Luke 23:47-49 NIVUK
[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.
There are some situations in life that have such an air of finality that all hope feels like it has been sucked away and all that’s left is a bleak finality. Whether it’s a chronic diagnosis from which recovery is impossible and death inevitable, or even something less dramatic but still hurtful like the loss of a career or a job or the end of a relationship, it seems that such awful moments are part of the experience of fallen humanity.
The disciples experienced one: one with a far bigger sense of finality than anything we will ever experience.
They saw Jesus die.
And not just die. Not just any death.
It was not as if He passed peacefully in His sleep, or even that He succumbed to some dreadful, heartless illness.
No, this was an infinity worse.
They watched Him die on a cross.
Now, before we explore this any further, I want you to expel from your mind any thoughts that this was like something you’ve seen in the movies – even the Jesus Movie, and absolutely not Month Python’s ‘Life of Brian’. Even Mel Gibson’s horrifically and graphically violent ‘Passion of the Christ’, for all its controversy, doesn’t quite do it justice.
Crucifixion was (and still is, for the merciless savages that still use it) the most graphic and horrible way to die.
Even the Romans, who introduced it to the Mediterranean Basin, absolutely reviled it.
Cicero, for example, stated that crucifixion was ‘a most cruel and disgusting punishment’ and that ‘the very mention of the cross ought to be removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.’
It was a degrading a punishment as it was possible to inflict, violent in the extreme.
And yet, Jesus’ followers had seen this utterly barbaric punishment meted out on their Saviour.
They had seen Him die. Nothing, to their mind, could have been more final. Nothing had been more certain.
John, one of His closest followers, confirms this medically (John 19:31-37).
For them, their hope died with Him.
Of course, we know the end of the story. However, at the time, they did not. These horrific events would have had a profound effect on them, not at all dissimilar to what we feel when a deeply negative situation occurs to us or someone close to us.
So although the end of this situation was far from sad, the impact of it right after Jesus’ death is something we can understand, and learn from, so that when we are in a similar situation, we can take strength and encouragement from it.
Three groups of people react to this devastating situation. We will look at them all, starting with The Centurion.
The Centurion
Luke 23:47 NIVUK
[47] The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man.’
While I was a missionary in Romania, I visited some friends in Ceské Budějovice, Czech Republic on vacation. It was a brilliant rest for me. But the time came for me to come home. They very kindly gave me a ride to Prague to catch my train. They asked to see my ticket. It simply said on it ‘Prague to Bucharest’ and gave the departure time of my train. So they drove me up to the Central Station (Hlavní Nádraži) and led me to the Departures board to ensure I caught my train.
Just one problem: my train wasn’t listed.
You see, completely unknown to me (because my ticket didn’t mention it), my train wasn’t leaving from Hlavní Nádraži, but across town from Nádrażi Holešovice. I found this out only by talking to someone in an Information kiosk.
My friend drove me across town urgently, but we were not quick enough.
I missed my train.
I was able to organise another at additional cost, but the issue was caused by not having the correct information on time.
Look at this verse. This centurion, this high ranking Roman officer, realised who Jesus was. Luke says that he called him a ‘righteous man’.
Both Matthew and Mark add more to this:
Matthew 27:54 NIVUK
[54] When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, ‘Surely he was the Son of God!’
Mark 15:39 NIVUK
[39] And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’
He saw the drama. He saw the incredible natural and unnatural signs that followed it. He watched Jesus die. So he admitted that Jesus was the Son of God.
Now, the Greek is a little bit tricky here. It could also be interpreted as ‘a son of the gods’.
But the main thing is that this man, this Roman centurion, realised that Jesus was no ordinary man, that He was Divine.
But too late.
Consider this: the reason why the Jewish leaders put Jesus on trial, and offence for which they charged Him, was blasphemy. Why blasphemy?
John 19:7 NIVUK
[7] The Jewish leaders insisted, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.’
But here’s the thing: if the Roman centurion was right and Jesus was the Son of God, then it wasn’t blasphemy, was it? It was the truth.
So there would have been no need for Jesus to have even gone on trial, let alone crucified, because He had told the truth.
