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When you consider the future, do you think of good things? Do you think that there will be blessing? Or do you expect things to turn out badly, a curse? What about for your children?
The blessing and the curse. There are many reasons why we might expect a curse. After all, we all have to die. The time of death is often not very pleasant. If it extends itself out a long time, it can be worse. I was praying for someone’s mother last week who is having an awful time as she continues to decline in health. It’s the sort of thing I don’t really even want to share the details of. It just breaks my heart. It is things like that which make us think that future will bring a curse and not a blessing.
Last week, I talked about God’s purposes to do us good, to bless us. One person said that cancer and Ukraine make me wonder. This was person was right. It does make us wonder. It rightly makes us wonder if God’s purpose for us is good, if it is blessing.
Beyond this, we have to ask, what do we really deserve? Have we really treated people as the image of God? Have we given God the honor He deserves? Have we really loved Him? Have we made a good use of the things He has given us? The answer is often, “no.” The wages of sin is death. It is a curse. So, why would we expect blessing?
Well, our passage today gives us reason to expect that the future will bring blessing rather than a curse. This hope, ironically, is founded on the terrible punishment of crucifixion, an excruciatingly painful way to die. How in the world could the cross, the crucifixion, give us hope of blessing? That’s what I want you to see in this text.
The Way to the Crucifixion
The place where they would crucify Jesus is called “The Skull.” It’s interesting that I hear a lot of people around here saying “Calvary’s cross.” I’m not sure that really communicates to us what the Bible is talking about. The word Calvary comes from the Latin word calvaria. Calvaria means “skull.” So, it might be better for us to say, “Skull’s cross,” if we are going to say it. It’s called “skull” because it is a place of death. The skull is the symbol of death. It is the place of execution.
Now, Jesus was in Pilate’s court, but he had to walk to The Skull, to Calvary. Our text describes for us to the way to The Skull, the way to the crucifixion. It does this through three different foci on various people. These three foci are on Simon, the women of Jerusalem, and the two criminals.
The first person was Simon. By the time Jesus was going to walk to The Skull, he had already been whipped, beaten, tortured, and bloodied. He was already very weak. He had the crown of thorns shoved into his head. Then, they made Him carry His cross to The Skull, the place of execution.
Because of His weakness, they told a man named Simon to carry Jesus’ cross. This was pity but a cruel pity. They did not want Him to die on the way. Now, there is a tradition that this man was a disciple of Jesus and well-known to the church. If so, it is a sort of a reminder that the way to glory is the way of the cross. Just as Jesus suffered and then entered into glory, so too His disciples. Remember what Jesus had said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). In this way, we are reminded that we have to die to the things that we prize our highest good in this world in our to find our highest good in Jesus Himself. This is the way of the cross and self-denial.
The second focus is the women of Jerusalem. We read, “A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him” (Luke 23:27). Matthew Henry gives a good explanation of this crowd: “These were not only his friends and well-wishers, but the common people, that were not his enemies, and were moved with compassion towards him, because they had heard the fame of him, and what an excellent useful man he was, and had reason to think he suffered unjustly.” There were some there because of curiosity. Others were there because of grief. At any rate, they followed Him, and many women were mourning.
Jesus’ response is very interesting. Even as He was suffering, He was filled with compassion. He knew the curse that was coming upon Jerusalem. He had told them that Jerusalem would be destroyed and every stone of the temple thrown down. He had warned His disciples, “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near” (Luke 21:20). So, He saw these women weeping, and it made Him grieve for what was coming on Jerusalem. “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28). Jerusalem, having rejected its Savior, could look forward only to a grim future. This made Jesus weep, as He had done earlier, and He called on the women and by extension us, to weep for the destruction that comes upon all who will not repent. Even as He carried His cross to His execution, His heart was for the world of lost sinners.
The third focus is on two criminals. Jesus would not be executed alone. He would be executed with two criminals. Jesus was executed as a criminal and thus “numbered with the transgressors,” as Isaiah says. But the fact that two criminals were executed with Him was a visual fulfillment of this prophecy.
The Curse of the Crucifixion
Finally, Jesus arrived at The Skull. “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” (Luke 23:33). What does it mean to be crucified? Crucifixion was the most terrifying form of capital punishment in the Roman world. It was used to make an example of criminals. Usually, they were tortured beforehand and then forced to carry their cross. They would nailed or tied to a cross and then held there suspended until they could no longer breath, experienced brain death, or had a heart attack. This could last up to three days. It was a horrible death.
Now, one might ask, why did Jesus have to die in this particular way? Is there any significance in this type of death. That’s what one of the great creeds of the Reformation, The Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Q. Is it significant that he was ‘crucified’ instead of dying some other way? A. Yes. By this I am convinced that he shouldered the curse which lay on me, since death by crucifixion was cursed by God” (Q/A 39). This idea comes from Deuteronomy 21:23, “anyone who is hung on a pole is under God’s curse.” Jesus was cursed of God, and this way of death is a reminder of that fact.
