Redemption in Jesus’
Crucifixion
Luke 23: 26-56
Key Verse: Luke 23: 34
“Jesus said, “Father, forgive them,
for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by
casting lots”
The crucifixion
paints a tragically beautiful picture of Jesus’ character of unconditional
love, understanding, and compassion. It reveals the passion and the beauty
displayed through his sacrifice on the cross. It captures a moment when Jesus
fully displays his character before the people he loves. It gives the meaning
of Jesus’ ministry and the cross, and most of all his forgiveness and sacrifice
through his death. It also stresses that we ourselves must take the step to
accept Christ’s forgiveness and death to fully be transformed and become born
again as a Christian. At the same time, it’s important to remember how human
Jesus was and how much he felt just like us, weak and vulnerable. Yet Jesus
redeems us, and that is why this conference is about redemption.
But what is redemption? When I think of
redemption, I think of Chuckie Cheese’s. I used to go to Chuckie Cheese’s all
the time, and whenever I played the games I always thought of getting tickets
for the prizes on the wall. I would play the games for the white and green
tickets all day and then redeem them by getting the prizes. To get the prizes
though, I would always have to know how many tickets they cost before actually
playing. Just like the prizes on the wall, Jesus gave his life to redeem our
lives, to purchase our lives, from the grip of death. However instead of
tickets, Jesus used his life to get the prize of our lives. Redemption is about us first being, lost,
flawed, imperfect and then this perfect God giving us his one and only son to
buy us from our death and free us from our guilt. Through this message, let’s
ponder what redemption really means through the crucifixion.
Part 1: Jesus’ compassionate and sacrificial
character verses 26-31
Before
reflecting on the start of this passage, it is important to first reflect on
what has happened to Jesus before his crucifixion. Jesus was flogged to a point
where he was physically unrecognizable. Jesus, in his trial and flogging,
remained virtually silent when given the offer to defend himself, only
answering vaguely to Pilate’s question one time. His silence up to this point
reveals how prepared he was to die, not defending himself against the harrowing
accusations of the people he loved and provided for. I can’t imagine how broken
his heart must have been at that moment. The people that he invested so much of
his time into ended up giving him up for crucifixion; his heart break must have
only increased when they decided to release Barrabbas, a hated criminal and a
murderer, instead of him. Jesus was probably both physically exhausted and
emotionally exhausted. However, Jesus remained the picture of silence, grace,
and utter sacrifice.
At the start of
the passage, even in Jesus’ condition, he was still able to touch the life of
Simon of Cyrene. After Simon was seized and made to carry the cross, him and
his family later accepted Jesus and became influential Christians in the early
church. Jesus’ silent and sacrificial suffering must have been so beautiful and
so moving at that moment that a man who probably didn’t even get the chance to
properly speak to Jesus was so moved that he and his entire family were
changed. Jesus’ character of sacrifice is further exemplified in his address to
the weeping women following him; he was able to totally ignore his own pain and
see the pain of the women. He directed them first in verse 28, “Daughters of
Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children”,
warning them and illustrating his concern for these people regardless of the
burden he held. He knew of the pains that were to come upon them soon,
detailing how they would feel in verses 29-30. A woman’s treasure of having a child
would be robbed of them, so much so that they would desire that mountains would
fall on them and that the hills cover them to hide both their shame and even
stop their existence. This was foreshadowing the events that would soon to
happen when Jersualem would be under siege and the women would eat their
children in order to survive. Jesus felt a compassion for them and warned them
of the coming times out of love. Even before his death, taking our burden of
sin, Jesus was still focused on the people around him.
