Luke 23:26-32 - They Led Him Away
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Introduction
Introduction
[CONTEXT] As we pick up the narrative this morning, Jesus is on the way to Golgotha, to the cross, to His death. Jesus has been beaten nearly to death, having already been flogged and scourged.
To be flogged was to be lashed repeatedly by a whip or rod. It was less severe than scourging but the flogging of Jesus was no doubt intense because of their hatred for Him.
To be scourged was a more severe lashing with the victim tied to a post. Skin was broken, blood poured out, tissue was torn away. Scourging was terrible. John 19:1 uses that word ‘scourged’ for the beating given Jesus before His crucifixion. But this too was part of the atonement Jesus made for our sins. Isaiah 53:5 says…
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Weakened from traumatic abuse and blood loss, Jesus could not carry His own cross all the way.
A man named Simon had to be enlisted to help.
[READING - Luke 23:26-32]
26 When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. 27 And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. 28 But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 “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.’ 30 “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” 32 Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.
[PRAYER]
[TS] As Jesus made His final steps toward the cross I’d like you to remember that…
…Jesus was determined.
…Jesus was compassionate.
…Jesus was numbered.
You’ll see that Jesus was determined in v. 26.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: Jesus was determined (v. 26)
#1: Jesus was determined (v. 26)
26 When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.
[EXP] Simon of Cyrene didn’t volunteer. He was enlisted. He was seized by the Romans and made him carry the cross of Jesus.
I wonder how he thought that day was going to go for him. He was coming in from the country. Was he just now arriving in Jerusalem from Cyrene in North Africa? Or was he coming into the city to continue to take part in the Passover celebration?
We don’t know.
We do know that he and he sons, Alexander and Rufus, were known to the early church (cf., Mark 15:21), so carrying the cross of Jesus probably led to faith in Jesus for Simon and his sons.
The Romans placed the weight of the wood on Simon, but Jesus still bore the weight of the cross.
But notice this especially: He carried the cross behind Jesus.
Simon carried the cross, but Jesus still led the way.
Jesus was weakened from the beating He suffered, but no one had to carry Him to the cross. No one had to drag Him there.
Again, He wasn’t pulling up the rear; He was leading the way.
He was determined to go to the cross.
[ILLUS] Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, once said, “One of my superstitions has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished.”
President Grant’s superstition was Jesus’s determination.
When Jesus started for the cross, He never turned back; He didn’t stop until the thing intended was accomplished.
[APP] But let’s consider why Jesus was determined to go to the cross. He was determined to go to the cross to glorify His Father by paying the price for our sins.
We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all deserve death because we’ve broken God’s laws.
When He said, “Do not,” we did.
When He said, “Do,” we did not.
If God the Father hadn’t sent Jesus the Son to pay the price of death for us, we would be condemned to die forever in the lake of fire.
But God did send Jesus—and Jesus lived the perfect life we should’ve lived and He died the death that was our’s to die.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice that atoned for our sins and reconciled us to God—that is, if we repent of our sins and believe on Jesus for salvation.
As Jesus said in Mark 10:45…
45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
And this reconciling work that Jesus did by way of the cross glorified His Father in Heaven. Rather than pray, “Save me from the cross,” Jesus prayed in John 12:27-28, “…for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” And the Father responded, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Jesus led the way to the cross with Simon of Cyrene following behind because He was determined to accomplish the purpose for which He was sent—to glorify the Father by praying the price for our sins.
[TS] …
#2: Jesus was compassionate (vv. 27-31)
#2: Jesus was compassionate (vv. 27-31)
27 And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. 28 But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 “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.’ 30 “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
[EXP] Jesus led the way but it wasn’t just Simon of Cyrene behind Him. A group of women were also there. They were morning and lamenting. They were likely not Jesus’s disciples. They were likely not genuine in their lamentation. They were probably professional mourners whose job it was to wail for the dead—or in this case, the one about to die.
Jesus said their weeping was misplaced. They wept for Him but Jesus said they should weep for themselves and for their children.
Verses 29-31 need some detailed explanation:
29 “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.’
Judgment is going to come upon Israel that makes those with children wish they were childless. When Rome sacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed, many parents mourned the loss of their grown children and many not-yet-grown children were left orphaned.
30 “Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’
Jesus quoted from Hosea 10, a chapter about God’s judgment on sinful Israel.
The judgment coming on Israel for rejecting Jesus will be the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70. When it does come God’s people will cry out to be put out of their misery, saying to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’
31 “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
What they (the Romans) did to Jesus, they did because God ordained it. He ordained that Jesus die on a Roman cross as the sacrifice for our sin.
But if God delivered His sinless Son over to the Romans, He will certainly deliver sinful Israel over to the Romans for rejecting Jesus as Messiah.
In A.D. 70 God used the Romans to bring His judgment upon Israel for rejecting Messiah Jesus.
As Jesus compassionately said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
[ILLUS] In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, he tells the story of a man named Moshe who was deported from the one of the Jewish ghettos during World War II—deported to one of the Nazi death camps. Somehow Moshe escaped and returned to warn others in the Jewish ghettos to flee, but no one listened. Moshe told them about the deaths of those supposedly deported, but no one could imagine that it was true. They thought he was crazy.
Perhaps these women thought Jesus was crazy as He compassionately warned them about the death that was coming.
Perhaps they couldn’t imagine that the things Jesus said were true.
Perhaps they didn’t listen, but let’s be sure we do.
[APP] Let’s be sure to hear Jesus compassionately warning us this morning, and let us be sure to believe Him.
There is only death for rejecting Jesus as Messiah.
If God brought His wrath on His sinless Son to satisfy the wrath that we deserved and we reject Him, then imagine the wrath that He will poor out on us!
But instead of rejecting Jesus, we can receive Him. We can turn from our sins and trust Him, trust that He has endured the wrath for us.
Do not ignore His compassionate warning this morning!
Heart it, believe it, and turn to Him and be saved from the wrath of God on account of your sins!
[TS] …
#3: Jesus was numbered (v. 32)
#3: Jesus was numbered (v. 32)
32 Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.
[EXP] We’ve talked about those walking behind Jesus, but perhaps these criminals were walking beside Him. Of course, we don’t know for sure, but as Jesus was crucified between these two criminals perhaps they walked along beside Him. In any event, the fact that Jesus was led away with criminals as a criminal fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 53:12…
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors although He was not a transgressor.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors to bear the sins of transgressors.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors to intercede for transgressors.
Jesus was numbered with the transgressors to interpose His precious blood for transgressors like you and me.
This is how God justly justified the unjust in the death of Jesus Christ.
[ILLUS] Presbyterian preacher and Bible commentator, Albert Barnes, wrote about this justification…
“It is an act by which God determines to treat him (the sinner) hereafter as righteous—as if he had not sinned. The basis for this is the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, merit that we can plead as if it were our own. (Jesus) has taken our place and died in our stead; He has met the descending stroke of justice, which would have fallen on our own heads if He had not interposed.”
[APP] Praise the Lord Jesus did interpose for we transgressors by being numbered with us, by taking our transgressions upon Himself!
He led the way to the cross because He was determined to give His life as ransom for you and me!
He compassionately warns us to turn away from the wrath to come by turning to Him for forgiveness and mercy!
He was willingly numbered with us to die for us!
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
Have you repented of your sins and trusted Jesus as the One who paid the price for your sins?
The point of this passage is not Simon of Cyrene or the women wailing or the two criminals who were crucified beside Him.
The point of this passage is Jesus, His sacrifice, and your need to trust Him as your Savior!
Trust Him as your Savior this morning!
There is no other.