The Crucifixion
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We feel it would not be fitting for us to study the scenes of the Cross itself, without spending a few moments in considering Christ's Gethsemane experience, and the trial before Pilate; therefore we are speaking on these things as the approach to the study proper,
1. In agony He prayed. Can we consider the experience of Christ, as He entered the garden of Gethsemane and agonized in prayer, without being moved in our souls?
Into the garden He went, bowed down with sorrow, forespent. He went, carrying our sorrows and sins; He went, soon to pour out His soul unto death. He knew that the powers of hell were taking hold upon Him; He knew that He was about to pay the price of our redemption. Thus, He sought the Father's face, and thus He prayed.
2. In sorrow the three disciples slept. What strange forebodings cast their gloom upon the erstwhile faithful three! They would have watched while their Master prayed, but their flesh gave way. They became heavy with sleep. Sorrow weakened their resistance.
Peter, but a while before, had boasted his unyielding fidelity. The Lord now, with tenderness, reproved him, saying, "Could ye not watch with me one hour?" We must not unkindly criticise those who slept while Christ prayed on. We are too prone ourselves to sleep. There is, to be sure, a time for rest; but that time is not in the hour of supreme testing, when the enemy is fast hemming us in for the conflict.
3. In folly Judas kissed his Lord. Judas was of that wicked one; he was a devil; however, not one of the Twelve supposed him so. Perhaps Judas did not himself know the depths of his own villainy. He was about to discover the utter depravity of his own self-centered, money-loving soul.
As Judas did his shameful deed, and as he heard the words of Christ, "Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" a sense of the heinousness of his heart overwhelmed him. He went to cast the ill-obtained silver at the feet of the rulers, and then he went and hanged himself.
4. In madness the leaders of the Jews led Christ to the judgment. As Christ stood before those who sought to apprehend Him, He berated them thus: "Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?"
What consummate madness! Shall men fight God? Shall the created, contemn the Creator? Shall the one formed, raise up his heel against the One who formed him?
It is still true that no work against the Lord can prosper. God will have ultimate triumph; Satan will ultimately be put down and cut off.
As it was, Christ arose on the third day a Victor over all His foes. He is now seated, exalted, far above all principalities and powers.
I. THE PLACE CALLED CALVARY (Luke 23:33)
The Lord Jesus, according to verse thirty-three, was taken to a place called Calvary, where they crucified Him. The word "Calvary," was a word of odium. It stood for a place of dead men's bones (Golgotha). Christ came along, touched the hill; spilled His Blood upon its crest, and now the word "Calvary," stands for all that is dearest to the Christian's heart. Where is he who does not love to sing of "Calvary, blest Calvary; 'twas there my Saviour died for me"?
1. Calvary was a place of dead men's bones. This is most significant. It implies that Christ took the sinner's punishment, died in the sinner's stead. That upon Him all of the ignominy and the shame of our iniquity was placed. He was made sin for us, who knew no sin. God laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
2. Calvary became a place of life to every believing soul. It was the touch of His Blood, His death, that quickened us. He was raised up on the hill of Calvary, as the serpent was raised upon the pole. It is to Him that we look and are saved.
II. CRUCIFIED BETWEEN THE THIEVES (Luke 23:33, l.c.)
1. Christ in the midst of the thieves. Between two thieves they nailed the Lord of Glory. "He was numbered with the transgressors."
Our mind goes back to the birth of Christ: "And she brought forth her firstborn Son, * * and laid Him in a manger." There He lay, the Son of God, in the midst of the cattle: a seeming prophecy that He was to lie, in death, in the midst of the scum of men.
2. Christ in the midst of the disciples. The same One who hung between two thieves, "in the midst," after His resurrection stood "in the midst" of the disciples as they were gathered together in the upper room. What a change! From the midst of the dying, from the midst of those who circled His Cross wagging their heads against Him, and railing upon Him like ravening wolves, Jesus passed to the midst of the Eleven, who loved Him and trusted Him.
He who was in the midst of the wicked saving, and bearing the sinners' sins, now stood in the midst of the disciples, a risen and glorified Lord, comforting, and encouraging them.
3. Christ in the midst of His churches. The One who was in the midst on the Cross, and in the midst in His resurrection glory, is now in the midst of His Churches. This time, according to Revelation 1:1-20, He is in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, clothed with priestly raiment, and girt about the breasts ready for service. It is still true that where two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is in the midst.
4. Christ in the midst of the throne. How vast the change from the midst of the crosses, where they crucified Him! We shall yet behold Him in the midst of the throne, being worshiped, and honored by the four living ones, the four and twenty elders, and the innumerable host of angels. And what is the theme of their praise as Christ stands in the midst? They are praising the Lamb who was slain. Thus it is that the picture of Christ in the midst of the thieves, and of the mocking populace, is changed to Christ in the midst of the Heavenly host.
III. THEY STOOD BEHOLDING (Luke 23:35)
Verse thirty-five is most significant: "And the people stood beholding." Some were there who beheld with a look of tender love, mixed with dark forebodings. Others were there wagging their heads, and crying out against the suffering Saviour. All stood beholding.
1. The ones who look on that sight with the eye of faith.
The eye of faith sees in the Cross a substitutionary sacrifice. It sees that Christ's death was not the same as that of the ones who died along with Him. Both of the thieves had sin in them, and were paying the wages of transgressors. But there was no one who found any sin against Christ. He knew no sin, and did no sin. For whose sins then did He die? God laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It was our transgressions which He bore.
2. Those who look on that sight with the eye of ridicule. Here is one who cries out: "The Blood of Jesus Christ has no more value than the blood of cock robin." He acknowledges the Son of God as no more than a martyr. He claims that He died a helpless victim to high ideals. He may admire the courage of Christ, but He denies and ridicules the saving efficacy of His Blood. Let us ask each one, What is the meaning of the Cross to you? Do you see upon Calvary a Saviour, or do you repudiate the redemptive work of the Son of God?
