Todaywe are moving on to a new chapter, Luke 23. This chapter tells us about thetrial of Jesus and His crucifixion and death on the cross. We believe this isone of the great chapters of the Bible, along with the other Gospel accounts ofJesus giving His life on the cross for you and me. This is the climax of humanhistory where God Himself literally goes to a cross and pays the payment forour sins. Several things stand out as we look at this chapter.
Tounderstand the setting, let's remember Jesus has been up all night long. OnThursday, Jesus prepared for the Passover meal with the disciples. Thatevening, they observed and ate the Passover meal in the Upper Room. In John 13through John 17, Jesus is talking to His disciples, preparing them with somelast words, giving them the comfort of the Holy Spirit who will come after Hehas ascended to heaven. So many things are taking place. Judas goes out intothe night to get the temple guard to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Thenafter Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, they sing a hymn.
Jesusgoes deeper into the Garden, and there He prays those three prayers: "NotMy will but Thine be done." He says, "Take this cup from Me."That cup, we believe, represented the sins of all humanity, and Jesus wouldbecome sin for us. In the middle of the night, Judas shows up at the gardenwith a guard from the temple and arrests Jesus. They take Him to Annas's house,then to Caiaphas's house, and finally, as the sun rises and Peter has deniedthe Lord three times, they take Jesus to the Sanhedrin, where He is triedunfairly for the third time by the Jews.
Nowhere in Luke 23, we read that in the early morning hours, after the Sanhedrincondemns Him, they take Him to Pilate. We know that Jesus was crucified at thethird hour, which would have been 9:00 in the morning. At the sixth hour of Hiscrucifixion, three hours into the cross, the sun refused to shine. It wentdark. For the next three hours, until 3:00 in the afternoon, the sun did notshine. We’re convinced that during those hours, Jesus paid the full payment forour sins. Over all six hours, Jesus is paying the price on the cross. We'lltalk about the seven sayings of Christ later, but here we see Jesus paying thefull price for our sin, being the propitiation for them, satisfying the wrathof God against the sins of humanity.
Jesusfulfilled the law as the innocent Lamb of God and fully paid for our sins,declaring in His last words on the cross, "It is finished." All thisbegins at 9:00 in the morning when Jesus is crucified. What we read now in Lukechapter 23, as He goes before Pilate for three different trials, happenssomewhere between the early morning hours of the Sanhedrin trying Him and Hiscrucifixion at 9am.
Canyou imagine how physically, emotionally, and mentally worn-out Jesus must havebeen during this time?
Oh,what a Savior! When we study this chapter, we will see both the evilness of menand the goodness of God. I can’t help but think about that tree in the Gardenof Eden, called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God forbadeAdam and Eve to eat from. When they ate of it, they brought sin into the world.Now we are reminded of that tree again because Jesus will die and be hung on atree—a tree that represents the knowledge of good and evil.
Therewe see the great love of God, the goodness of God, the mercy of God, thewonderful sacrifice of God at that cross. At the same time, we see evil mencrucifying the most innocent, precious, sinless, blameless, stainless Son ofGod on that cross. Oh, what a scene. As we look at Luke chapter 23, I trustyou’ll read it through several times and take into your heart all that Jesusdid for you and me.
God bless!
