The Crucifixion – Luke 23:39-49 [ESV]
Illegally arrested, unjustly tried and convicted, and brutally treated and tortured, Jesus was now hanging on a cross between two thieves sentenced to the same fate as him… death!
The other men sentenced to die had been in the procession coming from out of the city up the hill to Golgotha. They had heard all the commotion about Jesus… they had heard the mourners… and they had probably heard the stories about Jesus over the past 3½ years.
We can see a picture being painted here of two responses to Jesus… the response of the prideful human heart and the response of broken and contrite heart. Let’s look at these verses and see what we can glean from them for our lives… and for our hearts!
39One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
In v.39 we can see the picture of a heart hardened by pride and selfishness. There is no remorse or repentance in this man’s heart… I believe we can look at this thief’s response here and we can see what is prevalent in the hearts of ALL of humanity.
Many years ago in the cultural revolution of the 1960s there was a phrase that became really popular, “…if it feels good do it…” This mantra was revived in the ‘me decade’ of the 1980s with the continuing decay of societal morays… but to it was added another equally debilitating attitude, “…I am a victim! I am not responsible for my actions…”
Today we may feel that our society has spiraled downward, and in many areas this is very true… BUT when it comes to wanting what we want and not wanting to be responsible for our choices… this is a human condition that stems from the very first humans (Adam and Eve)
When Adam and Eve were confronted in the Garden by God after they had partaken of the forbidden tree, the finger of blame and act of shirking responsibility began… Adam quickly blamed both God and Eve for his plight…
12The man said, "The woman whom YOU gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Adam wanted to cast blame on God for bringing this obviously devious and deceitful woman into his life… she was his problem and God gave her to him so ultimately, in Adam’s human reasoning…it had to be God’s fault. He blamed Eve, but also blamed God!
God turns to Eve and asks her why she has been disobedient and she quickly blames the serpent and said she was deceived…
13Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Eve did not want to take responsibility for her choice and actions, just as Adam had not wanted to take it for his… Eve was basically the 1st person to use the excuse, “The devil made me do it!”
The attitude and actions of Adam and Eve in the garden to being caught in disobedient, sinful and wrong behavior is to shift the blame away from themselves…
Humans have not changed in this manner… when confronted with wrong, we don’t want to face it, we seek to shift the blame, and we don’t want to be held accountable/responsible for our actions. Like I have said, this is NOT a new phenolmenon, but is as old as humanity.
The thief on the cross that chided Jesus in v.39 wanted Jesus to ‘deliver’ him…but offered no contrition or remorse for his actions. He simply wanted God… IF HE WAS GOD… to get him out of the situation he had gotten himself into and let him go on his merry way doing what he wanted… when he wanted. There was no change in his heart, only a desire to feed his own selfish desire.
This is like all of humanity when we look at it… now not all of us are criminals in the eyes of the secular government, but we are all sinners in the eyes of God. Not all of us are seeking deliverance from a death sentence here in this world, but we are all seeking deliverance from a spiritual death sentence in eternity.
This man represents the attitude that God owes us and that we should be able to do what we want and God should be there to bail us out regardless of whether or not God approves… How many people like that have you run into?
But also we see in the attitude of this man that he did not have a belief in Jesus… the sarcastic tone of his comments imply that his cry for deliverance was not based in belief but in doubt… the implication here is that this man was saying, “Are you who you SAY you are… if you are then prove it to me!”
People who are living a lifestyle that is against God’s standards… and they are facing difficult times… they shake their fist at God and demand that He deliver them, but in their hearts they are defiant against any godly standard… For the most part people living a life that is totally against God have the same sarcastic attitude toward God as well… “God are you who you say you are? If you are then DO THIS for me… or if you are, then why is this or that happening…”
I remember at Christmas time I was in the post office trying to mail a pkg and I got into a conversation with a man who claimed that he was a preacher’s kid but was now very agnostic in his beliefs. He said that the God of the Bible was murderer and if he truly cared about humanity he would straighten out all the problems…
When I mentioned the freedom of will and our choice of sin, he scoffed at me as being close minded and intolerant of those who wanted to do what they wanted to do… As with the thief on the cross, this man also reflected an attitude that they were free to do what they wanted and when they wanted to do it and they believed that God should not care… or that it was wrong for God to NOT deliver them when they were in trouble.
The Bible does not articulate Jesus’ response to this thief, but the silence of Scripture speaks volumes about what God does when we demand our way with Him… God is going to ignore us. God does not cave into demands and God has NOTHING to prove to us. Our situation is of our own doing and we live in a fallen and a broken world where the saved suffer hurt right along with the lost…
God owes us NOTHING, God has nothing to PROVE to us, but the reality of the situation is that God has promised if we will come to Him with tender and contrite [broken/moldable] hearts…that He will respond to our cry and forgive our sin.
This thief demanded Jesus to free him, but the response of Jesus sends a clear message to all… God is not going to be bullied or intimidated… we are NOT going to force God’s hand by being stubborn and demanding. The implied message here was that Jesus simply ignored the demands of the unyielding and unrepentant heart…
However, when we look at the thief on the OTHER side of Jesus we see a totally different heart on display… look what he has to say in v.40-42:
40But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." 42And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
This man had also been thru the ordeal of coming to the cross and had heard all the laments of the people and the response of Jesus. He had possibly seen Jesus over the past 3 ½ yrs doing what Jesus had done… it had not affected him up to this point, but today something was different!
