Fourth Day; Luke 23; vv 39 - 42

I had a rather stressful day today as I had a Psychiatric Evaluation for CBT. It left me feeling like a wrung out sponge. I managed to get the time to study the passage in one go. When I went into too Harold I went off at a hundred miles an hour. Harold just stopped me, he knew where I had been and just told me to be still for a moment, forget earlier today, and just concentrate on what God was saying. I have to say this really helped.

I managed to miss the point that Harold wanted to get from this reading however, he managed to tease what he wanted out of me †.

I imagined myself as a non believer in the crowd and thought that I would have been:

Confused
Disbelieving
Who was this Guy, they were calling the Son of God/The King of The Jews?
If he is the Messiah, why are we crucifying him?

I moved on to think about how Jesus would have been feeling at this point.

It struck me firstly that he had to be in a tremendous amount of pain!
he may have been afraid, he would be trusting in his Father but worried that he might be forgotten
He may have felt sorrow that people did not realise the scale of the sacrifice he was giving

The passage tells us that there were two criminals being crucified at the the same time as Jesus. The first we are taught was scornful and taunted Jesus by saying
“You are the Son of God save yourself then”. There is a point of view that suggests that this criminal was possessed by the ‘evil one’, and that he, the Devil, took this final chance to taunt Jesus and tempt him into using his authority to remove the burden on him. This criminal had no intention of repenting for his deeds giving the devil easy access.

†The second criminal showed compassion and repentance of his deeds and by simply admitting this, he was forgiven, Jesus unexpectedly says in verse 43 that they will meet again in paradise! What a response, that would have floored me and certainly would have gladdened that man who received such a blessing as this.

All through this passage the Lord would have been in absolute agony and yet, not only did he refuse the assistance of poison to speed the process, he managed to pray not just for him but for us also! Christ’s blood was spilt for our sins so that we can be reborn! Even in our darkest, most painful moments Jesus is always there waiting for us to call out to him in faith for help.

Lord, I am overwhelmed by your sacrifice for me,
your obedience and trust in your Father.
Help me to walk in your footsteps that everyone I
meet may know the joy of your love.
Amen.