guilty, both on a cross next to the Son of God. One hurls insults at Jesus, joining in with the mocking of the other people. It makes you wonder why he did this, he wasn’t exactly in a good situation himself! The other criminal, equally guilty, but he has a completely different reaction. He recognises what is really going on. They are both on a cross, and worthy of condemnation. Jesus is also on a cross, but He is completely innocent.
“Don’t you fear God?” This is a question we should all ask ourselves. If we are Christians we should ask ourselves this from time to time, especially if we are facing difficult circumstances, or are being severely tested. There is nothing like it to enable us to see things in true perspective. Proverbs 1:7 so truly says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The sceptic or the agnostic would also do well to ask themselves this question. Did you really come from nothing with no purpose? Will you really never have to give an account for your life?
The “good” thief asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom. What faith! There is Jesus hung on a cross, completely powerless in human terms. Yet this thief recognises that Jesus will “come into His kingdom”! Jesus replies that that very day the man will be with Him in paradise. Whatever the exact nature of heaven and the time between our dying and the return of Christ (if it does not come to pass in our lifetime), we do not need to worry one iota. As far as we are concerned, the day we die we will be with Jesus that very day in paradise.
One final aside on this wonderfully instructive incident. This incident knocks on the head one of the arguments sometimes used against the death penalty, namely that it stops someone having a chance to come to repentance. This man was in the midst of dying, yet he got saved. He came to faith. This is not an argument for the death penalty, but most of the so-called “Christian” arguments against the death penalty really are unbiblical nonsense. There are pragmatic arguments for not having the death penalty, but there are absolutely no moral/biblical arguments for saying that it is completely wrong. But let's stick to the matter in hand. It could be argued that if there is no death penalty for the most serious of crimes, then a criminal is allowed to avoid facing up to the true reality of his or her crimes, and one of the most important steps in salvation is realising our guilt and repenting. Conversely, if there is a death penalty then the criminal is brought face to face with true nature of what they have done. Maybe then, like this criminal, they will repent and believe.
Anyway, maybe that was a digression you weren’t expecting! Let me digress further!
Now I said earlier that “there are absolutely no moral/biblical arguments for saying that it is completely wrong”. Maybe this is a rather bold statement, so let me expand a little. If someone commits a serious crime (murder or multiple murders), then what right do you or I have to forgive them for some crime committed against someone else, and one that involved the taking of life? As the Pharisees rightly asked, who has the right to forgive sins but God? So if we merely imprison a murderer are we seeing justice done? Are we showing proper respect for human life in general and the life (or lives) of the victim(s) in particular?
Does this mean I believe we have to have the death penalty? No, but I see no moral superiority in not having the death penalty. However, there are pragmatic reasons for not having it. The most important, perhaps, is that if we have the death penalty then we have to face up to a very sobering fact: some people will be executed who are innocent. Of course, all sorts of safeguards and checks and balances would be in place, but even so there will inevitably be some, hopefully rare, occasions when it goes wrong. This may happen through human error, it may happen through deliberate evil, it may happen because the court was not aware of certain facts at the time of making the fateful decision. Whatever the reason, it will happen. There is the old saying that “I would rather ten guilty men go free than one innocent man is condemned”. There is some truth in this. If an innocent man is condemned, especially if it involves the death penalty, then severe harm is done to the justice system, not to mention the innocent man himself. I would certainly one guilty murderer went free than one innocent man was condemned to death, even two guilty men. But what about ten? What if some of these go on to murder other innocent people? The point of all this is that the “morality equation” is by no means simple.
There is one further point. Would you or I like to be the executioner? To bring to an end the life of another human being is a terrible thing to do.
So what am I saying in all this? I suppose that there are no simple answers to the question of whether a state should have the death penalty. Currently it is considered “morally superior” not to have the death penalty, but I can see no basis for this. In fact the moral argument would, if anything, seem to be on the other side. Yet this does not mean having the death penalty is definitely the right things to do either. Whatever we do needs to be done with the utmost  humility and seriousness.

Luke 23:36-38 - This is the King of the Jews

23:36,37

The rulers mocked, the soldiers also mocked. When rulers and those with power mock and do evil things, there will be all sorts of underlings who join in with the mocking and evil. The most terrible example is the Nazis. Ordinary Germans did unspeakable things because the rulers instigated an utterly evil regime. And when the tables turned, the Russians did equally unspeakable things.

23:38

“This is the King of the Jews”. The person who was being crucified had a placard beside them proclaiming the crime for which they were being crucified. John 19:19-22 tells us that the inscription was written in three languages. The Jewish leaders objected, wanting it to be changed to “claimed to be king of the Jews”, but Pilate refused to change it. Why did Pilate refuse? Was he mocking Jesus too, or was their a gnawing fear that Jesus actually was someone special? The latter would seem the most likely.

