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Luke 23:35
‘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."’
In Luke we have reached the crucifixion of Jesus. Much has been written on and about the crucifixion, and may songs and poems speak of the emotions. But Luke is both relatively brief, and factual. He prefers to let the events speak for themselves.
If we read the account carefully we can see that he is concerned to draw attention to the events of the crucifixion of Christ which fulfill Hebrew prophecy. For example, Jesus is crucified between two thief's as mentioned in Isaiah 53:12. Luke is at pains to point out the sin of Jerusalem for not recognizing their Messiah, this is not because he wants to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus, but because he wants them to repent of their sin. The sin is the fact that they have closed their eyes to Jesus, unlike the Gentiles who are ignorant of Jesus.
Either way Jesus can and will forgive them both. He prays from the cross, ‘Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.’ The ‘them’ is purposefully vague. It refers to Jewish and Roman authorities.
On the cross these rulers make fun of Jesus, and in doing so repeat the temptations that Jesus faced at the beginning of his ministry, “If you are the Son of God...”. Jesus is the Son of God, he is here to save others, and that means that he cannot save himself. On the cross we see the willed powerlessness of God. The impossible happens, God dies so we don’t have to.
