Now let me invite you please to take your copies of God’s Word in your hands and to turn with me in them to the gospel according to Luke, chapter 23. Luke’s gospel, chapter 23. If you’re using one of our church Bibles you can find that on page 884.
We’re going to consider Luke’s account of the crucifixion and in particular to focus on three words, the three sayings that Luke records our Savior uttering as He gave His life at Golgotha. The first you can see in verse 34. We’ll call it the word of forgiveness. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” The word of forgiveness. The second in verse 43 we’ll call the word of assurance. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” A word of forgiveness. A word of assurance. Then in verse 46, the word of commitment. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” So three words. Do you see them? The word of forgiveness, the word of assurance, and the word of commitment.
The first two teach us about the effects of Jesus’ sufferings. What is it that He has accomplished for us? And the third teaches us about the nature of Jesus’ sufferings. What is it that He is doing for us? The first two really depend upon the third, and taken together, these three words help us understand what is so very good about Good Friday. You may sometimes have wondered why we call it Good Friday since we are commemorating the dreadful sufferings, the tortured death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a moment of supreme suffering, after all, when the deepest evil of which a human being is capable etched itself into the body and soul of our holy, harmless and undefiled Lord Jesus Christ. It was a moment so horrific, the Gospel writers tell us, that darkness even veiled the sky as though the heavens were grieving over what was taking place. And so how is any of that good? Well Luke tells us why it’s good. It’s good because of the three words that Jesus spoke when He hung between two criminals in Luke 23. The word of forgiveness, the word of assurance, and the word of commitment. Before we look at them, we’re going to pray and we’ll read the passage. So let’s bow our heads as we pray together.
O God, as we read these words we stand on most holy ground. And so we pray for Your most Holy Spirit to come and open our eyes and open our hearts that we may hear the voice of our Savior speaking to us even here tonight. For we ask it all in His name, amen.
Luke 23. We’ll begin our reading at the thirty-second verse. This is the Word of God:
“Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him” – that is, with Jesus. “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’
It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent!’ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.”
Amen.
So Jesus has been condemned to death by Pilate. He’s being led away, Luke says, with two others to the place, the name of which Luke translates into Greek as “Kranion.” Matthew’s account gives us the same place name in Aramaic, “Golgotha,” while in English we sometimes call it “Calvary,” which comes from the Latin translation of the text, which translates it as “Calvariae Locus.” All four of those names – Kranion, Golgotha, Calvary, Calvariae Locus – they all mean the same thing. They all mean “The Skull,” the place of the skull. Now we really don’t know why this particular spot is called “The Skull.” Maybe the simplest and likeliest reason for the name is because it was a place of death where crucifixions commonly occurred. But we do need to register, whatever we think about the reasons for the name, we do need to register that all four gospels are careful to record it.
So it was obviously significant to them and we should all be glad that it was significant to them for at least two reasons. First of all, the preservation of the name of the place serves to remind us that this is a real place indeed. The gospels want to make sure, at every turn actually, that we never forget that the sufferings of Jesus are not legendary in their character. They do not belong in the realm of myth, happening in an invented landscape of fable and fantasy and make believe and wish fulfillment. No, the cross, Luke wants us to know, was raised in the dirt and stone of a real place with a real name that could be located on a map of Roman Palestine. And in fact, the whole Christian Gospel rests on that truth. The cross really happened. They really did this. Jesus really endured all of this. It’s not a metaphor, much less is it a lie. It is a fact.
The second reason that the preservation of the place name helps us is to remind us not just that this was a real place but that this was in particular an unclean place. According to Jewish custom, Mosaic Law, dead bodies are unclean. So calling the place, “The Skull,” it was the equivalent of putting up, you know, one of those bright yellow biohazard signs. You know the ones I am talking about with the three black intersecting crescents. Just to see one is kind of scary. They strike intimidation into the heart when you encounter one. If you were out walking the dog in the woods one day and you stumbled into a fence with one of those biohazard signs on it, you don’t climb the fence for a closer look! You turn around and walk the other way quick smart. This is a dangerous place, a contaminated place, and it will contaminate you if you linger there. That’s what this place was. That’s what this name signifies – a place of death, a place of shame, a place of contaminating uncleanness.
