Luke 23:33-43
As Jesus hangs dying on the cross, three groups speak. They speak with increasing intimacy, each from a perspective closer to Jesus than the last. Their words reveal, implicitly, what is taking place here.
The first group to speak are the leaders the members of the priestly class, senior scribes, and prominent members of society from groups such as the Pharisees and Herodians. These are the one’s whose opposition to Jesus, and whose conspiracy, has brought him to this place. They say:
“He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!”
Actually they don’t speak to Jesus but rather about him. Their sentence is in the third person. They stand at a distance from the cross looking on. It is almost as if they attempt to make their words do the same thing. As if by not coming too close they can avoid responsibility for what is being done here, in their name. They speak as witnesses to what Jesus has done. One thing the opponents of Jesus’ ministry have not denied is that he works wonders. The conspiracy against him is carried out in full knowledge of what he has been done. The chief priests, scribes, Pharisees and all the rest know that Jesus has healed the sick, cleansed the impure, released those captive to demonic forces, restored sense to the blind and deaf, even raised the dead. What they deny is what these things mean. All of the things which Jesus has done, all of which they know about, are clear signs of the breaking in of God’s kingdom. The conspiracy against Jesus knows this but rejects Jesus anyway. Witness to Jesus, and who and what he is, is present in the world, but there will always remain those who will choose to deny, for whatever reasons, that he is who appears to be.
But the leaders also make what appears to be a common assumption. They assume that the Messiah would be able to save himself. That if Jesus were the Messiah, he could not die in the fashion, he could and would come down from the cross. They assume that the mission of God’s chosen one, the one chosen to save Israel, cannot be fulfilled in this way. Even at this point the leaders still harbour a hope, or is it a suspicion, that Jesus is the Messiah. Even at this last hour there is still room for Jesus to prove himself to them by offering salvation as victory, by fulfilling his mission on their terms, in the way they want. The leaders are prime example of what sometimes, often, happens to religious people. They want God on their own terms. They want salvation that satisfies their own desires. They create a God who is nothing more than a projection of their wilfulness and as a result miss the real God when that God turns up to save them.
Before the beginning of his active ministry Jesus had spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. He had resisted each of those temptations. But:
When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time. [Luke 4:13]
It seems that now is that more opportune time. In the voice of the leaders the devil speaks again. Jesus is once again in extremis, his agony in the desert is repeated on the cross. The same temptations return to him. The first would be to use his power for himself, rather than according to God’s will. Jesus could, but does not, turn stones into bread. Jesus could, but does not, end his suffering by freeing his hands and feet from the nails and coming down from the cross. To do so would be to deny God’s intention and act on his own will to avoid pain and death. The proof that the leaders want, would in fact be disproof, it would be Jesus’ rejection of his relationship God which makes him Messiah.
What the leaders are looking for is some last spectacular sign that would leave no room for doubt to exist. They want Jesus to give final incontrovertible proof that he is who appears to be. This too is the devil’s temptation. Jesus could, but does not, leap from the highest pinnacle of the Temple and not die. Jesus could, but does not, release himself from the cross and avoid death. In the leaders’ mind the Messiah’s ministry cannot end in this defeat. If the Messiah has come to this point it must be so that he can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and so provide, in a spectacular display, undeniable proof that he is God’s chosen one. They cannot stand the burden of faith. Like so many other they don’t want to believe, they want to know. And yet to leave the precious gift of human freedom intact, God cannot reveal God in any way that does not leave God also hidden. The cross is the place where where faith as trust in God meets its great test, just at the point at which the true nature of God is most clearly revealed.
The second group to speak are the soldiers who stand around the foot of the cross. These are the one who actually carry out the terrible, lethal, will of the power of this world, which ultimately resides with the emperor, but is mediated by his agents, like Pontius Pilate, the procurator. Jesus has already spoken to them. As they drove the cruel nails into his flesh he said:
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Of course they have absolutely no idea why they might need forgiving. They are only following orders. They are a lot closer to Jesus than leaders. Their role in this scene demands a great deal of intimacy with their victim. Their scorn and disbelief are directed straight at Jesus. They address him in the second person.
“If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”
They really don’t know what they are doing. They can only speak to Jesus in terms which they understand. And the same assumption is there. If Jesus is who is alleged to be, if the sign which they have hung above him is not just ironic, then he must be able to save himself. They may not know what they are doing, but they do know about kings and about power. They are enmeshed in the vast system of power that is the empire. They are themselves the sword by which the emperor wields his power. One thing they are certain of is that if you are dead you have no power. To rule in this world you must defeat your enemies, and that ultimately means that they die and you don’t. They understand that rule in this world is sovereignty, and that is nothing less than maintaining the claim to a monopoly of violence. They only know the rule of the emperor, which is coercion and violence.