III. Part 2: Jesus’ Crucifixion verses 32-43
It is noted
that Jesus was being crucified with two criminals. Not only was Jesus wrongly
accused, but he was grouped unfairly with murderers and criminals of the
highest order. He was then placed in the middle, verse 33 noting that there
were criminals surrounding him, “one on his right, the other on his left”. The
rulers purposefully did so to shame Jesus even more, making it seem as if his
actions were the most egregious of all the criminals. Along with this shame, Jesus
also had to endure great pain. Crucifixion literally nails the feet and the
hands to a cross and places the victims upright. Physically in this position,
not only were the victims in terrible pain from being pierced in the body, they
couldn’t even breathe without pulling themselves up, making their deaths slow,
agonizing, and terrifying. Such pain caused a new word to be made since it
could not be captured by any words that existed currently, this word is
“excruciating”. Jesus was forced to then look upon the people that he had so
loved and had apparently loved him watch it happen without so much as batting
an eye. When I think about it in this way, I can feel my heart hurt. Can you
imagine loving a person so much that you would cry for them when they made
mistakes, teach them and heal them with all of your time, strength, and mind? Only
then to only have that ripped away from you when this person turns on you and
gives you the most utterly painful and gut-wrenching punishment to have ever
been invented to this day? Even having one person do that to you, although I
hope without the physical torture part, would destroy you completely. However,
Jesus experienced this thousandfold when he saw many of his past followers
watching him die on the cross without so much as a word of protest. I can’t
imagine what he must have felt. It’s important to remember again that Jesus is
human, he has the same emotions as us and has the same hardships as us. He is
perfect, but he is not invincible. That’s what makes him so powerfully true to
humankind. That’s why my heart breaks. However, despite this, right after Jesus
has been crucified and is hanging on the cross, he says, and can we read it
together, in verse 34: “Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know
what they are doing.
I believe that
there is great truth in that we do not know what we are doing. In high schools,
I see everyday examples of how fallen man is without Jesus. Recently, a
classmate of mine and two of his friends got into huge trouble selling and
doing drugs. One of them, whom I have known from my freshman year, got arrested
and expelled from school. The other got his car impounded. However, the last
case is, to me at least, the most visibly tragic. This student had a full ride
scholarship to the college of his choice, yet when he was caught there was a
possibility and still is a possibility that the scholarship will be rescinded.
At that moment his future was threatened. Not only would he be in debt if he
didn’t receive the scholarship, future jobs and potential schools could easily
disregard him for his criminal past. He was smart and capable, but he did not
know what he was doing. He did not know what kind of consequences would come
from his actions. Just like him and the Hebrew people who crucified him, before
Christ we are in sin that’s cost is unfathomable to us. Even more so than legal
consequences, these types of sins lead to eternal consequences, which is hell. Although
most of us here are not as extreme as my example, we each have had our own
failures and sins that have in some way brought us down. For me, pride has been
often my downfall. My competitive spirit and the pride that came with it has
brought me down when I was less than others or when I failed, and I have often
tried to rely on my own strength regardless of my awareness that I should have
first looked to Jesus rather than fallen to my pride. I was unaware of the
error in my sin in the moment, yet through the guidance of often times my
mother, I was reminded of the error and downfall of my pride. I think that
without Jesus’ assurance of his forgiveness and how insignificant the world was
in comparison, I would have fallen into despair like many of my classmates long
ago. Looking beyond myself, everyday on the news there are mentions of murders,
shootings, and stories that are seeded with sin. It has been that way since the
first time someone wrote down a historical account. The holocaust, the two
world wars, religious and racial genocides have all shown how ugly the world can
be. So then why would a perfect God, clean, pure, and blameless, ever think of
associating with ugly, sinful, hateful humans? However, of course within Jesus’
declaration he proclaims his forgiveness from these sins that we might not even
know about or cannot overcome by our own strength.
Not only is it a proclamation, it is Jesus’
plea to God to forgive us and give us his mercy; he didn’t beg out of duty. He
genuinely felt the tragedy of mankind at that moment, and it overrode all of
his human emotions, and he was compelled to ask God to forgive them. Redeemed.
Redemption comes first when we are forgiven, but that part is so simple because
we are forgiven the moment we declare our belief. It has already been done. He
took upon himself my selfishness, greed, laziness, faults, errors, and mistakes
in that moment when he interceded for all of mankind and asked God “forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing”. In our ignorance, Jesus took
over and healed us, so very simply, and so very powerfully.
Yet at that
moment, humanity showed again its ugly side. Right after Jesus’ plea to God in verse
34, it immediately says “And they divided up his clothes by casting lots”.
These people felt no remorse, no compassion; they ignored him completely. Their
greed overcame, illustrating again how desperately we need to be redeemed or
else our ugliness will just keep showing. Then they went even further to mock
Jesus saying “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the
Chosen one”. If Jesus had been prideful at that moment, surely he could have
had angels save him and destroy all of the mockers around him, but he didn’t.
