Luk 23:48

Smote their breasts

The spectators of the crucifixion smiting their breasts

I.

BEHOLDING CHRIST ON THE CROSS. Look on the multitude now–see how they who before had triumphed in His misery, are struck with deep astonishment. One says, Surely this was a righteous man. Another says, This is the Son of God, And all the people who came together to that sight seeing what had passed, smote their breasts and returned. They came to the execution with eager haste and bitter zeal. They retired slow, silent, and pensive, with downcast looks and labouring thoughts. Their smiting their breasts indicated some painful sensations within.

1. It expressed their conviction of the innocence and divinity of this wonderful sufferer. Whatever sentiments they bad entertained in the morning, they had now seen enough to extort from them an acknowledgment that this was a righteous man–this was the Son of God. This character Jesus had openly assumed; and with unwavering constancy He maintained it to the last.

(1) Observe His calmness. Amidst the rudest and most provoking insults, He discovered no malice or resentment toward His enemies; but all His language and behaviour was mild and gentle. When He was reviled, He reviled not again; but committed Himself to Him who judgeth righteously.

(2) See His benevolence. He attended to the case of His afflicted mother, and commended her to the care of His beloved disciple. He wrought a miracle to heal an enemy wounded in the attempt to seize Him. He extended mercy to a malefactor who was suffering by His side.

(3) Consider His humble piety. He maintained His confidence in God; called Him His God and His Father; and into His hands committed His Spirit. Such distinguished piety, benevolence, and constancy, under trials like His, showed Him to be a righteous man–to be more than man. And heaven itself bare solemn testimony in His favour. The darkness which overspread the land was evidently supernatural.

2. Their smiting their breasts was expressive of their compassion for this innocent and glorious Sufferer. Their rage, which had been wrought up to the highest strain, now began to subside, and give way to the tender feelings of humanity.

3. This action expressed a deep remorse of conscience.

II. BEHOLDING CHRIST IN THE HOLY COMMUNION. To behold this Divine Saviour in the flesh, and to see Him expire on the cross, was the lot only of those who lived in His day. But the frequent contemplation of His death is a matter of so much importance, that He was pleased, just before He suffered, to appoint an ordinance for the purpose of exhibiting His death to our view, and bringing it to our remembrance. Here He is set forth crucified before our eyes. Do we turn away from this ordinance? We have little reason to think we should have attended the crucifixion on any higher motive than mere curiosity. If a real regard to Him would have invited us to follow Him to the cross, the same regard will invite us to come and see Him at His table.

1. Have any of you entertained indifferent notions of Christ and His religion? Come here, and reflect on those characters of divinity which He exhibited.

2. Here meditate on the worth of your souls.

3. Here behold the great evil of sin.

4. Here meditate on the wonderful mercy of God.

5. Look here and behold an instructive example of patience and resignation.

6. Look to Christ and learn to despise the world.

7. Look to Christ, and learn meekness and forgiveness. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)

The great sight

I. THE SIGHT. It is the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. You have often heard of it; have you thought of it until you could see it? Have its different incidents been grouped in your mind so as to form a complete picture? Try to realize it.

II. THE LESSONS OF THE SIGHT.

1. The first lesson to which we beg your attention is the antagonism of sin to God. As if to show to the universe the true nature and tendency of sin in all its forms, all classes of worldlings were grouped around the Cross; each had an opportunity of expressing its feelings; and how awfully significant and awfully condemnatory was the part which they acted! All classes–the religious world, and the learned world, and the sceptical world, and the fashionable world, and the money-loving world, ay, and the ordinary working world–all combined to show the murderous nature and the God-defiant attitude of sin.

2. But if this sight teaches the antagonism of sin to God, it also teaches us Gods hatred of sin. We cannot account for the Saviours sufferings if they have not some connection with the sin of man. Even a heathen could understand, that if an innocent being suffers, it must be because of the sins of others. Kajarnak, a chieftain inhabiting the mountains of Greenland, notorious for the robberies and murders he had perpetrated, came down to where a missionary in his hut was translating the Gospel of John. His curiosity being excited by the process, he asked to have it explained; and when the missionary told him how the marks he was making were words, and how a book could speak, he wished to hear what it said. The missionary read to him the narrative of the Saviours sufferings, when the chief immediately asked, What has this Man done? Has He robbed anybody–has He murdered anybody? No, replied the missionary, He has robbed no one, murdered no one; He has done nothing wrong. Then why does He suffer? why does He die? Listen, said the missionary; this

Man has done no wrong, but Kajarnak has done wrong; this Man has not robbed any one, but Kajarnak has robbed many; this Man has murdered no one, bat Kajarnak has murdered–Kajarnak has murdered his wife, Kajarnak has murdered his brother, Kajarnak has murdered his child; this Man suffered that Kajarnak might not suffer; died that Kajarnak might not die. Tell me that again, said the astonished chieftain; and by the repetition of the story the hard-hearted murderer was brought in contrition and tears to the foot of the Cross. Even so the Bible tells us, He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

3. But if this sight teaches such a fearful lesson in reference to Gods hatred of sin, thank God it also teaches that a way has been prepared by which men may escape from sins consequences. He who became our Sin-bearer did not lay down the load till He had borne our sins away. He did not cease to suffer until He could say, It is finished.

