Meditations On The Gospel Of Luke For The FamilySample

"MEDITATION 19: A King on a Cross, two Criminals at his Side."

At last, what Jesus had announced has come to pass. The last hours in the passion story are a summary, not only of the events he has foreseen and communicated to the disciples (see 9:21-27, 43-45; 18:31-34 and parallel texts), but also of his style of life. He had been criticized for dealing with sinners and outcasts, and he is facing death accompanied by two criminals. Perhaps the vision of Jesus with them must have made John and James think about their demands, and Jesus’ own question about being baptized with his own baptism and drinking his own cup of suffering (Mark 10:38-40).

But there are more details that Luke includes in his account of the Passion. Just after he started his way to the place called the Skull, Simon the Cyrenian performed the action Jesus had told his disciples to accept if they were ready to follow him: “after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus” (23:26; see 9:23:27; 14:25-27). His words to the women who mourn and lament him remind us of his own lament upon entering Jerusalem (19:41- 44; 23:28-31). All the questioning before his sentence revolves around the accusation the Pharisees, the teachers of the Law and the priests had made against him for his claiming to be the King of Israel. In the end, the sentence is a declaration of his kingship and is nailed above his head (23:36).

The last moments before his death are the new “temptations” Jesus has to face. Just as Satan had provoked him, casting doubts about his being the Son of God, in order to make him avoid hunger or to obtain power or notoriety, now he has to hear the same words: “If you are the King of the Jews, the Messiah…save yourself!” (23:35, 36, 39). One of the two criminals crucified with him proclaims both his innocence: “this man has done nothing criminal” (23:41), and his confidence in Jesus’ kingship: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (23:42). Jesus’ promise, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (23:43), reminds us of Jesus’ saving presence in other moments of his life: at his birth, “Today in the city of David a savior has been born” (2:11); in the synagogue of Nazareth, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled” (4:21); and in the house of Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house” (19:9). A last, his words of saving grace and obedience have been fulfilled and his Father’s will, not Jesus’, has been done (22:42).

Rev. Fr. Mariano Perrón, Roman Catholic priest, Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain