At the Cross

In Luke 23:32-49 Luke records Jesus' crucifixion and death on the cross.

Picture this: 

You walk along with the people to watch Jesus stumble along the road, trying to maintain the cross's beam. After a little ways He is too weak from the whipping to carry it and they get a man from the crowd following called Simon. 

He is brought to the place where He and two criminals are to be hung on a cross. You watch as the soldiers beat the nails into His hands and then feet. You see Him stretched out in agony, naked and on the cross, trying to lift Himself up so He can breath again. 

You then hear Him say,   “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34)

Forgive? Did you hear right? But He said forgive.

You are ashamed to hear your voice yelling out, mocking Him.

About 3:00 in the afternoon the sky goes dark and the sun fails to provide light.

You hear a loud ripping from top to bottom and discover it's the temple's veil.

Then Jesus cries out in a loud voice, "Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

And you watch how He breathes His last.

~~~~

First let's look at the pain Jesus went through: Before He was led away to the cross He was whipped (Luke 23:16,22). The cord they used to whip people with was made up of bones, sharp rocks, tied onto the cord, anything that was sharp. They then whipped it into the air and brought in onto the victim's back, the top of it, and ripping it down. That caused skin to be torn, blood shed, and vital organs exposed. The whipping alone could kill someone.

But then comes the cross. The cross was something the Romans invented to make someone have a very slow and agonizing death. The Romans only used it on the worst of criminals. They had to push themselves up just to breath, it was a slow death that could take hours for them to die. 

You might be wondering why I would bring up such painful details. Well honestly I've only scratched the surface. And I believe we need to be reminded of what our Savior did for us.

Jesus did the unthinkable. He forgave. He forgave the ones in the crowd, He forgave the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross, He forgave me, He forgave you. He forgave all the sins of mankind.

When He was on the cross something amazing happened. One of the criminals recognized who Jesus really was and is. He said to remember him when Jesus went to be in heaven. And Jesus said that he would join Him in Paradise that day. 

When He was hung on the cross, all the sins of mankind, those that had happened, were happening, and had yet to happen, were put on Him. You may be wondering, 'why? Why would He do this?'

The answer is simple, but beyond our human comprehension, He loves us.

Those three simple words can shake us to our core. They should. 

On a completely different note then notice in verse 44 it says, " The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle." The reason that it's so important is this :

The curtain was used to divide the Holy of Holies, where God dwelt, from the outside.

The Holy of Holies was used to hold the Ark of the Covenant. It represented God's presence with the people. Only the High Priest could go in there, and only once a year after preforming all kind of cleansing ceremonies.

When the veil was torn it showed how there is no longer separation from God,but that Jesus took our place. It shows how Jesus was sent to carry all our sins so that we wouldn't have eternal separation from God.

Then Jesus said, “Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.”

And the King of the world died.

You see, the people believed Jesus had come to save them from the Romans, but Jesus had something bigger in store. He saved mankind from eternal separation from God.

Wow. I'm going to close this post with these words.

Romans 5:8, "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!"