His job was not yet finished, and his love allowed him to wait till its
glorious completion. Even the soldiers around him mocked him. Pilate had
ordered a sign that said “This is the king of the Jews” to be placed above him,
creating a deep irony of truth yet at the same time a light-handed mockery of
his position. Then the criminal next to him insulted Jesus in verse 39, “Aren’t
you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” This man was most likely bitter against
his own position, frustrated against the pain that he felt. Although we can
pity him, then again this man probably ‘deserved’ such a punishment. Here Luke
paints an important picture of the Christian decision. First, we are forgiven.
It’s simple, easy, and we don’t have to do anything. But, then the criminals
complete the imagery of what happens to those who reject such forgiveness and
those who accept. A light of hope for humanity appears when the other criminal
rebukes his fellow criminal, saying in verse 40-41 “Don’t you fear God,” he
said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we
are getting what our deeds deserve, But this man has done nothing wrong” In
other gospels, this man was described as a robber. He must have stolen something
fairly large to have been crucified. Circumstances in his life probably led him
to this point. Perhaps a bad family life led to hitting the streets, stealing a
thing or two from the local lamb vendors, probably getting him into more and
more trouble. Maybe when he was stealing, he ended up accidentally killing a
man in the process. Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Whatever it was, this robber felt deep and genuine remorse. He felt the weight
of his errors and his sins, and I think he earnestly repented of them when he
acknowledged that he deserved the punishment he was receiving. Despite his
terrible sin, he was completely accepted. Let’s read what Jesus said to this
criminal in verse 43 “Jesus answered him
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise”. IN the last
minutes of this man’s life, his utterance of repentance and acceptance of Jesus
immediately granted him entrance into paradise. This is Jesus’ redemption;
Jesus completely redeemed this man from his guilt, agony, and death. This man
must have at this moment felt so free. Again, that’s powerfully beautiful. In
this world, struggle seems to be the epitome of life. From day one, I have
struggled in school to do my best, struggled to win the love of my friends, struggled
to fit in, struggled to maintain my own identity as a Christian in the midst of
temptation and trial. However, through Jesus we don’t have to struggle. In our
hearts, all we say is “yes Jesus you are my Lord and you are my Savior”. Like I
said, although we should struggle to maintain our identity as Christians, once
we have accepted all we have to do is believe and we are saved. All sin then
washes away, and we are wiped clean. How simply profound. When I fail, which I
often do, whether to temptation or laziness, or both, it only takes a prayer to
God and peace comes to me. No matter what I do. The peace I feel is redemptive
and empowering. It only takes a prayer, a talk to God, an affirmation of who he
is to me. Although again I fail even after this, it does not matter as long as
I repent and recognize my own error. There is no condemnation in sin for Jesus
has already died for us. He has died for me, and he has died for you.
Part 3: Transformation in Christ, Verses 44-56
Jesus’ death
changed the laws of nature by causing a darkness to come over the whole land at
noon. For about 3 hours the world was covered in darkness. This means Jesus
mostly likely endured this great pain for about 3-4 hours, not including the
pain from his flogging before. Then suddenly, seen in verse 45, the curtain of
the temple was torn in two. This is symbolic of God opening his dwelling place
through Jesus’ death and sacrifice to all people’s, not only the select priests
and people chosen to go in and dwell with God. Jesus is not selective, he is
not picky. He opens his heart and forgiveness to all types of people. At that
moment, he took on the sin of the world and was cut off from God. He then died,
crying out “Father into your hands I commit my spirit”. He then breathed his
last. Luke is unique in this sense. Rather than ending painfully or centering
it only on Jesus himself, his entire account, from beginning to end, always
remains about the people he intercedes for. The daughters of Jerusalem, the
people who crucified him, the criminals, etc. In the end it remains about his
mission and not about himself. It’s hard to imagine how much Jesus suffered for
us. It takes a deep meditation and study to even partially comprehend it, but
it is impossible to fully do so for he suffered willingly and knowingly. He
made no protest but did it all in his will. This must have been evident because
moments later a Roman centurion, a man with no understanding of God, praised
him and said “Surely this was a righteous man”. Here Jesus causes
transformations; this soldier may have been one of them who mocked him and cast
lots. But suddenly he was changed, a new man. All those who saw “beat their
breasts and went away”. There was no victory for them in Jesus’ death. In the
end, only Jesus can overcome the power of death.
