Luke 23:33 NIVUK
[33] When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.23.33.NIVUK
Just as suffering and stress reveal much about our character, so how people face death says a lot about who they are, and what they have built their life upon.
It is said that the English Queen Elizabeth I wanted to bargain everything she owned for a moment of time.
Or that, when asked by his housekeeper if he had any last words, Karl Marx shouted to her that ‘Last words are for fools who have not said enough.’ Which, ironically, were his last words.
Or that Michael Jackson spent his last hours begging for another dose of the painkiller to which he had become addicted.
Jesus’ words are deeply poignant and Scriptural. In Aramaic, he quotes Psalm 22:1 – words which fully explain His state at the time in such a heart-rending way.
But we will not look at His last words. Instead, we will look at His last deeds, because they speak volumes of His heart and His character. They tell us about His priorities: who, or what are most important in His life.
We will do that by looking at five verbs – or ‘doing words’, as my English language teachers described them in Primary School – that describe what Jesus did as He approached the cross.
Firstly, as we saw in my earlier post, we must understand that Jesus was dying.
And not just in the general sense. After the flogging and the mocking and the torture, Jesus by now would physically be in very bad shape. As we saw earlier, many prisoners didn’t even make it past the flogging, such was the intensity of the pain it caused. To add to that the callous re-opening of the bleeding wounds on his back, the brutality of the crown made of desert thorns and the inhumanity of the beatings that followed, Jesus has, by now, reached a stage of being in unbelievable pain.
And then we see these words:
Mark 15:21 NIVUK
[21] A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. https://bible.com/bible/113/mrk.15.21.NIVUK
I am not in the least surprised by this. You see, Romans normally made the prisoner carry the instrument of their own execution to the place outside the city where they would be crucified. This was a final inhumane act – a last piece of torture before the deadly act of crucifixion took place.
We shouldn’t imagine that this cross matched the nicely carpented, smoothly plained crosses that we see in some churches.
Why on earth would the Romans waste good carpentry on the baddest of the bad?
No, it’s most likely that these were simple two tree trunks or roughly hewn pieces of wood.
Carrying them on your back naked – as candidates for crucifixion were, would have been painful. Carrying it on a back ripped open by flogging would have been unbearably painful.
So by the time the soldiers had finished making sport with Jesus, He was in such a dreadful state that death was both inevitable and close, and the pain He bore was completely unimaginable – worse than anything we will ever face in our lifetime - that He needed help to carry the cross.
And that was just the physical pain.
The spiritual pain must have been off the scale.
Which makes what we see next all the more astonishing.
Luke – the Gospel writer to researched his book and recorded the words of eyewitness, recorded this amazing account:
Luke 31-23:26 NIVUK
[26] As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. [27] A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. [28] Jesus turned and said to them, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. [29] For the time will come when you will say, “Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” [30] Then ‘ “they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills,
‘Cover us!’ ” [31] For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?’
Jesus here is warning.
Now, why do people warn anyone about anything?
Is it not because they know the consequences of an action and do not want someone to suffer them? Do they not do it because they care?
And here Jesus is warning the women who followed Him, weeping and wailing and mourning His current state and future demise, that what is happening to Him is the very tip of the iceberg. He is warning them that a much worse fate waits them. And He is warning them so they understand and do what they can to get out of its way.
Jesus is in a truly awful state. But He is more concerned with the future state of these women than He is His own.
That, alone, should be mind-blowing.
But Jesus is not done yet.
Luke 34-23:32 NIVUK
[32] Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. [33] When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. [34] Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.23.33.NIVUK
The act of crucifixion was, and is, nothing more than the ultimate expression of complete and utter barbarism. Long, sharp spikes were driven through the wrists and the heel into the wooden cross. Just the thought of that fills us with revulsion. Again, the level of pain would be off the scale. The sheer brutality of it is stomach-churning.
Yet Jesus prays for those who are doing it to Him! And He prays not for their eternal damnation, but that God will forgive them because they do not fully comprehend what they are doing.
Now, for some of us, this will cause us to scratch our heads. After all, these men were likely professional executioners. This was not their first rodeo. Crucifixion was a common punishment in those days, even if it was reserved for the worst of the worst. The Romans made a habit of crucifying those who rebelled against them, and used the abject horror of it to scare the people into line.
So these men would have been experts. They would know precisely what they were doing.
But that is not what Jesus meant. He meant that they did not fully understand the magnitude of what they were doing. They did not comprehend its significance or its meaning.
They may have perfectly understood the details of what they were doing, but they did not understand the bigger picture: that they were crucifying the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
That part they absolutely did not understand.
So even while these men were causing Him unspeakable, unimaginable pain, Jesus is forgiving.
And, despite all this, Jesus is still not done yet.
