Luke

Jesus Handed Over to Pontius Pilate
Jesus Faces Herod
Taking the Place Barabbas
The King on a Cross
Jesus Died on the Cross

Luke 23:1-4

Jesus had stood before Annas, Caiaphas and then the Sanhedrin.  They heard the words of Jesus and immediately established guilt and punishment.  David Guzik outlines 7 ways the Jews violated their own laws in their trial of Jesus. 

1. According to Jewish law, all criminal trials must begin and end in the daylight.
2. According to Jewish law, only decisions made in the official meeting place were valid. The first trial was held at the home of the high priest, so they called together this trial, held at their council.
3. According to Jewish law, criminal cases could not be tried during the Passover season.
4. According to Jewish law, only an acquittal could be issued on the day of the trial; guilty verdicts had to wait one night to allow for feelings of mercy to rise.
5. According to Jewish law, all evidence had to be guaranteed by two witnesses, who were separately examined and could not have contact with each other.
6. According to Jewish law, false witness was punishable by death; nothing is done to the many false witnesses in Jesus' trial.
7. According to Jewish law, a trial always began by bringing forth evidence for the innocence of the accused before the evidence of guilt was offered; this was not the practice here.

In their mind there was no need to continue any trial, yet they had no authority to issue a death sentence.  The Sanhedrin was granted very limited powers by Rome.  This is why they sent Jesus to Pilate, they needed him to condemn Jesus for blasphemy.  But this was no violation of Roman law, so their accusations focus on things that would be an offense to Rome. 

The first charge is "We found this fellow perverting the nation."  The word for perverting is to make it crooked.  They said Jesus was making the nation crooked.  It's interesting because Jesus said they were a crooked and perverse generation.  When you are the crooked, it seems normal and the straight seem like the perverse ones.  Wow, does that not still hold true?  They were simply saying that Jesus is upsetting the balance of power between them and Rome.  They wanted Rome's help to silence him. 

The second charge is that he was forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar.  This could be a charge to get Rome's attention, but certainly not one that would lead to a cross.  It's an outright lie and thrown in as supporting evidence of an insurrection. 

The third charge of being the Christ and a king must have seemed as a joke to Pilate.  Here was Jesus, bound with nothing to his name, no followers.   Pilate would not take kindly to a challenge of his authority and power; he felt no threat from Jesus.  Pilate despised the Jews and his question in verse three almost seems as a mock. 

Pilate examined Jesus, probably asking many questions and he returned to the chief priests and the crowd announcing that he found no fault.  This is an interesting confirmation of the innocence (sinless) of Jesus from a godless, tyrant king who hated the Jews. 

 

Luke 23:5-7

The Jews dug their heels in and were even more emphatic with their accusations.  They simply refused to budge.  The charges drift a little, as if searching for something to latch onto or trying to see what stirs Pilate.  The charge was now that He stirred up the people.  This is to incite them and teaching them.  They are implying that Jesus incited the crowds in rebellion.  But Jesus was in fact inciting them to love God and love their neighbor.  To turn from sin.  They left this part out.

Pilate heard Galilee and decided to pass Jesus to the ruler of Galilee, Herod, who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.  This is the Herod who killed John the Baptist.  At one time, he thought Jesus was a resurrected John coming back to haunt him (Mark 6:14).  As Jesus was making His way to Jerusalem, some of the Pharisees warned Him to get out of Galilee because Herod wanted to kill Him (Luke 13:30).  Jesus responded to this by calling Herod a fox! 

 

Luke 23:8-12

Luke explains Herod's excitement at meeting Jesus.  He had long hoped to meet Him and see Him perform a miracle or a sign.  We can imagine Herod asking Jesus to do a trick for him.  But Jesus remained silent, not dignifying Herod with a response. 

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

So He opened not His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

The chief priests and scribes ratcheted up their rhetoric even more.  Jesus silence along with the insistent priests likely both offended Herod.  He treated Jesus with contempt, turning Him over to his soldiers.  Their actions were driven by contempt and mockery.  These men wrapped Jesus in a 'lampros', which a flashy, shiny, rich robe.  He sent Jesus back, wrapped up like a king in a royal robe, as a joke to Pilate.   Strange, even as the brunt of their jokes, Jesus brings restoration to these longtime enemies. 

Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate.

 

Luke 23:13-17

It seems when it came to Rome, the people who otherwise would not agree with the religious leaders or at least would think for themselves, now join them to stand as Israel against Rome.  Many of those people shouted Hosanna a few days prior, now they would shout crucify Him to force Pilate to do their will. 

Pilate was the Prefect of this area as appointed by the Roman Emperor in 26A.D.  This man had no sympathies for the Jews and he did not care or respect their beliefs and their practice of faith or the way of life.  He was a reckless and ruthless ruler.  He didn't understand the Jews and they didn't like him.  He was known to have played mind games with them. Rome.  The Jews were a bunch of fanatics as far as he was concerned.  He came to understand the stiff-necked nature of the Jews though.  For they threatened to report Pilate to Rome; this established a balance between the Jewish leaders and Roman leader. 

An Alexandrian scholor named Philo wrote:

The Jews had threatened to report Pilate to the emperor for his misdeeds. This threat 'exasperated Pilate to the greatest possible degree, as he feared lest they might go on an embassy to the emperor, and might impeach him with respect to other particulars of his government—his corruption, his acts of insolence, his rapine, his habit of insulting people, his cruelty, his continual murders of people untried and uncondemned, and his never-ending gratuitous and most grievous inhumanity.'^[1]

Pilate announced to the chief priests, rulers and people that neither he nor Herod found Jesus guilty of any crimes. He had done nothing deserving of death.  Once again, we have a ruthless, pagan, tyrant king declaring Jesus innocent, testifying to the world He died for our sins, not His own.  Pilate then agreed to chastise Jesus as a way of giving these men something. Jesus would be chastised as if He were guilty and then released, as was the custom of Rome during these religious days.  'Chastise' seems like a weak translation.  This chastising was a lighter version of scourging.  It was serious enough to convince someone not to disturb the peace of Rome again. 

Verse 17 seems to have been added in Luke, the earliest manuscripts don't contain it.  It was probably added to offer explanation of the release, similar to the passages of the other gospels that speak of this.  There doesn't appear to be anything outside the bible that speaks of this prisoner release custom. 

 

Luke 23:18-25

The people, chief priests and leaders were all in unison.  They didn't want Jesus released, they wanted Barabbas, a insurrectionist and murderer.  Pilate tried again to do the right thing, something he wasn't all that used to doing, but the Jews wanted no part in it.   "Crucify Him!"

 

Crucifixion

The Persians seem to be the first to have used crucifixion as a means of execution.  It may have developed from the Assyrian practice of impalement.  The Greeks used crucifixion, especially Alexander the Great.  The Romans later began to use it to punish slaves and non-citizens.  It wasn't till 337AD that Constantine abolished this practice.

Crucifixion was universally recognized as the most horrible type of death. In the East, in fact, it was used only as a further sign of disgrace for prisoners already executed, usually by decapitation. In the West the condemned criminal was scourged (beaten), usually at the place of execution, and forced to carry the crossbeam to the spot where a stake had already been erected. A tablet stating the crime was often placed around the offender's neck and was fastened to the cross after the execution. The prisoner was commonly tied or sometimes nailed to the crossbeam (with the nails through the wrists, since the bones in the hand could not take the weight). The beam was then raised and fixed to the upright pole. If the executioners wished a particularly slow, agonizing death, they might drive blocks or pins into the stake for a seat or a step to support the feet. Death came about through loss of blood circulation followed by coronary collapse. That could take days, so often the victim's legs would be broken below the knees with a club, causing massive shock and eliminating any further possibility of easing the pressure on the bound or spiked wrists. Usually a body was left on the cross to rot, but in some instances was given to relatives or friends for burial.^[2]

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16)

 

"Crucify Him!" was the response when Pilate tried to talk some sense into them a third time.  How ironic, this man that killed so many Jews and alienated himself from the people he ruled was not being begged by those same people to kill their messiah.  Pilate again gives testimony to the innocence of Jesus.  He had done nothing deserving death.  But they were insistent and demanding in a loud way.  Apparently this was all that was required to convince Pilate to murder someone, his fear of men, of Rome and of the people causing him trouble was more than he could bear.  Pilate gave in to mob violence. 

