Luke 23:32-43

Transcript

00:00:00:21 – 00:00:25:34
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Happy Monday. Thanks for being with us as we start the week in the Gospel of Luke. And this is kind of the the crux of the story. All that wasn’t I didn’t do that on purpose. Sorry. This is the high point of the story as we have seen Jesus on trial. Now we see the narrative move to the crucifixion.

00:00:25:39 – 00:00:59:53
Clint Loveall
And a couple of interesting things today. Read partly through this and then we’ll stop and have some discussion as they led him away. Jesus, as they led Jesus away, they seized a man, Simon, of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him. And made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.

00:00:59:58 – 00:01:31:54
Clint Loveall
But Jesus turned to them and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say blessed are the bearing and the wounds that have never been opened and the breasts that have never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us into the hills, Cover us for if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

00:01:31:58 – 00:02:01:50
Clint Loveall
So maybe break this into two parts. Both of these parts are somewhat unusual in the crucifixion narratives in the gospel. The first is this character, Simon, not a character that we know much about, a character that doesn’t appear in all the Gospels, maybe only in Luke. I don’t know. Michael Few of that there, but it’s possible. I think maybe only in this version of the story, and that has intrigued people.

00:02:01:55 – 00:02:28:37
Clint Loveall
One of the ideas is that perhaps Jesus is has been punished to such an extent that he’s not able to physically carry his own cross. And when the Bible says that, here’s what we think we know, you would typically carry not the entire cross, but the horizontal beam that would be carried to the place where the vertical beams were already standing.

00:02:28:42 – 00:03:04:23
Clint Loveall
Again, I don’t know if there’s consensus on that. That is generally understood to be the the thing. So I don’t think Luke is probably telling us that Simon is carrying the entire cross. More likely the cross piece. But for whatever reason, we have this character in this story who does this for Jesus again, sometimes thought to indicate that Jesus is physically having sustained abuse and beating throughout the evening, not able to do that for himself if there’s more to that.

00:03:04:28 – 00:03:22:13
Clint Loveall
I’m not sure we know what it means. There are some church legends about Simon, but I think biblically speaking, he’s one of those characters that kind of steps into the spotlight, fades out of the spotlight very quickly, and leaves us with more questions than answers.

00:03:22:18 – 00:03:46:19
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, the gospel writers are different, Clint, than other storytellers in that they are not interested in introducing the back story of all the people included, that they don’t include people for that reason. And I think we have another example of that here today. Simon of Cyrene comes into the story for just a short moment as a way of helping Jesus forward.

00:03:46:19 – 00:04:12:59
Michael Gewecke
But let’s not miss that within just a few sentences, just a few words, Jesus is going to turn to teaching in the midst of this struggle. So if he is having this cross carried because of physical weakness, because of the beatings and the suffering that’s already happened, at the same time, his mind is clearly sharp. He’s still clearly a person of great individual strength and resolve.

00:04:12:59 – 00:04:38:42
Michael Gewecke
And that that tension, I think, is living in a text like this that that Simon is going to be forced against his will to to carry the load that Jesus can’t carry. And yet at the same time, Jesus is carrying the load that no one, including Simon, can carry. There’s there’s just this very deep, dense kind of interconnectedness of all these different elements in a story like this.

00:04:38:45 – 00:05:01:48
Clint Loveall
So one of the things that might be attractive to Luke about a detail like this in the story. My study bible here says that Cyrene is a place in North Africa. Luke would like that. Luke would like the idea that sort of not exactly a foreigner, but certainly an outsider. Someone from far away has been involved in the Jesus story.

00:05:01:53 – 00:05:35:03
Clint Loveall
And then there is that kind of physical representation here of carrying your cross. Jesus has said that. Carry the cross. Luke might like that imagery and have been drawn to that part of the story. The idea that it is a kind of sermon illustration for those of us who will try to to make sense of and follow the gospel that this man from a different part of the empire, a different part of the known world, shows up in the story.

00:05:35:07 – 00:05:38:52
Clint Loveall
I think, Michael, that Luke would appreciate a detail like that.

00:05:38:53 – 00:06:09:05
Michael Gewecke
100%. I do think it’s helpful. The commentators point out, and this is a good word, I think for us, this idea that we have that they are forcing. Simon of Cyrene, we have that idea that they’re seizing him is the translation we have that seizing is the exact same word that Jesus uses when describing the call of what it of what it means to be a people who are going the Second Mile, as you have in Matthew chapter five.

