This week’s ongoing Biblical study series on the Social Gospel Blog with Rev. Paul J. Bern will be part 3 of Luke chapter 23

Jesus Gives All For Each and Every One of Us

Our Lord and Savior On the Cross (Luke chapter 23, verses 32–43)

Last week when we ended our ongoing study of the writings of the apostle Luke, we left off at verse 31 of chapter 23, where Jesus was being led off to be crucified. A crowd of people followed after him, mourners who knew his fate and who wept and wailed at the sight of our Lord and Savior, and no wonder! By this time Jesus had been beaten with fists and whipped with a whip with multiple cords on it for the maximum and most gruesome effect. Jesus had been beaten so badly he was nearly unrecognizable. And he hadn’t even been crucified yet. This week we will pick up at verse 32, Jesus is being nailed to the cross in what has to be the saddest part of the Bible. But it’s only that way on the surface of things as they stand, because of what will happen three days later. So let’s all get started.

Part One of This Week’s Lesson: Jesus Reviled On the Cross

“Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him along with the criminals — one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, ‘He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered wine vinegar and said, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.’” (Luke 23, verses 32–37)

In the Bible’s original Hebrew-to-Greek translation that occurred about the turn of the 2nd century AD, the word for “the place called the Skull” is ‘Golgotha’, the word from which the modern term ‘Gothic’ has its roots. So our Lord and Savior was crucified that day in between two criminals who had also received the death penalty, allegedly for theft of one kind or another. They crucified Jesus Christ as a common criminal, but he was also crucified…