The Cross Of Christ

Responses Before The Cross

On Sunday, they bowed down to him as a king.

John 12:13 …took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him and cried, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord!”

On Friday, they crucified Him.

Luke 23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him.

Responses To The Cross

Luke 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers who were also with them derided Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He be Christ, the chosen of God.”

Deuteronomy 21:23 “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.”

Crucifixion was common. We’re told as many as thirty thousand people were crucified in the land of Israel around the time of Christ.

The Jews could not comprehend or accept that their Messiah would be crucified. He was to come as a conqueror, not one conquered. Especially, they could not fathom that He would be crucified by being rejected by the leaders of Israel and then executed by pagan, idolatrous Romans. This could not be their Messiah.

Responses At The Cross

The Response of the Convinced: The Roman Soldiers

Luke 23:47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man.

As soon as Jesus breathes His last breath, there are immediate responses. We have been through the most solemn moment in history, the death of Christ, and we see the response to this monumental event.

This officer was guarding Jesus, and obviously in charge of the soldiers who were responsible for this prisoner.

They were the soldiers who were eyewitnesses of the entire ordeal, from the very beginning. They heard all the conversations and accusations from the leaders of Israel sent against Him. They had also heard the verdict of innocent, repeated at least six times. They saw Jesus act like no other prisoner.

There was no category for someone to behave like this: an innocent man taken all the way to the cross. Then, they were the ones who nailed Him to that cross, at least four of them. They saw this man take death by His own will and He made it His servant. They were now convinced that Jesus was the Son of God, the Righteous One.

The Response of the Convicted: Some in the Crowd

Luke 23:48 And all the people who came together to that sight, beholding the things which had been done, smote their breasts and returned.

This is reminiscent of the Publican in Luke 18:13, who in fear and guilt would not lift his eyes so much as to look to heaven, but bowed his head, pounding his chest saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” It is a way in which the Jews expressed the guilt and the fear of having violated God.

It was really the miraculous that scared them into this terror. Fear of divine judgment because of how you treat Christ is exactly the way a sinner should feel.

The initial preparation for that repentance on Pentecost was the pounding of the chest in horror and terror and fear of what they had done to Jesus. Acts 3.

The Response of Those Close To Him Those Who Really Knew Him

Luke 23:49 And all his friends and the women who came with Him from Galilee, were waiting at a distance, watching these things.

With the deepest sorrow over this great loss, they stand at a distance, not able to understand all that is happening, the other followers, the scattered sheep have vanished, without leaving a trace, when the Shepherd was smitten.

Luke reminds us that the reason Jesus died was to bring sinners to the confidence that He is the Son of God, to bring sinners to repent of their sins, and to bring sinners to embrace His death and His resurrection. In these things, there is salvation.

What is our response? Are we convinced? Are we convicted? Has our confusion and our being confounded
dissipated and disappeared in the glory of the resurrection?

What is our response to the cross?