This is like one of those situations where you realise (or find out) too late that you have a serious condition, or that you aren’t able to see a relative’s passing because you didn’t get there on time.
It’s a horrible situation when you realise something too late.
It hurts like nothing else.
And seemingly here we see it in the Gospel.
After the Centurion, we also see The Mourners.
The Mourners
Luke 23:48 NIVUK
[48] When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
I don’t know if you have ever seen a Middle Eastern funeral, but they are not exactly quiet.
After the darkness, the earthquake, the tear in the Temple Curtain from top to bottom, now we see mourners, pouting out their grief in cries and fits of tears, and beating their breasts.
Why?
Because Jesus was dead.
Because the worker of miracles and healings was dead.
Because their latest hope of freedom from Roman domination was dead.
Because a great Jewish rabbi was dead.
They had lost so much.
And He had died so violently. So horribly.
Yet there is an enormous irony in this. You see, the crowds had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with boisterous, exuberant joy (Luke 19:37-38). And no wonder: Jesus had done great things for them.
Matthew writes that the occupants of Jerusalem was a bit bewildered by this wild welcome (Matthew 21:10-11), so the strong likelihood is that this crowd was mostly Galilean.
However, within just hours, we see the assembled crowd outside of Pilate’s headquarters baying for Jesus’ blood (Matthew 27:20-26: Mark 15:1-15; Luke 23:13-25; John 19:13-16). The opinion of the masses flipped so very quickly.
And then it got even worse. After demanding Jesus be condemned to die, the crowd then mocked Jesus as He died (Matthew 27:38-44; Mark 15:27-32; Luke 23:35-37).
Given the dreadful wounds He bore, that was utterly inhumane.
Now, after Jesus has succumbed to those wounds and died, they mourned Him.
There are fewer people more fickle than that.
But what you learn when you hit rock bottom is just how fickle people are. I remember once at work, when I made a simple mistake that inconvenienced the CEO’s Personal Assistant, it was as if I was damaged goods. No-one stood by me except my boss. I was simply set aside.
But a year later, when I resolved an error that could have cost the company a lot of money, it felt like I was a hero.
It confused me. I didn’t feel like I had changed. I was the same person.
And do you know what really had me rattled? The self same people who were very quick to put the boot into me when I was down were quick to seek me out when I was up. The people who had cold-shouldered me for a year were now talking to me as if that year had never happened.
That pair of events really opened my eyes like none other. They showed me that you really know who your friends are when you are at the bottom.
There were many mourners around the foot of the cross. Many people expressing their emotions. Loudly and chaotically.
But how many were genuine?
That is a very big question.
Especially given how volatile that crowd had been over the previous few days.
So we’ve seen the centurion and the mourners. Let’s now look at The Women.
The Women
A lot is said by the men in the Gospels. A lot less by the women.
But sometimes, to get their message across, they didn’t need words:
Luke 23:49 NIVUK
[49] But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
These are telling words. At the foot of the cross was a centurion, who had realised too late who Jesus really was. There were also mockers, with their cruel, heartless words, chanting what they believed was their victory over the irritating self-styled rabbi. And there were the boisterous, loud, but likely insincere mourners.
But away from them all, watching the chaotic and unseemly events in a dignified manner, were those who knew Jesus better than anyone.
Maybe they didn’t know what to think.
Maybe they were afraid to think.
Because it’s telling that these people have nothing to say.
Or maybe it’s because there is nothing to say.
They watched Jesus die a horrible, violent death. They would have known that no human could ever have survived that horror. As He bled out and breathed His last, their purpose, their meaning bled out with him and died.
And all they could do was watch on.
Many of us can identify with this experience, when we are so unable to influence events that all we can do is watch in utter dismay as they play out before us. We feel powerless in the extreme.
Among these people were women: women whose quiet and sacrificial faith had kept Jesus’ ministry going for the previous three years. Women who would have no position in leadership, and no plaudits from other people, but quietly, and unassumingly, served in the background at the feet of Jesus to let the Word of God get out.
And now they stood there.
Watching.
When we hit rock bottom like this, and are stripped of any possibility to change our situation, we often find these people there: those who realise the answer too late, or who are fickle and changeable as the wind, or people who love us but are as powerless as we are.