And that, Luke wants us to know, in our passage, is where the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross between two criminals while soldiers gamble for His clothing at His nail-pierced feet. The crowd stand around avidly watching Him slowly expire like spectators at some cruel blood sport. And the Jewish leaders, meanwhile, they’re not satisfied, are they, with simply accomplishing His death. They show up to taunt Him and ridicule Him. Verse 35, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save! If He is the Christ of God, His Chosen One, let Him save Himself!” Notice the religious tone of their mockery. They see in this moment proof positive that Jesus’ claims to Messiahship are obviously false. Messiahs don’t end up on a cross. And so now they crow their delight to the crowd and rub Jesus’ nose in what they consider to be His obvious and now exposed lies.
And then there are the Roman soldiers. They join the mockery as well, don’t they? Verse 38. “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” This time, the mockery is not particularly religious so much as it is civil. It is predicated on what they believed to be Jesus’ treasonous claim to be a rival monarch and a threat to Caesar’s imperial rule. But if Jesus really is the King of the Jews, well then He should command His subjects right now to secure His immediate release. And that He does not do so clearly demonstrates He is no king at all. And then verse 39, even one of the two criminals hanged with Him, take a spiteful swing at Jesus. “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself, and us!” And this time the focus falls not on the perceived falsehood of Jesus’ claims to religious Messiahship or political kingship. Here the focus falls on Jesus’ perceived failure of power. “If you really were the Christ, not only can You save Yourself; You can save me too. There’s no hope of that, is there? What a phony.”
And now before we rush to condemn these three groups, let’s admit, shall we, how common those same sentiments actually continue to be. After all, don’t we still think that Jesus ought to meet certain expectations – deep down, religiously, like the Jewish leaders gathered around the cross? Or politically like the Roman soldiers casting lots for His clothing? Or personally in moments of crisis like the criminal crucified with Him? And then when He doesn’t deliver in the way we think He ought, it can be hard not to accuse Him of letting us down or even of dismissing Him as a failure and in some cases rejecting even the Christian Gospel outright because it doesn’t meet our needs. It doesn’t satisfy our expectations. Jesus doesn’t live up to what we think He ought to be like.
But here’s what I think Luke wants us to see. When we think that way, we’ve actually misunderstood at a fundamental level why Jesus came in the first place. Now in one sense, the Jews and the Romans and the criminal crucified with Him, they’re all quite right. Jesus is not that kind of Messiah. He’s not that kind of King and He’s not that kind of Savior. If that’s what you’re looking for, He will certainly let you down. But Jesus came with a different agenda entirely and the heart of His real mission is articulated in these three words from the cross.
The Word of Forgiveness
Let’s look at the first of them in verse 34. It is the word – it’s a stunning word – it’s the word of forgiveness. He speaks a word of forgiveness while they are murdering Him! “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The request, “Father, forgive,” and the reason, “they know not what they do” – now think carefully about that. The ignorance of His murderers, His slanderers, and all the hateful participants in this horror that day, their ignorance is not being offered by Jesus in mitigation of their crimes, but actually in order to demonstrate just how deep and dark their depravity truly is. They ought to have known, do you see, what sort of Messiah He was, what sort of King, what sort of Savior. They ought to have trusted in Him, believed in Him, followed Him, not crucified Him. But instead, “They exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve the created thing instead of the Creator who is blessed forever.” And so here, Jesus does not raise the issue of their ignorance to minimize how severe their sin was. He raises their ignorance to reveal how severe their sin was. He’s not saying, “Father, forgive them because their ignorance means they deserve forgiveness. It’s an excuse. Their ignorance gets them off the hook.” That’s not what He’s saying. He is saying, rather, “Father, here’s why they so urgently need to be forgiven – because of their culpable ignorance. They deserve Your damnation, Your judgment. So Father, forgive them. Forgive them as they kill Me, as they crucify Me. Forgive them. There’s no hope for them unless You forgive them.”
Now just let it sink in for a minute what Jesus is really asking. For sinners who did this to Him, blind to a truth they ought to have known, willfully rejecting the evidence, loving the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. It’s for people like that that Jesus is praying here, for sinners like that that He offers His life. Do you see, He came actually for this moment? This is why He’s here. Born for this moment. It’s all been leading up to this moment when He would shed His blood in the room and stead of inexcusable sinners whose blindness is culpable, whose ignorance condemns them, and for them He cries to His Father for mercy. That’s what the cross is all about. That’s why Good Friday is so very good – because at the cross, Jesus secures pardon for big sinners.
