Do Not Pass Me By

Luke 23: 27 – 43

God’s Most Awesome Work of Redemption - Crucifixion

The Bible tells of God’s great deeds in human history to restore his creation. Again and again the psalmists call God’s people to praise God for these things: “Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name; offer him glory and praise! Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!’” (Psalm 66:1-2).

But when we follow the story of God’s works in history and arrive at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see the most awesome of all God’s works of redemption. It is the cross that God delivers the deathblow to human sin and rebellion and accomplishes the salvation of his world. Yet the crucifixion hardly seems like a victory for God, especially not when we see this event in the context of first century Roman culture.

Jesus Dies on a Cross

The Romans would force a condemned criminal to carry the heavy horizontal beam of his own cross to the place where he is to be crucified. But Jesus’ sleepless night, the cruel mocking, and especially the brutal beatings have taken their toll. Jesus stumbles under the weight of the beam, and Simon of Cyrene is dragged from the crowd and forced to carry it.

The grisly parade carries on to Golgotha, “the Place of the Skull,” where Jesus is offered a sedative (wine mixed with myrrh), which he refuses. At nine o’clock in the morning, Jesus is stripped naked and nailed by his wrists and feet to a cross set between two other men (revolutionaries also brought here to die).

As the soldiers drive the nails thought his flesh, Jesus says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

His clothes are divided among the soldiers, and they write a mocking accusation on a piece of wood and fix it to the cross above his head: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

To the Roman, calling yourself “king” is treason, a challenge to Caesar’s sovereignty; to the Jew, it is blasphemy; and to anyone who looks back on this crucifixion through the lens of the resurrection, this “accusation” is ironically, merely the plain truth!

The Jewish leaders who have hounded Jesus and conspired to have him killed now heap scorn and insults on him: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He is the King of Israel! Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe him” (Mark 15:31-32 paraphrased).

One of the criminals joins in this jeering from his own cross beside Jesus, but is rebuked by the condemned man on the other side: “we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” He then turns to Jesus and says: “Remember me when you come in to your kingdom” (like 23:40-42).

Jesus acknowledges his faith; indeed, this man will inherit the kingdom of God.

At noon and for the following three hours, darkness covers the whole land. Jesus cries out in agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). The One whom Jesus has always called “Father” has turned his back on his own Son, because at this moment Jesus bears the sin of the world. Jesus thus does not address him as “Father” but only as “my God”.

And then Jesus’ life ends with a loud cry: “it is finished! Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Having at last accomplished God’ swill, Jesus’ work is complete; he can again place himself in the hands of his loving Father.

A Roman centurion stands nearby to ensure that these crucifixions are accomplished without interference from the Jewish crowd. When he sees the manner of Jesus’ dying and hears his words, this tough professional soldier, an officer in charge of a hundred troops in the army of occupied Palestine, blurts out, “Surely this man was God’s son!” (Mark 15:39).

At the same moment, something strange happens back in the city, a long way from Golgotha, deep within the Jerusalem temple itself, there the heavy curtain that separates the holy of holies from the outer chambers, veiling the place of God’ presence from the people, is torn from top to bottom, but not by human hands (Mark 14:38).

The death of Jesus has opened a way into the very presence of God.

Crucifixion in the Roman Empire

It is difficult for us, living some two thousand years later, to comprehend just how horrifying and loathsome the idea of crucifixion was for the first-century onlooker: “an utterly offensive affair, ‘obscene’ in the original sense of the word.”

Those who enjoyed the privilege of Roman citizenship could not by law be crucified. This means of torture and death was reserved only for slaves and foreigners, for the worst criminals, in the judgment of the Romans.

The physical suffering was terrible and drawn out as long as possible—for many hours, or even days. In the process the victim was utterly degraded, hanging naked to public view and suffering the jeers and taunts of by passers. For the Roman citizen particularly, but also for subject peoples within the Roman Empire, the cross was a potent symbol of humiliation and agony.

And yet the early church had the temerity to point to this event—the crucifixion of their leader—as the mighty act of God. What utter foolishness! No wonder the church was mocked by its opponents. The sheer horror and degradation of death by crucifixion made it impossible also for Jews to accept this as an event that might reveal the hand of their God.

The Old Testament prophecies had spoken of the Messiah coming in glory and victory. Surely he was to be a great and mighty ruler, dispensing justice to a new world empire. His kingdom was to stretch from an end of the earth to the other.

As the Jewish Encyclopedia puts it, “No Messiah that Jews could recognize could suffer such a death; for ‘he that is hanged is cursed by God’” (Deut 21:23).

Moreover, the cross was the place where all those who rebelled against the Roman Empire –including many false messiahs—ended their lives. For the Jews, “crucified Messiah” was an oxymoron. The cross as God’s mighty act was a stumbling block to them (1 Cor 1:23).

