Ever Watching

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

EVER WATCHING

Luke 23:47-49

47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man." 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

NIV

There are four groups or individuals which we have some knowledge about within this section of the narrative surrounding the death of Jesus upon the cross. We have the centurion, those who beat their breasts and went away, the women and although not mentioned, we still have his disciples. This centurion most likely had no idea of the Jews concept of a Messiah, but nevertheless he commented about the divine nature of Jesus, perhaps in the sense of his heroic manner upon the cross and the moment of his death by his own choosing. It was typical for a person to take far longer to suffocate upon a cross then it took Jesus to give up his spirit onto God. Could we expire at the moment of our choosing rather than simply wait for the end to come at the hands of age? Then we have the people who beat their chests and went away. Luke does not include the fact that at the moment Jesus commended his spirit onto God, not only was there darkness, and the curtain was torn apart, there also was a great earthquake and many tombs of the past dead saints were opened. Matthew includes this along with the fact the saints came back to life, they were resurrected. There is discussion among scholars as to the time frame of their resurrection as Jesus was the first of the resurrection so although their graves were opened they did not resurrect until Jesus had resurrected first. That must have been a sight in itself, all those who were dead were now alive again. But nevertheless these people who beat their chests, they were in anguish over the scene they had just witnessed, yet they went away. What does that mean? Can people witness a supernatural divine moment and just for a moment think how incredible it is and then go away, back to their own lives? That is the implication here, they saw what had happened, and yet because of their self-absorbed life, it meant something for the moment but then they just go away. Let us never forget all the supernatural events when God has intervened in our lives, and just go away doing our own thing, but let us continue to stay close to the cross. Then we have the women. They stood at  a distance watching these things. There again we have in the original language an opportunity  to think they came from a distance, or they were watching from a distance. It might most likely be because of the modesty of the woman in that time, and because criminals were crucified naked they stood a distance away. But then we also know that the mother of Jesus along with John were close enough for Jesus to talk to them. But at least these women who followed Jesus were there, at a distance or from a distance. They were not giving up on him, they wanted to be near enough to him to watch over him, caring what was happening to him. Women have certain feelings, emotions, mental capacities men may never understand nor ever come close to embracing, for God created woman different than man. We have his disciples who promised to follow him even onto death, yet where are they here? Are they with the woman? No mention of them, except in another gospel about John. But where are the others? We do know they were hiding in that room when Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection. We also know it was the women who first knew of his no longer being in the tomb. We also know that after it was all said and done these disciples did go out boldly and preach the good news, but where were they when all this was happening? Which of these four types can we most identify with? The centurion, an unsaved person who sees the divine but does nothing about it. The crowds who beat their chests but go about their own lives, the women watching from a distance, or those disciples who promised, but did not follow through. Let us hope we are more like the women, although at a modest distance, they never left Jesus alone. We might find ourselves at a distance at times, but we are still watching Jesus. We might not be overly active in some sort of ministry at times but we are still following Jesus. We might not be the greatest witness, or preaching the gospel to everyone we meet, but we are still following Jesus. Yes, the women may have been heartbroken over what they were watching, but they were still watching. No matter how life treats us, we have to know that God is still in control and we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, ever watching.