LUKE 23
Here we pass from the council to Pilate’s hall of judgment. We see in Pilate the character of the last beast of Daniel 7; a power ordained of God, but influenced by policy. Pilate was not, like the Jewish leaders, marked by hatred of Christ. He represents a large section in this world, for he could discern that the One before him was not a criminal. He could form a judgment that there was no fault, nothing worthy of death found in Him; but his conduct was governed by policy, by what was advantageous under the circumstances that then existed. We also may be governed by circumstances in which we are found. If I hold my peace when I might confess Christ because I think it might bring me into trouble or not be acceptable to those I am with — I am standing beside Pilate. Are we prepared to stand by Christ in any circumstances? If Pilate had any true appreciation of Christ, he would have stood by Him at all costs. He was afraid of a tumult with the Jews, for he had a good deal of trouble with them and did not want any more. He was allowed of God to express his own righteous judgment publicly as to Christ, but at the same time he exposed himself that he was governed by policy. There are more Pilates than we think. But we cannot be neutral; we must be for Christ or against Him. Our position is that we are here for Christ; we are to stand by Him. His grace is so wondrous, His authority and power so great, and His personal glory so transcendent, that we must stand by Him at all costs. That is the position, and no neutrality is possible. I feel humbled in saying this, for we all feel how much neutrality there is about us.
In the beginning of Acts we see men who had all forsaken Him and one who had denied Him three times, but they are standing in the immovability of a rock as thoroughly identified with Him. Whether it is opposition, tumult, prison or death, they stand by Him without a shade of neutrality. They pray, for we can only stand in such a position by prayer. Pilate was [p. 288] afraid of opposition and tumult, but they were not afraid, they stand by prayer, and we see in Acts 4 that the place where they prayed was shaken — God gave a manifest token that His power was with them. God supported them so that nothing could stand before them; all the powers of darkness fell before them.
Herod was a man with no conscience at all. He was only looking for some entertainment; he hoped to see some miracle done by the Lord. Pilate had a conscience, but he was governed by policy; Herod had no conscience. The Lord called him a fox; he was slily seeking his own interest, and his desire to see the Lord was only curiosity. The Lord had nothing to say to Herod; He would not minister to curiosity. When people try to make Christianity attractive to the natural man, it is just like bringing Christ before Herod, and in the end the result is He will be mocked and derided. God does not work that way, and we should not appeal to that kind of thing. If a man is only influenced by natural curiosity, the Lord has nothing to say to him.
Everything takes its predetermined course in view of the cross. The actions of men were all subservient to the design of God that His grace should be perfectly set forth in this world. Man’s hour and the power of darkness only served the purpose of bringing to light wonders that could not have appeared before. It is like the falling of darkness upon the face of the earth, which gives the opportunity for the splendours of the heavens to be disclosed, so that we can look up and see the handiwork of God. We can behold wonders and glories that cannot be seen in the light of day; the darkness gives them occasion to shine forth. As the power of darkness manifested itself in opposition to Jesus, it was just the time for the glory of God in grace to come out in all its holy splendour. The evil thoughts in the heart of man only served to bring out the precious thoughts in the heart of God.
It is very suggestive that the Lord should have been crucified, for this was not the divinely appointed death for a blasphemer, which was stoning. As we know, the Jews came on several occasions ready to stone Him, but that was not to be. It was divinely ordered that He should be put in the place of one who is under the curse, for he that is hanged is a curse of God, but He was to be there by the grace of God. The idea of stoning is that each individual concerned expresses his detestation of the sin committed, whereas a crucified man is made a public [p. 289] spectacle; he is publicly in the place of curse. The Lord came there in pure and perfect grace, to redeem us from curse by His becoming a curse, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”, Galatians 3: 14.
The wickedness of man did not obstruct God in the least; it only brought about His determinate counsel so that through the work of redemption blessing should flow out to all. John tells us in his gospel that Jesus bore His cross. He is presented as sustaining all in the greatness of His Person. As lifted up He was to be the great gathering centre for all. In John it is not so much this aspect of the shame of the cross, but the elevation of it as the way that divine love and power would take to accomplish God’s blessed end. But in the other gospels Simon the Cyrenian is seen as bearing the Lord’s cross, not of his own will but as compelled by the enemies of Jesus. He was evidently a man of African race, brought casually, as men would say, to that spot, for Mark says that he was a passer-by, coming from his daily toil in the field. He was evidently a man whom they thought fit for such a purpose; they would not have selected a scribe, or a Pharisee, or a doctor of the law.
