Luke 23:35, commentary and pictures

At Calvary a vast watching crowd stood without pity while priests and rulers forgot their office and joined the mob in jeering the staggering, suffering Jesus. Their mockery admitted He had rescued others yet denied He was God's chosen and dared Him to rescue Himself. That dare repeated Satan's wilderness test of Sonship, and Satan himself with his angels in human form was there urging the priests and crowd on while heaven was silent. He could have left the cross, but He stayed as the substitute bearing the curse for a lost world, and His refusal to save Himself is the sinner's hope of pardon. In speaking those very jeers they fulfilled foretold prophecy without knowing it, yet the words drove some hearers to the Scriptures, convinced the penitent thief that the crucified One was the Lamb of God who takes away sin, and left the disciples fearing the taunt might be true as their hope failed.

Scene at the Cross

Luke 23:35 takes place on the road to and at Calvary outside Jerusalem's gate where criminals were executed, as Jesus was led from Pilate's court and judgment hall toward Calvary bearing the cross prepared for Barabbas. The procession moved from the judgment hall to the place of execution while the watching crowd followed Him staggering under that burden.

His human nature could bear no more after taking neither food nor drink since the Passover supper, agonizing in Gethsemane, being betrayed and deserted by His disciples, being taken to Annas then to Caiaphas then to Pilate then to Herod then to Pilate again, and passing a night of insult and mockery and two scourgings without failing in firmness and dignity. When the heavy cross was laid on His bruised and bleeding shoulders He fell fainting beneath it, and when the burden was laid on Him again He fell fainting a second time with weak and staggering steps. His persecutors saw He could carry it no farther and looked for another to bear the humiliating load.

The people who stood beholding were a vast multitude of all classes and ranks from Jerusalem and the surrounding region who followed after news of His condemnation spread. Disciples and believers from the city and region joined the throng because the priests and rulers were bound by a promise not to molest His followers if He Himself were delivered to them. Their watching was without compassion, for they saw His weak and staggering steps and taunted and reviled Him because He could not carry the heavy cross.

The rulers who derided Him were priests, rulers, and scribes who forgot the dignity of their sacred offices and joined the mob and rabble in venting rage and mocking and jeering the dying Saviour. In this abuse they were united with the dignitaries of the temple, the hardened soldiers, the vile thief upon the cross, and the base and cruel among the multitude. The teachers had stirred the ignorant mob to condemn One many had never seen.

Taunt and Saving Refusal

The rulers' mockery conceded that He had saved others, yet it challenged Him to save Himself if He were indeed Christ, the chosen of God. In that challenge they rejected His identity and mission, claiming in effect that He could not save Himself. The dying thief heard that taunt together with reports of Jesus' works and compassion and the title above the cross, and instead of accepting the mockery he believed the evidence.

The demand to prove divine Sonship by using His power for Himself repeated Satan's wilderness temptation, If Thou be the Son of God. Satan with his angels in human form was present at the cross, cooperating with the priests and rulers and mob, so that religious rulers united with Satan and his angels in satanic frenzy did his bidding after the teachers had stirred the ignorant mob to condemn One many had never seen. No voice from heaven spoke in His favor as it had at His baptism and at His transfiguration and just before His betrayal when the Father had proclaimed His Sonship and divinity, so He suffered abuse and mockery alone. He heard every word while He suffered and died.

Though He could have come down from the cross, His refusal to save Himself was not inability or defeat. Even in death He asserted His right and power to forgive sins. He suffered rather than escape as humanity's substitute, bearing the curse of the law for others, and His enduring of the cross with its taunts and indignities was part of the agony of His sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of a lost world. By that refusal to save Himself He gives sinners hope of pardon and favor with God.

Prophecy Fulfilled and Responses

The very mocking words flung at the dying sufferer had been foretold by inspiration for that occasion, and in uttering them the speakers were fulfilling prophecy. Those who spoke them were professed expounders of prophecy, yet in blindness they did not perceive or recognize what they were doing. The priests, rulers and scribes forgot the dignity of their sacred offices to join the rabble in mocking and jeering with the demand to save himself. In that abuse they stood united with the dignitaries of the temple, the hardened soldiers, the vile thief upon the cross, and the base and cruel among the multitude.

The mockers unknowingly repeated words foretold in Scripture, and their taunts led some who heard them to search the Scriptures and come to understand His mission. The dying thief heard the taunt that He who had saved others should save Himself if He were God's chosen Christ, and that taunt expressed rejection of His identity and mission. He heard it together with reports of Jesus' works and compassion and with the title placed above the cross, and instead of accepting the mockery he believed the evidence. He recognized the crucified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and Christ's death for sin brings pardon and the promise of eternal life to those who trust Him. The two thieves beside Him represent two classes, for all have been poisoned by sin, but those who look to Jesus and believe as the penitent thief did will live forever, while those who refuse to look and believe as the hardened thief did will die without hope.

The disciples feared the enemies' taunt might be true, that though He had saved others He could not save Himself, and they struggled to reconcile His death with His claim to be the Son of God. The people stood beholding Christ lifted up on the cross and dying as a malefactor, Him in whom their hopes of eternal life were centered. That was the taking away of the Bridegroom, when the disciples have cause to mourn and fast, and in those days of trial and temptation their faith was tried and their hope and courage failed. His derision in suffering and His pain on the cross reveal the cost of what He gave up for humanity and call His followers to measure their own self-denial in light of His sacrifice.