Transformation
always occurs powerfully when accepting Jesus Christ. A member of the council
who had not consented to their decision and action, named Joseph of Arimathea,
stepped forward to ask for Jesus’ body. Although Luke does not touch upon it
for a long time, this man who was unable to do anything to stop the injustices
against Jesus was now able to build up his courage to ask Pilate himself for
Jesus’ body. He even gave up his own tomb that he made for himself to Jesus,
giving him the proper reverence that he deserved. To this day, people are being
transformed from their own tragic and defeated past to a new and redeemed life.
All it takes is acceptance of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross for us. (I have
witnessed such transformation myself. Some of you may have or may have not
heard of this, but I very personally witnessed Joseph Horvath’s transformation
from a man very much lost to a man who found his own purpose and self. Before
Joseph accepted Christ, I remember that he was depressed, pale, struggling, and
very much confused. He talked about counseling, taking medicine, etc. Yet just
months later at the HBF Easter Conference, he was totally changed. The next
week he was completely full of Christ, talking about him, reading about him,
learning about him. He was freed, so much so that he wanted to speak of it all
the time. He was very much a new man. That’s the power of accepting Christ,
changing a man from defeated to triumphant.)
For me, I have heard
story after story of people accepting Christ in a whirlwind of emotions and
tears from the moment I attended my first UBF conference. Always I heard of
some kind of sudden shift in someone’s life where everything changed for them
and their eyes were opened. Even in the bible, characters always seem to have
pivotal moments when they suddenly attain a new life direction and have purpose
in God. I have always wanted that seemingly simple but massive change. I’ve
always wanted that moment where I broke down and cried to God and completely
repented of my sins. However, this sudden change never came. There were moments
when I felt close, but I never felt that huge paradigm shift that occurs so
often in stories of Christians. I’ve always wanted that moment where the world
suddenly changed and along with it me. Through this desire, I began to question
myself. I asked myself, what is being saved? Am I saved? How is one really
saved? I knew that I believed: I knew that I loved God: I knew that I wanted to
know Jesus so personally that I would break down in tears. Then why did I seem
so different? Doubt crept into my heart, and honestly it does to this day. It
seemed so complex all of a sudden. Salvation seemed like a huge puzzle that was
waiting for me to solve, and I just seemed to be missing that one piece of the
puzzle. I believe that doubt was sowed by Satan, attempting to move me away
from struggling for Christ. However, this passage changed my own perception.
Redemption is not something that comes from my effort. It first comes from
Jesus and his death on the cross. The only thing I need to do is accept it.
Acceptance is not always easy. Especially in my own generation, there is a
tendency to question every move that doesn’t seem to be backed up by some
logical reason. However, over time I have come to learn that logic is never the
final answer. Often times I have to reach beyond what I can see and to simply
accept truths to fully find an answer. Faith is the greatest boundary breaker
to any obstacles that separate man from achieving greater truths. All I need is
to take, even daily, that one step towards saying, “Jesus, you died for my
sins” and truly believe it. That belief in the simplicity of the gospel truth
is what the crucifixion screams to me. That’s the only step that we need to
take. Although it’s a struggle, I know now to forget any preconceived notion of
what I see around me but rather take Jesus as my own and take him in my own
way. Something that I remembered that encouraged me was I remembered Anna Toh
talking about her sister’s experience of accepting Christ. Although Anna had
that emotional moment that I talked about, she mentioned that her sister over
time gradually found herself in Christ throughout her life. God can easily come
in a gentle whisper just as he comes as earthquakes and fires, as Elijah found
out in his own time. God is very personal and there is no one way to meet him
personally. To me, I think God is like
that gentle whisper. I can feel myself growing in him, and although I don’t
know if I’ll ever have that moment I have desired, I am sure in his promise and
sacrifice that I am redeemed. I do not need that moment to be assured of his
death on the cross for me and my own belief in him. Now
then, I want to ask you, what does redemption mean to you? Do you believe that
you are truly redeemed? Are you able to say truly that you have accepted Christ?
I think those are the questions that are so very important to answer and to
struggle to find an answer. I earnestly pray that you can, perhaps even through
this conference, find your own way to personally accept Christ and find
redemption in Christ. Let’s pray.
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