Now two others also, malefactors, were led with him to be put to death.
That morning two criminals walked the same road to the same death as Jesus. Commentators see design here, not accident: men planned it, God had foretold it, and the two men beside Him still stand for two kinds of people.
The men who set up this execution acted out of their own hatred. Yet it matched words written centuries earlier. One writer notes both God's overruling hand and the speed of it:
Two things strike me here. First, God's overruling hand so guided their malice — and the malice was all their own — that they fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53 by putting Jesus among the criminals. Second, how fast it all went. They seized Him unlawfully one night, and, despite all Roman law and justice, executed Him the next day. Men did not treat Barabbas like this. Nor were James, Peter or Paul allowed to be treated like this later. They at least got a longer wait — a wait denied to Him who was the Prince of life.
The prophecy is Isaiah 53:12: "and was numbered with the transgressors." One commentator marks the moment it came true:
They had to add one more insult, so that the words of Isaiah would come true: "and was numbered with the transgressors." (Isa. 53:12.) "Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him." What a sight! He who was God was walking with two thieves to the place where the great work of the preparation day had to be done. That work would bring lost sinners into the sabbath, the rest of God.
The pairing was not random. They picked the companions and placed the crosses to send a message about who Jesus was:
That morning they searched the prison cells of Jerusalem for the most debased criminals the city held. They led them out to die along with Jesus. These men had been guilty of appalling crimes. That is why they picked them to hang one on His right hand and the other on His left. That is why they put Him on the centre and highest cross. They meant to proclaim by their well-considered and malicious plan that He was the worst of the three. So they heaped shame on Him, adding deepest insult to deepest injury.
Another writer sums up the whole treatment in one line:
Jesus was spared no insult. As He was the song of the drunkard, so He made His grave with the wicked.
One commentator pictures the group that walked out of the city:
The procession, as we might call it, consisted of the Lord bearing His cross, with Simon from Cyrene forced to carry the lighter end of it behind Him. Two others, criminals, no doubt each carrying his own cross, formed part of the group, and the soldiers on duty completed it.
One writer is glad that the men beside Him were criminals and not James and John:
But I am glad that men like these, and not James and John, became His companions that day. In this the devil showed his lack of foresight, and in this he was outwitted. Suppose they had crucified the sons of Zebedee, one on His right hand and the other on His left. People would then have said that these men were helping Him finish His work of redemption.
The two men shared His punishment, but not on the same terms:
Those murderers who hung with Him could have no hand in the work He was doing. They were suffering for their own crimes; He, the sinless One, for yours and mine.
One writer reads the two thieves as a picture of all humanity:
The two thieves represent the two great classes into which mankind has been divided, from the days of Cain and Abel down to this very moment. God's Christ is the one great and all-deciding test in every case. Think of every shade of moral character, every level of society, and every caste, class, sect and party the human family has been, is, or ever will be divided into. All of them are absorbed in this one great point: "In or out of Christ."
- Numbered. Being led out with two criminals fulfilled Isaiah 53:12 — He was counted among the guilty.
- Overruled. The hatred was all man's own, yet God steered it to do what He had promised.
- Designed. They picked the worst criminals and gave Him the centre cross, to announce Him as the worst of the three.
- Alone. They suffered for their own crimes; He suffered for ours, and no one shared the work of redemption with Him.
- Dividing. The two men who hung beside Him became the picture of all humanity, split by one question: in or out of Christ.
And when they came to the place which is called Skull, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left.
Luke names the place, states the death in three words, and sets two condemned criminals on either side. The name, the manner of death, and the company each carry meaning.
Luke gives the plain meaning of the site, not the local name. Older English Bibles used a Latin word instead.
"Skull," that is, Golgotha — a name avoided, like Gethsemane and others, in view of Gentile readers. "Calvary" in the Authorized Version comes from the Latin Vulgate.
One writer reads that grim name as a picture of what man has come to.
Now, Calvary means "the place of a skull" — a sign of the end of humanity on its own side. This is what man is reduced to, an empty skull. If you look at him in his natural state, he is morally nothing but a sightless skull. What emptiness marks man in his own condition at his best. It seemed fitting that they should come to this place, Calvary.
The place that exposed what man is became the place where God's love came down.
Calvary was a witness to the moral condition of the whole world, and also to the love and grace that would come down to the very place where the ugliness of sin was displayed, to triumph over it there. From the skull of Calvary springs the beauty of the resurrection — not only for the Son of God, over whom death had no power, but for the whole family of the redeemed who are risen with Christ, eternally beyond the power of death to spoil or disfigure.
