The Crucifixion of Jesus (23:26-33).
The moment that this last part of the Gospel has been building up to has now come. Jesus had spoken of His trials and temptations (Luke 22:28), and of the suffering that lay ahead (Luke 22:15), and He had prayed in the Garden that if it was possible within the will of God He might be spared it (Luke 22:42), and now His final trials had begun in earnest. The Jesus of the Upper Room was no more. Instead there was a bloodied and broken physical wreck, and there was more to come. But He was no different underneath. He moved on undaunted, His spirit strong though His flesh was weak. He would not be able to carry His crosspiece for long (Luke 23:26), but He was able to carry the sins of the world, and even as He staggered along He sought to warn and comfort the weeping women, whose tears reminded Him of the terrible judgment soon to come on Jerusalem for what it had done (Luke 23:27-31).
To Luke in what He was doing He was offering up the blood of the new covenant (Luke 22:20). He was being reckoned among the transgressors (Luke 22:37). He was suffering so that men might be altered in heart and mind and receive remission of sins (Luke 24:46-47). He was purchasing His people with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Luke is in no doubt about the significance of His act. And all the way through this narrative we are aware of something far beyond martyrdom. No martyr ever faced death with the weight on his shoulders that Jesus is revealed to have had. Here is depicted One who was facing in death something that was unique and applicable only to Him.
Analysis.
a When they led him away, they sequestrated one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the crosspiece, to bear it after Jesus (Luke 23:26).
b And there followed Him a great crowd of the people, and of women who bewailed and lamented Him (Luke 23:27).
c But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children” (Luke 23:28).
d “For behold, the days are coming, in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts that never gave suck' ” (Luke 23:29).
c “Then will they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us', and to the hills, ‘Cover us'. For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:30-31).
b And there were also two others, evildoers, led with Him to be put to death (Luke 23:32).
a And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the evildoers, one on the right hand and the other on the left (Luke 23:33).
Note how in ‘a' a stranger is called on to keep Jesus company and to bear His crosspiece, and in the parallel Jesus is crucified on the cross and two evildoers keep Him company. In ‘b' the great crowd, and especially the women, wept over Him, and in the parallel two evildoers were led along with Him. (Note in both ‘a' and ‘b' the concern of the common decent people contrasted with the evil of His companions). In ‘c' He tells the women to weep for themselves and for their children, and in the parallel He explains why they need to do so. And centrally He warns that the Jews will as a result bewail the fact that children are born to them (a direct reversal of the usual attitude. Things will have been turned upside down).