NOTES for Luk 23:26-56
26 And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. |
27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. |
28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. |
29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. |
30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. |
31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? |
32 And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. |
33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. |
34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. |
35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. |
36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, |
37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. |
38 And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. |
39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. |
40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? |
41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. |
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. |
43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. |
44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. |
45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. |
46 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. |
47 Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. |
48 And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. |
49 And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. |
50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counseller; and he was a good man, and a just: |
51 (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. |
52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. |
53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. |
54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. |
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. |
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. |
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Death for a human being is an unnatural event. And for every human being in any condition - even after the fall, and even for the last sinner. Because humanity was originally conceived as something deeply unique. Unique not as a species, since every living creature as a species is completely unrepeatable, but as a person. That is why death turns out to be something utterly unnatural for a human being. With animals, even the most highly organized, everything is different. An animal is not a person; it is only an expression and embodiment of its genus, species, subspecies - of what in the biblical Poem of creation is named by a Hebrew word that could be translated as "type" or "variety." The death of an individual animal changes nothing fundamental in the existence of the genus, species, or subspecies to which it belongs; the main thing is the preservation of the species as a whole.
It is not so with the human being. Here every concrete person matters. And that person's importance increases as the fullness of humanity grows. From the biblical point of view, humanity is above all likeness to God. If one could imagine a person who had completely lost the image of God - not figuratively, as people sometimes say of something similar with regard to those who have fallen very low, but literally - such a person would mean no more in God's eyes than any animal. But such a thing, thankfully, does not happen: when applied to a human being, the loss of the image of God is always only a figure of speech and never a statement of actual fact. In that case death inevitably becomes the destruction of the personal uniqueness and unrepeatability that a human being possesses as the image of God. It is no accident that in all times and among all peoples death has been viewed as an evil and an anomaly, as something that cannot define the human path completely. From this come all teachings about the afterlife, about the immortality of the soul, about death's inability and lack of right to gain full power over a person.
In Yahwism, and therefore in Judaism, there is no teaching about the afterlife, but there is the idea of universal resurrection. Yahwism and Judaism await the complete victory of the God of life over death. And yet the One who brought into the world the fullness of the life of the Kingdom passes through death. Not some imaginary or illusory death, but a fully real one. As full and absolute for Him as His life is full and absolute. For the God-man always exists in absolute reality, whether the reality of life or the reality of death. The absence of life is experienced by Him in the same fullness as its presence. And if the fullness of His life is the Kingdom, then the fullness of His death is Sheol, what in Greek is called Hades, hell, that complete absence of life, its underside, its inversion, which in fact stands opposed to the Kingdom. Into such a hell the Savior descends as He dies.
But with God only life in all its fullness is absolute. Death for Him cannot be not only absolute; it cannot even be a reality for Him. It is real only for the world separated from God, the world in which the Messiah's earthly ministry took place. And therefore Resurrection inevitably follows death - as the triumph of the fullness of God's life over that which by definition cannot triumph. Jesus knows of this triumph, but His knowledge does not make temporary death in a world separated from God any less real for Him. The disciples do not know of it - and despair seizes them. Meanwhile, the day of Resurrection is drawing near.
Readings for 11 April 2026
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