III. THE FEELINGS WHICH THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE SIGHT IS FITTED TO AWAKEN.

1. The first feeling which it naturally excites is that of which the bystanders were the subjects, when, beholding the things which were done, they smote their breasts, and returned–a feeling of shuddering horror at the magnitude of their offence.

2. But the sight is also fitted to awaken the apprehension of danger. This feeling, in the case of His murderers, mingled with the horror with which they regarded their crime. They did not understand the doctrine of the Messiahship sufficiently to know that even His death might become the ground of their pardon; and a fearful foreboding of punishment, as well as an appalling consciousness of guilt, led them to smite their breasts when they beheld the things that were done. And, no doubt, the Cross is fitted to awaken this feeling in every sinner to whom it has not imparted the hope of salvation. For nowhere is the evil desert of sin so strikingly exhibited.

3. But the sight is also fitted to awaken hopeful feelings. Whether any of the men who smote their breasts were led to cherish the hope of pardon, the narrative does not say; but we doubt not that some of them were among the three thousand who, on the day of Pentecost, found that the blood which they had shed was a sufficient atonement for the sin of shedding it, and that the death which they had been instrumental in effecting was the occasion of their endless life. Even so does the Cross proclaim pardon to you, and by it all who believe are justified from all things. The same sight which awakens in you an appalling sense of sin, and a fearful apprehension of punishment, tells you, that though you have done so wickedly and deserved to endure such suffering, there is pardon in Christ for you. Look at it until the peace which it speaks takes possession of your souls–look until you understand what Christ has done for you–look until your fears are dispelled–look until the boundless love which it reveals awakens in you the beginnings of a new and better life–look with the assurance that you cannot look in vain, for He, whose promise never fails, has said, Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. (W. Landels.)

Mourning at the sight of the Crucified

I. First, then, let us ANALYZE THE GENERAL MOURNING which this text describes. All the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. They all smote their breasts, but not all from the same cause. Others amongst that great crowd exhibited emotion based upon more thoughtful reflection. They saw that they had shared in the murder of an innocent person. No doubt there were a few in the crowd who smote upon their breasts because they felt, We have put to death a prophet of God. In the motley company who all went home smiting on their breasts, let us hope that there were some who said, Certainly this was the Son of God, and mourned to think He should have suffered for their transgressions, and been put to grief for their iniquities. Those who came to that point were saved.

II. We shall now ask you TO JOIN IN THE LAMENTATION, each man according to his sincerity of heart, beholding the Cross, and smiting upon his breast. I shall ask you first to smite your breasts, as you remember that you see in Him your own sins. Looking again–changing, as it were, our stand-point, but still keeping our eye upon that same, dear crucified One, let us see there the neglected and despised remedy for our sin. Still keeping you at the cross foot, every believer here may well smite upon his breast this morning as he thinks of Who it was that smarted so upon the Cross. Who was it? It was He who loved us or ever the world was made.

III. Remember that AT CALVARY, DOLOROUS NOTES ARE NOT THE ONLY SUITABLE MUSIC. After all, you and I are not in the same condition as the multitude who had surrounded Calvary; for at that time our Lord was still dead, but now He is risen indeed. Look up and thank God that death hath no more dominion over Him. He ever liveth to make intercession for us, and He shall shortly come with angelic bands surrounding Him, to judge the quick and dead. The argument for joy overshadows the reason for sorrow. Lastly, there is one thing for which we ought always to remember Christs death with joy, and that is, that although the crucifixion of Jesus was intended to be a blow at the honour and glory of our God–though in the death of Christ the world did, so far as it was able, put God Himself to death, and so earn for itself that hideous title, a deicidal world, yet never did God have such honour and glory as He obtained through the sufferings of Jesus. Oh, they thought to scorn Him, but they lifted His name on high! (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Lessons at Calvary

1. See here accumulated evidence of the truth of Christianity. Think of the fulfilled prophecies already noticed.

2. See here the true atonement for sin, and receive it by faith.

3. See here, and admire, the love of the Father, and of the Son to perishing sinners. This display of the Fathers love far surpasses any other which He has given.