Crucifixion in the New Testament

The New Testament is unique in ancient literature in interpreting the crucifixion in a positive way, as the greatest of God’s actions in history. Paul proclaims that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’ (1Cor 1:18).

He and the other New Testament writers are entirely aware that their view of this event attracts scorn. To the Romans, the cross is utter foolishness: crucifixion is merely the worst of the punishments routinely meted out to Rome’s enemies. They are humiliated, defeated, tortured beyond human endurance, exposes in their weakness—and then they die. Beyond that, the cross is a random act of cruelty.

Yet the early church makes the bold and fantastic claim that the cross is the central act of God in all of human history! This boldness is the product of a radically different perspective because the church looks at the cross through the lens of the resurrection. It is Jesus’ return from the dead that validates his claim to be God’s anointed Messiah.

When one begins to look at the cross through the lens of the resurrection, what at first appears to be foolishness is really the wisdom of God, what seemed to be weakness is really the power of God, conquering human rebellion and Satanic evil.

What appears to be humiliation is a revelation of the glory of God. God’s self-giving love, mercy, faithfulness, grace, justice, and righteousness are revealed in the event by which God accomplishes the salvation of this creation. What seems to the world to be Jesus’ defeat, the early church proclaims to be his surpassing victory over all the enemies who stand opposed to God’s good creation.

This apparently meaningless act of violence and cruelty in fact reveals the fullest purpose of God: his judgment against sin, and his power and will to renew the creation. Seen in one way, the cross is a token of foolishness, weakness, humiliation, defeat, absurdity. Seen in another way, by those who know that Jesus is alive again from the dead, the cross is full of God’s wisdom, power, glory, victory, and purpose.

On the cross, Jesus acts to accomplish his purposes for all of history—to save the creation. Too often we reduce the significance of the cross to the fact that “Jesus died for me.”

Believers do share in the accomplishments of his death, and so we can say this with joy and confidence. Yet God’s purposes move beyond the salvation of individuals. In the death of Jesus, God acts to accomplish the salvation of the entire creation: Jesus dies for the world.

The idea that the cross is the means by which God accomplishes salvation is clear both in the way the Gospel writers choose to tell their story and in the images the Epistles use to interpret it. All for Gospel story writers devote enormous space to it, as the culmination of Jesus’ ministry. Yet each tells the story in his own way, with an emphasis suited to his own audience.

Mark presents the crucifixion as the means by which Jesus offers salvation to a new community who will follow him in sacrificial discipleship. Matthew (writing to the Jews) narrates the story of Jesus’ death as the rejection of God’s Messiah by this own people—yet the crucifixion proves his claim to royal status and inaugurates a new order for all nations.

Luke tells the story of the cross with two themes in mind: (1) as a prophet, Jesus’ pursuit of justice brings Satanic opposition and rejection by the people. (2) The crucifixion must take place because it is the central event of world history.

John “overcomes the scandal of the cross by interpreting it in terms of Jesus’ exaltation.” Jesus is lifted up on the cross to die, but in that very act he is exalted and glorified in this love.

The Letters to young churches in the New Testament use many images to interpret the universal significance of Jesus’ death. Here we briefly note three.

The first is the image of victory, the “conflict-victory-liberation motif.” The crucifixion is a token of the great spiritual battle between God and Satan. Jesus wins the batter and grants liberation from slavery to Satan to those for whom he fought.

The second image is of sacrifice and derives from the Old Testaments practice in which an unblemished animal was slain in place of the guilty sinner. Then, the sinner was restored to covenant fellowship with God because that animal takes away their sin. Now, Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The final image depicts Jesus as representative man, one who acts on behalf of an entire nation. Jesus grapples with Satan, sin, and death and conquers them as he dies on behalf of all people. He dies for the sake of the entire cosmos, bearing God’s judgment on a creation that has become corrupted and polluted by sin. We share in the victory over sin, even as we share in Jesus’ triumph over it (Romans 6:1-11).

Application

The cross represents the climatic victory of the kingdom of God. God’s rule was disrupted by human rebellion and all that came with it: demonic power, sickness, suffering, pain, and death—every kind of evil. The root of all opposition to God’s rule was human rebellion, and that could be destroyed only at the cross.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished it on the cross, and so has made a way of rescue, of ransom, for any who will follow him.

Jesus prays for forgiveness of the Father to those who persecute him, for they do not know that they do. Like a king on his way to enthronement, Jesus promises a place of honor and bliss (Paradise) to one who requests it. “Paradise” in Jewish thought wasn’t necessarily the final resting place, but the place of rest and refreshment before the gift of new life in the resurrection.

The prayer for forgiveness shows that the promise of Paradise is not to be taken as meaning that the only hope is in a life after death. Forgiveness brings the life of heaven to earth, God’s future into the present. Let’s now come to the Lord to confess our sin and request for forgiveness, salvation and healing.