Luke 23:44-49

Transcript

00:00:00:16 – 00:00:42:28
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate you joining us again on this Wednesday as we continue through the Gospel of Luke. We are in the last stages here of Luke. We have seen Jesus on the cross today, Luke. Finishes that story. Some interesting stuff. You know, again, if you are a Bible person, if you’ve been in church, if you’ve done a bunch of Easters in Good Fridays, you know that each gospel has its own collection of details and nuances in regard to the crucifixion story and to the resurrection story will try to point those out as we go through Luke’s version.

00:00:42:28 – 00:01:09:33
Clint Loveall
But we find ourselves in verse 44 in a section called The Death of Jesus, which I think is self-explanatory. Luke says, It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands.

00:01:09:37 – 00:01:39:15
Clint Loveall
I commend my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, Certainly this man was innocent. And when all the crowds who had gathered there for the spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home being their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who followed him from Galilee, stood in the distance watching these things.

00:01:39:19 – 00:02:12:51
Clint Loveall
Luke doesn’t do anything wildly different in his story. We get told this. The idea of darkness is important theologically. Some people have suggested, and this is a theme in more than one of the gospels, that this is essentially the image here is almost like God can’t bear to watch. I don’t know if that’s reading too much, and it could just be a symbol for the darkness that is what the human being is doing to the Messiah here.

00:02:12:55 – 00:02:42:09
Clint Loveall
But it covered. You notice the whole land. And while the sun’s light failed, the curtain of the temple is torn in two. This is a large, heavy, thick curtain that separates the general temple from the holy area that was reserved for the high priest. And in Matthew, it says that that was ripped from top to bottom, indicating kind of that God did it here.

00:02:42:14 – 00:03:12:20
Clint Loveall
Luke just gives us the detail that it was ripped. Probably what this represents, generally, it’s thought that this means that the barrier between what is considered the holiness and sacredness of God and people has been torn, has been eradicated, that God is now loose in the world, that there is no there is no more barrier between God and his people.

00:03:12:25 – 00:03:37:04
Clint Loveall
And then we have here Jesus Christ with a loud voice. The third thing he says, I mentioned this yesterday, there are seven things Jesus says from the cross. Actually, three of them are in Luke Father into your hands. I commend my spirit. And then he breathed his last. So again, Michael, you you pointed this out yesterday in that text.

00:03:37:09 – 00:03:54:06
Clint Loveall
Very interesting. You know, it takes Luke, when we have here three verses to tell this whole story and yet because of the way he he tells me he gets a lot of cross, I mean he does a lot with not a lot of words here.

00:03:54:10 – 00:04:19:22
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, the that well let’s look at the breadth of that claim and I think that that’s a really important thing to do as we go through a study slowly is to realize that now we’ve looked at five verses here today and yet in these five verses Luke has told the whole story, you have the setting which is about noon, a kind of looseness in the time of day.

00:04:19:35 – 00:04:44:42
Michael Gewecke
What you need to know is not the time of day, but the fact that it should have been light. And it’s at that moment when darkness comes over the land. So for for this entire time, for 3 hours, it’s going to be dark. We’re not told why this is the case. But then you have the curtain temple torn this this theological, symbolic, typological action that happens.

00:04:44:42 – 00:05:11:58
Michael Gewecke
The thing that would be the separator between the Gentiles and the people, between God and the people. But there’s so much symbolism and theology in the temple that the idea that the order of the temple is now been changed because of what’s happening on the cross. And then details, Clint, that might to us not immediately strike us, but here we have in very explicit wording, Luke says, verse 46, Jesus cries out with a loud voice.

00:05:12:03 – 00:05:41:06
Michael Gewecke
And you know, the commentators point out, I think it’s a helpful thing to remember that at the end of a crucifixion, generally a person would not have any voice at all. And that by nature of that form of of death, that one is going to have no breath. That’s the way that crucifixion ultimately will kill you. And so the idea that Jesus cries out and Luke wants us to know is with a loud voice makes it clear that he is giving up his life.

00:05:41:06 – 00:06:05:31
Michael Gewecke
And it’s not just that he has a voice, is whether he uses that voice to do into your hands. I commend my spirit. He’s giving to God himself. He’s putting his whole faith and trust in the creator of the universe. Jesus is a righteous man. In other words, Jesus is doing an action for others that He’s doing by his own will and agency, and he’s doing the work that the righteous man would do.

00:06:05:31 – 00:06:09:41
Michael Gewecke
And Luke has told us all of that in just a couple verses here.

00:06:09:48 – 00:06:36:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think you’d see that most clearly and in a gospel like John where it’s literally Jesus decision to die. But I do think Luke in a more subtle way is telling us in, in various ways that Jesus is doing what He chooses to do. Again, he is not a victim in in that sense that he didn’t have options or that he got caught or that they outfoxed him, outsmarted him.

00:06:36:18 – 00:07:02:54
Clint Loveall
Jesus has put himself here for this express purpose, and he now recognizing at the end he lets go, he gives in and commits his spirit to God. And then let’s talk about the reaction here. So these are these are those things that you can read. And sometimes from our perspective, we don’t always understand what they mean when this century and so on.

