January 24, 2010: The Crucifixion
The Crucifixion
Luke 23:26-43 (Parallel passages: Matthew 27:33-44, Mark 15:22-32; John 19:17-24)
26 As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then ” ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ‘[a] 31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[b] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
38 There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[c]”
43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Footnotes:
- Luke 23:30 Hosea 10:8
- Luke 23:34 Some early manuscripts do not have this sentence.
- Luke 23:42 Some manuscripts come with your kingly power.
Background:
1. Pilate has given into the will of the Jewish leaders, and now Jesus is lead away to be crucified.
2. Another person who likely was a Jew, Simon the Cyrene, was “seized” by the Roman soldiers to carry the cross of Jesus. Cyrene was a leading city of Libya, which was west of Egypt, and Simon likely was in Jerusalem for the weeklong festival celebrating the Passover. We learn from Mark 15:21 that Simon had two sons, Alexander and Rufus, and the way that Mark references them leads scholars to believe that Alexander and Rufus were known to the early church. They likely were Christians.
Criminals who were condemned to die by crucifixion were usually required to carry a beam of the cross weighing 30-40 pounds to the place of crucifixion. It is not known whether Jesus was forced to carry a beam of the cross or the entire cross. From John 19:17, we learn that Jesus started by carrying his own cross, but he was so weakened by the flogging and abuse of the Jews and the Romans that he could not continue to carry it, so Simon was pressed into service by the Romans to carry the cross the rest of the way for him, walking behind Jesus.
3. In verses 27-32, Luke tells us that a large number of people were following Jesus on the way to the place of crucifixion, including women who were mourning and wailing for him. Luke is the only gospel writer who mentions this detail. At some point on the way, Jesus turns to the women and tells them not to weep for him but to weep for themselves and for their children because he knows that in 70 A.D., the Romans are going to destroy Jerusalem and its inhabitants. So, in verse 29, Jesus tells them that a time will come when they will say that barren women are blessed, in essence because they will not have to watch their own children die. Jesus quotes Hosea 10:8: Then “they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover Us!’” Jesus is saying that the women will say such things not because they want to be protected by the mountains and the hills but because it would be better for them to die that way than to suffer at the hands of the Romans. Jesus concludes with emphasis by telling the women that if men “would do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus is like the green tree and the Jews are like the dry, brown tree. Green wood does not burn; dry wood does. In other words, Jesus is saying that if the Romans would treat him this way, he who has committed no crime or sin and does not deserve to be “burned,” how will they treat the people of Jerusalem, who are brown and dry and who will deserve such treatment in the eyes of the Romans.
4. In verses 32 and 33, Luke tells us, as do all of the other gospels, that two other men, both criminals, were also led out to be executed with Jesus. They were taken to a place called “the Skull,” and there, all three of them were crucified—Jesus in the middle with a criminal on either side. Mark tells us that Jesus was crucified around the “third hour” which would have been 9:00 a.m. (Mark 15:25) Luke, like the other gospel writers, does not provide a lot of detail about the manner in which Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion is one of the most agonizing and shameful forms of execution ever devised. Crucifixion was used by the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and the Romans from the Sixth Century B.C until the Fourth Century A.D. In 337 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine I abolished crucifixion out of veneration for Jesus, its most famous victim. The Romans reserved this form of punishment for slaves and criminals of the lowest type. Large spikes were driven through the wrists and heel bones of the condemned person into the cross, and then the cross was raised up, suspending the nailed person from the cross. It could take several hours to days for the condemned person to die. Typically, he would die from blood loss, hypovolemic shock, sepsis or dehydration. If the cross was a single pole and the man’s hands were suspended directly above him, he could die from asphyxiation. The person’s legs would tire from trying to hold up the body to breathe. If the person did not die fast enough, his legs were broken for additional trauma and so that he could not hold himself up to breathe.
