A king who has wanted nothing more than to see Jesus perform a trick finally gets his wish, and gets only silence in return. A crowd of women weep for Jesus on His way to die, and He turns and tells them to weep for themselves instead. And hanging beside Him, a convicted criminal with nothing left to offer but a dying breath asks only to be remembered — and receives, in return, the single most direct promise of paradise found anywhere in the four Gospels.
A study in Luke 23 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 28 min read
I Find No Fault In This Man
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-seventh chapter and Mark’s fifteenth chapter already cover the trial before Pilate and the release of Barabbas in full.
“And Pilate asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him and said, Thou sayest it. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man.”
Luke 23:3-4
Found in no other Gospel, the next scene belongs to Luke alone — Pilate, hearing that Jesus is a Galilean, sees a chance to hand the whole problem to someone else.
“And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him. Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing.”
Luke 23:8-9
This is the same Herod who had beheaded John the Baptist. Jesus, who has answered hostile questions from priests, lawyers, and Pilate himself throughout these same twenty-four hours, gives this particular man nothing at all — not because Herod is too dangerous to answer, but because he has already disqualified himself, wanting only a show.
“And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate. And the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together: for before they were at enmity between themselves.”
Luke 23:11-12
“Herod was convicted. The last rays of merciful light were shining upon his sin-hardened heart. He felt that this was no common man; for divinity had flashed through humanity. … Hardened as he was, Herod dared not ratify the condemnation of Christ.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 731
Two enemies find common ground in mocking an innocent man — a strange, ugly friendship built on the one thing they could agree to do to Jesus, even while neither one could quite bring himself to formally condemn Him.
“But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. … And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.”
Luke 23:21, 23
Three times Pilate declares Jesus innocent (vv.4, 14-15, 22). Three times the crowd shouts him down anyway. Innocence, in this scene, is simply outvoted.
Weep Not For Me, But Weep For Yourselves
“And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.”
Luke 23:27-28
“Although full of suffering, while bearing the sins of the world, He was not indifferent to the expression of grief. He looked upon these women with tender compassion. … He did not despise their sympathy, but it awakened in His heart a deeper sympathy for them.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 743
Found in no other Gospel, this exchange is one of the last recorded moments of Jesus’s own free movement before the cross — already carrying the weight of the world’s sin, and still turning to comfort strangers weeping on His behalf.
“For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren… Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”
Luke 23:29-31
This site’s own study of Luke’s twenty-first chapter has already told what would in fact happen to Jerusalem within the lifetime of many people in this same weeping crowd. The warning given here on the road to Calvary is not a rebuke — it is a final, urgent kindness, spoken in the middle of His own worst hour.
To Day Shalt Thou Be With Me In Paradise
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-seventh chapter and Mark’s fifteenth chapter already cover the crucifixion itself in full.
“Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
Luke 23:34
Found in no other Gospel, this is the first thing Jesus says once nailed to the cross — not a cry of pain, but a prayer of forgiveness for the very men driving the nails.
“And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly… but this man hath done nothing amiss.”
Luke 23:39-41
“And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”
Luke 23:42
“In Jesus, bruised, mocked, and hanging upon the cross, he sees the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Hope is mingled with anguish in his voice as the helpless, dying soul casts himself upon a dying Saviour.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 750
Found in no other Gospel, this thief has nothing to offer in exchange for mercy — no lifetime of good works, no chance left to make restitution, only a dying breath and a single sentence of faith spoken to a man dying next to him on an identical cross.
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43
This site’s own study of Luke’s sixteenth chapter has already discussed how carefully this Gospel’s language needs to be read on questions of death and the afterlife. The same care applies here, and Ellen White addresses this exact verse directly:
“Christ did not promise that the thief should be with Him in Paradise that day. He Himself did not go that day to Paradise. … But on the day of the crucifixion, the day of apparent defeat and darkness, the promise was given. ‘Today’ while dying upon the cross as a malefactor, Christ assures the poor sinner, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 751
The comma in the King James rendering falls after “thee,” not after “today” — Jesus is not describing the thief’s arrival in paradise that same afternoon, but the day the promise itself was spoken: today, in the middle of this darkest hour, a promise of paradise was given and sealed, to be kept in full when Christ Himself returns.
Father, Into Thy Hands I Commend My Spirit
“And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.”
Luke 23:44-45
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”
Luke 23:46
“In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 756
Found in no other Gospel, this final sentence is not a cry of despair but an act of trust — Christ’s last conscious act on the cross is to place Himself, deliberately, in His Father’s hands.
“Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.”
Luke 23:47
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-seventh chapter and Mark’s fifteenth chapter already cover Joseph of Arimathea’s burial of Jesus in full.
“And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”
Luke 23:54-56
Even in grief, on the very day their Lord lay dead in a borrowed tomb, these women kept the fourth commandment exactly as it was written — a small, quiet detail Luke did not have to include, and chose to record anyway.