4. See here the certainty and the dreadful nature of the punishment of the obstinately wicked in the other world.

5. See here your example. What I chiefly refer to at present is His patient submission to His sufferings.

6. See here the most powerful motives to repentance, the mortification of sin, and the prosecution of holiness. In the last place, see here every encouragement to perishing sinners to come to Christ for safety, and to believers to rejoice more and more in confidence in His merits. (James Foote, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 48. And all the people] All were deeply affected except the priests, and those whom they had employed to serve their base purposes. The darkness, earthquake, &c., had brought terror and consternation into every heart. How dreadful is the state of those who, in consequence of their long opposition to the grace and truth of God, are at last given up to a reprobate mind!

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

And all the people that came together to that sight,…. To see the execution of Jesus; and some of them might be his inveterate enemies, and came to insult him, and did insult him; many of these, though not every individual of them:

beholding the things which were done; the eclipse, earthquake, c.

smote their breasts as conscious of guilt, and as fearing some dreadful judgment would fall upon them, and their nation, for this sin of crucifying Christ. The Persic version reads, “they went back, and kneeled down, and prostrated themselves to the ground”; as being in the utmost astonishment, confusion, fear, and dread:

and returned; to the city, and to their own houses, where they might more seriously, and with the greater composure of mind, reflect on these things.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Certainly (). Really, old adverb from the participle from , to be. Used also in 24:34 of the resurrection of Jesus.

A righteous man (). Mr 15:39 (Mt 27:54) which see, represents the centurion as saying (God’s Son) which may mean to him little more than “righteous man.”

That came together (). Double compound (, together, , along), that came along together.

To this sight ( ). This spectacle ( from , verse 35).

Returned (). Imperfect active of . See them slowly wending their way back to the city from this Tragedy of the Ages which they had witnessed in awe.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “And all the people that came together to that sight,” (kai pantes hoi sumparagenomenoi ochloi epi ten thearian tauten) “And all the crowds arriving together at this scene,” sitting down and standing near Calvary that day, Mat 27:23.

2) “Beholding the things which were done,” (theoresantes ta genomena) “Closely observing the things happening,” the cries, the mocking, and derision of all the scoffing parties, the religious Jewish rulers, the soldiers, the dying thieves, etc. Luk 23:23.

3) “Smote their breasts, and returned.” (tuptones ta stethe hupestrepson) “Returned smiting their breasts,” or went away smiting their breasts, everyone of them, in a gesture of penitence, remorse, shame, and perhaps many in regret, that they had let themselves be led or goaded into their crying demands of a few hours earlier, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Zec 12:10; Rev 1:7.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

(48) To that sight.The word is used by St. Luke-only in the New Testament, and exactly expresses the purpose of those who had come as to gaze on a spectacle. These had probably taken little or no part in the insults and taunts of the priests, and now they went away awed, partly by the darkness, partly by the solemn majesty of that awful death.

Smote their breasts, and returned.Better, returned, smiting their breasts. Both the verb and participle imply continuous action.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And all the crowds who came together to this sight, when they beheld the things that were done, returned smiting their breasts.’

The things that had happened moved the crowds. They had long sought signs from Jesus, and they had had signs today. And as they went away they beat their breasts as they thought of what had happened. They were moved and stirred. But we are given no cause to think that it went further. They had ‘beheld these things’, but by the morning it would all be just a memory.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 23:48. And all the peoplesmote their breasts The people who came to behold this melancholy spectacle, were wonderfully affected when Jesus gave up the ghost. They had been instant, with loud voices, to have him crucified; but now that they saw the face of the creation darkened with a sullen gloom during his crucifixion, and found his death accompanied with an earthquake, as if nature had been in an agonywhen he died, they rightly interpreted these prodigies to be so many testimonies from God of his innocence; and their passions, which had been inflamed and exasperated against him, became quite calm, or moved them in his behalf. Some could not forgive themselves for neglecting to accept his life, when the governor offered to release him; others were stung with remorse for having had an active hand, both in his death, and in the insults which were offered to him; others felt the deeper grief at the thought of his lot, which was undeservedly severe; and these various passions appeared in their countenances; for they came away from the cruel execution pensive and silent, with downcast eyes, and hearts ready to burst; or, groaning deeply within themselves, they shed tears, smote their breasts, and bewailed greatly. The grief which they now felt for Jesus, was distinguished from that former rage against him, by this remarkable difference, that their rage was produced intirely by the craft of the priests who had wickedly incensed them; whereas their grief was the genuine feeling of their own hearts, greatly affected with the truth and innocence of him who was the object of their commiseration. Wherefore, as in this mourning flattery had no share, the expressions of their sorrow were such as became a real and unfeigned passion. Nor was this the temper only of a few, who may be thought to be Christ’s peculiar friends;it was the general condition of the people, who had come in great numbers to look on. And the conviction, thus produced in them, undoubtedly made way for the conversion of such a multitude by the preaching of the apostles on the descent of the Spirit, which was but seven weeks after, when these things were fresh in their memories. See Act 2:41.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

