Sacrificed • Luke 23:33-46
By Laura Lee Leathers
What do you know about crucifixion? Who or what country started the practice of crucifying people? Does the Bible give details of this grueling, deeply painful death process? These are profound questions that require hours of study to learn the answers.
One thing is sure regarding the crucifixion of Jesus and the two thieves: none of the Gospel writers give any elaboration. You read, “They crucified Him there.” (Matt. 27:35; Mark 15:24; John 19:18; Luke 23:33), and that is all.
Why are there no details? Because if you lived during the writing of the Gospels, you would have witnessed and known a great deal about the method of crucifixion. It became a way of life when the Romans came to power in 63 B.C., and they perfected it as a fine art of torture.
It is essential to see the fulfillment of prophecy regarding the Messiah’s crucifixion, recorded many years before it came to pass. A thousand years before Jesus, Israelite King David wrote about it in Psalm 22. Three hundred years later, we have Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 53:3-4 (see Zechariah 12:10, also).
Focused (Luke 23:33-34). Jesus has undergone a critical examination by the High Priest and other notable Jewish leaders, the ruling Sanhedrin’s religious trial, and the secular trials before Roman-appointed, nominal Jewish King Herod and the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. Now we focus on the most significant spiritual trial, where the verdict will be victory over sin!
The final task for the Roman soldiers is to place Jesus on the cross at a place called The Skull, also known as Golgotha, Place of the Skull, and Calvary. With him are two criminals (also described as thieves, robbers, bandits, or insurrectionists), one on the right and one on the left.
Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” (v. 34, CSB). This is one of the seven phrases Jesus utters from the cross, and this one is mentioned only in Luke. It is unclear to whom Jesus was referring. Was it the Roman soldiers, the Jewish leaders, the people in the crowd, or was it a general reference to all sinful humanity? The reference to “they” refers to the soldiers conducting the execution.
Mocked (Luke 23:35-39). Dr. Luke focuses on the attitudes of the people who were there. He tells us the rulers sneered, the soldiers mocked, one of the criminals being crucified hurled abuse, and other people just stood watching. Notice the sarcastic statements: “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, His Chosen One!” and “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” and “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
Then there was the inscription nailed to Jesus’ cross, a written notice detailing his “crime” and written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek (John 19:20) — “This Is the King of the Jews.” It was a messianic title, one that the wise men used (Matt. 2:2).
Remember, the people shouted at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 19:38). The inscription was, of course, not a crime but the truth regarding His identity.
Trusted (Luke 23:40-43). Try to envision what was transpiring with Jesus and the two criminals. Their breathing was difficult. The noise from the crowd below required speaking louder. Wounds were oozing, blood was flowing, there was excruciating pain, and much more.
When the criminal on one side of Jesus mocked Him, the second criminal “answered, rebuking him: ‘Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment?’ He knew the punishment being meted out to him was appropriate for what he had done and voices, “but this man has done nothing wrong.”
For the two men on either side of Jesus who were facing imminent death, the choice was unrepentance or repentance. The second criminal who spoke feared God, acknowledged his sinfulness with a heart of repentance, embraced faith in Jesus, and asked the Savior to remember him when he came into His kingdom. “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise,” Christ told him.
“The exchange between Jesus and this second man reveals the heart of Jesus’ mission and has important implications for the doctrine of salvation by faith alone” (LifeWay).
Sacrificed (Luke 23:44-46). The conversations are over, decisions regarding eternity are in place, and darkness begins to settle over the whole land from about noon through the next three hours. “The darkness gives us a terrifying portrait of the spiritual darkness (and judgment) that has fallen over humanity” (Lifeway).
The temple’s veil split down the middle (probably the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies). Mark 15:36 tells us it “was torn in two, from top to bottom.” It was a symbolic act of God to announce to the world that through Christ, believers have access and can come boldly to the throne room of grace (Heb. 4:16).
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” He breathed His last. Willingly, He sacrificed His life. Hallelujah for redemption!
Leathers is a member of First Church, Lexington.
