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Holy Week · Palm Sunday (Sunday of the Passion) · Year C

Luke 23:1-56

Certainly This Man Was Innocent

April 9, 2028

The Crucifixion (predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece), Andrea Mantegna
The Crucifixion (predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece), Andrea Mantegna, 1457–1460Musée du Louvre, Paris
Mantegna sets the three crosses on a paved rock platform cut like masonry, with the soldiers dicing at the foot and Jerusalem laid out behind.Today you will be with me in Paradise: the reading is the exchange with the thief, and Mantegna painted all three crosses, which not everyone does.Andrea MantegnaA Paduan painter obsessed with Roman antiquity and with foreshortening, who painted stone as if he had quarried it himself.Musée du Louvre, ParisA royal palace turned public museum by the Revolution in 1793, on the principle that what the king had owned now belonged to everyone.Musée du Louvre, Paris
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelLuke 22:1-23:56Lk 22:1-23:56Alt. GospelLuke 23:1-56Lk 23:1-56Alt. GospelJohn 12:20-43Jn 12:20-43
EpistlePhil. 2:5-11Phil 2:5-11
Old TestamentDeut. 32:36-39Dt 32:36-39
PsalterPs. 118:19-29Ps 118:19-29Alt. PsalmPs. 31:9-16Ps 31:9-16

Overview & Insights

“Certainly this man was innocent!” (Luke 23:47)

The shorter form begins at the Roman trial, and its organizing theme is legal innocence. Pilate states three times that he finds no guilt (vv. 4, 14 and 22), Herod sends the prisoner back with nothing to add, and one of the two men crucified alongside him returns the same verdict from his own cross (v. 41). That is what makes the centurion’s line at verse 47 significant: where Mark has a confession of divine sonship, Luke reports the word dikaios, righteous or innocent, completing the chain of testimony. The address to the daughters of Jerusalem (vv. 27 to 31) belongs to this Gospel alone and quotes Hosea 10:8 at verse 30, binding the cross to the city’s coming siege. The account ends with Joseph of Arimathea, the women marking where the body was laid, and their rest on the sabbath according to the commandment.

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Take it further: Luke 23:1-56

Commentary

Luke 23 Commentary: Jesus' Trial, Death and BurialLk 23 Commentary: Jesus' Trial, Death and Burial enduringword.com

Covers the trial before Pilate and Herod through to Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, the full span of this shorter form.

Luke 23:39 CommentariesLk 23:39 Commentaries biblehub.com

Classic commentators on the penitent thief's plea from the cross.

Commentary on Luke 22:14-23:56Commentary on Lk 22:14-23:56 workingpreacher.org

A second Working Preacher essay on the same lection, useful for its focus on the crucifixion scene.

Gill's Exposition on Luke 23:39Gill's Exposition on Lk 23:39 biblestudytools.com

Gill on the two criminals crucified with Jesus and the mercy shown to one of them.

Background & Word Study

Luke 23:33 interlinearLk 23:33 interlinear biblehub.com

Greek interlinear for the crucifixion at the Place of the Skull.

The Crucifixion of Jesus: Luke 19-23The Crucifixion of Jesus: Lk 19-23 bibleproject.com

BibleProject's video keyed specifically to the crucifixion movement of Luke's Gospel.

The Church Fathers

Luke 23:39 (Catena)Lk 23:39 (Catena) catenabible.com

Patristic readings of the penitent thief's exchange with Jesus.

Luke 23:46 (Catena)Lk 23:46 (Catena) catenabible.com

Fathers on Jesus' last word, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Sermons & Reflections

The Thief on the Cross - Luke 23:32-43The Thief on the Cross - Lk 23:32-43 enduringword.com

A focused reflection on the only recorded deathbed conversion in Scripture.

Worship & Prayers

Plainsong Passion concordiatheology.org

On the practice of chanting the Passion reading in worship, fitting the trial-to-burial shape of this shorter form.

Podcast

Sunday of the Passion (Palm Sunday), Apr 13 2025 workingpreacher.org

Working Preacher's podcast discussion of this Sunday's texts, including the crucifixion scene in Luke 23.

Art & Music

Isenheim Altarpiece en.wikipedia.org

Grunewald's harrowing crucifixion panel, painted for the suffering to see Christ suffering with them.

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