Barabbas was released.  The cross intended for him would be given for Jesus.  The name 'Barabbas' means 'son of a father'.  There before Pilate and these men was the Son of God and the son of father.  One sinless, another a murderer.  The innocent went to the cross and the guilty was set free.  While this seems like a travesty of justice, we should not forget Jesus went willingly.  He had submitted to the plan of the Father, the Way the Lord made for forgiveness of sins and restoration to Him.  While the Lord's will is done, it does not release Pilate from the guilt of what he did.

¹⁵          He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just,

Both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. (Prov 17:15)

Pilate was in fact reported to Rome for the ruthless slaughter of a group of people in Samaria.  As the result of this he was deposed in AD 36 and sent to Rome.  Then the Roman emperor died while he as on the way to Rome.  He either stood before Caligula or there was no hearing on the charges.  Either way, one legend says that Pilate committed suicide as the result of guilt and shame for crucifying Jesus.  The Coptic Christians actually believe Pilate and his wife became believers and they hold both up as saints. 

 

Luke 23:26-31

The other gospel accounts report that Jesus was scourged.  This was the act of whipping a man with a whip embedded with barbs and weights.  It was designed to tear the flesh from the back of the man being punished.  It was known to expose internal organs and leave a bloodied, weak and often dead. 

Jesus wasn't to die from scourging though.  He was apparently weakened and Simon is charged with carrying the cross.  What a fascinating moment, a divine appointment for Simon.  He walked into an even that would change the spiritual course of the world, that would altar the eternal destiny of so many.  The cross he carried might well have been his own, he was guilty of sin; of murder of the heart, of idolatry, blasphemy of the entire law.  The cross he carried was mine and yours if you trust in Jesus.  It was for your sin and mine.

Note:  Cyrene was an ancient city in North Africa and had an important Jewish population.  The Cyrenian Jews show up in a few places in the bible.  They stood among the group that testified against Stephen in Acts 6:9. Some Cyrenians show up in Acts 11 as those bringing the gospel message to Antioch.  Mark tells us that Simon had sons named Rufus and Alexander.  Why was that important for him to mention?  Probably because people knew who these men were.  There was a Rufus that was active in the early church.  Also, in Acts 13 we see Lucius from Cyrene in the church. 

Within the great multitude following Him to the cross, Jesus spoke to the women who mourned.  It is possible they mourned simply as official mourners as a custom for any Jew facing death.  The tears may also have been sincere, possibly from the women who followed as disciples.  We have to wonder if the many women Jesus healed, whose lives were changed when they were delivered from demons and oppression, whose children were raised and much more.  It may be there was a combination of both the sincere and the professionals who mourned. 

Jesus spoke to them as the 'daughters of Jerusalem'.  He speaks to them as if they represented the nation when He advised them to weep for themselves and their children.  Culturally, the womb that bore children was blessed.  For the womb that never bore children to be blessed speaks of the curse of childlessness as a preference.  Jesus quotes Hosea 10:8 -

They shall say to the mountains, "Cover us!"

And to the hills, "Fall on us!"

This was a cry for relief from the wrath of God.  The woman would cry a similar cry when Jerusalem is punished for her rejection of the messiah. 

Verse 31 is debated and the meaning of the green and dry wood disputed.  Jesus seems to be the green, living wood.  If their mourning was intense for Him now, what would it be for the dry, dead wood of the nation when it faces judgment. 

 

Luke 23:32-35

The Roman machine was efficient when it needed to be.  Pushed by the Jewish leadership, they had arrested, tried and crucified Jesus in what appears to be less than 12 hours.  The two criminals that were led away with Jesus were described as plundering rebels by Matthew and Mark.  The name Calvary comes from the Latin translation of skull (Kranion), the Aramaic name being Golgotha.  This would have been a dark and gruesome place of death.  It was here that they nailed Jesus to the cross.  And on each side of Him they crucified these other two men, fulfilling the prophecy.

