Text Luke 23:32-47 NRSVUE
32 Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. 33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus[a] there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”]][b] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35 And the people stood by watching, but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah[c] of God, his chosen one!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine 37 and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 There was also an inscription over him,[d] “This is the King of the Jews.”
39 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding[e] him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah?[f] Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in[g] your kingdom.” 43 He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land[h] until three in the afternoon, 45 while the sun’s light failed,[i] and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last. 47 When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, “Certainly this man was innocent.”[j]
Footnotes
a. 23.33 Gk him
b. 23.34 Other ancient authorities lack the sentence Then Jesus . . . what they are doing
c. 23.35 Or the Christ
d. 23.38 Other ancient authorities add written in Greek and Latin and Hebrew (that is, Aramaic)
e. 23.39 Or blaspheming
f. 23.39 Or the Christ
g. 23.42 Other ancient authorities read into
h. 23.44 Or earth
i. 23.45 Or the sun was eclipsed. Other ancient authorities read the sun was darkened
j. 23.47 Or righteous
Last Time on Tales of Faith
Since the reading for Maundy Thursday, Jesus went to Mount of Olives to pray, and was arrested by a crowd led by Judas Iscariot. One of the disciples cut off the ear of the high priest, and Jesus healed him. Jesus notes that they had every opportunity to arrest him while he was in the Temple, “but this is your hour, the hour of darkness.” They take him to the house of the high priest, and Peter follows, and (perhaps not to blow his cover) denies knowing Jesus three times. Jesus is beaten and mocked. In the morning, he is brought before ‘the council’ (Sanhedrin) where he is declared guilty of saying that they said he was the Son of God (due process indeed).
The council sent Jesus to Bukele, whoops, I mean Pontius Pilate, for punishment with the charges of perverting the nation, forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and claiming to be king. Pilate couldn’t find a reason to convict, but finding that Jesus is from Galilee, sent him to Harrod [Antipas]. Harrod was more interested in seeing Jesus perform miracles, questioned him for a while, and got board. Harrod sent Jesus back to Pilate after some more torture and abuse.
Luke’s Gospel then presents a parabolic choice between Jesus and Barabbas, between non-violent resistance and violence, and the people choose violence. Pilate claims there is nothing he can do, and sends Jesus to be crucified. On the way, the soldiers conscript a black man named Simon to carry Jesus’ cross (likely the cross piece). Women cry for Jesus, and he deflects their weeping for those who will endure the destruction of Jerusalem.
Good Friday Themes
Crucifixion
Crucifixion was a brutal and effective method of capital punishment. It was specifically designed to be slow and torturous. Of course, this was for the punishment of those who were crucified, but its primary purpose was to serve as a deterrent to anyone who witnessed it.
As I believe I mentioned for Palm Sunday, standard operating procedure for violent revolutionaries and all of their followers. When dealing with non-violent resisters, however, the standard answer was to crucify the leader (no need to waist the nails on the others who would likely be compliant after their leader was brutally killed). Crucifixion was the punishment for a number of other offences, any one of which could have been the reason that these two others were being crucified.
Jesus and his two fellow inmates are taken to ‘the Skull’ where they are crucified.
Mocking
All those who gather to watch this spectacle, scoff at the apparent weakness of this would-be savior. Luke’s Gospel specifically calls out the religious leaders who mock him who would save others, being unable to save himself. The soldiers put a sign “King of the Jews” the official title of Harrod the Great (and pointedly not the title of any of his sons) as satirical commentary, and try to give him sour wine (possible a literary device to remind us of the wine he would not drink again until the Kin-dom of God). Even one of the criminals next to him mocks him. The other criminal engages in theological debate, noting their guilt and Jesus’ innocence (a neat trick when you are asphyxiating on your own fluids). The latter asks Jesus for mercy, and Jesus promises paradise.