But two things were playing out in this dreadful moment that ought to give us hope.
Firstly, God had a plan.
Jesus had to hit rock bottom. He had to die.
Do you know why?
1 Peter 3:18 NIVUK
[18] For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
His purpose in hitting rock bottom was to meet you there and raise you up.
Whenever I see footage of the Badjao divers of South East Asia, I am so impressed by these people. They have adapted to dive to incredible depths – depths that no-one else in the world can – without equipment to catch fish for their communities.
But even they – even they – did not dive as deep as Jesus did to save you.
No-one has ever sunk lower.
And it was all part of God’s plan.
And if it was God’s plan to send Jesus that low to save you, could it also be His plan for you to meet Him?
Maybe it isn’t random. Maybe even your suffering could work out for your good (Romans 8:28).
But I also want you to know that God had a reward.
Because look who was the first to meet Jesus after He was raised from the dead.
It was those very women (Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-10; John 20:1-18).
Not to the Eleven remaining Apostles.
Not even to His three core disciples of Peter, James and John.
But these women, who had followed Him tearfully, fearfully and from a distance, as He has breathed His last.
This is a principle in Scripture, and one that has been largely forgotten - particularly by prosperity preachers: God rewards those who are willing to sink to the bottom with Him. He rewards those who are willing to pay the price for following Him. As Jesus taught:
Mark 10:29-31 NIVUK
[29] ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no-one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel [30] will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. [31] But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’
And as Joel prophesied:
Joel 2:23-27 NIVUK
[23] Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. [24] The threshing-floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. [25] ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten – the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm – my great army that I sent among you. [26] You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. [27] Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. Lord
The prophet Habakkuk knew about this principle of being faithful, even when it seems like you are about to hit rock bottom. He penned these beautiful, but very challenging words:
Habakkuk 3:17-19 NIVUK
[17] Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, [18] yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. [19] The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
Sometimes God has to take away before He gives. And that taking process is very, very painful.
But the joy, the pure, unadulterated joy, of hitting rock bottom is that Jesus meets you there, in a way that you could not appreciate if everything in your life was fine. And when He meets you there, you receive a deep peace and assurance that He has your life under control. In His time, He will reward you. You will be recompensed for all this struggle and pain.
I know. I have been there.
And God has never let me down.
Conclusion
I spent seventeen years living in a poor neighbourhood from which it seemed like my family and I could not escape.
Until one night.
One night when things seemed as bleak as they could be.
My sister had gone to a meeting in church by bike. Some thugs from our neighbourhood had thrown stones at her all the way there and all the way back. At any time those stones could have caused her to unbalance and fall into traffic.
Our father was (understandably) furious when she returned home. He called the police. No-one arrived until after midnight.
That was the last straw.
Our father wrote a letter to the Chief Constable for the area, complaining that the police were unable to protect us.
There was a phone call to our local council.
A few days later, we were out of that neighbourhood. Our departure was so fast that we got there days before our furniture. We slept on mattresses in bare rooms until they arrived.
God had rescued us, just when we had stopped believing that it would happen.
They often say that the darkest night is just before the dawn. We sometimes have to hit rock bottom before we start to find our way back up.
And there is no rock bottom harder than the one Jesus’ followers hit when He died on the cross.
Some people might have realised - too late – that Jesus was the Son of God, like the centurion.
Others, like the mourners, might have reacted with an outpouring of emotion that was loud, but inconsistent and insincere.
Others, like His followers, were quiet, dignified, but no doubt shocked to the core as they watched His passing, and all hope seemed to fade.
But it was all part of God’s plan. Their quiet, submissive faithfulness would be rewarded in full.
And so will yours.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I have hit rock bottom. I can see no way back. But yet, I see the finality of Your violent death on the cross and how even that was reversed. I see how You conquered even death itself. So I am not without hope. I trust in You alone. Amen.
Questions
Have you ever hit rock bottom? What happened? And why?
What can we learn from these three groups of people when we face a rock bottom situation?
Why did Jesus’ followers pain turn to joy? What can we learn from this that we can apply to our situation?
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