The Crucifixion
In Lk 23:27-45, Luke recorded details about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
On The Way To Calvary
Prophecy of the Tribulation
Lk 23:27 on the way to be crucified, a great company, including women, followed Jesus lamenting. To lament is to mourn aloud and demonstratively; to wail.
Lk 23:28-29 Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck”. He’s speaking to mothers, whether with child, or nursing, or having recently weaned.
What he prophesied concerns women in the Tribulation, but notice that he said, “yourselves and your children”. The Tribulation could have occurred in their lifetime, shortly after his ascension. In Mk 13:32-33, Jesus didn’t know the day or the hour. So, he told them to weep for themselves. In Jn 16:16-22 he told his disciples he would just be gone “a little while”. Everything hinged on what Israel would do with what Stephen preached in Acts 7. Israel could have repented and turned to Jesus Christ then, and the Tribulation would have begun, thereafter.
Jesus said, “the days are coming”. You can read more about them in Matt 24:15-19. Clearly he’s talking about the Tribulation. And, as we know, “the days” still haven’t come. But they will.
Lk 23:30 Jesus quoted from Hos 10:8 and prophesied what John recorded in Rev 6:15-17, say to the mountains, Fall on us.
Lk 23:31 Jesus compared what they were doing to him as a “green tree”, and what they will be doing to believers in the Tribulation as a “dry tree”. Imagine how terrible the Tribulation will be if the day of crucifixion was likened to a green tree.
At Calvary
Lk 23:32 there were two other, malefactors, led with him. Notice the commas before and after “malefactors”. Jesus wasn’t a malefactor, but the other two were.
Lk 23:33 Calvary is found in the KJV, NKJV, and Webster’s Bible Translation. All else say “the Skull”. One on right hand, and the other on left; Jesus wasnin the middle.
Jesus’s Intercession
Lk 23:34 “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”. According to Acts 3:14-17 they didn’t know. Peter said, “that through ignorance ye did it”. Paul 1 Tim 1:13.
In Is 53:12, Isaiah wrote, “he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors”. This prayer for forgiveness was his intercession.
Old Testament Prophecies Fulfilled
Lk 23:34 they parted his raiment and cast lots. See Ps 22:18.
Lk 23:35 the people stood beholding, Ps 22:17. Rulers derided him, “let him save himself”. As Christ, he couldn’t save others if he had saved himself. See Is 53:7-11, Jn 12:24.
Lk 23:36-37 the soldiers mocked. “King of the Jews”. They were Romans. Their king was Caesar. Vinegar to drink, Ps 69:21.
The Superscription
Lk 23:38 superscription in 3 languages (for all the world). “This is the King of the Jews”. The priests wanted this changed, but Pilate said, Jn 19:19-22, “what I have written I have written”.
The “Thief on the Cross”
Lk 23:39 one of thieves railed on him. Actually, both railed, initially. Matt 27:44 “the thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth” (I’m going to make you eat your words). One didn’t change his mind.
Lk 23:40 But the other rebuked him. “Dost not thou fear God”? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. “Thou art in the same condemnation”. The closer you are to the curse resulting from sin or the consequences of sin which is death, the more real these two enemies of life are. Many have repented after reaping.
Lk 23:41 we indeed justly. His admission of guilt, Rom 3:19. “We receive the due reward of our deeds”. “But this man hath done nothing amiss”. Contrast of his righteousness and their guilt.
Lk 23:42 “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”. He believed that Jesus would rise again, that he was the King of the Jews, that he would receive his kingdom, and that he was coming again. All the stuff Jesus had been preaching, this thief believed.
Lk 23:43 “today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Paradise had been in Abraham’s bosom, Lk 16:22. Yet, in 2 Cor 12:4, Paul wrote that it was in the third heaven. This change of location came when Jesus led captivity taken captive, Eph 4:8-10. The souls in Abraham’s Bosom went up with him.
Darkness and Veil Rent
Lk 23:44 sixth hour (noon), darkness ninth hour (3pm). When the sun is not shining, the moon is dark also. Thus, there was darkness over all the earth.
Lk 23:45 The sun was darkened. That’s because “the sun of righteousness”, Mal 4:2, was dying. The sun will be dark again when he returns, Rev 6:12-13.
The veil of temple rent in midst, Matt 27:51, from top to bottom. Now we all have access to the throne of grace through the veil of Jesus’s flesh, Heb 10:19-21. He is our high priest, Heb 4:14-16. No more priests are needed.