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Luke 23 - Devotion · The Five Minute Bible Podcast

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Welcome to Five Minute Bible in our journey through the New
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Testament. In each episode, we take just a
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few minutes to focus on one chapter of the New Testament,
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exploring the truths God is teaching us through His Word and
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expanding our view of who He is. Before you listen, make sure
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you've gone straight to the source, either by reading
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today's chapter of the Bible yourself or listening to today's
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read along episode in this podcast feed.
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If you haven't done that yet, feel free to pause and do that
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now. When you're ready, let's dive
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into God's Word together. As we approach the end of the
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book of Luke, we read yet another Gospel account of the
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climax, the turning point of history, the crucifixion of
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Jesus Christ, Son of God. Before we discuss it, I want you
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to just listen to this account and let it sink in.
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I'll start in verse 33 when they came to the place called the
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skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the
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right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, Father
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forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
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And they cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves.
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And the people stood by looking on, and even the rulers were
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sneering at him, saying he saved others, let him save himself, if
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this is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
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The soldiers also mocked him, coming up to him, offering him
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sour wine and saying, If you were the king of the Jews, save
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yourself. Now there was also an
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inscription above him. This is the king of the Jews.
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One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse
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at him, saying, Are you not the Christ, save yourself and us?
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But the other answered and rebuking him, said, Do you not
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even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of
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condemnation? And we indeed are suffering
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justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.
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But this man has done nothing wrong.
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And he was saying, Jesus, Remember Me when you come in
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your Kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say
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to you today you shall be with me in paradise.
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It was now about the 6th hour, and darkness fell over the whole
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land until the 9th hour, because the sun was obscured and the
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veil of the temple was torn in two.
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And Jesus crying out with a loud voice said, Father, into your
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hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed
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his last. And when the centurion saw what
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had happened, he began praising God, saying certainly this man
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was innocent. And all the crowds who came
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together for this spectacle, when they observed what had
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happened, began to return, beating their breasts.
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And all his acquaintances and the women who accompanied him
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from Galilee were standing at a distance seeing these things.
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I want you to take a minute and think about the words spoken by
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the two criminals dying alongside Jesus.
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One mocks Jesus, hurling abuse at him, telling him to save
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himself and them. Meanwhile, the other dying
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criminal admits that Jesus has done nothing wrong, though he
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himself and the other criminal are suffering justly.
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He then entreats Jesus sincerely, saying, Jesus,
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Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom.
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Here in his last moments after a life that was marked by
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sinfulness, he is admitting his guilt and falling on Jesus for
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mercy. Throughout the book of Luke, we
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have seen this juxtaposition of responses to Christ.
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When confronted with the person of Jesus and his claims of
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authority of being the Son of God, man must make a choice.
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CS Lewis described that choice this way, He says.
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I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish
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thing that people often say about him.
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That is Christ. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a
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great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.
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That is the one thing we must not say.
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A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus
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said would not be a great moral teacher.
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He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says
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he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.
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You must make a choice. Either this man was and is the
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son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
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You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him
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as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and
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God. But let us not come up with any
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patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.
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He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to liar,
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lunatic, or Lord. That is what Lewis says are our
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options when responding to Christ.
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In other words, we must either outright reject him or accept
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him as God Himself and fully submit to Him.
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There is no in between. And here on the cross, at the
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place called the Skull, these two dying criminals illustrate
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just that .1 rejects Christ with insults and mocking jeers, 1
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submits to Him in humility, and to the first there is no hope
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offered. He took his last breaths in
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agony and found himself entering an eternity of even greater
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agony. The other criminal, though, was
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different. He calls out to Jesus to
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remember him, and Jesus responds in grace and mercy and love.
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He says, truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in
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paradise. That man took his last breath
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and entered paradise. His life of sin and selfishness
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were covered by the blood of the one who died next to him.
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And so the choice stands for you and for me.
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What will we do with Christ? There is no option to abstain.
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There is no neutral response. Will we submit to Him fully with
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our whole lives, or will we reject Him?
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The choice is ours.