Luke 23:44-49

The Final Hours (23:44-49).

It was now half way through the day, and for Jesus the worst was yet to come. For now He entered into such an experience as was to tear at His very soul. But Luke passes it over in silence and we have to go to Matthew and Mark to learn briefly and dimly of what He experienced (Mark 15:34), although even then it is only revealed by a cry. All are dumb in the face of something that none can understand.

Indeed we should note how the Gospels limit their descriptions so as to remove all excessive emotion. They describe what happened almost matter-of-factedly. For their concentration is not on His sufferings, but on the fact that He was there in the purposes of God, and was fulfilling the will of God, so that every step was in accordance with the Scriptures. He was not seen as a martyr. He was seen as God acting in the world in a way which no one could fully understand, in a way partly explained by what He had done at the Last Supper, once it was more full understood. It was summed up in the words linking Him with the Servant of the Lord Who had died for the sins of His people, ‘He was reckoned with the transgressors' (Luke 22:37; Mark 15:28; Isaiah 53:12).

Analysis.

a It was now about the sixth hour, and a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, the sun's light failing. And the veil of the temple was rent in the midst (Luke 23:44).

b And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luke 23:46 a).

c And having said this, He yielded up the spirit' (Luke 23:46).

b And when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man” (Luke 23:47).

a And all the crowds who came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts, and all his acquaintance, and the women who followed with Him from Galilee, stood afar off, seeing these things (Luke 23:48).

Note that in ‘a' darkness came on the earth and the veil of the Temple was rent, and in the parallel the crowds were in darkness of soul and beat their breasts. The reference to Galilee might suggest that Luke had in mind ‘the people (of Galilee) that sat in darkness' (who will see a great light) (Isaiah 9:2). In ‘b' Jesus commends His spirit into His Father's hands, and in the parallel the centurion declares Him to be a righteous man. And centrally in ‘c' Jesus yields up His spirit.