Lucas 23
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Lucas 23:18-25
The word of the Lord is rich, and according to the opinion of Solomon, "it must be written on the heart" not once but also twice and "three times." Let us to the best of our ability also now attempt to add something to what was said long ago. Let us show how "as a type of things to come" this one male goat was sacrificed to the Lord as an offering and the other one was sent away "living." Hear in the Gospels what Pilate said to the priests and the Jewish people: "Which of these two do you want me to send out to you: Jesus, who is called the Christ, or Barabbas?" Then all the people cried out to release Barabbas and to hand Jesus over to be killed. Look, you have a male goat who was sent "living into the wilderness." He carried with him the sins of the people who cried out and said, "Crucify, crucify!" The first is a male goat sent "living into the wilderness." The second is the male goat that was offered to God as an offering to atone for sins. Christ made a true atonement for those who believe in him. — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 10.2.2
Lucas 23:18-25
Celsus goes on to say that "those who killed Jesus suffered nothing for a long a time afterwards." We must inform him and all who are prone to learn the truth. The Jewish people called for the crucifixion of Jesus with shouts of "Crucify him, crucify him!" They preferred to set free the robber who had been thrown into prison for sedition and murder. They wanted Jesus, who had been delivered through envy, to be crucified. The city where all these things happened was attacked shortly after this. After a long siege, it was totally overthrown and destroyed. God judged the inhabitants of that place unworthy of living the life of citizens together. Although it may seem incredible to say, God spared this people in delivering them to their enemies. He saw that they were incurably against any improvement and were daily sinking deeper and deeper into evil. All this happened to them because the blood of Jesus was shed at their instigation and on their land. The land was no longer able to bear those who were guilty of so fearful a crime against Jesus. — AGAINST CELSUS 8.42
Lucas 23:43
"Today you will be with me in paradise." Through saying this, he also gave to all those who believe and confess access to the entrance that Adam previously had closed by sinning. Who else could remove "the flaming turning sword which was placed to guard the tree of life" and the gates of paradise? What other sentinel was able to turn the "cherubim" from their incessant vigil, except only he to whom "was given all power in heaven and in earth"? No one else besides him could do these things. — HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 9.5
Lucas 23:43
"I will recall you from there in the end." I think this means that at the end of the ages his only-begotten Son descended even into the nether regions, for the salvation of the world and recalled "the first-formed man" from there. Understand that what he said to the thief, "This day you shall be with me in paradise," was not said to him alone but also to all the saints for whom he had descended into the nether regions. In this man more than in Jacob the words will be fulfilled, "I will recall you from there in the end." — HOMILY ON GENESIS 15.5
Lucas 23:53
When it will be our professed purpose to treat such things, we will explain at greater length on a more suitable occasion the matters of his burial, tomb and the man who buried him. For now, it is sufficient to notice the clean linen in which the pure body of Jesus was wrapped and the new tomb that Joseph had hewn out of the rock, where "no one was yet lying." … It suited him, who was unlike other dead people but who even in death revealed signs of life in the water and the blood. He was, so to speak, a new dead man, laid in a new and clean tomb. His birth was purer than all the others, since he was not born in the ordinary way but of a virgin. At his burial, the new tomb where they deposited his body also symbolically indicated his purity. It was not built from stones gathered from various quarters not having natural unity. It was quarried and hewed out of one rock, united together in all its parts. — AGAINST CELSUS 2.69