Luke 23:33-43 Jesus’ crucifixion

OVERVIEW

The climax of the passion narrative is Jesus’ arrival at the place called the Skull, where in his crucifixion he is reckoned with transgressors, becoming a curse for us (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The place called the Skull was also the location where Adam was buried (AMBROSE). The mystery of Christ’s death consists in how he as the new Adam restores us to paradise and to our original condition (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

As the people cry out “Crucify him, crucify him,” Jesus is praying, “F`ather, forgive them.” Stephen’s forgiveness and martyrdom in Acts will show that what Christ was able to do from the cross all Christians are able to do in him. Christ’s forgiving words from the cross produce by his Spirit believers on Pentecost. Christians wear this cross on their foreheads to remind them of Christ’s forgiving love as he heals them as the great physician (AUGUSTINE).

The degradation of Jesus’ nakedness is a significant part of the scandal of the cross, and yet it is through his nakedness that he conquers (AMBROSE). At the foot of the cross all of humanity, represented as Adam’s race, now lashes out against God’s Son with unbelievable malice (JUSTIN MARTYR). The inscription over the cross, though meant to mock his royal and messianic claims, speaks the truth (AMBROSE). One thief denies him; the other wins eternal glory (PRUDENTIUS). He did not save the scoffing thief by taking him down from the cross; he submitted him to the weakness of the cross (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

The penitent evildoer’s confession of sin and of faith shows the proper response to Jesus’ absolution (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The penitent thief is not ashamed of Christ’s suffering and does not see it as a stumbling block, and so he makes a confession of faith in the suffering, innocent Messiah. He sees on Christ’s body his own wounds, and despite the reality of Christ’s suffering and imminent death, he goes on to voice an even stronger confession: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (MAXIMUS OF TURIN).

The thief will now enter paradise because Christ has opened the gates for him (CHRYSOSTOM). Jesus invites the man to participate in this forgiveness forever, for through Jesus’ death he has removed the flaming sword guarding the tree of life and gives us access to paradise (ORIGEN). Jesus has restored the Paradise lost by Adam by stretching out his arms on the cross and defeating Satan.  From the tree of the cross, Adam hears of his return to Eden (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

The judgment on Adam for his sin of eating from the tree was swift, and so also is the judgment of paradise swift for this thief who hangs on  a tree (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM). Adorned in the robe of Christ, the thief is now welcomed into the garden in Adam’s place (EPHREM THE SYRIAN). Jesus is promising to all the saints the paradise promised to the thief (ORIGEN). Jesus’ words serve to incorporate the thief into the body of believers in Christ and to invite him to the ongoing feast of heaven, for life is in Christ, and wherever Christ is there is the kingdom (AMBROSE). Paradise is restored by the water and blood that flow from Jesus’ side that sprinkle the penitent thief as he is baptized into Christ’s death (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

To be with Christ in paradise “today” is to be with him even when he descends into hell (AUGUSTINE). It is the cross that opens the key to paradise (JEROME). For those who confess Jesus as the innocent king, such life in paradise begins now, a great comfort for sinners (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

Luke 23:44-49 Jesus’ death and the responses

OVERVIEW

Luke reports an extraordinary, cosmic sign that the creation is anguished: darkness. Creation suffers with Christ in his suffering (EPHREM THE SYRIAN) and mourns for its Lord (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). The darkness that God allowed to usurp authority over the world at Jesus’ arrest worked death and chaos, and yet it obscures from everyone the deadly wickedness placed upon Jesus. By the darkness, Christ’s enemies can now see him as he truly is: the Son of God (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

The rending of the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies demonstrates the division now between the two peoples those who are in Christ and those who are not (AMBROSE). For Luke, the darkness in creation and the torn curtain in the temple are signs of judgment against the religious leaders who called for Jesus’ death. The Spirit who rends the curtain in the temple comes forth from the temple to open the graves (EPHREM THE SYRIAN)

Jesus cries out with a loud voice, for he is acknowledging with his death the separation of God and humanity. The Synoptic Gospels record that at the moment of death, a Gentile centurion testifies who Jesus is (AMBROSE). Jesus by his cross draws this centurion to himself so that a Gentile is the first to declare his innocence after Jesus had breathed his last (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Jesus followers witness the crucifixion “at a distance” in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled (EPHREM THE SYRIAN).

Luke 23:50-56 Jesus’ Death

OVERVIEW

Joseph is a Jew from Arimathea and a council member, part of the Sanhedrin, which rejected Jesus. At Jesus’ birth in a cave and his death  in a tomb, a just man named Joseph oversees that his body is carefully attended to (EPHREM THE SYRIAN). Jesus will take his sabbath rest in the tomb, for the tree of life must be planted in a tomb in fulfillment of Scriptures. On the third  day, he shall bring the reign of his kingdom to all creation when he rises from the dead (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM).

Joseph takes Jesus’ body down from the cross  and wraps it in linen, linking Jesus’ birth and death, since at birth Jesus was wrapped in cloth bands. Joseph places Jesus in a rock-hewn tomb where no one else had lain, for just as Jesus died a death that was not his own, so he is laid in a borrowed tomb (MAXIMUS OF TURIN). The clean linen cloths and the tomb where no one had ever been laid show that his death and burial are as pure as the circumstances surrounding his birth (ORIGEN). Although humiliated during his journey to the cross and shamed by the crucifixion, all Jesus’ body is given the high honor of being laid in a new tomb, just as his body was carefully contained in the virginal womb of Mary (MAXIMUS OF TURIN).

The final preparations are by women who will   be the last to the leave the tomb, the first to return to it, and the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection (AMBROSE). They return to their homes for their sabbath rest to observe the Old Testament stipulations and to prepare spices and myrrh for a dead body that they plan to anoint when the sabbath has ended, because they thought he was going to remain in the grave (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

Source

Oden, T.C. & Just Jr., A. (2003). Luke (The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament part III). Illinois (U.S.A): InterVarsity Press. Pages 359, 360, 367, 368, 370 & 371.