WWUTT 2511 Jesus on His Way to be Crucified (Luke 23:26-31)

Jesus was on his way to Golgotha, the place of the skull to be crucified, and even on that way he stopped to minister to the women who were around him as he was being led to die when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the Word of Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness. Find all our videos and other ministry resources at www .utt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Luke’s Crucifixion Narrative and the Women of Jerusalem

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we come back to chapter 23, and we're reading now of the crucifixion of Jesus. I'm going to start by reading verses 26 through 43, here the Word of the Lord.

And as they led Jesus away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

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 for 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.

So the way that this passage divides up, we're going to be looking today at Jesus address to the daughters of Jerusalem. That's in verses 26 to 31. When we come back to this tomorrow, we will consider those famous words that Jesus spoke from the cross in verse 34.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, but also the mockery that is hurled at him in verses 32 to 38. That's our study tomorrow. And then on Wednesday, we will consider that exchange between Jesus and the two criminals versus 39 to 43.

Another famous portion where Jesus says to the criminal on the one side of him, Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. We have in these three sections and what we're looking at this week, things that are unique to the gospel of Luke.

All three of these sections are unique to Luke. Of course, all the other gospels record also the people mocking at him. But only Luke records Jesus saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Only Luke records the exchange between Jesus and the thieves. The other gospels will say that the thieves themselves were jeering at him. But here you have one that has a change of heart. You got to wait until Wednesday when we'll consider that part.

So let's just come back to verses 26 to 31. We'll just focus on this today where Jesus is addressing the daughters of Jerusalem. Now first of all, let me mention that we're coming into 2026. So year 25 is wrapping up.

We're coming into 26. And next year, it's not going to be at Easter. I thought it was, but it's actually going to be later on in the year. Season six of the chosen will come out in the later portion of the year in 2026.

And then the finale of season six will be in theaters in March of 2027. And then season seven, which is the final season of the chosen, is then coming up in March of 2028. So that's kind of how they're stretching all this out.

How long has this been? I think it will have been over 10 years that the chosen has been on television and in theaters by the time they wrap this up. It's the most famous TV show in the world and has been for a few years running.

The chosen, of course, being the story of Jesus and his disciples. But as the director and writer of the show, Dallas Jenkins, has said, he's said this himself, 95 of what's in the show is not in the Bible.

And as I've demonstrated from the show, the 5 from the Bible that is in the show isn't even correct. So this really is a retelling of the story of Jesus and his disciples. Now it's true that the Lord has used this to draw people into himself and into the gospel.

But he does so by the work of the Holy Spirit, despite the show, not because of the show. The Holy Spirit be working contrary to what's in the show because it twists the word of God or even presents Jesus in such a way that the Bible does not.

This is an ecumenical Jesus that even Mormons would like, that even the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox and even those who aren't even really believers themselves. They like this Jesus also. It has pleased a mass number of people because it is a, it is a Jesus by the people and for the people.

It is not actually the Jonathan Rumi Jesus is not actually the Christ of the Bible. So as we're coming into this crucifixion narrative here, I'm teaching on this now on the podcast when at the same time the chosen is leaking clips of Jesus crucifixion, because that's what's coming up in season six.

I suppose the, the crucifixion of Jesus is, is what people who have been watching the chosen are anticipating to come out in season six. They're having chosen cons. Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, the chosen convention, there are people that are going and, and getting all the sneak peeks of what's coming up next in the chosen and this, that, and the other celebrating, you know, everything that's happened thus far in the series, which isn't even what the Bible says.

So as we're getting closer to what will be the crucifixion narrative of Jesus, according to the chosen, and as clips are leaking out as to what that's going to look like, we're coming now to this part of our study in the gospel of Luke, Luke's account of the crucifixion.

Simon of Cyrene and the Weight of the Cross

And we start out here in verse 26 with Jesus being led away after the trial with pilot after even being brought before Herod. That's something else that's unique to Luke. Now Jesus is being led away to the place where he will be crucified and they seized Luke records here.

They seized one Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. Now all three synoptic gospels mentioned Simon of Cyrene, his name and his place of origin are in Matthew 27, 32.