00:06:09:10 – 00:06:41:51
Michael Gewecke
The idea that we are we’re called to carry the cross once again, to use that language. And I think here there’s not just historical recollection in the inclusion of a person like Simon of Cyrene. I think you’re right to point us, Clint, to the reality of that, that more geographic kind of connotation, the idea of someone who might not be considered to be part of this, the circle in the salvation story is included.

00:06:41:56 – 00:07:07:48
Michael Gewecke
But I also would point out the church that’s going to carry this text forward is going to be one for whom, in some cases, the idea of carrying the cross is not symbolic to them, that they understand the weight and the cost of being Christian, that it might cost the same exact penalty, that it cost Jesus, it might cost your life, and your life might be the witness.

00:07:07:53 – 00:07:31:48
Michael Gewecke
And if that is true, then they can look to someone like Simon as a person who was there for Jesus in his darkest hour. And there’s a real human connection to a person like Simon in the midst of this story, that’s not 1 to 1. But I think that those themes are theological and they’re intended to be in this text.

00:07:31:48 – 00:07:37:01
Michael Gewecke
It’s not just a it’s not just a what happened story. It’s a what does this story mean?

00:07:37:06 – 00:08:01:15
Clint Loveall
Yeah, Luke is a careful writer, and if he introduces us to a character like this, it’s probably for a purpose. I’m not sure we fully understand that purpose. So we take some guesses at why it is that that Luke gives us this information. Perhaps the early church was familiar with Simon. Maybe he went on to have a story that was well known in their circles, whatever that is.

00:08:01:15 – 00:08:31:08
Clint Loveall
We’re not entirely sure. The next part of the story is, is something that’s going to sound a little familiar. If you’ve been with us for the last couple of weeks, Jesus has said some things like this before. Luke likes these themes or he is feels that these themes are very important. And so we have here Jesus being followed by a group of women who are wailing, who are are grieving, mourning, and Jesus says, Don’t weep for me, but for yourselves and children.

00:08:31:08 – 00:08:56:49
Clint Loveall
And then we’ve seen almost identical language to this. The days are coming when you’ll hope you’re not pregnant, when you’ll run to the mountains, when there’s terrible things happening, when when you’ll rather have the mountains fall on you than face the reality of that day. And then Jesus ends with this verse. If they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

00:08:56:54 – 00:09:22:43
Clint Loveall
Probably something along the lines of if they do this to the son of God, if this is how they they treat the Messiah, how bad will it get in the days to come? How bad will it get when I’m not here? And that sounds maybe like a sermon, Michael. Maybe that sounds like just a thing. The Bible would say.

00:09:22:48 – 00:09:56:58
Clint Loveall
Those who are a few years after these events reading Luke, I mean, they have answers to these questions. How bad will it get? Well, it will get bad enough that we hide in the catacombs and we’re afraid of the Colosseum and people are getting put on crosses or burned or beheaded. This is as as foreign and strange as this may sound to us, the early church would have read these words and resonated with them in a way that I think is hard for us to understand.

00:09:57:03 – 00:10:27:52
Michael Gewecke
Let’s put this in perspective here for just a second. Jesus is unable to carry the cross and he’s on his way. He’s being followed by women who are crying out, who sense the injustice of this, but also that the oncoming grief of what is happening to Jesus and when Jesus turns to them, what he has to say is don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves.

00:10:27:52 – 00:10:51:48
Michael Gewecke
Weep that you had children. And this is such a reversal upon everything that we have in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, if you were with us in the Genesis study, in particular, the idea of Bear, and this comes up over and over and over again, and the answer to bear in this is God will make the miraculous happen, that there will be this miraculous birth.

00:10:51:48 – 00:11:28:12
Michael Gewecke
And and so God’s blessing is seen in having children. In other words, these these women who have children are already blessed. They’ve been given the best blessing that that one could ask for in this cultural milieu. And Jesus is saying, you should be weeping for yourselves. And this is strong, strong language. And I think to your point, Clint, we struggle to connect with the absolute severity of the upheaval that will happen in Jerusalem in 78.

00:11:28:22 – 00:11:51:30
Michael Gewecke
And if you don’t know, it just a few years after Jesus’s death, Jerusalem, which has always kind of been a tinderbox, does burn and Rome comes in and just it destroys the city and it wipes out the temple and the prestige and all of the things that have been rebuilt are essentially destroyed. And and there’s death and there’s destruction.

00:11:51:30 – 00:12:14:10
Michael Gewecke
And it shapes the life of the people of Israel for the rest of history. And the reason I bring that up is just to say when Jesus looks ahead, when Jesus prophetically sees what’s going to happen. Luke’s made it clear every juncture of this book that Jesus does have that foreknowledge. And he taught that throughout his entire ministry.

