Save Yourself

Reading through Luke’s gospel recently, I couldn’t help noticing that, just as the Devil tempted Jesus at the very beginning of His earthly ministry with three temptations (Luke 4:1-13), so he does also at its close. At the end of the Gospel, Jesus faced three further temptations (recorded in Luke 23:35-43). Here, Jesus was again tempted to avoid His own suffering and ‘save himself’.

The first came in the voice of the rulers who ‘sneered at him’ and said: “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One” (Luke 23:35). Their mockery actually contained more truth than they had any idea. In His death on the cross, Jesus really was saving others; they were right in that. But if He had ‘saved himself’, as they mockingly suggested He should do, then He would have been unable to complete that process. Because, as their own law made clear, sin can only be atoned for by the shedding of blood - death in other words (Romans 6:23). To save others Jesus had to endure the cross.

The second temptation came from the soldiers who likewise mocked Him. They offered Him wine vinegar, and said: “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself” (Luke 23:36-37). Again, their statement shows a complete lack of understanding that it was in His capacity as their king that Jesus was standing in the place of His people to take their judgement upon Himself and to therefore liberate them. His crown of kingship was a crown of thorns, but they couldn’t see it.

And thirdly, one of the criminals who hung there with Jesus hurled insults at Him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” (Luke 23:39).

How incredible that Jesus again resisted all three temptations, even as He hung there in absolute agony. His love for others and His obedience to His Father held Him in place far more effectively than the Roman nails that pierced His hands and feet.

Luke brackets the ministry of Jesus with three temptations as it began, and three more as it reached its climax. And Jesus resisted each one. It’s directly as a result of this that Jesus could turn to the other criminal who hung alongside Him who, instead of mockery, chose to put his faith and trust in Jesus, and say: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).