(Ridout, Notes on the Four Gospels — see the passage.)
The word "cross" sounds familiar and safe today. One writer insists on facing what the object really was.
We speak of the cross, and God speaks of the cross; but I sometimes think there is very little grasp of what the cross means. The cross has become a fashionable ornament in the Christian world. People decorate themselves with it. Yet what was the cross but a gallows, the Roman way of carrying out the death penalty — a cruel, shameful, scornful, hateful kind of death? ... Hanging was not the Jewish way of punishing criminals. The Old Testament shows that when the Jews put an offender to death, he was stoned. But to be hanged, to be put on a gallows, was a Gentile way of execution. That is why they handed Christ over to the Romans.
Scripture itself refuses to linger over the physical horror.
We are spared the pain of the details of the actual killing of the blessed Sufferer. It is described in brief words: "They crucified Him." We know from other Scriptures that it was by nailing Him to the cross. The cross was lifted up from the earth with Him hanging on it, hanging on the tree.
His enemies did not place the two criminals at random. They planned it for the greatest possible insult.
That morning they searched the prison cells of Jerusalem for the most degraded of all the criminals the city held. They led them out to die along with Jesus. These men had been guilty of appalling crimes. That is why they chose them to hang one on His right hand and the other on His left. That is why they put Him on the centre and highest cross. By this deliberate and malicious plan they meant to announce that He was the worst of the three. In this way they heaped shame on Him, adding the deepest insult to the deepest injury.
His companions that day were criminals. That guarded a truth: only one Person did the work of redemption.
But I am glad that men like these, and not James and John, were taken to be His companions that day. In this the devil showed his lack of foresight, and in this he was outwitted. Suppose they had crucified the sons of Zebedee, one on His right hand and the other on His left. Then people would have said that they were helping Him to finish His work of redemption... Those murderers who hung with Him could have no part in the work He was doing. They were suffering for their own crimes; He, the sinless One, for yours and mine.
The two men beside Him did not end the same way.
To humiliate the Lord Jesus, they crucified Him between two robbers, and in this way they numbered Him with the transgressors... Luke 23:39-43 shows us that God's sovereign power and grace was over this. He used it to bring one of these men to genuine repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. He used it also to show the solemn fact that Christ crucified is the great Divider between the lost and the saved.
One preacher pressed the same balance on his hearers as he closed his Bible:
Remember, one robber was saved, so none need despair; but — only one, so none may presume.
- The place. "The Skull" is Golgotha; "Calvary" came into English from the Latin. The name pictures what man is reduced to on his own.
- The death. Scripture states the crucifixion in three words and spares us the details. The cross was a gallows, a Gentile execution, not an ornament.
- The insult. They picked the worst criminals they could find and put Him on the centre cross, to brand Him the worst of the three.
- The work. No companion could share it, so redemption is His alone.
- The divide. Of the two beside Him, one was saved, so none need despair; only one, so none may presume.
And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And, parting out his garments, they cast lots.
Jesus' first words from the cross ask forgiveness for the men killing Him, while the soldiers at His feet gamble for His clothes. Who did He ask the Father to forgive, in what sense were they ignorant, and was the prayer answered?
Luke's account of the crucifixion has a character of its own. It leaves out the agony and the sorrow, and it opens and closes with the Lord speaking to His Father.
But in this gospel we find no trace of that agony and sorrow on the cross. He had already gone through it all in spirit with God, so He is above it all. Luke shows us, more than any other gospel, the perfection of Christ as Man. He is so far above His circumstances that He is taken up with others. His first word on the cross is, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Then He can turn to the poor thief at His side and say, "Today you will be with Me in paradise." And His last word is, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."
The timing matters. This prayer came at the end of everything men had done to Him, not at the beginning.
He did not pray this prayer at the start. He prayed it after He had served among them for three and a half years. He had shown them His most wonderful love, in words no one could better. He had blessed their children and fed them when they were hungry. He had healed the sick and cleansed the leper. He had opened the eyes of the blind and raised the dead. Then they spat on His scarred face. They tore His back with the whip and crowned His head with thorns. They nailed Him to a cross. That was not enough for them: they sat down to watch Him suffer, to gloat over His pain and to mock Him. The tide of man's hatred rolled over Him, wave upon wave. It was then that His voice rose above the storm.