Luke 43-23:39 NIVUK
[39] One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ [40] But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? [41] We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ [42] Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ [43] Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’
This is a passage with which we are over-familiar. So let’s take a step back and consider this carefully. These men are criminals. More literally ‘evil-doers’. They had made their living out of hurting other people.
And now they had ‘made their dying’ out of it, because whatever they had done, justice had caught up with them, they had been arrested, tried, found guilty and were suffering the same fate as Jesus.
In those days, I doubt if too many people would have any sympathy for these men. More than likely, the prevailing feeling would be that these men were getting what they deserved.
Around the cross, the Jewish rulers, and even the Roman soldiers, were mocking Jesus for their own perverse entertainment (Luke 23:35-47), which even sunk to the level of offering Him the cheapest of beverages to slake His thirst.
In the middle of this singularly shocking and utterly inhumane event, one of the criminals joins in. And why not? What else had he to do other than die in deep agony? Maybe he thought it would feel less painful if he hit out at someone else.
But the other evil-doer did not feel that way. He was convinced that an awful injustice was taking place. Not against him – this criminal knew full well he was getting what he deserved – but against Jesus. Hence his interjection.
And then a quote incredible statement of faith:
Luke 23:42 NIVUK
[42] Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.23.42.NIVUK
Think about that. Really think about it. Jesus at the time was a bloodied mess: back ripped to shreds and likely full of splinters; head covered in blood red streams from the crown of thorns; bruised and bleeding from the heartless beating He had received.
He probably looked less like a king than at any time in His life.
Yet this criminal believed. Against all the evidence. When the religious hoi polloi beneath him doubted and mocked, this criminal believed.
He believed and was saved.
Now, Jesus was clear about His life’s mission:
Luke 19:10 NIVUK
[10] For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.’ https://bible.com/bible/113/luk.19.10.NIVUK
Here He is, continuing His mission, even as death’s cold but merciful embrace drew closer. Even while in incredible pain, Jesus is still saving a man who had done nothing to deserve salvation, and neither was he capable of doing so.
But Jesus is still not done yet.
Look at these verses from John:
John 27-19:25 NIVUK
[25] Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. [26] When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing near by, he said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ [27] and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Jesus is mindful of the effect His death will have on His mother, who by now would have been at least fifty-five years old, would likely have already lost her husband and was now losing her firstborn son. So He tells one of His closest friends, John, to take care of her.
Judging by the short and pointed speech here, it’s likely that Jesus was very close to dying. His breathing would be ragged and shallow; His body fading fast from exhaustion; the depth of His pain unimaginable.
Yet even in this dreadful state, Jesus is still caring for those He will leave behind.
This is not just who Jesus was. Jesus died and then stayed dead. For three days. The Bible is clear: God raised this Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:4, 3:15, 10:40, 13:30, 37; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 2:9).
No, this is who Jesus is. Right now. Always and forever.
I remember a show that used to be on our TV sets on a Saturday night. People would hear three people describe themselves and then choose whether or not to go on a date with them. It was good, clean, family-oriented fun.
Nowadays, dating shows are on a race to the vulgar bottom, and dating apps are largely the playground of those who want to act like primitive, promiscuous beasts and care little for who they hurt along the way.
But let me ask you one thing: if you could meet a man like Jesus, who, even though He facing a desperate situation, still prioritises the needs of others, would you not choose Him?
Nowadays, our self promotion regardless of the cost to others has lead to the rise of the so-called ‘influencer’: entitled internet personalities who chase their own personal wealth and self-aggrandisement without any regard for the welfare of others. Many have been caught promoting products that are addictive or harmful or behaviours that are negative purely to chase ‘likes’ and hits and the advertising money that follows.
We ought to feel sorry for people like that, whose sense of well-being depends solely on the approval of others. They are truly damaged people.
But the damage they cause to other people, particularly our impressionable young children, is incalculable. They are selling a way of life that is vacuous, hollow, empty and bankrupt, as shallow as it could be.
And our young people are being misled by it.
These people are only on the ‘take’: they take your money, they take your time, they take your approval.
But what do they give you in return?
Beauty tips? Products that ruin your health? Dreams you might never achieve? An aspirational lifestyle that will lead you to do things you should not do to obtain it?
Let’s get real.
Look to Jesus. Look at how He lived. Look at how He died. Look at why He died.
For you.
Because He loves you.
Tell me honestly: who would you rather follow?
Will you not choose Jesus?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I am both inspired and deeply challenged by the way You lived and died. Help me to live and die like that. Help me to follow You. Amen.
Questions
1. Given the agonies that Jesus faced, how would you have reacted if you were in His place?
2. Which of Jesus’ actions as He is dying challenges you the most?
3. What will you do to be more like Him?
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