Jesus' words on the cross

Chris Pretorius

Easter • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Luke 23:26–49

Crucifixion

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Luke 23:26–49 CSB

26 As they led him away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. 27 A large crowd of people followed him, including women who were mourning and lamenting him. 28 But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. 29 Look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the women without children, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two others—criminals—were also led away to be executed with him. 33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots. 35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: “He saved others; let him save himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 An inscription was above him: This Is the King of the Jews. 39 Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “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 until three, 45 because the sun’s light failed. The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle. 46 And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” Saying this, he breathed his last. 47 When the centurion saw what happened, he began to glorify God, saying, “This man really was righteous!” 48 All the crowds that had gathered for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, went home, striking their chests. 49 But all who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Easter weekend is the most significant week of the Christian Calendar. It is more important that Christmas, than palm sunday than reformation day. Simply put without easter, our faith is nothing.

You may have noticed that today we have been focussing on Jesus’ words or sayings on the cross.

Our aim today is to help us reflect deeply on what we humans did to Jesus. As we reflect deeply we should feel something. In a way our theme is “I was there when they crucified my Lord”. And we will be exploring this theme as we look at Jesus’s words on teh cross as we read them in chapter 23.

The first of these is

“Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.”

There are two things we need to think aboiut here:

the depth of what happened

Jesus response.

Now notice this is a prayer of Jesus. He was talking to God the father here. And what he says is forgive them, because they don’t know what they are doing.

So what were they doing? They were handing over an innocent man to die the death of a traitor and a terrorist.

Let’s think for a moment what Jesus was suffering here. He was in utter and complete humilation, having been robbed of everythign he had.

He had been robbed of justice - he was crucified instead of teh traitor Barabbas.

He had been robbed of his reputation - He was teh one who was hung on teh cross even though he was completley innocent.

He had been robbed of his friends - the spectre of the cross had frightened away all his disciples, even his closest friend denied him.

He was robbed of his honour. Here was the Word of God who had created the whole universe, being tortured and killed by his creation.

And as the end of v34 reminds us, he was robbed even of his last earthly possession. His clothes - they cast lots for it and divided his clothes between them.

And in the midst of this utter and total humilation, Jesus shows utter and total humilty. When he hangs on teh cross what does he say? Does he call down curses from heaven upon them? Does he summon the army of angels which were available at his command? Does he, with all the power he possesses blast apart the cross and claim triumph over the whole affair?

No, in teh midst of utter and total humiliation, JEsus shows utter and total humility.

He prayes for his enemies.

He prays for those who are doing all these things to him. In some ways that seems surprising, but when we really think about it, it is what JEsus has been doing since he was born. Here is the God in the flesh, living among his enemies. Since he was born he lived among the people who lived in sin - actions which cause death and wrath.

And in some ways his entire life of humilation among his enemies has prepared him for this moment, where he cries out for their forgiveness.

He prays for his enemies in the middle of his humilation.

Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing. They don’t know that they are killing the very word and son of God.

But then somehting remarkable happens. Jesus becomes the answer to his own prayer. Have you ever considered that?

How is it that Jesus could pray this? How could he pray for God to forgive? Because he was God’s forgiveness. The only way forgiveness works, is for the sin -debt to be paid. And who pays the sin debt - only Jesus himself!

Jesus is the answer to his own prayer.,

In fact the only way the Father coudl forgive the people, was if JEsus was going to go through with it.

He could have called down curses from heave, he could have summoned the army of angels, he could have blasted apart the cross and triumphed over the whole affair. But he wanted the reconcilliation of people to God.

He didn’t want to suffer the torment and the rejection. But he was committted to the salvation of his people. He was determined to see it through to the end.

He would do whatever was neccessary to earn the forgiveness of the peopel before God. Even if it killed him.

And it did.

Father forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.

But he knew what that prayer would entail. He knew what they were doing. And he knew what he was doing.

That is the first thing we need to focus on today.

