Luke 23:32-34 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

There were also two other malefactors This should rather be rendered, Two others, who were malefactors, were also led with him to be put to death. The distinction between Jesus and the malefactors is remarkably preserved in the next verse. And when they were come to the place called Calvary See on Matthew 27:33, and Mark 15:22; there they crucified him That is, nailed him to the cross; and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left So that he was in the midst of two thieves, as if he had been the greatest criminal of the three. Thus he was not only treated as a transgressor, but numbered with them, and exhibited as the worst of them. Then said Jesus Our Lord passed most of the time on the cross in silence; yet seven sentences, which he spake thereon, are recorded by the four evangelists, though no one evangelist has recorded them all. Hence it appears that the four gospels are, as it were, four parts, which, joined together, make one symphony: sometimes one of these only sounds; sometimes two or three; sometimes all sound together. Father So he speaks, both at the beginning and at the end of his sufferings on the cross; forgive them How striking is this passage! He made no manner of resistance to the cruel violence of his enemies; nor did he revile them, even when they were distorting his limbs, as on a rack; nay, on the contrary, even while they were actually nailing him to the cross, he seems to feel the injury they did to their own souls, more than the wounds which they gave him; and, as it were, to forget his own anguish, out of a concern for their salvation! In the midst of the agonies which he suffered, he pours out a compassionate prayer for those that were imbruing their hands in his blood, pleading the only excuse which the most extensive charity could suggest; Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do Thus did our Lord Jesus, though expiring by the tortures which he felt, give us an example of that benevolence which he hath commanded us to practise; and breathe out at once a prayer and an apology for his executioners. The Roman soldiers, who were the immediate instruments of his death, had indeed but little knowledge of him; and the Jews, who were the authors of it, through their obstinate prejudices, apprehended not who he was: for if they had known him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, 1 Corinthians 2:8. And how eminently was this prayer of Christ heard! It procured forgiveness for all that were, or afterward became, penitent, and a suspension of vengeance even for the impenitent. And they parted his raiment, &c. See on Matthew 27:35-36.