Mark actually provides the most detail. So in Mark 15, 21, it mentions that he's also the father of Alexander and Rufus, and it says that he was passing by on his way in from the country. So Simon is not even there for the crucifixion.

He doesn't know anything about this trial and Jesus who's being crucified. He's probably in Jerusalem because of the Passover. And he just happens to get pulled into this drama, which he didn't even know what was going on.

And here he is carrying the cross of Christ. But the reason why he's mentioned in these synoptic gospels and given such detail so that Luke even says he is Simon of Cyrene, that's like giving his first and last name.

The reason these things are mentioned in this way is because you have an eyewitness here that anyone can go and talk to. And Luke's detail, including Alexander and Rufus. So you can go talk to those boys, those men who are now grown up, but they're going to tell you about this experience that happened with their father.

So all of these eyewitnesses given by name who could testify to these things happening in the order in which they are presented. Remember, Luke has said at the very beginning of his gospel that it was good for him to provide an orderly account.

And so even he includes Simon of Cyrene so that you know, this is a man that you can go and talk to about all the things that are going to transpire here. This conversation that Jesus has with the daughters of Jerusalem, though it's not recorded in Matthew, Mark or John, Simon would be able to testify to it because he was right there.

He was carrying the cross of Christ. I don't know if you're familiar with the song, watch the lamb by Ray bolts, but it is a phenomenal song. It is really, in my opinion, one of the greatest contemporary Christian worship songs that's ever been written.

It's very unfortunate, tragic, even that Ray Bolts has since come out as a homosexual. And it was just earlier this year. He married a man. You can't really have a marriage between a man and a man, but legally that's that's what he's done.

He is he is married this homosexual lover of his. But back when he was one of the the top contemporary Christian music artists, he wrote this song called Watch the Lamb. It's over seven minutes long. It's a long song, but it is a it's a story, an epic story of Simon of Cyrene.

So you're hearing the story in this song of Simon coming upon Jesus and carrying his cross for him. It's just such a remarkable song. I think you should listen to it even if you've never heard it. It's unfortunate we can't really play it anymore because you don't want to give that kind of of platform to Ray Bolts as wicked a sin as he's in.

He shouldn't be out there ministering to people because he cannot. He should be repenting of his sin, even though he's still a musician. He still goes out there and do and does things. But the man is living in unrepentant wickedness.

But still, I remember as a kid listening to this song, I grew up. Even in my bedroom as a child, in single digits, right, eight or nine years old, I'm laying in bed with my Walkman on and would listen to Watch the Lamb.

It was it ministered to me as a kid sharing the gospel with me, even as a very, very young.

Age.

I'm thankful for the song, even though it's very sad what has since happened in the life of Ray Bolts. But he tells the story of Simon of Cyrene in that song. Now, Simon carrying the cross of Jesus, what did this look like?

Well, you've seen many different depictions of this, of Jesus just carrying an actual.

Cross.

There are people that have imitated this even in evangelistic efforts of carrying a cross through town. Or you've probably heard stories every once in a while of somebody carrying an entire cross coast to coast across the United States of America.

And it'll make the news and you might even see him walking down the interstate. They've got a big cross on their shoulders. It probably has a wheel on the back end of it because they're not really dragging this cross all that way.

But but there's a wheel on it so that it makes it easier to pull. But they are they're pulling an actual cross. And the video depictions that we'll see of this Jesus carrying a full size cross. If you remember the Passion of the Christ directed by Mel Gibson, Jesus is carrying that whole cross to go Golgotha, where he is going to be crucified.

But he would not have been carrying the whole cross. He would have just been carrying the cross beam. So it was just the the vertical, not the vertical, the horizontal beam that his hands would be nailed to.

That's what he was carrying, not the full cross, but the beam. That cross beam was called the patibulum. And it was still very heavy. It would have been it could have been anywhere from like 90 to 150 pounds.

So with Jesus in the state that he was in after being brutally beaten after, you know, the scourging that he had, he hadn't slept. So you're talking about the weariness even from his lack of sleep, the grief that he was experiencing in the Garden of Gethsemane.

