Our Saviour, even amidst the greatest sufferings, seemed almost to forget them in the deep sympathy that he had for the people around him. He pictured in his mind’s eye that awful siege of Jerusalem. Who can read it, as Josephus describes it, without feeling the deepest horror? Oh, the misery of the women and of the children in that dreadful day when the zealots turned against each other within the city, and fought to the death, and when the Roman soldiery, pitiless as wolves, at last stormed the place! Truly did the Saviour say of it that there should be no day like to it; neither was there it was the concentration of human misery; and our Lord wept because he foresaw what it would be, and he bade these poor women reserve their tears for those awful sorrows.
Luke 23:32-33 And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
O blessed Master they did not spare thee any scorn! There was no mode of expressing their contempt, which their malignity did not invent. Truly, “he was cumbered with the transgressors.” You could not count the three sufferers on Calvary without counting him; he was so completely numbered with the others that he must be reckoned as one of them.
Luke 23:34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
It was all that he could say in their favor, and he did say that. If there is anything to be said in thy favor, O my fellow-sinner, Christ will say it; and if there is nothing good in thee that his eyes can light upon, he will pray or his own account, “Father, forgive them for my sake.”
Luke 23:34. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
His garments were the executioners’ perquisites; pitilessly they took them from him, and left him naked in his shameful sorrow.
Luke 23:35. And the people stood beholding.
There was no pity in their eyes. No one of them turned away his face because he could not look upon so disgraceful a deed.
Luke 23:35. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
I have already reminded you that there was a deep truth hidden away in what these cruel mockers said, for Jesus must give himself up as a ransom if we were to be redeemed.
Luke 23:36-38. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew,
For these were the three languages known to the throng, and Pilate invited them all to read in “Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew,”-
Luke 23:38-39. THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
Poor man; even though he is dying a felon’s death, he must be in the swim with the multitude, he must keep in with the fashion, so strong, so powerful, is the popular current with all mankind.
Luke 23:40-42. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
It was strange that Christ should find a friend dying on the cross by his side. Nobody else spoke to him about a kingdom. I am afraid that even his former followers began to think that it was all a delusion; but this dying thief cheers the heart of Jesus by the mention of a kingdom, and by making a request to him concerning that kingdom even when the King was in his death agony.
Luke 23:43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
The Master, you see, uses his old phraseology. In his preaching, he had been accustomed to say, “Verily, verily,” and here he is, even on the cross, the same Preacher still, for there was such assurance, such confidence, such verity, in all his words, that he never had to alter his style of speaking. “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Well does our poet put it,-“
He that distributes crowns and thrones,
Hangs on a tree, and bleeds and groans.”
He was distributing these crowns and thrones even while hanging on the tree. “Tell it out among the nations that the Lord reigneth from the tree,” may not be an exact translation of the Psalm, but it is true, Psalm or no Psalm.
Luke 23:44. And it was about the sixth hour,
About noon, when the sun was at its height.
Luke 23:44. And there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Three o’clock in the afternoon.
Luke 23:45. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
As if the great light of heaven and the pattern of heavenly things were both disturbed. The sun puts on mourning, and the temple rends her veil in horror at the awful deed enacted on the cross.
Luke 23:46. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father,
Is it not sweet to see how Jesus begins and ends his prayers on the cross with “Father”?
Luke 23:46-48. Into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things, which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.
A strange ending to that day, was it not? The three hours’ darkness and the death-cry of the Christ had not converted them, but it had convicted them of sin. They felt that a great and heinous crime had been committed; and, though they had come together as to a mere show or sight, they went away from the spectacle impressed as they had never been before: “All the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.”
Luke 23:49. And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.
In these doings on Calvary you and I have a share,-in their guilt, or else in their merit. Oh, that we may not be condemned with those who were guilty of his death, but may we be cleansed by that precious blood which puts away the sin of all who believe on him!
This exposition consisted of readings from Mark 15:15-39; and Luke 23:27-49.