Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Pentecost Thursday - Luke 23:26-43

Pentecost Thursday

Daily Lectionary Readings: Numbers 24:1-25; Luke 23:26-56; (Augsburg Confession 22-24)

Luke 23:26–43

[26] And as they led him 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. [27] And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. [28] But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep 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 wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (ESV)

Isaiah saw the Christ carrying His cross on the Way of Sorrows:

“[3]He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

[4] Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

[5] But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5 ESV).

As was the custom, Jesus had to carry His own cross to the place of execution. Jesus, already near death from the blood loss of the Roman flagellation, fell under His burden. Here enters Simon of Cyrene, ordered by the Romans to carry Jesus' cross for Him. Simon becomes the symbol of all Christians, all cross-bearers. His task came to him out of nowhere. He did not want this. Sound of body and mind, the burden was still great. So is the cross we carry, and our sinful human flesh will rail against it, demand that we drop it as if it were hot iron. But remember, God is in control even of this, and in His hands, every cross works for His will and is a blessing. It just may not seem so to you. But it is God's way of bringing us nearer to Him. This is the great reversal that begins not so far from here when Jesus dies upon this cross for the sins of the world. The most unspeakable, horrible, painful, and shameful death works the greatest redemption. Christ died for you that your sins would be forgiven and the rift between God and man closed. Is your burden in this life so heavy by comparison? Certainly, it seems so at the moment. But it is not. That is our weak flesh and the devil's trickery trying to convince us that we are alone and unloved. Unforgivable. Don't believe the lie. Christ did this for you.

As we so often see in the Gospels, the women followers of Jesus are right there with Him, even now. They weep for Him. Jesus appreciates their love and sympathy, but He is their Savior before everything else. His thoughts and words, even at this moment, are for them, not Himself. Such are to be our words and thoughts under the weight of our own cross. Jesus tells them to think to the last day when judgment is rendered, and those who did not believe are cast out. Even the mountains will not cover them on that day, even the sky will roll up as if it were a paper scroll. He wants us to ponder our sins. Weep for ourselves. Sin means death and must be grieved. Tears of repentance yield tears of forgiveness. Only when we learn to mourn our sin can we understand the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and what His securing our eternal redemption means.