The prayer does not pretend the crime was small. It asks the Father to weigh their act in a particular way.
The men crucifying Him were in the process of committing the greatest crime ever. They had plenty of evidence of who the Lord Jesus was, and they rejected Him with their eyes open. They were responsible for what they did. But the Lord Jesus, in infinite grace, says the words "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Their hatred made them blind. They did not see how deep their guilt was, or what their actions really meant. So the Lord treats them as ignorant men, as men who killed by accident and not as murderers. Through this prayer He was opening the city of refuge to them (Numbers 35).
A city of refuge was a safe place for a man who killed by accident, not on purpose. Their not knowing was never a defence they could have used themselves. It is the reason He had to pray at all.
They did not know what they were doing, so He prayed for them. But their ignorance could never clear them in God's sight. That is why the Lord had to plead for them… God can be gracious, but He could not pass over a man's wrongdoing. The same is true of those who crucified His Son. By His prayer the Lord showed what their guilt was. At the same time He offered up Himself as the true sacrifice and asked the Father to forgive them.
This prayer did not go unanswered.
The prayer of Jesus as they crucified Him was completely unexpected. That prayer was answered about fifty days later. Peter preached salvation through the risen Christ in Jerusalem, and 3,000 people ran for that refuge. The prayer was unusual because it was the fruit of such divine compassion as had never come to light before.
Luke puts the second half of the verse right there on purpose.
They heard His prayer, yet they did not stop what they were doing. The very next sentence reads, "and they cast lots to divide His garments." By telling it this way, the writer brings out the sharp contrast between His spirit and theirs. He was thinking of others. The soldiers wanted only what they could get, so they took their share of His clothes. The chief priests and the people took the chance to show the bitter hatred in their hearts.
Later, a man named Stephen was stoned to death. He prayed in the same spirit, but not with the same words.
Later Stephen, when he was stoned to death, prayed in a similar way. But he could not say that the Jews did not know what they were doing. He said only, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60). Stephen had told the Jews plainly that this same Jesus whom they had crucified was now raised by the power of God. That was the proof of God's approval of Him. Yet the Jews still rejected Him, even though He was risen from the dead.
- Cause — Men answered years of His kindness with a cross, and out of that came this prayer.
- Plea — Their blindness was real but not a defence; He named their guilt and asked forgiveness for it anyway.
- Refuge — He treated them as men who killed without knowing, so a city of refuge stood open to them instead of a murderer's sentence.
- Answer — Fifty days later, three thousand fled into that refuge when Peter preached the risen Christ in Jerusalem.
- Echo — Stephen died praying in the same spirit. The first word from the cross lives on in those who follow Him.
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also [with them] sneered, saying, He has saved others; let him save himself if this is the Christ, the chosen one of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the soldiers also made game of him, coming up offering him vinegar,
The soldiers were the last to join the mockery at the cross. It had already begun with the rulers. Their gesture — holding cheap sour wine out to a dying man — was cruelty dressed up as kindness. Their taunt reveals what they thought He was, and His refusal to act on it reveals what He had come to do.
Luke lines up the mockers in order: the people watching, the rulers sneering, then the soldiers. One writer points out that no single group can take the blame. Every kind of person was there.
In every respect the Word of God came true, and the ways of men were laid bare. This was not a matter of one class and its own habits. High and low, the ruled and the rulers, civil and military — all played their part. And the part they all played was hatred against God, who was revealing His love and goodness in His Christ.
The drink named here is not table wine. Writers distinguish two separate offerings made at the cross — one He turned down and one He took.
They offered the Lord vinegar mixed with myrrh or gall, and He refused it. But He did take the vinegar after He had said, "I thirst." This matched the prophecy, "for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." Ps. 69:21; Matt. 27:34, 48.
Kelly explains the word behind the drink, and why He refused the first cup:
The matching passage in Matthew 27:34 seems to show that the wine here was a cheap, sour drink — the word translated "vinegar". The mixing with myrrh was meant to dull the senses, and the Lord refused that cup.
Notice the change in wording. The rulers challenged Him as "the Christ of God." The soldiers used a political title: "the King of the Jews."
The soldiers in fact join the Jews in their insults. They look only at the question of worldly power, and say: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." They stand only on the outside of the evil, and they publicly witness the fall of the people.
Read verses 35 to 39 together, and the same demand comes from three directions.
And now the cry of salvation begins to ring out, though in mockery. "He saved others," say the rulers; "let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the chosen of God." Even the soldiers take it up in their own way: "If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself." And then one of the robbers puts together what cannot go together: "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." These things really cannot be joined.