¹²          Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,

Because He poured out His soul unto death,

And He was numbered with the transgressors,

And He bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)

 

The quote of verse 34 doesn't show up in some early texts of Luke.  It may have been added later.  This doesn't make it any less true or put it in doubt.  The line just came to the text in a different way.  As Jesus asked the father to forgive these men, He was practicing what He preached.  He was interceding for the men who nailed Him to the tree.

Again, in fulfillment of scripture, they cast lots for his clothing.  Clothing was expensive and the garment of the criminal was part of the pay for the soldiers.  The spoil of the criminal was divided.  Tearing a garment would not benefit anyone, so they gambled for it, rolling the dice. 

¹⁸          They divide My garments among them,

And for My clothing they cast lots. (Psalm 22:18)

 

Jesus drew a crowd as He had done for some time.  He was controversial.  The mood of the crowd is revealed in Luke as mocking, saying, "Let Him save Himself."  But also saying, "If He is the Christ," leaving room for the possibility that He was indeed the chosen One of God. 

¹⁷          I can count all My bones.

They look and stare at Me. (Ps 22:17).

 

¹⁰ "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. (Zecch 12:10)

They had not considered the possibility that He was the Christ and that He would choose to stay on the cross.  They were blinded to that possibility as many still are today.  If they admit that He is the Christ and ask themselves why He went to the cross, then they are led to the reasonable response the natural man wants to avoid.  That is to die to our self, to confess Him and be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:1-2).

 

Luke 23:36-38

The sour wine offered to Jesus was a cheap vinegar wine, diluted with water.  It was the drink of slaves and soldiers.  It was a taunt by the soldiers as they mocked him and drank their wine near the cross for which He would die for them.  Again, the word 'if' is used as they put Jesus to their test.  If He were the real deal, they would have been horrified, even though they were Romans and held little regard for a Jewish messiah.  They could not imagine the real messiah nailed to a cross. 

Myrrh was sometimes mixed with sour wine and used as a pain killer.  This was offered to Jesus but he refused it.  He would not dull the effect, but take the full experience on our behalf.

It was normal procedure for a sign to be made for the convicted criminal.  The sign would worn around their neck as they carried their cross.  Then, once fastened to the cross, they would fasten the sign above their head.  The idea was to display the criminal, naked, shamed, dying in pain and loneliness so that others would not choose that life.  The sign was to be the charges for which that person would die.  The sign Jesus wore was intended as a mock by Pilate toward the Jews.  The irony of it was the blatant truth that the Jews found offensive.  John records the dispute of the Jews with Pilate over this sign. 

 

Luke 23:39-43

Then, one of the criminals joined in with the mock of the soldiers.  It was mocking blasphemy; an extension of the soldiers mocks by adding the idea of saving them also.  How ironic.  That was the very reason He was nailed to the cross was to save sinful man.  Each had access to Jesus.  He was right there.  Both could read the sign, hear the mourning and mocking.  However, they responded differently.  Why?

The other criminal was a thinking man, one who saw the situation for what it was.  They were dying as they deserved but Jesus didn't deserve to be crucified.  He feared God and chastised the other criminal for the nonsensical position of not fearing Him.  He had heard of the Kingdom of God Jesus spoke of.  He wanted to go to that kingdom.  He asked that the Lord remember him when He got there.  In that dark place of death, in the midst of the mocking and mourning, an underserving thief was saved from a Christless eternity.  That very day he would be ushered from this awful death to paradise. The same word for paradise is used in the Septuagint to describe the Garden of Eden.  The word is synonymous with heaven, meaning a blissful place of the righteous dead.

 

Luke 23:44-46

The hours of the day started at 6am; so, the 6^th hour was around noon.  Jesus was on the cross from about 9am and appears to have died about 3pm.  An all-encompassing darkness fell on the land those last hours.  Luke said it was over all the earth. 

Adam Clark wrote this:

"That this darkness was supernatural is evident from this, that it happened during the passover, which was celebrated only at the full moon, a time in which it was impossible for the sun to be eclipsed."