After all of this, the difficulty in carrying this beam. The other two criminals did not go through the kinds of things that Jesus went through prior to his crucifixion. So Jesus could not carry physically, could not carry his own beam, hence why it was laid on Simon of Cyrene to carry it.

Now, as for the actual crucifixion method itself, I'll come back to that tomorrow when we read of him being nailed to his cross at Golgotha. But continuing on next in verse 27, there followed Jesus, a great multitude of the people.

And there were there were women who were mourning and lamenting for him. We've asked questions about, like, how many people were actually there at the crucifixion? Well, according to Luke, it's a great multitude.

Now, I had talked about this, too, when we were in the Gospel of Mark. But as people passed by Jesus, they shook their heads at him. Mark records them passing by him. So this wasn't on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.

You know, when we sing that in the song, I'm not saying the lyrics are wrong. I love that hymn. But when we sing that in the song, we get this picture of the hill just being way out away from everybody.

And, you know, we're trying to keep crucifixions away from people. No, the Romans wanted crucifixion to be public. And they had a very specific place that they went to. And there were there were vertical stakes in the ground so that when a person was nailed to their cross beam, they would be hoisted up on those stakes.

This was the place of capital punishment, the place of the skull. It was notorious. It had a name. People knew where it was. And Romans wanted it to be public, and they wanted it to be on a roadside so that people could see it as they passed by.

So it could be said, you cross the government, no pun intended in that, but if you cross us, this is what's going to happen to you. So the people would know that the Romans were serious about upholding and keeping the.

Law.

They were serious about, you know, people that that might cause a disruption, which in the eyes of the Romans, this is the way they thought about this. Jesus was just a disruptor. And so this is what they are crucifying him for.

They didn't think of him as the king of the Jews or the son of God or any of those things. He's just causing trouble. And so he's being put to death for that reason. And there are many people today that will say that's why Jesus was killed.

Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire, very famously when he was on Joe Rogan's podcast, had said that Jesus was a man who was killed for his trouble. He crossed the Roman government and he was put to death for it.

So even to this day, there are people that will acknowledge Jesus was real. He was really alive. He was a revolutionary figure. But the reason why he was put to death is because he just attracted too much attention.

And of course, we know that's not the reason why he's put to death. This is the reason why Jesus came, was to die, to give his life as a ransom for many, to lay down his life as an atoning sacrifice. Even in this way, in fulfillment of prophecy, said in the Psalms that his hands and feet would be pierced even before the method of crucifixion was invented.

And so here, this is all coming to fulfillment by the sovereign plan of God that Jesus would die as an atoning sacrifice for all who would believe in him. So there's a great multitude of people there.

There's actually a lot of people that are witnessing this. And women even who have held Jesus dear may have even healed them or relatives or their own children. And they are mourning for him, lamenting for him.

But Jesus turns to them and says, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren in the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

They never had children to nurse at their breasts. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things, when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?

And you know what Jesus is referring to, don't you? He's talking again about the destruction that's about to come upon Jerusalem. Luke actually spends more space talking about that than any of the other gospels.

In Matthew, you've got the Olivet Discourse. And it's true that the Olivet Discourse in Matthew is much longer. You got chapters 24 and 25 there. You have Mark talking about in Mark chapter 13. But Luke talks about it the most in the sense that it appears in more places in Luke's gospel than it does in Matthew or Mark.

Matthew has it in one spot. Mark has it in one spot. But we've seen various occasions when Jesus has mentioned this, according to Luke. And he probably did talk about it several times. Matthew is just trying to put together these major teaching discourses that Jesus had.

You have five discourses over the course of Matthew. So he has a different way of organizing the teaching. Jesus did talk about this in multiple different places in different ways. And so Luke records it in different spots.

Here he is saying it again to these women who are mourning after him. Jesus' love and affection for these women and the people for whom he is dying is to say to them, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves.

For what's happening to Jesus, this is God's plan. I know what's about to happen to Jerusalem is the case as well. But there are many who are lost, who are rebellious, who are going to perish in that calamity when it comes 40 years from now, 40 years from the events that we're reading about right here.

And there are going to be many who will die in the midst of the Jewish-Roman war that would come upon Judah and Jerusalem and especially the temple, the destruction of the temple. Weep for them. Your children are going to be caught up in all of that.

