Day 3: Road to Calvary, Crucifixion, Death, Burial

Reading: Luke 23:26-56

Listen to: Luke chapter 23

Historical Context

The journey from Pilate’s praetorium to Golgotha – later commemorated as the Via Dolorosa – was a Roman spectacle of deliberate humiliation. Condemned prisoners were forced to carry the horizontal beam of their cross (the patibulum, weighing roughly 75-125 pounds) through the most crowded streets of the city, preceded by a soldier carrying a titulus, a placard declaring the crime. The route was designed to maximize public visibility: Rome wanted every onlooker to understand the cost of defying its authority. Jesus, already weakened by a night of agonized prayer, the physical trauma of hematidrosis, multiple beatings during the Jewish and Roman trials, and the savage Roman scourging (which alone could be fatal), could not carry his crossbeam the full distance. The soldiers conscripted Simon of Cyrene, a man Luke identifies as coming “from the country” (23:26), likely a Jewish pilgrim who had traveled from the North African city of Cyrene (modern Libya) for Passover. Mark adds that Simon was “the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21), suggesting these sons later became known in the early church. Paul greets a Rufus in Romans 16:13, possibly the same man. If so, the Roman soldier’s casual act of forced labor became the event that brought an entire family into the community of faith.

Only Luke records the encounter with the “daughters of Jerusalem” who wept along the route (23:27-31). Jesus turned to them with a warning rather than a request for sympathy: “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” His words about the barren being blessed and the mountains being asked to fall on people are drawn from Hosea 10:8 and foreshadow the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Even on his way to execution, Jesus was prophesying and pastoring. He saw through his own suffering to the catastrophe bearing down on the nation that rejected him.

Golgotha – Aramaic for “Place of the Skull” – was located outside the city walls, as Jewish law required executions to occur beyond the camp (Leviticus 24:14; Numbers 15:35-36; Hebrews 13:12). The traditional site, now enclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was authenticated as early as the fourth century when Constantine’s builders demolished a temple to Venus and discovered a rock-cut tomb beneath it. Archaeological and geological analysis confirms that this area was a disused limestone quarry with tombs carved into its walls, consistent with the Gospel descriptions.

Roman crucifixion was engineered to produce the maximum possible suffering over the longest possible time. The condemned were typically stripped naked (a particular horror in Jewish culture), laid on the crossbeam, and nailed through the wrists (the Greek word cheir encompassed both hand and wrist) into the wood with iron spikes roughly seven inches long. A spike was then driven through the feet, which rested on a small wooden support. Death came slowly, usually from a combination of hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia, and cardiac failure. The victim had to push upward on the foot-nail to expand the lungs for each breath, creating an excruciating cycle of pain with every respiration. Victims could survive for days. Jesus died in approximately six hours – remarkably quickly, a fact that surprised even Pilate (Mark 15:44).

Luke records three of the seven last words from the cross, and each one is theological dynamite. First: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (23:34). This prayer, offered while the nails were being driven, extends grace to the very men hammering them in. Some early manuscripts omit this verse, but its inclusion in the earliest and best traditions is supported by its perfect consistency with Jesus’ teaching and with Stephen’s dying prayer in Acts 7:60. Second: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (23:43). This word, spoken to the repentant criminal, demolishes every system of salvation by works. The man had no time for baptism, no opportunity for good deeds, no chance to prove himself. He had only faith – and it was enough. Third: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (23:46), drawn from Psalm 31:5. Where Mark and Matthew record the cry of dereliction (“My God, why have you forsaken me?”), Luke records the cry of trust. Both are true. The one who bore the Father’s wrath against sin also entrusted himself to the Father’s keeping. The cross holds abandonment and intimacy together in a mystery that theology can approach but never fully resolve.

The tearing of the temple curtain (23:45) is one of the most theologically loaded events in the entire Bible. This was the massive veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, the inner sanctum where God’s presence dwelt and which only the high priest could enter, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement. According to Jewish tradition (Mishnah, Shekalim 8:5), the curtain was approximately sixty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and four inches thick – it would have taken extraordinary force to tear it. Luke and Mark both specify that it tore “from top to bottom,” indicating that the action originated from God’s side, not from human hands. The symbolism is unmistakable: through the death of Jesus, the barrier between God and humanity was permanently removed. What the Day of Atonement accomplished once a year through animal sacrifice, Jesus accomplished once for all through his own blood (Hebrews 9:11-12; 10:19-22).

The burial by Joseph of Arimathea fulfilled Isaiah 53:9 (“he was with a rich man in his death”) and established the critical historical fact of an identifiable, verifiable tomb. The women from Galilee watched carefully, noting the location so they could return after the Sabbath. Their observation would become the first link in the chain of resurrection testimony.

Key Themes

• The prayer of forgiveness from the cross – Jesus practiced what he preached, loving his enemies and praying for those who persecuted him, even as they killed him
• Salvation by grace through faith alone – The repentant criminal received paradise with nothing to offer but trust in Jesus, dismantling every system of human merit
• The torn curtain and open access to God – The death of Jesus ended the old sacrificial system and opened the way into God’s presence for every person who comes through him

Connections

• Old Testament Roots: Psalm 22 (the cry of the righteous sufferer – pierced hands and feet, garments divided by lots); Psalm 31:5 (committing the spirit to God); Isaiah 53:9, 12 (buried with the rich, numbered with transgressors); Hosea 10:8 (mountains falling on the people)
• New Testament Echoes: Hebrews 9:11-12; 10:19-22 (the curtain torn, access granted through Christ’s blood); Ephesians 2:13-16 (the dividing wall of hostility broken down); Colossians 2:13-15 (the cross as triumph over the powers)
• Parallel Passages: Matthew 27:32-66; Mark 15:21-47; John 19:16-42

Reflection Questions

1. What does Jesus’ prayer “Father, forgive them” reveal about his character, and how does it fulfill his own teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:27-28)?
2. The repentant criminal had nothing to offer Jesus except faith. How does this challenge or confirm your understanding of what God requires for salvation?
3. The temple curtain tore from top to bottom. What barriers between you and God do you still treat as intact, even though Christ has removed them?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we cannot read of your crucifixion without being undone. You prayed for your murderers while they drove the nails. You promised paradise to a dying thief who had nothing to offer. You tore the curtain that separated us from God and opened the way with your own body. We are the ones who should have hung on that cross, and you took our place. May we never treat this lightly. May we live as people for whom the curtain has been torn. Amen.