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. Luke 23:33
While serving lunchtime duty as a volunteer in the library of my grandson’s school, I noticed a familiar set of books on one of the cabinets. I opened them up and found they were same books that my daughter had purchased a month earlier. This set of books contains all of the information and instruction that is required for a student to know to complete high school. It is an impressive set, although there are only four volumes. Granted, each volume runs to more than a thousand pages. But it was an impressive feat for the publisher to have assembled all of that knowledge into four heavy, thick, very readable books. But even more impressive is the wealth of information that the writer of the Gospel of Luke has crammed into four simple words in our text today: there they crucified Him. As a writer, I can picture a set of four books, each one bearing as its title one of these four words.
With the word ‘there’, Luke is pointing to a hill outside of Jerusalem, a gruesome execution site that had earned the title ‘place of a skull’. A book could surely be written about that place, describing the significance of its location, the impact of its most important event, and the necessity of its fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies. And the book would become large as it would outline how that place, and that place alone, was the focal point of all that Christ came to accomplish when He visited earth two thousand years ago. Nor could chapters be excluded describing how the very gate of Heaven is opened to those who by faith view and appreciate that place.
How thick would the volume be that bore the title ‘they’? It must tell all about the angry and envious Jewish leaders who demanded that Pilate execute Jesus, and of Pilate’s great folly in submitting to their demands. That book would also detail the Roman soldiers and their brutal task that day, as well as the raucus crowd of mockers and scoffers who screamed their insults and taunts. But don’t forget the largest crowd of all, the world of sinners whose transgressions required that the Lamb of God would be sacrificed that day.
The third book entitled ‘crucified’ would be horrible in its description of that most cruel and agonizing form of execution. This gruesome book would explain the horrors of crucifixion, and enter deep details of the way in which our Lord was tormented beyond comprehension. It would be a very difficult book to read.
The fourth book in the set, entitled ‘Him’, must be the largest. In fact, its size must be infinite to contain all of the details of the Person who was hanging on the middle cross that day. Could any book contain the description of His character, or of His power, or of His knowledge and wisdom, or of His love to lost sinners, or of His tender compassion toward His own?
Ponder those four words – there they crucified Him. Within them are all of the materials for all that we could possibly read for the rest of our lives, and for all of eternity! – Jim MacIntosh