Yet again, the clear contrast between the power structures of this world and those of the Kin-dom are on display. The idea that Jesus could be the Messiah, the king of the Jews, and be willing to suffer such torment does not compute for them, and perhaps if we are honest, it does not compute for us all the time. We so often want a strong leader, who can handle all of our problems. Maybe not one that will single handedly (and ineptly) declare economic warfare on the whole world, but an actual strong leader. We want someone to punish those who would put people on crosses, not one who would allow himself to be nailed to one. We want a God who is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, one who can and will defeat all our enemies with blood flooding up to a horse’s bridal. The idea of a God who just suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is tough to handle. A God who won’t, or even can’t destroy even our enemies feels like a downgrade.
Yet this is the God we see in Jesus, the one who will not even use violence against those we think deserve it. The God who may not be all-powerful, but is all-loving. The one who can use their last breath to forgive those who act out of ignorance, or welcome a fellow sufferer into Paradise. The one who will prove without a shadow of a doubt that there is nowhere they will not go to prove their love for humanity, even facing the worst we can throw at them.
Into Your Hands
The gospel account have some variety of signs that accompany Jesus’ death. All of the synoptic gospels share a three hour period of darkness, from noon to three. This is no If taken literally, this cannot be a solar eclipse, which while spectacular, only last a few minutes for complete darkness. This darkness is certainly symbolic, a dark moment indeed, when an innocent man whose only crime was saying that people should actually love one another, who dared to question the status quo of those in power.
The synoptic gospels all share the tearing of the curtain in the Temple. Interestingly, Luke’s gospel connects this tearing with the darkness, placing it before Jesus’ death. The symbolism here is profound, the curtain that guards and even creates the ‘Holy of Holies’ the place of God’s divine presence, is removed. Many have put this in the beautiful phrase, God on the loose. In Luke’s Gospel, however there may be something else going on. I wrote about the significance of Mount of Olives in the book of Ezekiel. There, God’s Shakina Glory leaves the Temple before it’s destruction by Babylon and remains on Mount of Olives before ascending to heaven. Ezekiel imagines God’s presence returning to Mount of Olives, which Luke’s gospel is clearly pulling on as Jesus mourns the Temple’s second major destruction from the Mount of Olives. Luke’s gospel seems to be directly connecting God’s Glory and Presence with the person of Jesus. While this seems obvious with our current understanding of Christology, for its time, this was a bold claim. Could it be then, if Jesus is the presence of God’s Shakina Glory, that this ripping of the curtain is not a sign of God being released from the Temple, but that the defined space of the Holy of Holies is no longer valid. God’s Glory has indeed returned on the Mount of Olives, just as Ezekiel said, and we put it on a cross.
I lifted you up to the heights,
but you lifted me high on a cross;
I raised you from death
and prepared you for the tree of life,
but you have made a cross for your Savior.
Holy God,
Holy and mighty,
Holy immortal One,
have mercy on us. (Solemn Reproaches of the Cross)
Jesus’ final words in Luke’s gospel is a self-commendation, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” and takes his last breath. Those of us familiar with such things know that a funeral or memorial service ends with a commendation, “Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant N.”
Similarly, the synoptic gospels has a Roman centurion remark on the death of Jesus. In Mark’s and Matthews accounts, the centurion says, that this man must have been a god or the Son of God. In Luke’s account, however, the centurion says, “this man was innocent.” It is a commentary not on Jesus’ divine nature, not another claim to the title of Son of God (one that was also used for Augustus Caesar at the time). Here, the profound revelation is the deep injustice of the empire that would use such violence against a man who was clearly innocent. It is not unlike the ‘whoopsie’ declared by the Trump Legal team that we seem to have ‘accidently’ sent an innocent man to Tren de Aragua prison in El Salvador. but you have made a cross for your Savior.
Conclusion
Holy God, Holy and mighty, Holy immortal one, have mercy on us. Your Glory returned to the Temple, and we made a cross for our Savior. Even in the midst of torture and suffering, your Glory remains with us in the pain, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, hanging next to us as we mock him; and still offering paradise. In the face of empires who continue to crucify innocent people, you commend your Spirit, and commend our own. Your Glory is not bound by tents or temples or even Jesus, it is on the loose and calling us to live into a Kin-dom that does not work the same way the empires of this world do.