Mark tells us that he had two sons, Alexander and Rufus, intimating that he had a name among the brethren. I have no doubt that he was a disciple and that it was ordered by God that he should be on the spot at the right moment, when someone was needed to bear the cross. It is good to be, in God’s ordering, a passer-by when Jesus is in reproach, and to be such that His enemies lay hold of us to bear His cross. To be classed with Jesus, to be selected as only fit to bear His cross, is as great an honour as this world can confer upon us. Are we such in our walk and ways that the world would select us for this honour?
Then there is the multitude who wailed and lamented Him. The Lord wants, not the pity of men, but their faith. He knew all that was coming upon them and He says, “If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” It was the green tree of God’s greatest privilege, and it was all being rejected nationally. But the tree was still green; it lost none of its freshness even by His crucifixion. “Father, forgive them”, He could say. The green tree is the full presentation of God in grace, and this was seen still at Pentecost and all through the Acts.
[p. 290] The dry tree is when man is left to himself without God, Christ or the Holy Spirit; it is really the time of complete apostasy, when God withdraws Himself from those who have given Him up. “He saved others”, the rulers said in derision, but He would not save Himself, for He was there in kingly grace.
The repentant malefactor discerned this; he feared God and recognised that Jesus was there, not on His own account, but in grace, and that He was coming again in His kingdom. This is the way of blessing, for he becomes a companion of Jesus, to be with Him in paradise. We might regard the malefactor as the interpreter of all that was going on; he was able to interpret all as none of the apostles could at that moment. He was possessed of divine light on the situation, and could interpret it for the benefit of his fellow-malefactor, and for our benefit too. He recognised the whole truth of the position. There were three men under judgment: two of them well deserved all they were receiving, but there was Another there in the place of judgment, and He was known to the malefactor as the One who was to have the kingdom; He was to that man’s soul the Christ, the chosen One of God. If He who had the rights of the kingdom was in the place of judgment, He was unmistakably there in grace.
The malefactor’s confession shows that the precious work of God in his soul had made him fit to be a companion of Jesus in paradise. His words — “this man has done nothing amiss”, and his reference to the coming kingdom, are in keeping with what Gabriel said to Mary at the beginning of the gospel about the holiness of Jesus, and he was in accord with what had come out of heaven. There is nothing that is going into heaven but what has come out of heaven. Through the infinite favour of God he went into paradise in perfect accord with the place he went to, and in perfect accord with the Person he went with. It shows how rapidly the work of God could be accomplished.
This man who was a reviler stands forth now amid the scenes of Calvary as giving a divine interpretation of all that was going on. He is one of the most remarkable men in Scripture. He came forward to declare Christ’s generation. There was no uncertainty or ambiguity about his own state; he judges that perfectly, for he says, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss”. That must have been divinely given. Everything [p. 291] that the Lord did was amiss in the estimation of the scribes and Pharisees, but the malefactor justifies the Lord in every way; to his soul He was the Christ, the chosen of God, and if He was in the place of judgment it must be in grace. The thief interpreted it perfectly. He felt that, if the One who was to have the kingdom was on the cross in grace, he could count on grace towards himself, He had light on the whole situation; he was in the light of the Person. He was in the light of His death, of His resurrection, of His ascension, His kingdom and His coming again in glory. The eleven apostles might have sat at His feet and learned wonders! It reminds me of the Lord’s own words, “the last shall be first”.
Paradise suggests God’s delight and complacency; it means a garden of delights. It involves association with Jesus. To have man in the place of His delight is the full result of what grace was accomplishing. In this gospel we see that God needs man for His own delight. Paradise is the place of His own delight, and God is saying to man in Luke by the death of Jesus, I want you in nearness to Myself. The Lord says, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, so that he goes there even before resurrection. It brings out the value of the death of Jesus that a man can go into paradise with Jesus before resurrection. The Lord’s spirit went to paradise the moment He died, and in the value of His precious death the malefactor went there too as an object of delight to God.
Luke does not leave out the darkness; it shows the impenetrable character of the work. If reconciliation is effected it is through the One who knew no sin being made sin — it is on that basis. But Luke does not bring in the forsaking because that would not be in keeping with the tenor of his gospel. God is shining here in extreme favourableness to men. “The veil of the temple rent in the midst” (verse 45); it is not said that it “was rent” as in Matthew and Mark. It almost suggests that it rent of its own accord. It was God giving expression to His own nature in grace through the death of Jesus. It is not here the stroke of divine judgment that fell on the devoted Messiah. In Luke it is rather the bringing out of all that was in the heart of God for men. In Luke the Lord speaks of Himself as straitened: “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished?” All the grace was pent up until now, but now it bursts forth; the veil rending gives outlet and relief to all [p. 292] that was there. All the grace of God to men expressed itself through the flesh of Jesus in His precious death.
