The Passion according to Luke
Death and Burial of Jesus: Lk 23,44-56
Early Christians were proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead. For that, he needs to have been dead. It was therefore important for them to stress that Jesus really had died on the cross and had been buried in a tomb.
Death of Jesus: 23,44-49
The three hours of darkness are used to describe happenings at the end of time, "on that day" (Amos 8,9). Likewise, the plague of locusts and the darkness they cause (Joel 2,10, from which comes the Dies Irae) are a sign of divine judgement. There are many problems with the eclipse in verse 45 but we don't need to be concerned about it.
The negative meaning of the tearing of the veil of the Temple is therefore a sign of the end of the Temple cult. More positively, it has also been seen as a sign that all now have access to God, Jews and Gentiles alike. However, Luke has moved this tearing of veil from after the death of Jesus in Mark (Mk 15,38) to before it. It may be that Luke wanted the two negative signs before the death so that eveything after it would be positive.
Jesus's last words in Luke in verse 46 come from Ps 31,5. They display a far more serene confidence than the desperate cry of Ps 22,1, the sense of being forsaken by God (Mk 15,34). In Mark, Jesus calls God "Father" in Gethsemane and "God" on the cross. In Luke, it is always "Father", an echo of Jesus' very first words in the Gospel (2,39). Unlike the frantic reactions in Mark (Mk 15,35-36), the serenity continues as Jesus breaths his last (23,46). Jesus remains in control.
Reactions now follow, the most important being that of the centurion, presumably a Gentile like most of Luke's community. It is a change from Mark ("this was the Son of God") to a more general statement: this man was righteous. The righteous one is a title for the Messiah (Jer 23,5 or Luke himself, Acts 3,15). Jesus dies as one who is right before God.
Many translations (including NRSV and NAB) translate the cry as "innocent", presumably considering that this would have been appropriate for a Gentile in 33AD. Considering the community that Luke was writing for several decades later, the normal translation "righteous" is better. This righteousness certainly includes innocence but more than innocence is involved here.
Crowds tend to gather for spectacles and so they did for the crucifixion. Crowd here is a more general term than the people of verse 35 who came to watch. Instead of a spectacle, they went away beating their breasts like the publican in the parable (18,13). The spectacle has become a call to repentance.
Earlier in the Gospel, Luke has told us about the women who cared for Jesus (8,2-3). Now they reappear (23,49), another stage of the story so that they become eye-witnesses of all the key events of Jesus' life. They now provide the continuity from burial to resurrection.
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Burial of Jesus: 23,50-56
Luke describes Joseph as a good and righteous man and stresses that he comes from Arimathaea, a Jewish town. He reminds us of Zechariah at the beginning of the Gospel. As the Gospel began with pious observant Jews from Judea so too they reappear for the burial of Jesus. Simeon awaits the consolation of Israel (2,25), Joseph awaits the kingdom of God. Luke also stresses that Joseph had not consented to the condemnation of Jesus, despite the apparent unanimity in 23,1. He does not not say he is a disciple, only John's Gospel says that.
Jesus was executed by the Romans so Pilate's permission was needed to take down the body.
The book of Tobit opens with Tobit fulfilling his pious duty of burying the dead even at some cost to himself (Tob 1,17 and 2,3-8). Bodies had to be buried by nightfall; a tomb which had not previously been used is one worthy of Jesus. (It would have been the custom to have cleaned out tombs after the flesh had decayed and take the bones to the charnel-house.)
The women from Galilee make their appearance again in verse 55. The word "follow" is used as in verse 49. They observe the burial but take no part in it.
Verse 56 is unique to Luke, including the comment about resting on the sabbath. Perparing the spices indicates that the women think Jesus is dead and they have no thought of resurrection. Observing the sabbath once again recalls the Jewish piety based on observance of the Torah which is seen in the infancy narratives, especially during the presentation in the Temple (Jesus' parents, 2,22-24), Simeon (2,25) and Anna (2,37).
Jesus too rests on the sabbath, though he is in the tomb. The seventh day is the day God rested after creation (Gen 2,2).
There may be a hint here of the new creation to come and the verse points forward. Read closely, verse 54b is the first half of a sentence which continues into 24,1.
(That is how it is given in the UBS Greek New Testament. I am not aware of any translation that follows this.)
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