He hears the taunts of the religious leaders… He hears the taunts of the Roman soldiers… I am sure he had a pretty good idea of what Jesus had been thru… and now he heard this criminal hanging beside Jesus begin to ridicule Jesus and mock him….
Something within this man is different, he no longer is thinking as he had, but now his heart is softened and his spirit is changed. He then speaks out in defense of Jesus to the man on the other side of Jesus!
He shouts at the other criminal, “What are you saying? Are you condemning this man between us? We are here because we deserve to be here… we are here because of our actions… we are here because of our sin… but he is here NOT because of evil action or intention, but he is here for a different reason…He is innocent of this punishment!
Here we find this man with a totally different attitude… his attitude is one of contrition and the realization of his fallibility and the innocence of Jesus and the perfection of God. One of the traits of the human condition is that we tend to want to make our ‘gods’ fallible and frail like humans.
We see this evident in just about any pantheon of gods in any world religion. Today in this world, many want to tear down God, so as to make their actions and lifestyles more acceptable.
However, this man knew he was guilty, he understood and accepted the consequences of his actions… this is not to say that he LIKED it, but we can know for sure that he understood it and agreed that he was guilty! His proclamation of his understanding of his guilt is paramount to a confession of his sin… this is our 1st step to receiving redemption… confession of our sin… our understanding and realization that we are sinners!
Then after his confession the man turns his attention toward Jesus and cries out for His mercy… That is the 2nd step toward receiving redemption… crying out to Jesus… looking to Jesus for redemption… realizing that Jesus IS our redemption! This man looks to Jesus and says:
42…"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom..."
This is an affirmation of Jesus’ deity, as this man knew they were both about to die and this man had probably heard the teaching that Jesus was Messiah… Son of God… and this man throws himself on the mercy of Jesus, even without full understanding, turns his eternity over to Jesus!
For redemption to take place, this is what must happen in the hearts of those seeking redemption. A brokenness and a contrite spirit must be willing to acknowledge the sinfulness of the heart and then place full faith and trust in Jesus as savior. We need not fully understand it, we simply must place our faith in it…
Romans 10:9-10 says, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
We can see that this man on the cross accomplished BOTH… confession with his mouth and belief in his heart! He cried out to Jesus for redemption!
Finally tonight I want us to look at how Jesus responded to this man’s heartfelt cry:
43And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Jesus answers this man the same way He will answer anyone today, when they come with a confessing heart and a broken spirit and cry out for His mercy… Jesus takes him in! Today you will be with ME!
When we cry out in confession and faith to Jesus, Scripture tells us that He will answer by welcoming us into His family… Today you will be with me is what He is going to say! Today you will join with me in a relationship that is eternal! This is the Good news of the Gospel of Jesus…
Then after Jesus accepts this man, Jesus completes this part of His earthly mission… Jesus dies for OUR sin!
44It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this He breathed His last. 47Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" 48And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49And all His acquaintances and the women who had followed Him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Some things we can learn from these last 6 verses:
When all seemed lost, when things were at their darkest, when evil seemed to have won and the darkness seemed to have dealt a crippling blow to God… the battle was NOT over!
Jesus emulates the Psalmist’s trust in God as He borrows from the Psalmist with His last words, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” Jesus had lived His entire life trusting the plan and heart of the Father, and here was no different, even at death’s door Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father trusting him fully!
Jesus was NOT killed, but Jesus gave His life… ‘now upon saying this He breathed His last…’ This represents a very important part of the person of Jesus. Even when all around Him seemed out of control and evil had appeared to win… Jesus was still in control! Jesus GAVE His life… it was not taken!
When Jesus is revealed honestly and with love… As Christ died on the cross… the world will see Him for who He is… a Savior and one who can be trusted! The Roman soldier proclaims this immediately following the death of Jesus… that surely here was an innocent man!
When those who had been there saw what had happened and the travesty that had taken place… their bloodlust was replaced with remorse and great sorrow. They left the place, heads down and hearts hurting… WHAT HAD THEY JUST WITNESSED? WHAT HAD THEY DONE!
All of Jesus’ supporters and followers were there and witnesses His grace, mercy and forgiveness under great duress. This was witness to them because they were going to soon face persecution themselves and Jesus gave them a pattern/template to follow when persecution comes their way… we can see that Stephen in Acts 7:59 held true to that pattern!
There are those who will strike out at God and even doubt God is God… these people will never be satisfied with what is happening in this world and will always seek to blame others for their own frailty and faulty lifestyle… God is at fault in their eyes and He should just make everything right and not hassle anyone because they want to live their own way…
There are also those who see God for who He is… a holy and just God who has the right to judge and punish us… but also a loving and trusting God in whom we can place our trust… an ON whose mercy and grace we can throw our eternal destiny!
Jesus died for BOTH… Jesus died for ALL… let us rejoice that He did… PRAY!
