LUKE 23:26 – 55: JESUS’ CRUCIFIXION, DEATH AND BURIAL

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

A. THE CRUCIFIXION – 23:26 – 43

Luke’s report of the crucifixion of Jesus includes interactions and encounters between Jesus and a number of different people.

Read the verses listed, and describe the significance of what was said and done in these interactions/encounters:
Simon from Cyrene – 23:26:

Women of Jerusalem – 23:27 – 31:

The soldiers who crucified him – 23:33, 34:

The people watching, and the rulers – 23:35:

The soldiers – 23:36, 37:

One criminal – 23:39:

The other criminal – 23:40 – 43:

From these encounters, what do you learn about:
Jesus’ concern and compassion for others involved?

The destruction that was going to come on Jerusalem?

The ignorance of what the Christ (the Messiah) came to do?

What the second criminal knew?

How much faith and knowledge does it take to get to heaven?

What happens immediately when a believing person dies?

There is a degree of irony in the expectations and perceptions that people had of Jesus.

Simon from Cyrene was forced to bear Jesus’ cross because his body was too battered and weak to bear it himself: Jesus was about to bear that man’s sins in his body on that cross.

The women of Jerusalem wept for him: he told them to weep for themselves because of the terrible destruction that before long would fall on Jerusalem.

The people, the rulers, the soldiers and one of the criminals all mocked him, suggesting that as the Christ he ought to have been able to save himself: but he was in the process of doing something that, if they would believe in him, had the power to save them for all eternity. What they see as weakness and inability is actually the power of God at work for the salvation not of Jews only but of people from every tribe and language and nation. Consider a comment from John Calvin:

‘...they are unworthy of forming an accurate judgement of the weakness of the cross. Because Christ does not immediately deliver himself from death, they upbraid him with inability. And it is too customary with all wicked men to estimate the power of God by present appearances, so that whatever he does not accomplish they think that he cannot accomplish, and so they accuse him of weakness ... But let us believe that Christ, though he might easily have done it, did not immediately deliver himself from death, but it was because he did not wish to deliver himself ... because he cared more about the salvation of us all...’ Commentary – A harmony of the Evangelists.

Only one of all the people mentioned in these verses understood the truth about Jesus: the second criminal looked beyond the present horror, the present physical life, and knew that Jesus was the King of the eternal kingdom. He alone – not the people of physical, political or priestly power – sees who Jesus is and what Jesus is accomplishing, over, above and beyond this physical life. He sees that Jesus is indeed the King of a kingdom that is not of this world, and receives Jesus’ promise that he will be with him in that world that very day.

A.1 What does it take to ‘get to heaven’?
How much knowledge do we need? How many ‘good works’ do we have to do? How ‘religious’ to we have to be?

Neither of the two criminals crucified on either side of Jesus had any ‘good works’ to their credit. Neither had a great deal of knowledge about Jesus. But to one of them Jesus promised ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’

What made the difference?

This second thief acknowledged his sin. He said ‘We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.’ He also acknowledged that Jesus was the King of the Kingdom of God: ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he cast himself and his eternal destiny into the merciful hands of Jesus: ‘Jesus, remember me...’

He had nothing that could gain him access into the kingdom of God, and he knew it. All his hope, his one last hope, for life with God beyond this death, was focused in Jesus alone.

Not much knowledge. But it was accurate knowledge of both himself and of Jesus.
Not much knowledge. But it was enough to make him trust not in himself, but in Jesus.
Not much knowledge. But it generated humble faith, not mocking pride.

And there, in his last earthly minutes, he was blessed with the firm promise of Jesus: ‘Today’ – not in some vague, unidentified future – ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’

With this peace he died. In this peace he still lives.

B. THE DEATH – 23:44 – 49

Luke describes Jesus’ death in just a few sentences. He tells us that several things happened:

B.1 The sun stopped shining at around midday, and darkness came over the whole land until about 3pm.
This cannot have been an eclipse, because that is not possible at the time of the Passover, which is always at full moon. This intense darkness can only be explained as an act of God that accompanied the accomplishment of his eternal purpose in the death of his Son.

Hendriksen comments: ‘The darkness meant judgement, the judgment of God upon our sins, his wrath as it were burning itself out in the very heart of Jesus, so that he, as our Substitute, suffered most intense agony, indescribable woe, terrible isolation or forsakenness. Hell came to Calvary that day, and the Saviour descended into it and bore its horrors in our stead ...’ p970, The Gospel of Matthew.