Luke tells us that Jesus was crucified at a place called the “Skull”. In Aramaic, the term was “Golgotha,” which means skull. In Greek (the common commercial language of the day), the name of the place of crucifixion was “Kranion,” and when this term is translated into Latin (the language of the Romans), it is called “calvarias” from which we get the English “Calvary”. So whether you call it Golgotha or Kranion or Calvarias or Calvary, they all mean the same thing: “Skull”. The hill was not called the place of the Skull because the skulls of executed persons lay buried there. It appears it was called the “Skull” because a rocky protrusion in the form of a skull formed the site. Today, there is a great deal of difference of opinion as to where Golgotha was actually located. The ancient view was that the so-called church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was built on the hill, but others think that a hill outside the modern Jerusalem (on the north side) was the real Golgotha.
5. In verse 34, Luke is the only gospel writer to record this prayer of Jesus for his enemies. After Jesus had been crucified and hung on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Even after everything he had endured at the hands of the Jewish leaders and the Romans, Jesus would show the magnitude of his love by praying that his Father would forgive them. Unaware of the significance of this moment, the Roman soldiers took his clothes and divided them up among themselves by casting lots. That was normal procedure; executioners took any possessions that an executed person had with him at the time of execution. Unwittingly though, the soldiers were fulfilling the prophesy of Psalm 22:18—“They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
6. While Jesus was suffering on the cross, Luke tells us that people stood watching him and that the “rulers,” likely Jewish religious leaders, “sneered” at him and challenged him to save himself from the cross if he was the Christ, the Chosen One. The Roman soldiers also mocked Jesus and offered him wine vinegar, which was a sour wine drunk by common soldiers and laborers. They, too, challenged him to save himself if he was the “King of the Jews.” The Romans had placed a sign above the cross, which read, “This is the King of the Jews.” It was customary that when a condemned man had to be crucified, a notice board would be hung around his head with the description of the crime for which he was condemned. In Jesus’ case, where even Pilate had admitted that Jesus was innocent, there was really nothing to be recorded to describe the nature of his offense. Nevertheless, to somewhat avenge himself against the Jewish religious leaders who had compelled him, against his wishes, to have Jesus crucified, Pilate caused a sign to be written above Jesus’ head on the cross that proclaimed him to be the King of the Jews. John tells us that this gesture angered the Jewish religious leaders, and they requested that Pilate alter it, but he would not do so.
7. In verses 39-43, we have a colloquy between Jesus and the two criminals who were crucified with him. Only Luke records this discussion. One of the criminals, maybe hoping to incur some favor from the Romans, appears to have joined in the mocking/insult parade and challenged Jesus to save himself and the criminals who also hung there if he was the Christ. But the other criminal who hung there rebuked the first criminal for insulting Jesus. He asked him whether he feared God since he also was under a death sentence. Then he added that they (the criminals) justly deserved their punishment, but Jesus did not because he had done nothing wrong. Then the contrite criminal turned to Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom. Jesus answered this man and told him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” In the Septuagint, which was the pre-Christian Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word for “Paradise” meant a garden or a forest, but in the New Testament, this same word is used to mean a place of bliss and rest between the point of death and the resurrection from the dead at the final judgment. Jesus’ emphasis on “today” indicates that the repentant criminal would associate with Jesus in heavenly bliss immediately after death. Also implicit in this response is some continuance of consciousness after death. If the dead are unconscious, the assurance to the robber that he will be with Christ after death would be an empty consolation.
Application:
1. How do you think Simon the Cyrene felt when he was forced to carry the cross of Jesus? Why was it appropriate that a human, other than Jesus, would carry the cross on which Jesus would die to Calvary?
2. What does the cross mean or symbolize in our world today? What does it mean to you?
3. Why did Jesus ask his Father to forgive the men who crucified him?
4. Do you think it is fair that someone like the criminal next to Jesus could live like hell his entire life, seek God at the point of death, and still go to Paradise? Why or why not? What does Jesus’ response to the repentant criminal tell you about Jesus?