Look, here’s how we should be reasoning now in light of that. We should think, “If He prays for the forgiveness of His own murderers while they’re hurling insults in His face, do I really not think there would be plenty of room in the forgiveness He provides for me too? If He dies to secure pardon for people like this, then surely I can find in the death of Jesus Christ the very same pardon that I so desperately need.” Good Friday is good because Jesus came for your pardon, for your forgiveness, that your sin might be washed away forever.
The Word of Assurance
And Good Friday is good because of the second word that Luke records. The first is the word of forgiveness. The second is the word of assurance now. Verses 39 through 43, Luke points out the invective that one of the two criminals hurls at Jesus. Actually, Mark 15 verse 32 says both criminals joined in the mockery for a while, but at some point, one of the two has a change of heart. Maybe it was hearing Jesus pray for His murderers and His tormenters that was the instrument God used to effect the change. But whatever it was, whatever the trigger right there on the cross, hanging beside Jesus in terrible agony at the eleventh hour, this man is wonderfully converted. In verse 40 you see he rebukes his fellow convict reminding him of the wrath of God acknowledging they are being justly condemned for their wicked deeds and confessing to him the innocence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then – and isn’t this remarkable – given that right beside him Jesus is sharing the same faith as him, he asks Jesus – verse 42, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” If ever there was a moment when Jesus did not look like a King, it was here; like a Savior, it was here. Like He could answer anyone’s cries for help, it was here. Somehow this man looks at the wretched figure hanging between them – naked, beaten, agonized, rejected by the crowds – the epitome of shame and defeat. He looks at this figure and with the eyes of faith sees in fact God’s anointed King. He knows that despite appearances, the death of Christ was not a barrier to Jesus’ inheritance of the kingdom, but actually the condition and the means of it. And so he asks Jesus to remember him when He takes possession of the kingdom of which this man knows Christ is the heir. It’s an amazing moment of faith, of insight.
And I hope that it gives you great comfort if you’ve ever worried for an adult loved one who, despite years of praying for them, they’ve not yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. There never was an eleventh hour conversion like this one. There never were more reasons to expect someone to reject Jesus than this man. But he doesn’t reject Him. He sees Jesus, “despised and rejected of men,” but he sees in Him the true King who was coming into His kingdom, right there, hanged on Calvary’s tree. It is never too late, is it? Isn’t that part of the message here? It’s never too late. While there’s life, there is yet hope. God saved this wicked man at his final extremity so that you might never doubt that God can yet reach and redeem the least likely candidate of them all. The most confirmed unbeliever, He can even reach you, even you.
But it’s not on the remarkable faith of this crucified criminal that I want you attention really to rest, but on Jesus’ response. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Let’s think about every word of that statement. It is, each of them, are so very precious. “Truly,” he says, “Truly, I say to you.” The word is literally, “Amen, I say to you. This is no joke. There is no provisionality, no conditionality. This is an unassailable promise I am giving you. Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Truly, today, you will be with Me in paradise.” Today. Not after an intervening period, you know. Not after purgatory where you pay off your remaining debt. Today, right away! “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” No delays. No hesitations. No intervening period. “Today you will be with me.” Faith receives an immediate Christ, an immediate Christ.
“Truly I say to you, today…” and then, notice that word “you.” “Today you will be with me.” It’s not actually a separate word in the original Greek. It’s implied in the second person singular of the verb, “to be.” “Today you will be with me.” But it’s no less important for all of that. Jesus is saying, He really is saying to this man, “You, you yourself. Not people a bit like you, in the same general class as you; you specifically, you in particular. You in all the unique wickednesses of your rebel heart; you with your past, you with your shame, you yourself – a man who by your own confession is worthy of the dreadful penalty you now bear. You will be with me in paradise.” Jesus’ grace is not general. It’s not imprecise. It is particular. It is specific. “The Good Shepherd,” Jesus says, “calls His sheep by name. I know My own,” He says. All of it. You are known. All of it is known. You, with nothing hidden from His gaze, He redeems in His amazing love. “You will be with me.”
And then the next phrase, “Truly I say to you today, you will be with Me.” “You will be.” Not, “You might be, but you know, let’s wait and see.” Not, “You could be if you play your cards right, pass My test, prove yourself worthy.” “Truly I say today you will be with Me in paradise.”