48 And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.

Ver. 48. See Mat 27:54 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

48. ] Peculiar to Luke.

are the darkness and other prodigies, after which we have no more raillery: men’s tempers are changed, and we here see the result.

a sign of self-accusation, at least for the time, which is renewed on the preaching of Peter, Act 2:37 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 23:48 . , sight, here only ( 3Ma 5:24 ). , the things that had happened; comprehensively, including the crucifixion and all its accompaniments. They had looked on and listened, and the result was regret that they had had anything to do with bringing such a fate on such a man. . ., beating their breasts. Lk. has in mind Zechariah’s “they shall look on me whom they have pierced and mourn” (Luk 12:10 ). , kept going away, in little groups, sad-hearted.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

people = crowds.

were done = took place.

smote, &c. = beating. returned. The women “stood”. returned. Greek. hupostrepho = turned back. Occurs thirty-two times in Luke and Acts, and only three times elsewhere in N.T.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

48.] Peculiar to Luke.

are the darkness and other prodigies, after which we have no more raillery:-mens tempers are changed, and we here see the result.

a sign of self-accusation, at least for the time,-which is renewed on the preaching of Peter, Act 2:37.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 23:48. , sight) They who had been merely spectators [who previously had been stirred up by the high priests to raise the cry, Crucify Him, but who now were altogether differently disposed.-Harm., p. 577], were now revolving in their minds thoughts tending to salvation, and were being prepared for the Pentecost described in Acts 2; but those who had perpetrated the deed were for the most part in a state of agitation.-, this sight) viz. of the cross.- , the things which had been done) at the death of Jesus. The sight () which they had sought for was attended with a sight ( ) which they looked not for.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

smote: Luk 18:13, Jer 31:19, Act 2:37

Reciprocal: Nah 2:7 – doves Mat 27:55 – many Mar 15:39 – he said Luk 23:34 – Father

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

LESSONS FROM THE CROSS

And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.

Luk 23:48

We, too, have come together this day to the sight and contemplation of the Cross, and Him Who hangs thereon. We, too, have smote upon our breasts, and bewailed our sins. We are about to return from that sight. Let us take home a few thoughts to stand us in good stead in our Christian conduct in the days that are to come.

I. And first, from this sight of Christ hanging dead upon the Cross, let us go back to our Christian life and work with the strengthened conviction that failure in good is impossible.

II. And this being so with our personal religion, it is so, too, with all efforts for Gods glory in the work and mission of His Church.It is treason to Him to think otherwise.

III. Thirdly, let us learn the lesson of never indulging in desires for Gods glory, except in Gods own ways.Even now we can see in some measure that the Cross of Christ did in a signal degree set forth Gods glory and conduce to His honour.

Illustration

Let us be very careful about mistaking zeal for our own plans for zeal for Gods glory. One iota of calm perseverance beneath the shame and humiliation of the Cross which Christ has appointed, is worth years of zealous endeavour for our own plans or notions as to how Gods glory is to be advanced. The Apostles would gladly have fought for Christ. One only of them stood beneath the Cross. His bravest and most zealous Apostle denied Him utterly when he saw Him brought to trial. To follow Christ is the Christians duty: not to decide in what way Christs glory will best be served. It may be that we serve Christ best in absolute quiet, in total self-surrender, and even in withdrawal from all visible work whatever. There are those whose lifes work is like that of Mary and John beneath the Cross on the day of the Crucifixionto stand there silent and observant in rapt adoration of His total self-surrender. It is ours to offer ourselves. It is His to decide the form of service.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

8

Smiting the breast was an ancient custom in times of mourning or humble anxiety. (See chapter 18:13.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Luk 23:48. And all the multitudes, etc. No mention is made of the rulers. Jerusalem was crowded, and the multitudes were great. This sight, or spectacle.

The things which were done. These put an end to mockery.

Returned smiting their breasts. In self-reproach, for they had cried out for His crucifixion.Luke alone speaks of this, but it is not implied that the people had taken no part in the previous mockery. Such a change is by no means uncommon. This accords with the Pentecostal inquiry (Act 2:39), and may be regarded as the result of our Lords prayer (Luk 23:34).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 48

And all the people, &c. It appears from Luke 23:27, that a large portion of the populace regarded Jesus with friendly feelings,and strongly deprecated these proceedings. They who cried, “Crucify him,” were probably comparatively few, and were instigated to their hostility by the Jewish leaders.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament