Category: Luke 23

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Luke Luke 23

The heart of Jesus

Luke

If there is one thing that always astonishes me, it’s the heart of Jesus. And it is as he goes to his death, that we see the compassion that caused him go to the cross in the first place.

On his way up the hill, he saw the women weeping for him, and he said to them,

Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.

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!”

Then “they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!'”

For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? (Luke 23:27-31)

Here Jesus looked beyond his circumstances to what would happen to the Jews because they had rejected him.

He was basically telling them, “If the Romans are willing to do such things to me, though I am full of the life of God, how much worse will they treat those who are withered spiritually?

“The days will come when you will wish for death, and envy those without children because of what they do to you.”

And that’s what happened when Rome destroyed Jerusalem in some 35 to 40 years later.

The point is, however, that Jesus didn’t want that, even for those who hated him. He longed for them to be saved. He longs for us to be saved. And that’s why he went to the cross.

Jesus died because he looked beyond himself to us and our needs.

The old hymn captures the wonder I feel at such a thought.

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
–Wesley

Categories
John John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

If we were forced to bear the cross Christ bore

The gospels

We know very little of this man of Cyrene, this Simon. It is conjectured that he is the father of the Rufus mentioned in Romans 16:13, the only other Rufus mentioned in the Bible.

In all probability, he was a pilgrim from Northern Africa, a Jew who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, perhaps for the first time ever.

But when he arrived, he got more than he expected. He saw the true Passover lamb sacrificed for him. (I Corinthians 5:7).

For a time, though, Simon had to bear the cross Jesus was eventually crucified on.

As Jesus was going up the hill, the physical strain, the loss of blood, the scourging, the beating he had taken at the hands of the soldiers, and the emotional strain, of being betrayed and abandoned by those he loved most dearly, became too much and he fell under the weight of the cross. He could no longer bear it.

And so Simon had to carry it for him.

And it makes me think. What would have happened if Jesus had said to us at Calvary, “Enough. I can’t bear this anymore. You carry the cross. You die on that cross. You deserve it, after all, not me. I’ve never sinned. You have.”

In a sense, Simon had to experience that, if only for a short time. A cross that he should have been carrying anyway because of his sin, was put on him because Jesus simply couldn’t do it anymore.

Did he realize later, “I was doing Jesus no favor by taking up that cross for him. I was carrying the cross I deserved anyway.

It was he who was doing me the favor by trying to carry my cross up to Calvary. It was he who helped me, he who saved me by dying on that cross when I should have been the one hung there.

But what if he had chosen not to? What if he had simply felt like he could not bear it any longer? Where would I be now?”

The answer? Hell. Because that’s what we all deserve. Hell.

But Jesus did bear the cross. He loved us so much that he died there, and by doing so he took the punishment we deserved upon himself.

And now, because of what he did, our sins can be forgiven, and we can find life as we were meant to have it. A life in relationship with the God who loves us more than any other.

So let us never take the cross for granted. And when we look at it, may we look to the One who died there with hearts full of gratitude.

Jesus Christ,
Praise your name,
Lord, I sing
Without shame.

You bore the cross.
So much love.
All my life, all I need is you.
–James Gabriel

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Luke Luke 23

Those to whom Jesus has nothing to say

Luke

We now see in this passage Herod’s response to Jesus. Perhaps, though, it would be better to call it Jesus’ response to Herod.

This was the same Herod that had beheaded John the Baptist, and had wondered if Jesus was John raised from the dead. (Matthew 14:1-12; Luke 9:7-9)

When Herod had first heard of Jesus, he had tried to see him, and failed. If the Pharisees weren’t lying, it’s also possible that he had even tried to take Jesus by force, but failed. (Luke 13:31-33)

Now at long last, Herod had Jesus before him. But though he asked him many questions and tried to get him to perform some miracles, Jesus said nothing.

Why not? I think Jesus knew that no matter what he said or what he did, Herod would never believe.

Herod had had John before him many times after he had imprisoned him. But though he had been intrigued by John, and “liked to listen to him,” he refused to repent. (Mark 6:20)

He treated Jesus the same way. As a curiosity. As a person of perhaps some interest. As a person who could perhaps provide some entertainment.

But he certainly didn’t look at Jesus as someone to obey. And he most certainly didn’t see him as someone he should take seriously. And so Jesus said nothing.

The warning for us is this: If we harden our hearts to him, Jesus will have nothing to say to us.

Jesus is no genie to perform for us. Nor is he one to be treated as a curiosity that we can take lightly.

He is God himself. He is the King. He is the Lord.

How about you? How do you see Jesus?

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John John 18-1 John 19 Luke Luke 23 Mark Mark 15 Matthew Matthew 27

When we have nothing to stand on

The gospels

I will start by saying that it’s a bit hard to harmonize these passages. Here’s how I see it, but I encourage you to look at it yourself, and come to your own conclusions.

  • The priests and council members bring Jesus in front of Pilate with their initial accusations. (Luke 23:1-2, John 18:29-31)
  • Pilate then talks to Jesus the first time. (John 18:33-38 gives us the most details of this conversation while the other gospels give the briefest of summaries).
  • Pilate proclaims Jesus innocent but after further accusations, decides to send him to Herod. (Mark 15:3-5; Luke 23:4-12)
  • Herod returns Jesus, and Pilate proclaims him innocent again. (Luke 23:13-17)
  • Pilate proposes releasing Jesus or Barabbas, and the crowd demands Barabbas. (All the gospels.)
  • Pilate releases Barabbas, but then proposes punishing Jesus instead of crucifying him. Ultimately, he has Jesus flogged. (Mark 15:16-20; Luke 23:21; John 19:1-7)
  • Pilate makes one last appeal, but ends up giving Jesus over to be crucified. (John 19:7-14)

With that background, over the next few days, I think I’ll go over the main characters in these events.

Today, I want to look at Pilate. You can read about Pilate in history, but I want to stay with what we see here. And what I see is someone who had nothing to stand on when it came to how he made decisions and how he lived his life.

When Pilate first called Jesus in for a private interrogation, his main concern was whether Jesus was truly an insurrectionist or not. So he asked point blank whether Jesus was a king or not.

When he found out that Jesus did claim to be a king, but that this kingdom was “not of this world,” and was certainly no threat to the Roman empire, that was all that mattered to Pilate. (John 18:36-37).

But Jesus would not let things rest there. Instead he challenged Pilate, by saying,

In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. (John 18:37b)

Basically, Jesus was asking Pilate, “What about you? Are you on the side of truth? Are you a lover of truth? Are you willing to stand on truth? If you are, then you must listen to me and believe it.”

It’s the challenge that faces all of us. What do we base our lives on? Do we base it on truth? Do we believe that Jesus himself is truth?

Pilate faced that question in that moment. His response?

What is truth? (John 18:38)

I really wish that we could know the tone behind his words. Did he say this with the implication of, “Who do you think you are? You think you know better than everyone else?”

Or did he say it with a voice dripping with irony? “Truth? There is no truth. Truth is what people in power say it is.”

Or did he say it with despair. “Is there really any truth out there? Is it really possible to find?”

Whatever his feeling, his ultimate response was to reject the idea of absolute truth. Specifically he rejected Jesus as the source of truth. The result?

He had no foundation by which to make his decisions. Instead, he was tossed and blown by the winds of the words of others and the pressures they put upon him.

The pressure of facing a riot. (Matthew 27:24)

The pressure of being reported to Caesar. (John 19:12)

The pressure, ultimately, of his own fears. And because of this, he made a decision he knew was wrong.

The same will happen to us. If we refuse to make truth the foundation of our lives, if we refuse to make Jesus himself the foundation of our lives, then we will be blown and tossed by the opinions of others and by our own fears. And we’ll end up making decisions we know are wrong.

How about you? What do you rest your decisions on? What do you rest your life on?

Do you seek God’s counsel? And do you have the faith to believe that what he has said is true?

James tells us,

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-8)