Luke 23:44-49 Words from the Cross part 3
Well Merry Christmas!
As accustomed as you might be on the Sunday before Christmas to hearing from the Gospel of Luke in chapter 2, today we are going to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke but with chapter 23, verses 44-49, and that’s on page 884 in the pew Bibles.
As much as you might like to focus on Bethlehem today, we are instead going to be focused on Calvary. I would encourage you to join us here Christmas Eve at 6pm for a more Luke 2, Bethlehem-y experience.
Let’s pray.
We have been looking over the last two weeks at the last words of Jesus from the cross.
At this point in the text Jesus has been crucified there on the hill called Calvary between two thieves, one penitent and one belligerent. Jesus had already prayed over and over for the forgiveness of those who crucified Him there because they did not know what they were doing. Jesus had promised the penitent thief that today he would be with Jesus in paradise because of his faith in Jesus. And now we come to the final words of Jesus from the cross.
Unlike the first two words from Jesus, the last word was preceded by two miraculous events which we will examine briefly.
44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word.
So I wonder, do any of you imagine the crucifixion of Jesus happening at night? My uninformed flannelgraph imagination always pictured it that way, it was always dark.
But we don’t need to rely on our imaginations to tell us. Verse 44 tells us what time it was: the sixth hour. Now don’t be fooled into thinking that this means 6 o’clock, it was actually noontime.
And from noon to 3pm the whole land was covered in darkness.
People have tried to explain this away as a natural event, such as a solar eclipse. But we know that Passover only happens during a full moon and solar eclipses can only happen during a new moon.
This was not a natural event. It was however, an act of nature. Verse 45 says the sun’s light failed.
A Scripture that we read every Christmas is Isaiah 5:2, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
But now those who had seen that great light were once again enveloped in darkness.
There is a parallel to this darkness also in the book of Exodus chapter 10.
21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” 22 So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
This was the ninth plague against the Egyptians, the tenth was the death of the firstborn. God commanded Moses to tell the people of Israel to slaughter an unblemished lamb and paint the doorposts and lintels of their houses with its blood. That night the angel of death would pass over their houses and only kill the firstborn in houses without the blood on the doorposts.
Jesus is the true Passover Lamb whose blood painted the cross and all those who receive Him by faith will also be passed over by the angel of death and receive the gift of eternal life. Our very own exodus.
Verse 45 also tells us that at the same time the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom.
The curtain of the Temple was a huge thick curtain, 60 feet high, thirty feet wide and four inches thick. It was so heavy that it took over three hundred priests to hang it. This hug curtain hung between the Holy place and the Most Holy Place.
This curtain divided the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple so that the people not only couldn’t enter the Holy of Holies but they couldn’t even see the place that housed the Ark of the Covenant where God localized His presence.
Now that the curtain was torn people had free access to the Most Holy Place, they truly had free access to the Father through the death of Jesus and now no more sacrifices were required.
Hebrews 9:12-14 says,
12 [Jesus] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
It’s interesting to me that the curtain was torn from top to bottom, a feat that would be impossible for man to accomplish. Even if they tried it would tear from bottom to top. They simply wouldn’t have been able to reach the top thirty feet in the air. This was an act of God, allowing us in through faith in Christ but also unleashing His presence on the whole world.
And then, after these two miracles, Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
Jesus died just as He had lived, pure, with unshaken, unvanquished faith, and with the Scriptures on His lips. He quoted King David from Psalm 31:5.
For those that might think that Jesus is just a helpless victim in this scene I would remind you that Jesus only died because He willed it.
Jesus wasn’t murdered, He laid His life down voluntarily as a sacrifice for our sin.
He said in John 10:14-18, 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
JJ VanOosterzee wrote, “Into the Father’s mighty hand our Lord now commits, as a precious deposit, the spirit which is ready to depart His body, and departs, therefore with composure and hope, to the condition of separation preceding the penitent thief and all the fellow-redeemed.”
Jesus died with complete trust in the Father and His plan.
John Calvin wrote, “For there could not have been a more splendid triumph than when Christ boldly expresses His assurance that God is the faithful guardian of His soul, which all had imagined to be lost.”
Jesus wasn’t just committing His own soul to the hands of the Father but also all the souls who would believe in Him so that we might together be eternally preserved with Him.
This statement from Jesus, again, should give us an unshakeable hope for our eternal future. We need not fear death, but trust that we have a place in His eternal kingdom through faith in Jesus.
John Calvin again wrote, “Everyone who shall believe in Christ, when he comes to die, following this example, will not breathe his soul at random into the air, but will resort to a faithful guardian, who keeps in safety whatever has been delivered to Him by the Father.”
There at the foot of the cross at the death of Jesus there were three different groups of people, Jesus’ friends and followers, the crowds that assembled for the spectacle, and the Centurion in charge of the crucifixion.
47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
Jesus’ friends and followers, who should have been right there at the foot of the cross, watched from a distance, I’m sure with a mix of feelings of fear and disappointment.
For the most part this group had lost hope as we will see in the coming verses in chapter 24. Jesus didn’t do what they expected and they were disappointed. Don’t be like them.
Those that had just come to the show left and went home, pounding their chests in sorrow. They didn’t understand what had happened either even if they were emotionally affected by it.
Being stirred emotionally is not true faith in Jesus.
I went to the altar every summer at camp and cried at every campfire because I was emotionally stirred but as soon as the music faded and the fire went out, the fire went out. Don’t be like that.
Lastly we have the Centurion, an officer in charge of a hundred soldiers, who oversaw the crucifixion. He may have been aware that both Pilate and Herod found no guilt in Jesus, we don’t know.
But after witnessing three hours of supernatural darkness, after hearing what Jesus said from the cross, and seeing the way that He died, Luke records that he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!”
Matthew records him and those with him saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Even after a brief encounter with Jesus, with His Word and with His power the Centurion confessed that Jesus was the innocent Son of God. May this be our confession as well.
Hebrews 10:19-25,
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Amen.