Now, how did Jesus respond to being crucified? Did He get upset? Did He retaliate? No. Listen: “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'” (Luke 23:34). What amazing love! He did not lash out. Instead, He saw that the people did not understand that they were crucifying the Son of God. He did not want the Father to hold them responsible for it. When others do things against us, how quick we are to lash out! How quick to judge! Jesus responded to the worst sort of suffering with an ability to have compassion, with an ability to forgive, and an ability to look at things from a different angle than simply me against them. It’s a word that we should never forget. It should make an impression on us as it did on Stephen, the first martyr of the church who said exactly the same thing when he was killed: “Father, do not hold this against them.”
Beyond the physical suffering of the cross, there was also the shame of the cross. Shame is a big part of our lives. We have a lot of anxiety over doing the wrong thing or standing out or being held up to scrutiny. Last month, I asked everyone who had a birthday or anniversary in February to stand up. One young man eagerly stood up. Then, looking around, he realized that no one else was standing up. He was the only one. He quickly sat back down. Eventually, we were able to encourage people to stand up, and this young man stood up, too. It’s just hard to be singled out. We fear doing the wrong thing. We move away from things that would cause us shame.
That’s what Jesus experienced here. It is not just the crucifixion. Jesus is held in utter contempt by the people around Him. At the foot of the cross, people were casting lots for his clothes, which should tell you something about how Jesus was dressed at the cross. “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'” (23:35). The Romans soldiers mocked Him in the same way. Even one of the criminals crucified with Him mocked Him and said, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Why don’t you do something, and get us out of here, too!” It was contempt, scorn, and shame all around. They also put a mocking title above Him that held Him in contempt as well as the whole nation, “This is the King of the Jews.” Jesus bore the shame, the shame that results from us doing the wrong thing. He was singled out. He was held up to scorn. He took all the shame on the cross.
And why did Jesus experience all this? He took the shame. He bore the cross. He accepted the curse . . . in our place. He took the curse so that we would not have to experience it. He took the curse so that we might receive the blessing. As the Apostle Paul said so well, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Gal. 3:13–14). He got the curse. We get the blessing.
The Blessing from the Crucifixion
So, let’s consider more in depth the blessing that flows from the cross. That’s the astonishing thing about the cross. The cross is a horrible symbol of death. It’s like the skull, a symbol of death. Imagine people making artwork and beautiful symbols in the form of an electric chair or a firing squad. Why do we find, all over the world, the symbol of the cross high above the skyline? It seems absurd.
The answer is that the cross becomes a blessing. It is a blessing because on that cross Christ took the curse for us so that we might experience blessing. The curse was due to us, but the blessing is a free gift based on what Jesus has done.
This is powerfully demonstrated for us in the last part of our text. After one of the criminals had said to Jesus, “Save yourself and us!”, the other criminal responded this way: “‘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’” (Luke 23:40–41). He recognized the truth of his guilt. He recognized that he had done something wrong and got what he deserved. But he saw in Jesus someone who had done nothing wrong. He saw him as innocent.
Then, he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What did He understand by this? It’s hard to say. It suffices to say that he saw some hope for blessing in Jesus.
And how might Jesus respond to this? Here is a criminal. He could say, “No. I won’t. You’re a criminal. You are getting what you deserve!” Instead, He says this, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” (23:43). This man may have seemed curse, but he was blessed. In a short time, that very day, he would enter into heaven and experience the paradise of God, the place of beauty and goodness, the place of blessing. Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise and put under the curse. Jesus brings us back. Even though we die, this is not the end of blessing. Instead, it is the entrance to much greater blessing. It is the entrance to paradise.
Conclusion
And that’s what Jesus’ crucifixion means. It means blessing for all who will receive the gift! Isaiah spoke clearly about Jesus’ suffering and death in chapter 53 of his prophecy. After describing it, he knew the implications. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Is. 55:1). It is a free gift. How free? Think of the criminal on the cross. How much did he know? Very little. How much did He understand? Probably not much. He simply saw his sin and hope in Jesus. That was enough to usher him into paradise.
My buddy Brian served as a chaplain for hospice for a few years. He saw many people die. He wondered about their spiritual state and where they stood with God. The criminal on the cross encouraged him. There were people who knew very little, but they saw hope in Jesus. He knew he could be confident that they were entering into paradise on their death.
And that’s true for us. I have been a Christian for my whole life, as far as I can remember it. I’ve made progress. I’ve grown. I’ve learned. However, none of that is the reason why I can enter into paradise. My hope is in Jesus. Because He suffered the curse of the cross at The Skull, I get the blessing of paradise. Whatever we do, however much we grow, we should remember that we get to go to Paradise simply because God made us like that criminal on the cross. He enabled us to see our sin and our hope in Jesus. That’s it! That is why, looking forward to the future, we need fear no curse and can expect every blessing. Amen.
Benediction: Whenever you look to the future this week, you may feel anxiety or fear. It may look like a curse. But God wants you to look to the cross, see that the curse is exhausted, and look for blessing. That’s why He commanded the priests to declare this blessing on the people.
The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace (Num. 6:24–26).
This is not just a declaration of what might happen. It is a declaration of what will happen. That is what should give us confidence, the blessing of God. Thus may it be. Amen.
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Photo by Louis Moncouyoux on Unsplash