David Donnan

Introduction

Usually my wife is at school and picks up the children and takes first crack at homework. This means making sure my children do 20 minutes of reading time… even though they try to convince me their teachers “don’t really care” about it. This means they study for upcoming tests. And this usually means we study vocabulary words.

My son’s definition this past week deals with literary terms like flashback, imagery, and climax. These are actually terms we use in Bible study.

Since December of 2023 we have been studying the Gospel of Luke. Today, we are entering the climax of chapter 23, the high point of the Gospel of Luke, the turning point in all the Gospels, the hinge of the whole bible, and the turning point of all of human history.

Today we enter the death of Jesus on the cross which leads to his resurrection on Easter.

The Cross as an Odd Symbol

Priest Fleming Rutledge talks about how it is hard for us to understand the cross in our modern context. She says, 

We are so accustomed to seeing crosses, wearing them on chains, carrying them in processions, and so faith, that it is almost impossible to grasp their original horror. We are accustomed to thinking of the Cross merely as a ‘religious symbol’…The typical ‘religious’ Easter card shows the Cross in a soft, flattering light, surrounded by lilies; you would never know that it was originally an instrument of extreme brutality. We need to make a conscious effort to understand that the Cross in reality is, by a very long way, the most irreligious, unspiritual object ever to find its way into the heart of faith. This fact is a powerful testament to the unique significance of the death of Christ.”

So under Rutledge’s advice is humbly tenderly listen to Luke 23:26-56.

Luke 23:26-34

26 As the soldiers 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 childless 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!”’

31 For if people 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, they crucified him there, 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.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Jesus the Includer

Jesus, on the way to the cross prays one of the boldest prayers for the people around him. For the people who are literally killing them he asks for them to be forgiven. The ultimate Christian ethics is not to see others punished. While yes we want justice… we also want to practice forgiveness to others.

Jesus here is not just praying for those around the cross, the disciples who abandoned him, and pilate in his palace… I believe He is praying for you and me. Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

Sometimes you will hear of a dramatic moment when someone can pinpoint the moment they were saved. Well if you can not you are in luck. Let me help you. It was 2,000 years ago. Not when we prayed a prayer but when Jesus performed an act of love on the cross.

Jesus shows us love in the way he extends grace to all humanity. Now, there is still a human element. We have to open the gift. We have to respond to this love, but here the gift of grace is clearly demonstrated.

Jesus is an includer and grace giver even on his way to death.

Luke 23:35-43

35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, 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 Messiah? 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.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus the Rescuer

Here is another moment to pause and reflect. Jesus wants to bring us with him to paradise. I can remember a conversation with my mother where she said, “If life was fair I would have a butler bringing me drinks as I sat on the beach everyday.” To which I replied, “If it was fair your butler would have to have a butler, and then there butler also.” It seemed about as logical as a communist utopia. It just doesn’t work that way.

Yet, Jesus does work in a delightful and irresistible way. He says, “today you will be with me in paradise.” One bible scholar says this:

“Jesus’ response is perhaps the most beautiful promise in Scripture… today you will be with me in paradise.’ This is far more than the man had been hoping for, for he was thinking of the distant future, while Christ promises immediate results.

That same scholar goes on to describe “Paradise” was a Persian word for royal gardens which was a reminder of how paradise might not necessarily be the streets of Gold we think or my mama’s dream of the butler on the beach but a call back to the peace man had with God in the garden of Eden. 

Jesus is willing to rescue and bring all who call on him to paradise.

Luke 23:44-56

The Death of Jesus

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

The Burial of Jesus

50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, 51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. 52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. 54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

People of Committing

Church, we can not die for the sins of the world. Yet, we are called to follow the path of Jesus: To self sacrifice, to include others in this radical mission here in this life, to offer the forgiveness of God to the world… We can look at this passage and see the pinnacle of the story of Jesus… and acknowledge we can not be this perfect sacrifice.

So what do we do? We can be people of commitment. We can, like Jesus, commit our whole being to God. Jesus prays Psalm 31:5, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

We can model this lifestyle. A life committed to God might look like an awareness that we need to commit our lives to God, it might look like the sermon on the mount where we commit ourselves more to the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, or the sojourner in our midst. It might start in our home as we view our family as a little church, the first church, our neighbors we are called to love start with those we live with.

And no matter where we are called to love, there is only one way to do this… with God’s help.

The Story of the Jump

There was a story from a couple weeks ago from the horrible earthquakes in Myanmar. We prayed for those affected where over 3,600 people have died and the country is in a civil war. The earthquake was felt all over Asia including in Bangkok, Thailand. 

There, a South Korean family of three was staying in a high rise complex. The father, Kwon Young Jun, was on the 52nd floor of the adjacent building which was connected by a sky bridge 600 feet in the air. The earthquake shook the whole building and tore apart the sky bridge. The father, realizing his family could be in danger, did something out of a Hollywood movie and jumped across the 600 foot gap of the sky bridge to get back to his wife and child.

The Story of Good Friday

The Story of Good Friday is God will no longer have our sin separate us from him. Jesus took the ultimate leap of love for us with his death on the cross so nothing can separate us from him. Whether we are criminals beside him, disciples who abandon him, or the crowds who mock him.

God created us all in His image and wants to share his love with each of us.

Friends, do not be like the thief on the cross who continued to mock Jesus. Let’s know we have a God who is willing to remember us. Let’s commit our lives to this great God. Let’s receive the grace and forgiveness offered to each one of us.

Closing Prayer

Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, we thank you for the rescue mission for humanity through Jesus on the cross. Lord, help us to be people who truly commit our life to you. Daily, help us to see ourselves in the thieves on the cross and by your grace, to choose to be the one who turns to you. In Jesus Name. Amen.