Luke 23:26 NIV
As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
He is now on the road to what we have come to call Calvary. And now we find a man who is going to be given to opportunity to know Christ in a real way with a personal encounter as well as first hand opportunity to auffer with Christ and take up his cross.
Luke 23:27-28 NIV
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
In His greatest moment of pain and agony, Christ doesn't want other's pity, but cares more for others still. He cares about where these womens hearts and where they are and whether or not they will come to salvation and who they will fare in the coming events of great distruction and new rulership. So Christ is outward focussed even during suffering. A lesson for us also to be focussed on others even during our suffering.
Luke 23:29-31 NIV
For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' Then
"'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"
and to the hills, "Cover us!"' For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?"
There was coming a time that it would be better for people not to have brought anyone new into the world and Christ was concerned for them for the trials that would soon come.
Luke 23:32-33 NIV
Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
Thinking about this name. It seems sometimes that we have lost the impact of the cross when we use the word “Calvary” in meaning something so flowery and comfortable and nice, when really “Calvary” is “the place of the skull” and is in fact the very place of our Savior's excecution as well as the death of other people. This was a place of death. We have come to know the word as a pleasing word but remember why that is. It is the love that Jesus showed us that he lay down his life and take on the complete weight and punishment for our sins on this place of skulls. What hung Christ to the cross? Nails? No... it was love.
Luke 23:34 NIV
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
Could we do that?
Matthew 5:44 NIV
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Think about it really. Could we be punished wrongly for someone else’s sin and look upon our punishers with such love to let them know we forgive them? How often do Christians struggle with unforgiveness? Follow Christ's example to offer forgiveness for our enemies. And let's be a blessing to them. Perhaps it will change their hearts one day.
Luke 23:35 NIV
The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the Chosen One."
They are playing games at the foot of the cross. There are many people today doing the same thing. At home, in the church. Attending church to find a date or appease a spouse.
Luke 23:36-39 NIV
The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"
This is the same with many of our enemies today. The enemies of Christ and of his followers today still ridicule and blaspheme in the same way, looking around and choosing to say what everyone else is saying. There aren't even any original insults anymore. No original thoughts in our haters. They say what they heard someone else say about us because they thought the insult sounded good. They buy the same bumper sticker that someone else already has.
Luke 23:40-41 NIV
But the other criminal rebuked him. "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."
This is something everyone who claims to be saved must do... they must realize and confess that surely this is the Messiah and he is without sin. Then they must trust in Him and ask for his grace through faith.
Luke 23:42-43 NIV
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise."
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