The second is this:

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:34–43 CSB

34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots. 35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: “He saved others; let him save himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” 38 An inscription was above him: This Is the King of the Jews. 39 Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So the situation is Jesus is hanging on the cross, crucified between two criminals.

And in the response of the two criminals we see ourselves. You see there are only two options with what you do with Jesus on the cross. You either reject him as does the one, or you acknowledge him as Saviour, as did the other.

You see teh first choice is that of the criminal who rejects Jesus. He expresses is rejection of JEsus by mocking him and yelling insults at him.

But our rejection of Jesus can look different to his response.

The most obvious way we can reject Jesus is simply to disbelieve in him. Maybe we don’t think he actually existed. Maybe we believe he isn’t actually teh son of God. Except that Jesus is the Son of God. He did come to earth to live a perfect life, and to die in our place. If this is you, you need to come to him today, and acknoweldge your own wrongdoing, oyur own sin. That he may even today answer his own prayer concerning you - father forgive him, forgive her, for they did not know what they were doing.

Or Maybe you have rejected him by believing in a distorted version of Jesus. Maybe you think JEsus was just a good moral teacher, that he is on par with the Buddah, or with Gahndi. That he is a person worth following for his moral teachings, but that he really is no mer than that.

Friend if this is you, you need to reconsider Jesus. He was either the son of God or he was a madman. No one who is sane claims to be God. If you met a stranger who claimed to be God or God’s son, you would reject them as insane. So you need accept that Jesus either was the son of God. Or he was mad. He cannot simply be a good moral teacher.

Maybe you have rejected Jesus because you have had a negative experience with the church or with another christian. Maybe you have seen that JEsus’ followers don’t seem to always obey his teachings, and that in fact we can be a pretty hypocritical bunch. And you would be right, but in your own hypocricy you are welcome here.

You wouldn’t reject the truth, simply because the person telling you the truth is flawed. So too you shouldn’t reject Jesus simply because his followers are flawed. WE know we are - but because he has given us a new life, we seek to be more and more like him. Come and join us on the journey and commit to following him too.

Or perhaps you have intellectual doubts about whether God could even exist. I invite you consider that it is far more logical to believe in a God who created, than it is to believe in a godless, random universe. If you want to find out more, check out some apolegetic books, there are good reasons to believe God exists. Ill give you just two really quick ones.

The cosmological argument: The universe came from somewhere, and it makes more sense that it was made by someone than that it is the result of a random fluxation in the nothingness that existed before the Big bang. Both of those are faith positions, I think the Christian one just takes less faith...

The argument from fine tuning: Our universe is extremely finely tuned. If you changed one of a number of constants, by even the tiniest amount - the strength of gravity, the speed of light, the power of the weak and strong neuclear forces, if you changed any of them by even the tinest amount, life ceases to exist.

Where does this fine tuneing come from? From someone who designed the universe finely. God. I mean we could believe that we are just one of a multitude of universerses where different cosmological constants exist - but if you do that, you find yourself in the least likely position. You happen to exist in the one universe out of an infiniate amount of universes, where life happens to exist in the complex and beautiful forms it does. The chances of that happening are astronmonicially small. It takes far less faith to believe that you live in a world designed by God.

So we can reject Jesus in a whole different bunch of ways.

But the end result is all the same. The criminal who mocked Jesus did not inherit eternal life. He chose to reject Jesus in this life, and so God gave him what he wanted in deaht - eternal rejection and seperation from Christ.

You only have this life to choose.

Others go the way of the other criminal on the cross.

Look at what he says:

Luke 23:40–43 CSB

40 But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

What the other criminal says, what he recognises is that Jesus is punished unjustly. He believes in Jesus. We know that because he asks Jesus, with humility - remember me when you come into your kingdom.

He could now ask for that, unless he believed Jesus had a kingdom, and he could not have asked for that if he did not believe Jesus was going there.

Now notice what this second criminal didn’t have:

He didn’t have options - he had only perhaps a few hours to live.