In the Bible, darkness is often associated with judgement, and here on the cross the judgement of God was being poured out upon Jesus, the Son of God, as he took our place and bore the full penalty for our sins.

How do these verses describe what was happening to Jesus here during those three hours of darkness?
Mark 10:45b:

Romans 3:25:

2Corinthians 5:21:

Galatians 3:13:

Hebrews 9:14:

Hebrews 9:26 – 28:

1Peter 2:24:

1Peter 3:18:

1John 2:2; 4:10:

B.2 That at about 3pm, Jesus called out in a loud voice ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit’
The other gospel writers give additional information at this point: That Jesus also cried out ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34). That he said ‘I am thirsty’ (John 19:28). That he said ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). It is likely that these happened in the order I have mentioned them, before the statement reported by Luke.

The texts listed under B.1 above explain the answer to Jesus’ question ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus knew the answer; he did not need to be told the answer, for it was the very reason he came, a reason sealed in the will and purpose of God before time began: that he, the Lamb of God, would carry our sins and be stricken by God – pierced for our transgression, crushed for our iniquities; that the punishment necessary for our peace with God would be upon him (see Isaiah 53:4 – 5).

When Jesus said ‘It is finished!’ he was speaking of that eternal saving purpose of God. Here in his sin-bearing death God’s saving work is brought to its intended end. Here the plan of God which had always been real in his mind becomes real in time and space. (Check again the references in Section C.1 in this study on Luke 9.) Here in this death, by this fulfilment of God’s purpose, the condemnation due to us is completely borne by Jesus. Here the wrath of God is fully borne by Jesus. Here the sin-debt, the penalty, is paid in full – for all who believe in and receive Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Having completed the will of God, having brought to fulfilment all the Scriptures that symbolised and predicted his death, Jesus said ‘It is finished’ – the purpose of God has been accomplished.

B.3 Jesus, having committed his spirit to his Father, breathed his last
B.4 The temple curtain was torn in two

Matthew gives us the insight that these two things occurred simultaneously (Matthew 27:50, 51). Having completed his substitutionary work, having accomplished the eternal purpose of God, Jesus died. Not as other men die, but as an act of his will. Death did not come to him: he embraced death: he, as Matthew reports it, ‘yielded up his spirit.’ Or, as Luke put it, Jesus committed his spirit to his Father. This deliberate dying was explained by Jesus earlier:

‘The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This is the command I received from my Father’ – John 10:17, 18.

Just like the three hours of darkness was an act of God, so too is the tearing of the temple curtain. That curtain was far too high and far too thick to be torn by human hands. It was a prohibitive curtain, barring human access to the presence of God. It spoke of our sinfulness and God’s holiness – and of the separation and alienation from God that our sin caused.

It was embroidered with cherubim, reminiscent of the cherubim with flaming swords barring the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24; Exodus 26:31).

It divided the ‘Holy Place’ from the ‘Most Holy Place’ in the tabernacle and later in the temple, prohibiting human access to the Most Holy Place, where God, symbolically, dwelt (Exodus 26:33).

But now, having completed his sin-bearing work, having said ‘It is finished!’ the curtain is ripped away by God: for those who have received Jesus Christ there is no longer any barrier between them and God. There is, in Christ, free, unimpeded access into the very presence of God. Never again will sin separate us from God.

How do these texts explain the removal of the sin-barrier?
Ephesians 2:18:

Colossians 1:20 – 22:

Hebrews 4:14 – 16:

Hebrews 10:19 – 23:

When the New Testament speaks of ‘reconciliation’ with God it speaks of the removal of the barrier, the separation, the prohibition, the alienation, symbolised by this curtain. Christ died for us to bring us to God (1Peter 3:18).

B.5 The observers – 23:47 – 49
Luke reports how various observers reacted to the death of Jesus and the associated events.

Read 23:47 – 49. How did these people react?
The centurion (see also Mark 15:39):

‘All the people’:

Those who knew Jesus:

C. THE BURIAL – Luke 23:50 – 56

Luke reports how Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus’ body in a new tomb, and how the women from Galilee prepared spices and perfumes ready to anoint his body. The lateness of the hour, and the beginning of the Sabbath, meant this would be delayed until the day following the Sabbath.