Luke 23:44-56 - No ordinary crucifixion

Jesus died at three o'clock in the afternoon. Darkness had covered the land since noon, and the curtain of the temple was split in two, this is symbolic of the division between God and man been done away with. It is significant that it is after the curtain was torn in two that Jesus commits His spirit to the Father. Now that the barrier between man and God was dealt with His work was finished, the full price of our sin had been paid for.

The centurion recognised that Jesus was a righteous man. The whole manner of His crucifixion, His reaction to it all, and His death were very different from all the others he had seen. This was no ordinary crucifixion. The crowds beat their breasts in anguish. Those who knew Jesus watched from a distance, wondering what it all meant.

Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Tombs normally held several bodies, but this was a new one, so Jesus was the only body.

Luke notes that the women saw which tomb Jesus was buried in. This is to counter the objection that the women went to the wrong tomb when they discovered that He had risen.

Luke 23:26-43 - Crucifixion

Jesus is now led away to be crucified. The other gospel writers give more details on the beatings that Jesus received before the crucifixion itself. He would be have been greatly weakened by this, and so someone was needed to carry the cross for Him. Simon of Cyrene was enlisted to do this.

Now there are many people wiling and weeping for Jesus. Over Passover week we see many different reactions from the crowd. Maybe the general public were split into two groups, or maybe they were just fickle.

Jesus tells them that it was not Him they should be sorry for, but themselves. Jesus was dealing with the problem of sin, paying the price for our sin. It was the people who had most to fear. They needed to repent. Jesus then quotes from Isaiah 54, which comes after that great chapter in Isaiah 53 that foretells of His suffering. Then He quotes from Hosea 10:8.

Jesus was placed between two criminals. The soldiers cast lots for His clothes and the rulers sneered. Jesus was abandoned and written off by everyone.

One of the criminals recognised the goodness in Jesus, the other did not. So one was saved, the other not. This is a picture of the division that the cross brings. The gospel either brings life or finalises the judgement.

Luke 23:1-25 - Before Pilate and Herod

Jesus was now led off to Pilate. What really offended the religious leaders was Jesus' claim to be the Son of God, this was not what they presented to Pilate. They coloured things in such a way as to make it look like Jesus was threatening rebellion against Rome. They also told an outright lie in saying He opposed paying taxes to Caesar, which was in fact the opposite of what Jesus had said, as reported earlier in Luke.

Pilate questioned Jesus but, not surprisingly, could find nothing wrong with Him. However, rather than facing up to the matter and dealing with it, Pilate sought to avoid the issue by finding an excuse to send Him to Herod. There are many Heord's in the New Testament, none of them good.

Herod was delighted to meet Jesus and hoped to see a miracle or two. Though Herod asked Jesus many questions, Jesus refused to answer any of them. The religious leaders carried on accusing Jesus and Herod mocked Him. Eventually He was sent back to Pilate, and Herod and Pilate became friends.

Pilate still refused to properly address the matter and sought a further way out. He offered to release Jesus, but the crowds shouted back that they wanted Barabbas to be released. They preferred to release a terrorist than the Messiah. Then they demanded that Jesus be crucified

It is quite amazing how the attitude of the crowd has turned round since Palm Sunday.

For anyone who wants a bit of light relief on a Sunday, there is a post on my other blog on predestination.

Luke 22:66-71 - Before the Council of Elders

Jesus is then arraigned before various groups of people. The whole of humanity is complicit in the rejection of Jesus. If you or I had been around at the time we would have been amongst those rejecting Jesus.

First it is the chief priests and teachers of the law, the council of the people.

They asked Jesus if He was the Messiah. They were not actually interested in whether or not He was the Messiah, they just wanted "grounds" to convict Him. Jesus confronts his inquisitors with the truth of the matter. Then He declares that the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of God. There are at least two implications of this statement. First, Jesus knew what the outcome would be. He knew He would die, and He knew He would be raised from the dead and exalted. Secondly, He is claiming equality with God.

The council then asks Him "Are you the Son of God?". Jesus does not give a direct answer, but His failure to deny being the Son of God is taken as sufficient grounds to declare Jesus guilty of blasphemy.

Luke 22:47-65 - Arresting developments

The crowd has been arranged by the priests. Judas came to betray Jesus with a kiss. However, none of this came as any surprise to Jesus. He knew exactly what was going on and it was all part of the plan.

The disciples wondered if they should fight to defend Jesus, especially as He has earlier told them to take a sword. It was Peter who struck one of the soldiers, Malchus, with a sword.

Jesus did not want to be defended and He healed the soldier. Jesus then addresses the priests. He knew full well why they were adopting such tactics, it was out of fear.

Next Peter denies Jesus three times. The first was to a servant girl, it isn't made specific who the other two were. So much for the boldness Peter had expressed earlier. Then he realised what he had done. It is strange how we will do sinful or stupid things, and immediately after we have done them we regret it realising our stupidity.

The soldiers then mocked Jesus. So Jesus was betrayed by one disciples, denied by another, and mocked by the soldiers.

Luke 22:39-46 - Prayer

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and prays His famous prayer. "Take this cup from me, yet not my will but your will be done", and it records that His sweat was like drops of blood. Note that it says like drops of blood, not that it actually was drops of blood. It is possible that He did actually sweat drops of blood, but based on the text it seems by no means certain. What is certain is that Jesus experienced extreme anguish. The cross and all the associated events were absolutely real, fully experienced by Jesus. This was not charade, Jesus was fully man about to fully experience the judgement of God. 

In His prayer this is the only time that Jesus prays "if you are willing" and "your will not my will". We are perhaps too ready to tack these sorts of phrases on to prayer. Now not being fully sanctified yet there is going to be a greater degree of uncertainty about our prayers for there are going to be more times when we are wise not to trust our motives. However, as we mature in Christ and our hearts and minds become more aligned with God's a greater authority should come into our prayer life. Prayer is about working together with God.

Jesus was strengthened in His darkest hour by an angel. Angels are real. We must not over emphasise them, and there are several warnings in the New Testament letters against doing this, but they are real and God does send angels to help us.

Jesus had told the disciples to pray that they would not fall into temptation, this was to no avail.