00:07:02:54 – 00:07:46:32
Clint Loveall
Now understand that you’re about to have a Roman soldier do interpretive theological work about who Jesus is. That is most stunning in the Gospel of Mark, where he says, Surely this man was the son of God. Here, Lee here. He says, Certainly this man was innocent. But for a Roman to recognize for a soldier to recognize the innocence, the, you know, depending how far you want to argue, that if he’s innocent of the charges, that means he is who he said he was and who they said he was.

00:07:46:37 – 00:08:13:06
Clint Loveall
Now, how fair you take that in the mind of the century. And I don’t know. That would only be speculation. But for that to be recognized by a Roman, this is the gospels way, Luke’s way of saying, you know, the secret is out. Everyone should be able to see when you look at Jesus, when you see this sacrifice, when you watch the forgiveness and the giving of spirit, it is something noticeable, it is something obvious.

00:08:13:06 – 00:08:34:59
Clint Loveall
And even the crowds, the crowds had gathered for the spectacle, they returned home, beating their breasts. Now maybe they got caught up again. We’ve said this less so in Luke. Are the crowds a part of the drama? But maybe they got caught up in it. Maybe they were excited by the by the, you know, all the love, the drama of it.

00:08:35:04 – 00:09:02:43
Clint Loveall
But here they see that something has happened and they don’t feel good about it. They go home beating their breasts and I think it’s interesting that Luke gives us those that twofold reaction, Michael. But everyone who witnesses sees something that doesn’t seem right to them, they they begin to experience the question marks of what have what has happened here?

00:09:02:43 – 00:09:03:58
Clint Loveall
What have we done.

00:09:04:02 – 00:09:37:03
Michael Gewecke
Yet know this? Who’s now conspicuously absent? There is no religious leaders. There’s in fact, the person remaining. And I think that the absence of the religious leaders actually becomes even more serious and more damning, actually, is the presence and recognition of the Roman soldier. Right. Because we’ve had this whole interplay between the religious leaders, ultimately capturing Jesus, then having to bring into the fold pilot who then brings in Herod and then it goes back to pilot.

00:09:37:12 – 00:10:06:43
Michael Gewecke
Pilot represents the Roman power, the Roman ability, even to authorize an execution like this. And the person who stands there at the foot of the cross at Jesus’s death and Luke literally says, praises God. I mean, a term of worship, not recognizes who Jesus is or or sees a new with a new know praises God and says, certainly this man was innocent.

00:10:06:43 – 00:10:30:45
Michael Gewecke
So there’s a way of saying that an open minded Roman soldier who’s practiced in the art of execution, or at least being around an execution, that that soldier sees Jesus for who he is, the innocent man that he is in this moment. And it’s all the more, I think, convicting upon those religious leaders who have brought Jesus to this point.

00:10:30:45 – 00:10:54:21
Michael Gewecke
I think Luke leaves the door open in a very gracious way here, actually, for the Gentiles and for the crowd. Luke wants to make it clear that that Jesus is doing a thing for the sake of all of these people. And there’s a way in which he’s this is a less true, I think, in like the gospel of John where where it’s more pointed towards those opponents of Jesus.

00:10:54:21 – 00:11:15:23
Michael Gewecke
But but here there’s an absence of those religious leaders. There’s a Roman soldier who is getting it. There’s crowds who, on some level understand the severity of what’s happened here. And of course, then Luke wants us to know there are also the women who had followed him from Galilee. They are at a distance. They’re watching this happen as well.

00:11:15:25 – 00:11:25:55
Michael Gewecke
Jesus is surrounded by these various layers of humanity, and each are responding differently in the midst of his death, his his life giving.

00:11:26:00 – 00:12:10:03
Clint Loveall
Yeah, those. It is interesting if you think about these in terms of the groups of who have seen the centurion praises the people, repent or grieve. That’s what beating their breasts mean. And those who knew Jesus, the women and acquaintances, they were at a distance watching these things. And it gives you without saying it. Luke has done a beautiful job of painting a scene in which Jesus is in the center, and all around him are these various reactions and leaves open ended The kind of the question of what happens next, which is what we’ll what we’ll get to tomorrow.

00:12:10:03 – 00:12:32:21
Clint Loveall
But again, a shorter section than I think you might imagine if you were going to sit and write the death of Jesus. I mean, Luke gets all of this done in ten verses, including yesterday’s text. And it just it’s really, I think, really fantastic writing.

00:12:32:25 – 00:13:09:54
Michael Gewecke
So I just want to point out, I’d be interested in your thoughts on this comment to me as I read this. It strikes me the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. Luke being the historian that he is. Luke Caring so much about women like he does, it seems to me not accidental the connection there that I think would be reasonable to make that Luke is telling us the authoritative witnesses to Jesus’s death are these women who have been following him, which in the ancient world this is only going to get more complicated as some of the resurrection story unfolds.