IV. THE SUPERSCRIPTION (Luke 23:38)
Over the Lord's head were written the words: "This is the King of the Jews." The rulers of the Jews asked Pilate to change the writing to "He said, I am King of the Jews." However Pilate demurred, saying, "What I have written I have written." Pilate's convictions seemed to give credence to the fact that Christ was indeed King, although a King rejected. We tarry only to remind you that Christ shall yet be crowned King of the Jews. He who wore the crown of thorns shall yet wear the crown of David's kingdom.
1. The superscription signified Israel's rejection of Christ as King. The fact is that when the rulers of the Jews asked Pilate to change the writing, they insinuated that Christ's Kingship was a false claim.
Christ, who was, and is the destined King of Israel, was crucified as King of the Jews.
2. The superscription portrayed the most tremendous fact relative to Israel's national hope. He who was crucified King of the Jews will come again; not only as King of the Jews, but as King of kings.
V. THE CRY OF THE THIEVES (Luke 23:39-43)
1. The personal plea of the second thief. At first both thieves maligned Him; afterward one of them prayed that the Lord might remember him, when He came into His Kingdom.
The Lord Jesus said to the second thief, "To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." This scene carries with it. two great lessons. First, the value of short prayers. Second, the willingness of the Saviour to save the vilest of the vile, under the most trying circumstances.
2. The far-reaching meaning of the joint plea of the thieves. Luke tells us that one of the thieves cried: "If thou be Christ, save Thyself and us." At the first, however, both of the thieves made this same plea.
Had He come down from the Cross, He might physically have brought the two thieves down with Him; but He could not have done what they asked in its deeper meaning. They said, "Save Thyself and us." If He had saved Himself there would have been no basis upon which He could have saved us. Our salvation is wholly dependent upon His death on the Cross.
VI. THE DARKNESS OF THE CROSS (Luke 23:44-45)
We read that from the sixth unto the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. That darkness bespeaks our light. It also bespeaks the eternal sorrow, sadness, and sighing, that shall come to those who spurn the Lord Jesus and turn away from the Light of Life. To the wicked there is reserved "the blackness of darkness forever." Let us note these two things, one at a time.
1. The darkness of the cross ensures our light. The Bible says, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Then we read: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
With the fiat of His lips God commanded the darkness to disappear and the light to shine.
Quite another story, however, follows the darkness which sin brought upon the earth, and into the hearts of men.
The first chapter of John speaks of spiritual darkness, and of the light that shone in the darkness. That Jesus Christ was the Light we know; that sinners dwell in darkness we know. Could Christ the Light, then, by the fiat of His mouth, say, "Let there be light," and thus, apart from His dying, how saved the sinners from their present darkness, and the darkness that is reserved unto the damned forever? This was impossible.
In order to bring light, Christ Himself had to enter into the darkness. Therefore, as He hung upon the Tree, God hid His face, and darkness shrouded the land. As that darkness passed away, and once more the Lord Jesus saw His Father's face, He led us with Him in the train of His triumph.
We, too, have passed by faith, with Him, from darkness into light. We are bound for a city whose darkness shall never come.
2. The darkness of the Cross bespeaks the eternal darkness which awaits those who reject the calvary work of Christ. To the wicked is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Whatever hell may be, and whatever the lake of fire may hold, this much is true: if Christ, as He bore our place and suffered in our stead, passed into darkness; then, those who reject that Christ will never know the light.
He who spared not His Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all, that we might have light and life, will of a certainty not spare the sinner who rejects the Saviour.
VII. THE SAVIOUR'S CRY (Luke 23:46)
The last verse tells us that when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost."
This last cry of our Lord's was a cry of an accomplished task, and of a victorious consummation. This last cry demonstrated that the Father who had hid His face from the Son, had not turned from Him forever, but had received Him and accepted His Calvary work.
1. The accomplished task. Finished what was finished?
(1) Redemption was finished. All was done that had to be done to insure a possible salvation. There is nothing left for the sinner to do. If ought had been left undone, the lost would still be hopeless, and helpless in their lost estate.
The sinner may come and accept a completed Calvary work.
(2) Christ's agony was finished. He offered one sacrifice, in the end of the age. He has forever passed the plane of suffering for sin, and in the sinner's behalf.
Christ will come back to earth again; but He will come apart from sin, apart from any sacrifice for sin. He will come to reign.
2. An accepted sacrifice. Jesus commended His spirit unto the Father. After His resurrection He ascended to the Father. Now He sits exalted at the right hand of the Father.
What does all of this mean to us? It means that we have, in Calvary, a God-approved and a God-acknowledged redemption.
AN ILLUSTRATION
With tears in her eyes, a woman beckoned to a worker, and as he came near she requested the singing of the hymn, "There Is Power in the Blood." It was no easy task for her to make herself understood, for she had not fully recovered from a goitre operation. "Our singers have passed on to another ward, but I'll sing it for you," replied the worker, and in a subdued baritone voice he sang it.
Her lips formed the words, but produced no sound. The lines of anguish that had disfigured and marred her, disappeared and her face became beautiful. It shone and gave expression to indescribable joy and peace that reflected her heart's contentment and her reposal in the Crucified One, the Lover of her soul. Heaven's benediction that shone forth in her face should have been a sufficient reply to the question that the worker asked her.
"Do you believe that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin, and that it is well with your soul?"
Smilingly and audibly she said, "I do believe."
Evidently she had considered, discovered and appropriated the truth contained in Paul's statement: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18). Ernest A. Eggers.