Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Posture of a True Disciple | The Gospels | Luke 23:26–43

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Why does Luke's Gospel include Simon carrying Jesus’s cross and the criminal beside him? What do their responses reveal about the human heart? And what does this tell us about what true discipleship actually look like? In today’s episode, Jensen shares how Jesus's crucifixion in Luke 23:26–43 reveals the posture of a true disciple: humble, aware of their need, and willing to take up their cross and follow the one, true King. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Luke 23:26–43

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. We have reached the climax of the story. The story has been building to this moment, the moment that Satan would succeed in killing the Messiah through the work of Judas, the Pharisees, and the Roman government. See, the focus of Luke's gospel has been to show how Jesus came. to save the lost, to bring those outside of God's fold into his family as the people of God. And while today's passage is clearly telling us the story of how Jesus was crucified, it also clearly shows us something about ourselves.

See, in Luke's retelling of the crucifixion, he alone includes more detail on two groups of people who interact with Jesus in the moments before his death. And in doing so, Luke is making a point. He's telling a story within the story. One that I want to examine in our time today. So let's dive in. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene, who was on his way from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. for the time will come when you will say blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and breasts that never nursed, then they will say to the mountains fall on us and the hills cover us. For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

So Matthew, Mark, and Luke all mentioned Simon from Cyrene, who carries the cross for Jesus. But Luke alone mentions this interaction between Jesus and the women following and mourning his death. Now, his response is a clear wake-up call. Don't weep for me. Weep for you yourselves. If the leaders will do this evil when the Messiah is before them, when the tree is green,

how much more will they do after they've succeeded in killing him? Jesus is warning them not to weep for him, but to fear the judgment of God that will come on his people for the evil that they've done and continue to do. Now, it's harsh. The women in this story would rather be done. dead, rather that they had never had children than live under the judgment of God. And Jesus is saying that this judgment is coming. Jesus is telling the women to take action, to stop weeping, and to repent. Now compare these women following behind Jesus, mourning, and Simon. Simon picks up

Jesus' cross and he follows him. Twice in Luke's gospel in chapters 9 and 14, Luke records Jesus saying that true disciples will take up their own cross and follow Jesus. Now, Simon of Cyrene's family is mentioned in the New Testament stories about the early church. His family seems to be one of faith, and so here we have this image of the first disciple of Christ following Jesus's command, taking the posture of a true disciple. Yet he's not the only one who takes up their cross in this passage. So let's continue on. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals,

one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, he saves others. Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said,

If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. Okay, so Luke is taking us on this journey. We've seen one man take on the posture of a true disciple,

followed by a stern warning from Jesus that God's judgment is coming. And then here we see Jesus asking God to forgive the bury people who are killing him, casting lots for his clothing, mocking him. You can see the posture of the soldiers, the rulers and Pharisees, one of the criminals. They make fun of him. If you were really the king, the Messiah, the chosen one, you'd save yourself. You can hear the hot. You can hear the hot, tone with which they speak. They believe themselves to be smarter than Jesus, more powerful. They see him for what they think he really is, a liar and a criminal, one that they've defeated. But now, Luke shifts to the second person in the story who takes up the cross. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said. Since you are under the same sentence, we are

punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. So this second criminal on the cross is the only one who sees the truth of what is happening here. And the truth does not cause him to become haughty, but humble. He rightly sees that he is guilty. He is being punished for his crimes and he recognizes that Jesus, he's innocent. He's done nothing wrong. He sees that he is powerless and he turns to Jesus, the one that he knows has the power to save him. And Jesus says that today this criminal will be with him in paradise. Now this word paradise is another word for the dwelling place of God. It is

the home of the righteous, it's the same Greek word that is used to reference the Garden of Eden, the place where God and man dwell together. Humanity was cast out of Eden because they rebelled, because in their rebellion, in their crimes, they could not dwell intimately with the Holy God. They were unclean. The story of the Bible is about God's desire to dwell with his people again. God is making a way for us to be intimately connected to him in this way. But it would not come through human striving, through human attempts at being holy. Humans could not find their way back into the garden. And yet, that is what is being offered to this man, this criminal. Notice that it's his humility, his recognition of his own crimes, his own unworthiness, his dependency on Jesus,

his ability to see Jesus for who he truly is, his submission to the cross. That is the way of Jesus that grants him entrance into the dwelling place of God. Not because the criminal was holy and righteous, but because he recognized that Jesus alone was holy and righteous, and Jesus alone could give him freedom. See, the posture of a true disciple is one of humility, one that follows in the ways of Jesus that recognizes their own need, denies themselves, their desires and identity,

and instead seeks the identity of Jesus. That is the gospel. That is our call to recognize that outside of the care of Jesus, the judgment that stands before us is too great. It's to be feared. We are guilty. We will find ourselves in the wrathful, righteous justice of God, unless we cast ourselves beside Jesus and rest in his righteousness,

righteousness that he gives to the unholy through the cross. He cries out forgive them as he's murdered for our trespasses. The only truly innocent one. See, Luke is painting the picture clearly. There is a way into the presence of God. There is a way into his fold, into his family. There is a way to be counted righteous. And it is through the cross.

It is through humility. It is through seeing yourself and Jesus rightly. I am guilty. He is blameless. I cannot escape God's judgment by my own strength or power. I need the forgiveness, the blood, the righteousness of Jesus. When we take up our cross and humility and follow Jesus, looking to him for our salvation, to rescue us, he looks at us like he looks at the criminal on the cross, and he welcomes us into the dwelling place of God. I want to end by reading a long passage from the Old Testament. This is a prophetic passage from Isaiah, a passage that finds its fulfillment in the crucifixion of Jesus.

And as I read, just rest in the words, the words that tell your story, your way into the dwelling place of God. Behold, my servant, that's Jesus that he's talking about, shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted, as me. many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind, so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand who has believed what he has heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground,

he had no former majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our grieves and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep, we've gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that has led to the slaughter and like a sheep

that before it shears is silenced. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. Thank you, Jesus. May we follow in your ways. May we take up our cross and follow you.

May we see ourselves rightly in need of your mercy. Grant as your righteousness for only you are righteous. May we live lives of humility, seeing the reality of who you are resting in the true story. God, thank you for the cross. Thank you, Jesus, for making a way for us to live intimately in the dwelling place of God. May we long to enter the Garden of the Lord. Amen.