Luke 23:32-35 - Let Him save Himself

23:32-4

There were two other men being crucified at the same time, both of these were indeed criminals, and, at least within the justice system of the time, deserved to be there. This was a fulfilment of Isaiah 53:12, Jesus was “numbered with the transgressors”.  In Matthew the “Skull” is called “Golgotha”. There was one criminal on His right, and one on His left. Jesus then said “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. There is actually some doubt about this statement, with some manuscripts not containing these words. However, they are entirely consistent with Jesus’ teaching, and Stephen uttered similar words when he was being stoned to death (Acts 7:60). The soldiers divided up His clothes, fulfilling Psalm 22:18.

23:35

The people watched and the rulers sneered. The rulers mocked that Jesus , who saved others, could not, as they saw it, save Himself. How could He be the Messiah? Today we see our rulers and the elites mocking Christianity. But where did this mocking start? It started in the church, in the liberal theological colleges, with people doubting the word of God, doubting the divinity of Jesus Christ, doubting the virgin birth, doubting the atoning sacrifice, doubting the resurrection. And so it spread to society as a whole. Yet on the cross, the Son who was dying, who was suffering, was paying the price for our sins. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were working together to rescue us from the mess we have got ourselves into. Jesus did not come to save Himself, but to save us.

Luke 23:26-31 - Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves

23:26

It was normal for the condemned man to carry his cross, hence Jesus’ earlier statement that if we wanted to follow Him we need to be prepared to carry our own cross. Following Jesus is no bed of roses. As we read in the other gospels (Matt 27:26; Mark 15:15; John 19:1), Jesus had been whipped and scourged, and so greatly physically weakened. So Simon of Cyrene was commandeered to carry the cross. Cyrene was a region in North africa with a significant Jewish population.

23:27-31

Earlier we read of crowds calling for Jesus to be crucified. We need to realise that that crowd consisted largely of the various religious leaders and their supporters. Here we read of other people who were mourning and wailing for Jesus, especially the women. Expression of mourning are a lot louder in middle eastern culture than ours. Desperately weak as He was, and walking towards His death, Jesus still taught the people. “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children”. Jesus knew the spiritual state of the people, and what was to come in AD 66-70. Often we can seek to avoid the problems and issues in our own lives by focusing on something or someone else. The suffering that was going to come upon Jerusalem in thirty to forty years time would indeed be terrible.

In verse 31 the “green tree” is Jesus. Jesus is completely righteous, yet these events were unfolding. How much worse things would be when God’s judgement fell upon a sinful nation? There is an interesting lesson here for us. We have a tendency today to focus on the physical agony of the cross. Crucifixion was indeed a very cruel manner of death, but the New Testament does not focus that much on the physical suffering, though it certainly does not hide from it. The key element of the cross was the righteous, holy, Son of God laying down His life to pay for our sins.

Luke 23:20-25 - Crucify Him!

23:20-22

Pilate wanted to release Jesus. Elsewhere we are told of his wife warning him about Jesus in a dream. Pilate knew that crucifying Jesus was not the right thing to do, but he did not have the heart conviction to carry this through. Yet again the crowds cry “Crucify Him”, and yet again Pilate declares that he finds no reason to put Jesus to death.  So one more time he tries to appease the crowd by saying he will have Him punished then released. At some point authority will let us down, unless it is dedicated to doing God’s will.

23:23-25

There was no pacifying of the crowd. Today we see secularists, or some LGBT activists, or pro-abortionists making insistent cries (though, obviously, not to the point of demanding death!) against anyone who does not go along with their agenda. Pilate gave in to their demands, and today civic authorities will eventually give in to the demands of the activists. So the insurrectionist (the crime Jesus was accused of!) and murderer was set free. Jesus was given over to the will of the people.

Luke 23:13-19 - Away with this man!

23:13-17

Pilate calls the religious leaders to come before him and again tells them that he can find no basis for their claims. He also tells them that Herod could find no basis either. This agreement between Herod and Pilate on the nature of the case is presumably the reason for the new friendship between the two of them. They both recognised that Jesus was not inciting rebellion. Luke emphasises this point because the Roman authorities were starting to become the prime source of persecution of the Christians, and accusing them of the sorts of charges the Jews were bringing here. There is no rebellion against the state.

“Therefore, I will punish Him and then release Him”. This might seem rather strange to us, if He is innocent why not just release Him? We need to remember that we are talking about less politically correct times, and justice was much rougher! You won’t find v17 in most Bibles, but will see a footnote. The best manuscripts don’t have v17.

