Luke 23:35-49, At the Cross (B)

 (The conclusion of meditations on those who were "at the cross" when Jesus died.  What did they think? or say?)

·       v47: The centurion glorified God.  He had seen the entire event.  He had seen Jesus’ attitude and heard His words.  Father, forgive them.  Today you will be with Me in Paradise.  Into Your hands I commit My spirit.  He had experienced the three hours of darkness in the middle of the afternoon.  And he watched as Jesus breathed His last.  In a Pastoral role, and as a father, I have seen people breath their last, as did this centurion.  No matter how you approach it, or try to make it “normal,” it is a profound event, a deeply emotional moment.  The man put his faith in Christ.  Certainly, this was a righteous man.  Those words and that heart glorified God!

·       v48: The remaining crowd beat their breasts.  They mourned.  The crowd knew of Jesus.  They knew of His message, His claims, His miraculous signs.  Perhaps they stayed because they were sure He would “come down from the cross.”  But He didn’t come down.  He stayed on the cross, shedding His blood for the sins of all who were gathered there that day, and all who ever lived and would ever live, and you and me.  But the crowd did not understand this.  For them, whatever hope Christ was to them, He died and they lost all hope.  They mourned, and then the next day would get up and trudge on.  They would leave behind the death of the One who claimed to be the Son of God!

·       v49: His acquaintances stood at a distance.  They were filled with confusion.  They had seen His greatness in the miracles and teaching.  But they had not understood His humility.  Nor could they make sense of He will rise again (Lk. 18:33).  That would come later.  For now, those who had followed Him from Galilee, and had been close to Him, stood at a distance.  Wondering.  What in the world has happened?  What do we do now?

All these people saw the same event.  But the thoughts varied.  Two believed in Jesus that day.  As for the rest, don’t think that many that day were not, as two men later put it, hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel (Lk. 24:21).  Honest men who think deeply know something is not right.  Their conscience tells them that.  They know, as one criminal put it, that they are under condemnation!  Death is always a reminder of this.  Which is why people need to come to the cross of Jesus.  They need to get close to death, His death.  They need to hear that this Man has done nothing wrong.  But through this Man’s death, sinners have been “redeemed.”  The price has been paid for sin.  (God) made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).  Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).  Through this Man’s death, you too, the day you die, can be with Him in Paradise.  You too can glorify God!  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.