Your children, you will even have children who will be unbelievers, who will perish in that day when it comes. It will instead be blessed for the womb to have never born children, then to have born children and to see them perish in that.

They were weeping for Jesus, but what was happening to Jesus would not vex their souls as much as seeing it happen to their own children. And so still teaching them of that day. And this teaching would also be for the purpose of warn your children about that day, lead them in righteousness that they would not come into destruction on that day.

On that day, they will cry to the mountains, fall on us into the hills, cover us. And then verse 31, for if they do these things when the wood is green, in other words, when the tree is still capable of producing fruit, if they do these things, who are they?

If they do these things, they are the Romans. Look at what the Romans are doing now. If they do these things when the wood is green, in other words, Jesus, is innocent and good. He is the shoot that comes from the stump of Jesse, according to Isaiah 11, one.

So Jesus being that green tree, he is grown into that green and fruitful tree, the greatest tree that could ever come from God. And people will come from all over and nest in its branches as Jesus had even talked about as, as had been prophesied.

So the Romans are doing this when the wood is green. There's no reason to cut down the tree. The tree is good. It's a good tree. But then what will happen when it is dry? When the people have become rebellious, when they are provoking the Romans to attack and judge them.

So look now at what the Romans are doing to a good tree. What's going to happen when that tree is dry? It's no good. Remember from the, from John the Baptist, the axes laid at the root of the tree, it's dried up.

It's ready to come down. And so God, through the Romans will bring judgment upon the Jews when the time is right after the gospel is gone throughout the world. And then the time of the temple comes to an end and would never be rebuilt again.

And to this very day, that has been the case. Jesus warning the daughters of Jerusalem for that day. Weep for yourselves and weep for your children. You know, I had a conversation with a mother who this was before I was married, before I was married and had my own children.

But I had a conversation with a mom who had rebellious kids who were not believers. And I asked her, what is, what's it like to have children that you carried in your womb that you birthed and that rebelled against you against God.

And they're living this life now of destruction after you gave so much to them to raise them. And now this is where they are. And she said with tears in her eyes, it makes you wish that they had never been born.

Because if they're going to grow up and rebel against God and never come to know the gospel and then they will die and go to hell, that will be worse for them than if they had never been born at all. And this mother saying this to me didn't say this as if she did not love her kids.

So I wish they had never been born at all. No, it was exactly because she loved them that she felt that way about them and hated the idea that they might perish under the wrath of God. And so we too need to understand the urgency.

There is another day of judgment that is coming that day that came upon Jerusalem and upon the temple. That is not the day of judgment. That was a day of judgment. The day of judgment is when Christ returns and he will rescue his own to himself.

But when he comes as said in second Thessalonians chapter one with angels in flaming fire, he will afflict the rebellious with judgment. And they will perish under the wrath of God even forever. And so my friends recognizing that horrible day that is to come, it is a it's it's a day of rejoicing for us who know Christ as we will be with Christ forever in glory.

But for those who do not know Christ, it is a day of dread. When the wrath and judgment of God come upon all those who had done unrighteousness, who did not love the son of righteousness, but thought that they were good on their own and in rebellion against God, they will perish.

When God brings his righteous judgment upon them, the only way to be saved is to believe in Jesus Christ. And this that Jesus is doing right here is that way of salvation, dying on the cross, rising again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish.

But have everlasting life. May we take the message of the gospel to this dark, lost and dying world that they may know the truth and live. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read. And may we be reminded of the state of things that no matter how good or bad things are in the world, this will not last forever.

And the judgment of God is coming upon it at a day of your choosing, a day you have already set. We do not know when that day will be, but Christ will return and the judgment of God will come. Let us be diligent and faithful servants to share the gospel with others that they may come to faith in Jesus Christ and live.

And those relatives of ours who do not yet know the gospel, that we would grieve for them to know it, that we would be in prayer for them, even in tears that they would not come into judgment, but they also would know Jesus.

They would come to faith in Jesus Christ and live. How will they know, though, unless they are told? So give us the courage and the boldness in these days to share the gospel with those.

We love.

Keep us steadfast in the faith until the day of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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