00:12:14:15 – 00:12:39:13
Michael Gewecke
In this moment, on his way to the cross, Jesus is so much the son of God that he’s revealing what is going to happen to the chosen people, and he’s instructing these women on what is the the best way forward for them and their own spiritual practice in the days to come while he is being taken to his crucifixion.

00:12:39:18 – 00:13:17:54
Michael Gewecke
This is what makes a story like this, Clint. I mean, I think so. So Jesus in its telling is because one could imagine writing the story of Jesus being taken to the cross, railing against the Roman Empire, or even railing against the religious leaders who have tricked and connived and pushed him into this position. Now, when Jesus is in this moment, he is saying it is way better for me on my way to crucifixion than it will be for those who have rejected me and for those who are going to actually carry the faith.

00:13:17:54 – 00:13:43:04
Michael Gewecke
To your point, those who are going to carry the faith forward and experience real trials and tribulations. The hills that you would look to for protection are going to be the things that you would wish come upon you. The the for boding ness of these words has a way, I think, of wrapping the reader into the story Luke is making it clear to us that as Jesus goes to the cross, there’s more at stake than just one man’s life.

00:13:43:04 – 00:13:58:32
Michael Gewecke
And we know that because we’ve been following the story of Jesus, that Jesus is the person upon whom history turns. But on his way to crucifixion, Luke is telling that story. Jesus is teaching that reality as he goes.

00:13:58:37 – 00:14:45:32
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think we’ll we’ll see another glimpse of this, maybe tomorrow, another talking point. But the early church truly understood that the death and resurrection of Jesus ushered in what they would have called the last time or the last days. And so, again, Jesus has this kind of apocalyptic language, this end of time language. You know, the wood is green, but it’s going to get worse as that day draws near, as the day of the Lord comes, as the day of wrath comes as the second coming gets closer and closer, all of which the early church expected in its lifetime, in its near future, that it’s going to be worse than this.

00:14:45:32 – 00:15:11:07
Clint Loveall
It’s going to be bad. And again, this isn’t new language. We’ve seen it. It’s interesting that Luke, I would argue more explicitly connects it with the cross than do the other gospels. You kind of argue, Matthew, that the earthquake and the people getting up out of the graves, but Luke inserts it in in a way that is just impossible to miss.

00:15:11:07 – 00:15:38:52
Clint Loveall
I mean, this isn’t inference. There’s no interpretation really needed. I mean, this is not hard to find it. Luke puts it right out there in front of you, and it’s, in Jesus words, a warning that there’s worse to come, that that is bad is what they might be doing in the moment is that believers will share in some of that suffering and some of that persecution.

00:15:38:52 – 00:15:48:33
Clint Loveall
And the early church would have not only heard that intellectually, they would have known it experientially like we have.

00:15:48:37 – 00:16:31:03
Michael Gewecke
Is it the benefit or the struggle? I mean, I think it may be both of time that we we don’t see the way in which the earliest church was embedded in the Jewish community. And when a Christian went to church in 65 A.D., it’s likely that they were going to the synagogue and it’s likely that they were worshiping and serving in the midst of those traditions and so when Jesus makes a prophetic claim like this, which is is so harsh, it by definition touches both the insider and the outsider, the believer and the nonbeliever.

00:16:31:03 – 00:16:56:48
Michael Gewecke
I think there’s a way in which that this what Jesus is talking about, it points the people to the reality that that the brokenness that’s going to put them on the cross is only going to become magnified. It’s only become going to become greater. This idea what will happen when it’s dry and that that is a very, very dark, foreboding kind of teaching.

00:16:56:52 – 00:17:20:02
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, I just we’re we’re now into the region clean of last words. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re on the way that this is what if Jesus is last recorded teachings as told by the gospel writer Luke is it’s not accidental and it’s it’s powerful and it’s moving and there’s substance in it. But no.

00:17:20:02 – 00:17:25:41
Clint Loveall
It’s literally the last thing he says before the words he’ll say on the cross.

00:17:25:46 – 00:17:48:00
Michael Gewecke
Yeah well friends it’s it’s there’s a lot we we certainly hope that you will continue with us. Clearly we slow down as we come into a text like this. But there’s a great deal to see as we go. So I hope that you will subscribe to stay with us in the study, like the videos that others get now, like the videos, others can find it in the midst of their own study in the future.

00:17:48:00 – 00:17:50:49
Michael Gewecke
And of course, we look forward to having you with us tomorrow.

00:17:51:00 – 00:17:51:43
Clint Loveall
Thanks to everybody.