23:18,19

So Pilate has made the “right” decision, but he is driven by pragmatic reasons, not reasons of justice. Making right decisions, and making them for the right reasons are important. If we make right decisions for pragmatic reasons we will be easily turned from them given enough pressure, and that is what happened here. “The whole crowd” shouted ... Barabbas was a genuine troublemaker, genuinely guilty of the charges they had brought against Jesus. “The whole crowd” were the religious leaders, and anyone else they had managed to get to come along with them. So we see the depths of human sinfulness.

Luke 23:5-12 - Before Herod

23:5-7

This was not at all the answer that the Jews wanted. So the religious leaders stressed the point that Jesus “stirs up people all over Judea”. Note that Jesus did this by “His teaching”. They stressed that He was working His way from the borders of Israel to the capital. Pilate essentially wanted an easy life, certainly no trouble. So on hearing the mention of Galilee he sees an opportunity to pass the buck and get Herod to sort things out. We sometimes look to civil authorities to protect “religious freedom”. Up to a point they will, especially when there is a Christian foundation to a nation. But when that foundation is non-existent, or is starting to crumble, civil authorities will be more concerned about a quiet life. So we should not be surprised if they make seemingly illogical and wrong decisions when pressurised by secularists.

23:8-12

Herod was initially pleased. He had heard about Jesus and was intrigued by Him. This wasn’t out of any religious devotion, but out of a desire to see Jesus perform a miracle or two. Herod also asked Jesus many questions. However, Jesus gave Him no answer. The religious leaders were also there, hoping to get Herod to do their dirty work for them. So they vehemently accused Jesus. Herod and his entourage thought they were in the position of power, so they mocked Jesus, even dressing Him in an elegant robe. While Jesus had said little or nothing, the religious leaders had probably “accused” Him of being the king of the Jews. Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. Although it seems that little had been achieved, and Pilate still had his problem, Herod and Pilate became friends. Previously they had been enemies.

Luke 23:1-4 - Before Pilate

23:1,2

The Jewish council did not have any authority to have Jesus killed, and that is what they wanted to do. This is a sad indictment upon them, and indeed upon all humanity. We complain that God does not make His presence obvious enough, yet when He came as a human being, doing many obvious things, we killed Him. we need to realise that the problem is not with God but within us.

The Jewish Council was playing political games. They knew that the last thing the Roman leaders wanted was any uprisings, so they claimed that they were concerned about Jesus leading a rebellion against Rome, or inciting a rebellion. So they accused Him of opposing payments of taxes. We know of course, that when they had questioned Him on this Jesus had actually said quite the opposite.

23:3,4

Pilate was the Roman Governor at the time. He asked Jesus directly if He was indeed the King of the Jews. Jesus does not deny the charge.

Verses 4 and 5 are unique to Luke. He was probably wanting to stress that Jesus was not a political rebel. Pilate declares that he could find no basis for any charge against Jesus. The Jews reacted against this , claiming, without any foundation, that Jesus stirred up trouble wherever He went. The truth was that Jesus stirred up trouble only for the Jewish leaders, highlighting their hypocrisy. We always seek to put the blame on someone else when the problem is us.

Luke 22:63-71 - Who do you think you are?

22:63,64

The guards would imagine themselves to be in a position of power over Jesus, so they mocked and beat Him, also blindfolding Him. They demanded that He prophecy, mocking Him. They beat him and taunted Him as to who had hit Him. It is a very human trait that when we are in what we think is a superior position we seek to take advantage of it, lording our “authority” over others. Instead we should always act with humility and seek to use any authority or superiority to bless others.

2:66-71

The apology for a judicial process now begins. None of the gospel writers gives a complete account of the “trial”, but there were two key elements to it. There were the hearings before the Jewish courts, and there were the hearings before the Roman courts.

Here we read of the trial before the Sanhedrin, an attempt to add some legitimacy to the goings on. Rather than presenting a clear charge against Jesus they invited Jesus to “incriminate” Himself. “If you are the Messiah, tell us”.

Jesus has no interest in defending Himself before the council. Today many atheists and sceptics act as if God has an obligation to “prove” Himself to them, it may come as a shock to some of them to discover that this is not the case! Jesus then declares that “the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God”. So the opinions of mere men on the council pales into insignificance in that light! Many atheists would do equally well to realise how unimportant their opinions really are.

The council clearly thought that this implied that Jesus was the Son of God, and Jesus agrees with them. They also took this as clear blasphemy. So Jesus was condemned for who He was!