Luke 23:44-49
The End
Have you ever felt like you’re at a dead end? Like you didn’t really know how to go forward? Maybe you were in a dead-end relationship. Or a dead-end job. Or a dead-end health prognosis. It can be a very hard place to be.
Today we’re going to start at the end. But don’t worry. Next week, we’ll discover a new beginning! Good Friday is all about the end: the end of an innocent life, and thankfully, the end of sin’s hold over us. Easter Sunday, however, is a new beginning: it’s the beginning of eternal life, the beginning of victory over sin, the beginning of a brand new relationship with God. You only have the beginning because of the end. You’ll never fully appreciate Easter until you process what happened on Good Friday. It’s called “GOOD Friday,” not because it was good for Jesus, but because it was good for you and me.
When people look at the cross, they have all kinds of reactions. If you really ponder Jesus’ death, you are faced with a decision: What will I do with this man who lived a perfect life and died a supernatural death? I mean, earthquakes? Temple curtains ripping from top to bottom? Solar eclipses? Something otherworldly happened at Calvary that day, and what does it have to do with me?
C. S. Lewis once said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” There is no neutral territory here. If Jesus really did die on a cross and rise again on the third day, then something very important happened that day, that still affects us to this day. So, as we consider our own response, think about the various reactions of those who were present. Which would you most identify with?...
[What does Jesus’ death mean to you?]
1. It meant despair to the crowd
Look at the response of the onlookers, in verse 48: “When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.” (v. 48)
Beating their breasts was symbolic of terrible hopelessness, extreme mourning. Something had gone very, very wrong. Life had become incredibly unfair for this person. After all, just five days earlier, these same crowds had welcomed him as their Messiah. They dreamed of rescue from Roman rule, of a victorious leader who would give the Romans the boot. And now all their dreams were dashed. Their hopes were crushed. Their hero was villainized. All hope was lost.
Jesus’ death would be a terrible outcome if that was the end of the story. 1 Corinthians 15:19 says, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” Good Friday would not be very good, if not for Easter Sunday. I have met a lot of folks very angry with God, convinced God has let them down. And my prayer is that they will see there IS hope, that with God, all things are possible, that somehow God’s love for them will shine through me and my love for them. It’s not over until God says it’s over.
The crowd found despair. And those who knew Jesus best? What did they see in his death?
2. It meant deliberation to his followers
Look at their response in verse 49: “But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things” (v. 49).
It strikes me that they were unsure, preferring for their own safety to watch from a distance. They hadn’t given up and gone home in despair, as had the masses. On the other hand, they hadn’t completed trusted God either. They were watching and wondering, waiting and evaluating. Later, the risen Christ would challenge them to believe. But for now, they were standing “at a distance, watching these things.”
In today’s church lingo, we might call them “seekers.” They’re very interested in what God is up to, but they haven’t quite made that faith jump to trust him with their life. You probably know somebody like that. They haven’t rejected the faith; on the other hand, they also haven’t accepted Christ as THEIR Savior. They’re watching, evaluating, checking out the faith, testing the waters, seeing if Jesus really is who he says he is, if God really is real. And they’re watching our lives, to see what our faith has done for us.
The seeker makes me think of the words of John, in John 5:13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.” Notice John calls us to believe BEFORE we know. That’s called “faith.” At some point, we each have to choose: was Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or truly Lord?
Wouldn’t it be nice to know for certain that Jesus is Lord, that God is somehow still in control, even when you undergo a horrible event, like a crucifixion? One person did know that day. For the crowds, the cross meant despair. For the followers, it meant deliberation. And yet ...
3. It meant conversion to a soldier
A soldier, by definition, is not an easy sell. Soldiers are tough; they are thick-skinned, trained to be stoic. Roman soldiers in particular were hardened to executions. They had carried out thousands of them, and were quite jaded to the prisoners’ fate. On any given day, the roads outside Jerusalem would be lined with crosses. Since death on a cross transpired slowly, sometimes criminals were left hanging there for days before finally expiring, unable to lift their bodies to take another excruciating breath. Because of the inhumane cruelty of this particular kind of execution, the soldiers who carried it out had to develop a hardened heart for their own self-preservation.
In today’s scripture, we see a centurion, a career officer who commanded 100 men. In the U.S. Army, we would call him a company commander. He had to be tough to lead his troops through such gruesome tasks. Yet, look at this centurion’s reaction in verse 47: “The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man’” (v. 47).
He watched Jesus voluntarily cooperate with his troops. He watched Jesus forgive his soldiers who were callously gambling for Jesus’ meager possessions. He watched Jesus promise Paradise to a thief. He saw the sky darken prematurely. He heard reports of the nearby Temple curtain being ripped apart from top to bottom. And he saw Jesus deliberately commit his life into his Father’s hands. After watching it all, the centurion chose to praise God.
That was his response. He chose to praise God. He said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” He realized Jesus did not die for his own crimes, but for the crimes of all of us. And through it all, he praised God.
I hope you are able to find God through the most tragic circumstances that strike all around you. I hope you are able to praise God, no matter what the outcome. I have a Veteran who is very distraught as her friend, her lifelong mentor, appears to be dying of cancer. The Veteran’s earnest prayer is for this friend’s salvation, that she, like the soldier, could choose to praise God. This past week I challenged the Veteran herself. When she told me she was struggling to believe in a God who would not answer her prayers the way she wanted, I told her, “True faith is choosing to praise God whether you get the answer you want or not.” And together we prayed for the friend’s salvation and healing.
What about you? Are you in the process of giving up in despair like the crowds? Or are you watching Jesus and this thing called Christianity from a safe distance, still evaluating, still considering? Or are you ready to make the faith plunge, to realize this was an innocent man, that he took your place on the cross, and to praise God for forgiving your sin? Let’s pray about it.
Heavenly Father, we would be deeply remiss if we skipped over the pain and agony of Good Friday to the joy and hope of Easter. Help us to realize that you are there even in our darkest moments. In the valley of the shadow of death, we can say with the psalmist, “Thou art with me.” Help someone today to choose you for the very first time, to cross over from the despairing crowd, from the seeking followers, to become a soldier of faith, trusting you regardless of the outcome. And like Job, we will say, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Luke 23:44-49 The Death of Jesus
44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