And notice, “Today you will be with Me.” Actually, these two words are the very heart of the whole Christian Gospel. Everything else that is precious and sweet and true that Christians believe are footnotes to these two words – “with Me.” “You will be with Me. I will be with you always to the end of the age. I will never leave you or forsake you.” In Paul’s vocabulary, you are “in Christ,” united to Him with a bond that will never be dissolved and can never be broken. “Nothing can separate you now from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” “With Me.”
Where? “In paradise.” The word “paradise” comes originally from the Persian language. In the original it referred to a walled garden, which I think is a beautiful image for heaven, don’t you? A place of security, protected, intimate, private, cultivated with care, made beautiful by the Gardener Himself and every blossom in that garden is named Jesus. The loveliness of paradise, the thing that makes heaven, heaven, is the presence of Jesus. “It’s with Me there that makes it so very beautiful.” “The bride eyes not her garment, but here dear Bridegroom’s face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown He gifteth, but on His pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.” “Truly I say to you, you will be with Me in paradise.” This is what Jesus says to you, to you in the moment you trust Him. Who would not trust such a Savior?
The Word of Commitment
And then finally, Good Friday is good because of the last word Luke records. The word of pardon. The word of assurance. The word of commitment. This is now where we are lead to the meaning of the cross. What is happening here? Why is there pardon possible? Why can we be certain that we will be with Him always in paradise? Because He said with a loud voice, in the last moments of His earthly life, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” His life wasn’t snatched from Him. He is not, despite perhaps what the crowds all thought, He is not a helpless victim who would if He could, but could not in fact actually save Himself. That’s not the picture. He’s not put upon, subjected helplessly to the violence of others. No, here we are being shown what has always been true – that He is in full control. And He dies now when only at last He knows the work is done. John 10:17, Jesus said, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me. I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.” And so here He is now – finished all the work entrusted to Him by His Father in order to make you His, to deal with your sin, to reconcile you to God forever. It’s all done. Nothing left outstanding. And with relief and joy and personal, final personal consecration, gives Himself into the Father’s hands. It is the climactic moment of sacrifice. Sacrifice.
That’s why, actually, as He says these words, Luke says in verse 45, “the temple curtain was torn in two.” Ninety feet tall, this curtain was, separating the most holy place in the temple from the outer courts. The only person allowed in there, you remember, is the high priest and then only once a year with the blood of a lamb to make atonement for the people. It was the great emblem of exclusion from the presence of God. The only way in with the blood of a lamb. And here it is now, torn aside from top to bottom, destroyed and taken away forever. What’s the picture? Because of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, the way is open. Hebrews 10:20, “Therefore we may have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh.” No more sacrifices, no more lambs, no more bulls and goats, no more priests. Jesus has done it all when He made His soul an offering for sin and committed Himself to the Father. There He paid in full.
And so here’s how you can be sure when He says, “Forgiven,” that that is a word of utter and unshakable certainty. And when He speaks a word of assurance, “You will be with Me, always,” here’s how you can be sure He’ll never wash His hands of you. He’ll never say, “I’m done with you. What a disappointment you are. You’ve failed Me one time too many. We’re through.” He’ll never say it! How can you be sure? Because He gave Himself for you. He gave everything for you to redeem you. Every sin, every sin – past, present and future – of yours, believer in Jesus Christ, has been paid in full in the offering of Jesus Christ.
So Good Friday is really good, isn’t it? Really, really good. And you can get ahold of its goodness, suck in its goodness, revel in its goodness by going to this Man, crucified for sinners like you, who will secure your pardon, who will be with you forever, and bring you home to that shelter garden of paradise in due course. You can be sure He will because He gave Himself to make it so. Here’s the goodness of Good Friday. Have you tasted it? Taste it by trusting Him. Let’s pray together.
O Lord, as family gathers this weekend, as we enjoy all the many gifts You’ve lavished upon us, as we laugh and celebrate together, O God, draw us, draw us to Jesus that our deepest joy, our most profound rest, the warmest gladness of our heart might come from knowing that perhaps for the very first time all that Jesus secured for sinners we’ve come to realize He secured for me. Bring us back to Him that the goodness of Good Friday might fill us up and make us overflow with new gratitude and praise to Your great name. For Jesus’ sake, amen.