00:13:09:54 – 00:13:36:00
Michael Gewecke
But Luke is turning to people who were not the first line of criminal defense. I mean, the witnesses, you wouldn’t you wouldn’t turn to the women followers as examples of pure faith if you were following simply by cultural guidelines in the first century. And yet Luke wants us to know it’s not that this site is not the 12, it’s not Peter he names.

00:13:36:12 – 00:13:56:24
Michael Gewecke
It’s the women. And I think there’s something genuinely revealing in that that Luke says, No, this is the people who followed Jesus, the women, these women who followed him all the way from Galilee. They were with him until the end. And the fact that they’re named is a kind of honoring. And I think that’s worth noting.

00:13:56:29 – 00:14:30:21
Clint Loveall
Yeah, Yeah. I mean, it has been suggested and I’m not a I’m not a big believer that we have to defend the text, but it has been noted by people who want to stick up for the idea that the Bible tells accurate stories, that if you were crafting a story to try and sell the idea of Jesus, it would never occur to a first century writer to make women the primary movers and receivers of the story.

00:14:30:21 – 00:15:05:30
Clint Loveall
So, I mean, that has been a point that some have actually used to validate the the historical truth, the factual ness of the story is why, if you were making this up, you wouldn’t do it, that you would you would tell a cleaner, more compelling story that that in some ways this is the oddest twist, and therefore it’s often thought to add to the idea that it’s accurate.

00:15:05:34 – 00:15:29:49
Michael Gewecke
But I wonder to if when we look at a text like this, it would be easy for us to read by it, maybe just in terms of sheer length and also as people who know the story, we know Jesus died, maybe even people who know the Easter story, who know what’s going to come and wanting to get to to the stuff down the road.

00:15:29:54 – 00:16:03:01
Michael Gewecke
I think we should be careful to note in a in a study that going at the pace that we’re going, that that these words, though they may not be many in terms of the quantity of translated English words that we could not overstate the importance of these words in the history of Christian theology. And at the center of what Christians believe that God has done in the world, when when Jesus says into your hands, I commend my spirit, that opens for now.

00:16:03:01 – 00:16:45:54
Michael Gewecke
Thousands of years, some of the brightest minds exploring What does it mean that the Son of God gives his spirit? And what does what implications does that have for those of us who are not in standing ourselves to get to do that work? And and what we see happening here when a centurion, a person who doesn’t have the law, a person who’s not a person of Jewish faith, when when this centurion sees that this man is an innocent man, then we know that Jesus is not innocent just in the eyes of the just in the eyes of those who were standing there.

00:16:46:03 – 00:17:12:35
Michael Gewecke
It’s a nod to Luke wants us to know that Jesus as an innocent man, has done something that all of the other people of the world who are not innocent could have done for themselves. There’s there’s the story that we’ve read today. That is the historical account. Luke tells that it’s brief. There’s also the theological depth of meaning that is going to flow out of this as Christians come to understand what God has done in this moment.

00:17:12:35 – 00:17:33:27
Michael Gewecke
And it’s I think that’s what’s so amazing about it, is that it does function on many planes, but it doesn’t need a lot of words to do that. It doesn’t need to spend a lot of time at crucifixion because that’s just the fulcrum point upon which everything else will flow. We have all of these 22 chapters, 22 and a half chapters before this.

00:17:33:32 – 00:17:44:56
Michael Gewecke
We have a few chapters after it, but we don’t need to spend substantial time on this moment because ultimately what God has done here is the fulcrum on which the rest of it all turns.

00:17:44:56 – 00:18:24:18
Clint Loveall
Yeah, throughout the story we’ve had, you know, dozens, hundreds of people who have looked at Jesus and some of them have seen something unique, something holy. It’s something profound that has included women, that has included Samaritan, that has included tax collector and sinner and now fishermen and others. And now it also includes Centurion, Roman Soldier and that this man sees in Jesus an innocence that leads him to praise God.

00:18:24:18 – 00:19:00:34
Clint Loveall
And that’s make no mistake, not a God. That’s capital G. God. And Luke, I think, would love that detail. Who Luke is very interested in laying the groundwork for the story of how Jesus death and resurrection is for all people. And so I assume he would very much love the idea that among those who have finally seen in Jesus the work of God and the coming of the Kingdom, there’s even at the foot of the cross a Roman soldier.

00:19:00:34 – 00:19:06:02
Clint Loveall
That would be a detail that I think he would appreciate very much. And he writes it really well.

00:19:06:07 – 00:19:30:21
Michael Gewecke
And let’s not forget that this innocence by the Romans is declared upon Jesus while two criminals hang on either side, which we just had in our previous study. I think the fact that Jesus is the center surrounded by these criminals, surrounded by a crowd, surrounded by Romans, surrounded then at that far this level by the women, we’re all in that story.

00:19:30:34 – 00:19:48:05
Michael Gewecke
And I hope that you found that for yourself today. Certainly like this video, if it has been interesting or if it’s helped deepen your own faith or understanding of that faith, subscribe so that you can stay with us on studies like this through books like Luke. And we look forward to seeing you tomorrow as we turn to the burial of Jesus.

00:19:48:18 – 00:19:48:59
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.