Amy C Walters

The Death of Jesus | Luke 23:44-49

This story can feel disorienting. It moves quickly from loud crowds and chaos to emptiness and quiet. It goes from a wide angle view of the skies and the temple to an extreme close up of Jesus talking to the Father. Why does Luke write this way? Because he’s showing us that judgment and access connect at the cross.

We’re in the middle of Luke’s long description of Jesus’ arrest, trial, sentencing, crucifixion, and death. Even though all these events flow into each other, there’s a sense of change in the story here. We go from the chaos of swinging swords and shouting crowds to an almost empty, peaceful scene.

And we go from a picture that includes a bunch of people and Jesus, to a wide picture including all of Jerusalem, and then zoom way in to see just Jesus. This zooming in and out can feel disorienting. But Luke uses it to point us to something very important. 

First, Luke zooms out to the 30,000-foot view when he tells us that darkness has come over the whole land. There’s something supernatural about this darkness. It’s not just an eclipse. Remember, Jesus’ crucifixion happens during the Passover celebration, and Passover happens during the fall moon, when a solar eclipse is impossible.

Luke lines up this darkness with the time when Jesus was on the cross. They go together. But what does the darkness mean?

Tim Keller points out the connection between darkness and judgment. Zephaniah 1:14-15 says, “The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast. The sound of the day of the Lord is bitter. The mighty man cries aloud there. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” 

Amos 8:9 seems to speak to this very moment, “‘and on that day,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.’” 

But this scene in the story almost seems too peaceful to be about judgment. Where is the distress and anguish? Where is the ruin and devastation?

It’s on Jesus. God’s wrath is focused on him. As it says in Isaiah 53:4-6, “surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 

The literal darkness during the crucifixion reflects the spiritual reality of God’s judgment for sin falling on Jesus. 

There’s another 30,000 foot wide angle view in this passage, and that’s of the curtain of the temple. The people who are at Jesus’ crucifixion would not have seen this from where they were at Calvary. But Luke includes it here. Why? 

The temple curtain was massive, 30 feet long and 30 feet high. It separated a space called the holy place where the priests serve from another room called the Holy of Holies, which could only be entered once a year and only by the high priest. This was an exclusive place, limiting access to the presence of God. Violations of these rules would result in death. 

So imagine the priests serving in the holy place on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. There’s probably a lot of activity in the temple during the Passover holiday. Suddenly the curtain tears from top to bottom. Now, any of those priests could see into the Holy of Holies, something that before would have led to their death. 

Daniel Gertner writes, “This means that there is no longer a physical barrier to God, and re-entry into the presence of God is again permitted for the first time since the fall.” The literal tearing of the curtain that blocked access to God’s presence reflects the spiritual reality of open access to God through Jesus. 

From the curtain at the temple, Luke suddenly turns his focus back to Jesus and he zooms way in for a close up. We’re told that Jesus calls out in a loud voice. This is highly unusual. Victims of crucifixion die by asphyxiation. Typically, they can’t get enough breath to shout. 

This is also an intimate scene between Jesus and God the Father. Notice that even though Jesus has endured all this suffering by the will of the Father, he doesn’t curse him. He doesn’t beg for rescue or escape from it. Instead, Jesus expresses his trust in God the Father.

Jesus also says, “I commit my spirit.” Those are not the words of someone whose life has been robbed from him, but of one who has given his life. Jesus gave up his spirit. It wasn’t taken from him. Just like Jesus said in John 10:18, “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” 

We’re told then that Jesus breathed his last. He went all the way through with it. He didn’t take a shortcut or an escape route. 

I think this relates to the temptation in the wilderness back when Luke 4. Satan tempts Jesus to worship him so that all the nations would be given to him (Luke 4:5-7). That’s a shortcut to the process. Satan also tempts him to doubt God’s goodness. Instead, we see Jesus’ faithfulness and perfect trust in the Father. 

In this story, we zoomed way out to see the darkness and the curtain in the temple, and we zoomed way in to see Jesus’ willing sacrifice. Luke brings all these things together here to show us our key truth.

Judgment and access to God connect at the cross. 

These are things that don’t go together. Ultimately, judgment is separation from God, so access and judgment are mutually exclusive.

Jesus didn’t deserve that judgment. We did. Over and over again, Isaiah 53 points out that Jesus bore what should have been ours; our griefs, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities. We should have received the judgment. We should have been shut out of access to God.

Only with Jesus’ sacrifice can both of these be satisfied. God’s wrath poured out on sin, and God’s people united with him. And only through trusting Jesus can we escape judgment and come to God.

The author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 10:19-25, shows us how to apply these truths of judgment and access to God. 

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”