Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the start of our journey of remembering Holy Week. Can we even imagine that on Sunday these people were throwing down clothes and palm leaves for Jesus to ride into town on a donkey and days later they are shouting to crucify him? Sin is an ugly thing. Recap the last week if you need a little catch-up, but at this point in Luke, Jesus has been sentenced and now we’re going to go through the crucifixion.
After being sentenced, the crucifixion took a while. He was beaten and mocked before being nailed to the cross. By the time he was on the cross, he was bleeding and in horrible pain. The sins of the world were literally on his back. And Jesus paid the price to save us.
Read: Luke 23:26-31
Notes:
- At 33, Jesus was probably in pretty good health. His life of ministry and work would have kept him in shape.
- In the garden, he was sweating (like) blood. Remember? How much stress was he in at that point?
- He was suffering from emotional stress plus he was beaten.
- Before he even picked up his cross, he was scourged. Scholars say that this would have left him in a pre-shock state with blood loss and intense pain.
- A cross typically weighed about 300 pounds. But the crossbar weighed around 100 and was what the victims would have to carry, as the vertical part of the cross were probably permanently placed outside the city walls.
- Jesus probably walked passed the place where he would give his life plenty of time during his life and ministry.
- Simon of Cyrene (modern day Libya) was probably a Passover visitor. But the Roman soldiers picked him and he had no choice. He really knew what it was like to take up a cross and follow Jesus.
- People followed the condemned on their way to crucifixions. It was publicly humiliating and the soldiers used this to keep people under their rule.
- Weeping: Jesus told them not to weep for Him, but for those who reject Him.
- Usually, Jewish would praise motherhood and condemn the barren. But Jesus was telling them that what to come was worse and women probably wouldn’t want to bring children into what was coming.
- The green wood reference is meaning that if they do this to the innocent, what will happen to the guilty?
Discuss with Kids :
*Some questions will be repeated so we can learn and build off of each topic.
- Jesus Storybook Bible // The Sun Stops Shining. Page 302
- Weep? We’ve seen a lot of mention about weeping. Who has wept?
- Why would people watch criminals be punished?