The soldiers set Him a test: prove the title by saving Himself. His refusal is the reason anyone is saved at all.
The soldiers mocked Him too. They came to Him, offered Him vinegar, and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." Again that awful if. They wanted Him to prove He was the King of the Jews by saving Himself. But He would not do that. He would not save Himself, so that He might be able to save others like you and me. Unbelief doubted the inscription, "This is the King of the Jews"; faith accepted it, then and now.
Kelly draws the same line, and shows where it leads:
It was because He was the King of the Jews, as no one else ever has been or can be, that He did not save Himself. And so He can send out the message of salvation now, and bring salvation later.
Earlier He had prayed for the forgiveness of those killing Him. The mockery here is the immediate answer He received.
What effect did the prayer for forgiveness have on anyone who heard it? The soldiers, set on personal gain, cast lots for His clothes. The rulers scoffed at Him. The soldiers mocked Him too. They offered Him vinegar in mockery and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." The people "stood by, watching." So who had been moved by that prayer? No one that we read of.
- Everyone. Rulers, soldiers, onlookers, criminals — high and low, the ruled and the rulers, all played their part. No one group carries the blame alone.
- Sour wine. The drink offered here is cheap vinegar. He refused the earlier cup mixed with myrrh, which was meant to dull the senses. Later He took the plain sour wine, and Psalm 69:21 came true.
- "Save yourself." The same demand comes three times — from rulers, soldiers and a robber. Each one turns His real work into a joke.
- He refused. He would not come down, "just that He might be able to save others like you and me." The refusal was the salvation.
- The title stood. The soldiers threw the title at Him as an insult. The inscription over Him stated it as fact: "This is the King of the Jews." Unbelief doubted it; faith accepts it.
and saying, If *thou* be the king of the Jews, save thyself.
The soldiers at the cross join the rulers in mocking Jesus. They hold out vinegar and dare Him to prove His title by saving Himself. Their taunt raises the question the whole scene turns on: why would a man with power to come down stay there?
Just before this, Jesus prayed for forgiveness. One writer asks what that prayer produced in the people standing around Him.
But what effect did the prayer for forgiveness have on any who heard it? The soldiers, intent on personal gain, cast lots for His garments. The rulers scoffed at Him. The soldiers, too, mocked Him. The rulers said, "He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, His chosen." The soldiers offered Him vinegar in mockery and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." The people "stood watching." Who, then, had been moved by that prayer? No one that we read of.
The mocking was not the habit of one group. Everybody present took a turn.
In every respect the Word of God was fulfilled, and the ways of men laid bare. It was no question of a class and its peculiar habits. High and low, the governed and the governors, civil and military — all played their part. And the part they all played was hatred of God, who was revealing His love and goodness in His Christ. Man's folly was as plain here as God's grace was in the presence of man's wickedness.
The soldiers' mockery turns on one small word. They set their own test for the title.
Again this awful "if." They wanted Him to prove that He was the King of the Jews by saving Himself. But He would not do that; He would not save Himself, just so that He might be able to save others like you and me. Unbelief doubted, faith accepted, then as now, the inscription, "This is the King of the Jews."
The same two words come from the rulers, from the soldiers, and from a criminal dying beside Him.
It is remarkable how all of them repeat this taunt: "Save yourself." It is bitter and trying, but in fact it reveals the perfect selfishness of the human heart. To have power, and not use it to save oneself, was unthinkable to man's mind. Selfishness in the thief could even add "and us" to the taunt. The Jews said, "If he is the Christ, let him save himself." Then came the taunt that insulted the Jews as well as Him: "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." And the thief spoke like the Jews. All unite in this. But the love of Jesus was undiminished. He did not come to save Himself. He could have saved Himself, but then not others, and He would not have accomplished the perfect and adorable will of His blessed Father.
There is a bitter irony in the vocabulary the mockers chose.
And now the cry begins to ring out, though in mockery, of salvation. "He saved others," say the rulers: "let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the chosen of God." Even the soldiers take it up in their own way: "If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself." And then one of the robbers makes the impossible combination: "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." Truly impossible to put these things together.
The soldiers' taunt works on the only level they cared about: worldly power.
The soldiers join the Jews in their insults. They look only at the question of worldly power, and say: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." They stand on the outside of the evil, and in public they witness the fall of the people — a people now ungodly.