This word for darkness is used many times as a spiritual darkness.  Jesus used it in speaking to those who arrested Him saying, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." (Luke 22:53)   Matthew records the words of Christ, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The wrath of God, stored up for every sin of every human fell upon Jesus.  It's as if the light of the world were shrouded with the darkness of sin.  Its as though the spiritual darkness of the world was revealed.  It is after this darkness descends son the land that Luke then tells us the sun was darkened.  It was dark and then got darker.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

 

The three synoptic gospels all speak of the veil of the temple being torn in two, Matthew and Mark say it was torn from top to bottom.  This was no accident or coincidence.  This was a massive, heavy curtain that cordoned off the holy of holies.  It was only entered by the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement.  It was as though Jesus entered through the veil and by the sprinkling of His blood made a way for us to enter in.  The work that had been previously done at the temple was now obsolete.  Jesus had made the one-time, perfect sacrifice for all time. 

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 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.  Hebrews 10:19-23)

Matthew and Mark record Jesus crying out in pain while Luke records Jesus quoting Psalm 31, a Psalm of trust.  His dying words wasn't as much an announcement of His death as it was His trust in the Father. 

           For You are my rock and my fortress;

Therefore, for Your name's sake,

Lead me and guide me.

⁴           Pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me,

For You are my strength.

⁵           Into Your hand I commit my spirit;

You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. (Psalm 31:3-5)

Jesus breathed His last.  The Jews did not want dead bodies hanging on crosses during the Sabbath.  Romans were told to break the legs of the crucified to speed death.  Jesus had died, and John make shte point that not a bone was broken, the perfect sacrifice.  Instead a spear was thrust into Jesus and blood and water poured forth.

 

Luke 23:47-49

When a 33-year-old man dies today, we say his life was cut short.  We shake our heads at the loss, it seems so awful and the loss seeming overwhelming when it's a family or friend.  How much more of a loss is it when the Son of God breathed His last.  He died, beaten to a pulp, stripped naked, mocked, punched, spit on, His beard plucked from His face, a crown of thorns smashed on his heard and nailed to a cross.  It was a the most beautiful act of love. 

The first to testify of the righteousness of Jesus after His death is a centurion.  He's a Roman soldier who had probably seen lots of death if not caused it often.  Crucifying criminals was a job.  He would have been a hardened man. Yet, something moved in him that day.  He saw Jesus for who He was and declared Him innocent in agreement with Pilate, Herod and the criminal at His side. 

It was dark, there was an earthquake, the veil was torn and Mathew records that graves were opened and many saints were raised, coming out of the grave and appearing to many.  It had been less than 24 hours when the excitement of Passover was the primary thought on everyone's mind.  It was a fairly normal day.  The disciples were making plans to eat the Passover meal.  But now, they stood off at a distance, in shock at what had just happened.  A crowd came together to see the sight, a wreck of a human body from which they could not look away.  John notes 'They shall look upon Him whom they pierced."  And what a sight it must have been to see in the distance all the acquaintances of Jesus, the disciples and women of Galilee.  They watched.  What a bundle of emotions and fears they must have been. 

 

Luke 23:50-56

The 'behold' of verse fifty shows us a shift in the narrative.  Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin.  Luke records that he was a moral and righteous man who did not fall in line behind the decision from the phony trial.  Like links Him to the ministry of Jesus as he taught of the coming kingdom.  Even though Roman law allowed the Jews to properly claim a body and bury it, it took boldness and courage for Joseph to approach Pilate about the body of Jesus.  Nothing about the Jews set right with Pilate and his reason would not set well with the Jewish leadership. 

It's interesting how Luke speaks of the body, as thought it were a shell, empty, as though Jesus were somewhere else (and we know He was!).  The body was removed form the cross, wrapped up and laid in a tomb.  It was a new tomb (as the joke goes, only borrowed for a few days).  It would have been Friday evening, the day of Preparation.  Work must be done before sunset when the Sabbath started.  Joseph simply got the body in a tomb before sunset.  There was no time for burial preparation.

The women saw where Joseph laid the body of Jesus.  They returned and prepared spices and oils for later.  They rested on the Sabbath.  The law did not permit them to be near the body and bury him on the Sabbath day. 

©2020 Doug Ford