But the limit of this world’s power is death. What they and everyone like them who is embedded in the way power is exercised in this world cannot see is that God possesses a power which transcends death. Once death has lost its sting the coercion and violence with which the world rules is no longer effective, and the loving reign of God can begin.
In the voice of the soldiers the devil speaks again. Once again in a high place Jesus sees the power of this world on display. Jesus could, but does not, take the power of this world into his own hands. Jesus could, but does not, set out in conquest and replace the emperor. Because to do so would be to deny God’s intention. Indeed it would be to usurp God just as the emperor and every ruler like had done. Jesus knows that from the very beginning God’s people have had no king but God. To come down from the cross Jesus would have to bow down and acknowledge that only the devil and the devil’s methods rule in this world. If Jesus had come down from the cross the soldiers would have witnessed a victory which they could understand. But it would have been the last thing they saw, because that victory would demand their deaths. The word of forgiveness which Jesus came to give and had spoken over them would have to be withdrawn.
And only death and destruction would have spread from the foot of the cross. Jesus would rule, for short while, until death did catch up with him. But the world would have been unchanged. No alternative to the way the world is ruled would have been offered. There would be no good news for the poor, nor hope for the captives. That Jesus accepts death, even death on cross, reveal that there is another rule, there is another kingdom over which God reigns.
The last group to speak are the two criminals who are dying with Jesus. With him they form a community of suffering. They have no connection with one another, beyond the fact that they are in this together. And so they are closest of all to Jesus. They speak to him, but include themselves in their words. Their address is effectively made in the first person plural, we. The first criminal speaks and says:
“Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”
The first criminal makes the same assumption that everyone else up to now has. He assumes that if Jesus is the Messiah, he can save himself. But that being so, he also sees there would an opportunity for himself. If Jesus saves himself, he can save the criminal whilst he’s at it.
Who knows what crime it was which has brought this criminal to this last place. Perhaps his whole life has been ducking and diving, dodging and weaving, make and deal here, grasping what he can there. And at every turn he has tried to avoid the consequences of his actions. But his actions have brought him this terrible consequence. Crucifixion is cruel, but in the terms of the world in which the criminal lives, it is not necessarily unjust. It is only the end result of the life which he has lived. But in Jesus he sees one last opportunity to bargain his way out of a jam. He displays the cynicism of everyone like him, who might see in Jesus and opportunity to benefit themselves. This criminal is Jesus’ final encounter with the hypocrites he has so consistently condemned throughout his ministry.
To the second criminal, however, crucifixion has brought clarity. He sees through one companion in suffering and recognises who the other really is. He says to the other criminal:
“Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.”
The difference between the two criminals is that the second acknowledges what he has done. He knows that it is his own actions that have brought him to this place. He accepts that the sentence of death is justified. It is the same sentence which has hung over the whole human race from the first moment that we became alienated from God by sin. The second criminal also recognises the contrast between himself and Jesus, despite their matching circumstances. While he deserves the sentence passed over him, he knows that in Jesus’ case the sentence is not valid. His observation is more true than he could ever know, since Jesus is the one person who remains at one with God, against whom the death sentence against the rest the human race does not apply. The second criminal makes no attempt to deny responsibility, nor does he attempt to evade the consequences, he does not even think that Jesus should save himself. He turns to Jesus with a very limited request, he says:
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Despite the position that Jesus is in, and without need for further proof, the second criminal recognises and acknowledges who Jesus is. Only this last one to speak demonstrates the faith which Jesus’ ministry can inspire. He trusts Jesus, and that in Jesus he will be remembered before God in the kingdom which Jesus establishes. What the second criminal lacks, which everyone else who has spoken has shown, is self interest. For everyone else to believe in Jesus would have required there to be something in it for them. The second criminal has no such expectations, he simply acknowledges and trusts Jesus.
Conventionally we might expect criminals to be agents of the devil. They are after all, by definition, unrighteous. Yet the devil speaks through neither criminal. Theirs is the voice of desperate humanity with death hanging over them. Their situation pushes them in opposite directions. One denies the reality of his situation, denies responsibility and wants to avoid death. The other accepts reality but places his trust in Jesus. Herein lies the judgment which Christ brings in the face of death, ours and his. Can we still trust that Jesus is Lord? Judgement rests against those who think Jesus must save himself, because they cannot see that world can be different from what it already is.
Is Jesus the king who does not wield power; in his own interest, as a spectacular display to persuade, and as means to coerce and control? Only the second criminal sees through what everyone else is saying and recognises that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and that the world is different from what it appears as a consequence. The Messiah can and does die. God’s power transcends the power of this world, because it defeats death. The second criminal has that saving faith, and receives a promise he doesn’t ask for:
“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Amen.
Voices around the Cross by Christopher Wood-Archer is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0