God has removed everything that would hinder man from being retained for His pleasure. God has come out through the death of Jesus to retain us for His pleasure in all the value of the death of His Son. This is something that never came out before; the Old Testament showed how God could clear man to live in His favour on earth, but it never gives us anything beyond that. But now through the death of Jesus man can be retained for God’s own pleasure in the place of God’s delights.
Some have objected to the hymns which refer to Christ shedding His own blood, because it was in fact a Roman soldier who shed it. But there are only three Scriptures which speak directly of the shedding of Christ’s blood, and they are the Lord’s own words at the supper table in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Shed is the same word as poured out; He came for the very purpose of pouring out His blood. The love of God was poured out. Surely this is what was in the mind of the Lord and not the act of the soldier. It is quite in keeping to speak of His shedding His blood; He came in view of that pouring out; it was an act of divine love. The word ‘shed’ is used of the Spirit in Acts 2: 33; shed forth is really poured out. The shedding of blood was an act of love on the part of God and on the part of Christ, just as it is in divine love that the Spirit is poured out, and it is poured out so that the love displayed at Calvary should be diffused in millions of human hearts. Sometimes under the plea of literal accuracy we lose the spiritual life of a thing.
Darkness suggests what is inscrutable. There is a depth in the way that reconciliation is effected which we cannot penetrate; it is the, subject of wonder. Who could come near to trace it out? We must stand aside with unshod feet.
The Lord’s word to the Father, “into thy hands I commit my spirit”, suggests divine complacency. The Lord, even in the article of death, is seen in perfect confidence in the Father. It shows, too, how entirely He has taken the place of man, because His spirit was Himself. The truth is that He is God and has become Man: that is the incarnation. He who was in the form of God, and was God as to His Person, has become Man and will remain Man eternally. He has come into that place so that there may be new delight for the heart of God; He has filled that place with absolute perfection.
[p. 293] The Lord came as a babe into this place of trust — “Thou didst make me trust upon my mother’s breasts”, Psalm 22: 9. A divine Person has come into manhood and remains Man for ever. He, the One who was God, has come into manhood so that there should be new delights for the heart of God, not only in Himself but in those who are His companions, As Babe He came into the place of being the subject of divine care. It is touching to see that His being wrapped in swaddling clothes by His mother was the first expression of divine care, and the last was that He was wrapped in fine linen by Joseph. He is cared for in infancy, in manhood and in death. It is most touching to see that the care of God for Jesus from the very beginning was often expressed through the saints. Think of it being permitted to a woman to take that holy Babe and wrap Him in swaddling clothes so that through tender holy hands might be expressed the care of God! Then think how God’s care for Him was expressed through the women who followed and ministered unto Him! We might say, Would that I had been one of them! The opportunity remains; we can still express the care of God for Him — He is in His saints and we can minister to them. Then the angels ministered to Him; that was the care of God. Even the devil knew that He was the subject of divine care, for He said, “He will give his angels charge over thee”. And it is a touching conclusion of the divine care that His precious body should be wrapped in fine linen.
Luke does not tell us that Joseph was a secret disciple, for he is occupied with the grace of God in Joseph. The grace of God comes to light in him as it came to light in the thief. Fear was gone when he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. He is ready when the opportunity comes, and in figure he brings his appreciation of Christ. Joseph had learned in Jesus the character of the kingdom of God and he waited for it, and the appreciation of it in his soul came out in the fine linen. In handling that precious body he had a divine conception of what was bound up therein. It cost Joseph something; Mark tells us he bought the linen. If you have anything that is worthy of being wrapped about Jesus it has cost you something, some breaking down of the flesh. This was the breaking down of Joseph’s whole life; all was now sacrificed to Jesus. He put Him in his own tomb, and morally he went there too, for we could not conceive Joseph returning to the place he had originally occupied. What would people have [p. 294] said when they passed by and saw the tomb closed at last and the stone rolled to the door? They would have said, Joseph is gone at last — and so he had. I have no doubt that Joseph was never seen again in the council.
Then we come to the women. Luke tells us how they prepared the aromatic spices and ointment; they had their appreciation, but they came too late to fit into the divine movements. It is a great matter to be on the spot at the time. Simon the Cyrenian was on the spot when he was wanted, and Joseph, and the thief — all filled their place in the divine movements of grace. But, like the women, we may have precious spices and ointments but come too late for the critical moment. They never had the privilege of putting their appreciation on the body of the Lord, as did Mary of Bethany. Mary anointed Him for burial beforehand. It is a wonderful thing to move spiritually beforehand in the way that God will move. Others cast their garments before Him when He entered Jerusalem; they represent souls who know exactly how the Lord is going to move. That is spirituality.