Luke 23
by Pastor David Groendyk
Most chapters in the Bible could have entire books written about them, but perhaps none more so than Luke 23 and Luke 24 which recount the death and resurrection of Jesus. How do you boil down the most significant event(s) in human history to a single page? I advise you to read this chapter slowly and diligently in order to take in what Luke is telling us.
What phrase or theme do you notice that is repeated over and over again? That Jesus is innocent. Pilate said, “I find no guilt in this man” (v. 4); then Pilate says again, “I did not find this man guilty” (v. 14); Herod found nothing in Jesus that deserved punishment (v. 15); Pilate tells the crowd once more, “I have found in him no guilt deserving death” (v. 22); and after Jesus dies, a centurion says, “Certainly this man was innocent” (v. 47). Luke goes out of his way to put this juxtaposition in front of us in a way that none of the other Gospel writers do. This entirely innocent man is condemned in a (kangaroo) court of law. But, as one commentator points out, the New Testament authors see Jesus’ legal innocence as just a small part of his overall sinlessness. He knew no sin and yet became sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21); he had committed no sin but bore our sins in his body (1 Pet. 2:22–24); in him there was no sin, and yet he came to take away our sins (1 John 3:5). Jesus was not just an innocent man condemned in a court of law, but he was a perfect human being that bore God’s punishment of hell in place of rebellious sinners. There is no greater injustice than what happened on the cross, but it happened for your sake and for mine. It should crush us to know that such a perfect man as Jesus took all our debt, but it should also (as the hymn goes) lead us to love and sing and wonder.
Notice also the other unique piece to Luke’s account of Jesus’ death, and that is the story of the two criminals who were crucified on either side of him. These very few verses teach us so much. First, it underscores the type of people that Jesus came to save. Luke so far has emphasized how Jesus comes to save the most undeserving and unlikely people. If we have confessed Christ as our Savior, we ought to see ourselves in this criminal, wicked people who justly deserve punishment as the reward for our deeds, but saved by a gracious act. Do you really understand yourself to be a sinner like this criminal? Have you grasped the riches of grace given to you? Second, we see the simplicity of faith. Facing the prospect of going before his Creator and Judge, this criminal confesses that he deserves punishment, that Jesus is righteous, that Jesus is King, and that he is utterly dependent upon Jesus remembering him in the next life to be saved. Surely, more was said in this conversation, but there is also very little Bible or theology knowledge displayed here. Just the bare gospel and bare faith. Third, Jesus implies his own victory. He says the criminal will be with him in Paradise today. Jesus didn’t spend the three days while he was dead in hell. He didn’t sleep in the grave either. He immediately went to be with his Father in Paradise. He knew that his work on the cross would be successful, and he knew that his Father wasn’t going to abandon him. He knew he was winning, even as he was dying. Although all his people’s sins were laid on him on the cross, he knew he was fully exhausting God’s wrath right then and there. How much more ought we to be confident and assured of Jesus’ work to save us completely? Jesus is a victorious king, and he will make sure that every one of his children make it home.