The title the soldiers throw back at Him is the very reason He stayed on the cross. It will not stay a joke.
He was the King of the Jews, as no one else has been or can be. That is why He did not save Himself. And that is why He can send out the message of salvation now and bring salvation later on. Man in that day gave little weight to what was written over Him in Greek and Roman and Hebrew letters: "This is the King of the Jews." Man wrote it in scorn, yet God will give it all its own force — God, who overrules the will and the wrath of man to praise Him. Through the Crucified, God will bless the world later on, Jew and Gentile, high and low, even as His grace gathers people out of it now.
- Mockery. Rulers, soldiers, onlookers and a dying criminal all took their turn. The prayer for forgiveness moved no one who heard it.
- Condition. The soldiers set their own test: prove the title by saving Yourself. They hung His claim on one word, "if".
- Selfishness. The repeated "save yourself" exposes the human heart. They could not imagine power that a man refuses to use on himself.
- Refusal. He could have saved Himself, but not others as well; His Father's will and His love held Him there.
- Reversal. Because He was the King of the Jews He did not come down. God will give the title written in scorn its full force, and bless the world through the Crucified.
And there was also an inscription [written] over him in Greek, and Roman, and Hebrew letters This is the King of the Jews.
A written charge hung above Jesus at His execution, and it named Him King of the Jews. The man who wrote those words was the governor who had just condemned Him.
Luke places the notice of the inscription after the mockery of the rulers and the soldiers. One writer points out that Pilate wrote the wording himself. He had given way on the greater matter. On this one he would not.
That inscription was Pilate's own writing (John 19:19), and he was set on having his way in it. He had given in to the Jews about crucifying the Lord, but he refused to change the title he had written to put over His head. So Pilate could be firm when he chose to be. "What I have written I have written" (John 19:22) stopped every further protest from the Jews.
Why did Pilate word it that way? One writer sees two motives at work at once, one human and one divine.
Pilate fastens to the cross the Lord's title: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Perhaps he did it to annoy the Jews; he certainly did it to carry out the purposes of God. The words hold a double truth — the despised man from Nazareth is the true Messiah.
Each Gospel reports the sign in different words. Put side by side, the four are not rivals but parts of one sentence.
Matthew: "This is Jesus the King of the Jews" (27:37). Mark: "The King of the Jews" (15:26). Luke: "This is the King of the Jews" (23:38). John: "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews" (19:19). In full: "This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews."
Luke's short form has a sting in its word order.
"The King of the Jews, this!" The tone of contempt finds fitting expression in Luke; compare Isaiah 53:3.
The ESV does not name the languages here, but older translations of this verse say the sign was written in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Each language stood for a different sphere of life.
The inscription over His cross was written in the languages of the intellectual world (Greek), the political world (Latin), and the religious world (Hebrew): "This is the King of the Jews." For all of them had united in rejecting Him, and He remained King of the Jews through death itself. God in His sovereign power ordered this clear, decided witness.
The same sign that recorded man's guilt carried something else to every reader.
So men of every class could read in their own language the record of their shared guilt. They could also read a witness to the wonderful love of God, given to them in their own tongue — a small foreshadowing of Pentecost.
The words were meant as scorn. Yet they name the reason He did not save Himself.
He was the King of the Jews as no one else had been or can ever be. That is why He did not save Himself. That is also why He can send out the message of salvation now and bring salvation later on. Men that day gave little thought to the weight of the words written over Him in Greek and Roman and Hebrew letters, "This is the King of the Jews." If man wrote it in scorn, God will give it all its own force — God Who overrules the will and the wrath of man to praise Him.
Pilate wrote it as an accusation. It was the truth, and it still stands.
Despite the hatred of the Jews He received His true title, and it came from a Gentile. There it stood written and could not be changed; and so it is still. Jesus of Nazareth, the despised and rejected One, is the King of the Jews — that is one of His titles. The throne of His father David is His, and in the wider sense He will be the King of kings.
- Written — Pilate wrote the words himself, and he refused to change them: "What I have written I have written."
- Mocked — Luke's short form, "The King of the Jews, this!", carries a tone of contempt.
- Published — Greek, Latin and Hebrew named the guilt of three worlds: intellectual, political and religious. Every bystander could read it in his own language.
- Overruled — man wrote it in scorn, and God gave the words their full weight. It was as King that He did not save Himself, so that He could save others.
- Standing — the words could not be changed then, and they still stand. The rejected One holds David's throne and will be King of kings.