Year 2, Week 39, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 39, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Luke 23.

Today’s reading which parallels the last two day’s reading from Matthew 27 and Mark 15, as well as tomorrow’s reading from John 18-19, records the events occurring on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. Luke 23 opens with Jesus being taken to Pilate: “Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king” (Luke 23:1-2). Pilate finds no evidence that Jesus was guilty of any of the charges, but on learning that Jesus was from Galilee, he passed him on to Herod (which is a historical detail that only Luke mentions): “When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time” (Luke 23:6-7). Herod sees no crime that Jesus committed, and so, after He mistreats and mocks Jesus, he sends him back to Pilate. Luke’s Gospel account proceeds with recording much of the same details that are found in the parallel accounts as Luke makes a clear note of Jesus’ death: “Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46). Then Luke also parallels the other Gospel accounts as it notes Jesus’ burial by Joseph of Arimathea: “Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning” (Luke 23:53-54).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is how the description of the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion orient us to the nature of Jesus’ saving work on the Cross: “And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” (Luke 23:35). Unbeknownst to the scoffers, their taunts fulfilled a prophetic word: “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” (Psalm 22:7-8). A thousand years before they said it, the LORD had given King David a transcript of what his Son’s enemies would say to Him. Of course the scoffing religious leaders are culpable and yet ignorant as to what they were actually saying. The religious leaders were not the only voice of taunt: “The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews” (Luke 23:36-38). Even one of the men who was crucified with Jesus added his taunt: “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39).

Ironically, the taunts of the religious leaders express an admission: “He saved others.” The evidence for His saving others was massive: the incredible healing of the paralytic in Capernaum, the restoration of sight to the blind man in Jericho, the raising of the dead, and the calming of the sea. The religious leaders should have known, in fact, I suggest they did know, that the promised Messiah would do the very miraculous things that Jesus was doing: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2a; and parts of 58:2). Jesus showed them from the Scriptures who He was and then demonstrated that He was who He said He was. But, in the final analysis, those miraculous signs meant nothing to them. They saw the miracles, but refused to confess their true significance.

The religious leaders show their ignorance on an even deeper level. The mission of Israel’s Messiah was not to “save Himself,” but to save His people: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus is accomplishing His saving work, by dying. Yes, the Son of Man would rule and reign: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). But the Son of Man’s rule and reign would be expressed and established through His death: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand” (Isaiah 52:13-15). If Jesus, the “Chosen One” had chosen to save Himself, then no one else would have been saved. But the King was ruling from the Cross—saving His people by dying for them. And His death reorders His people’s desire to live under His rule and reign: “he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe