Luke 23

(23:1-2) In my attempt to beat a dead horse, from what I have heard about the party of Pharisees in general, it is difficult to believe that all Pharisees (even most Pharisees?) would go along with this. Luke doesn't say here it was the Pharisees which is consistent with my argument.
Pilate we already talked about (see our Mark or Matthew discussion on the other website). While his words may sound fair, he's far from a "nice guy." His apparent desire to let Jesus off the hook may have come from something his wife said to him (check Matthew 27:19).

(23:26) As I read this verse, I was reminded of that scene from The Passion of the Christ movie. It's poetic license, of course, but when the Romans ask Simon to carry the cross in the movie, he makes this loud address to the crowd which went something like, "Just so you know, I am an innocent man carrying this cross for a guilty man." Actually that statement is profoundly false. Simon was a guilty man carrying the cross for an innocent man. And Jesus (innocent) hung on that cross for us (guilty).

After reading this, read Psalm 22 sometime. As I'm writing this, I've got a wicked-bad cough, my eye hurts, and I'm running a temperature, but reading this is perfect timing, because it's a reminder to me that all this is nothing compared to what Jesus went through for us.

(23:50) This was actually a very bold move on Joseph's part and a generous one. A tomb was a major investment in those days, since one cut in the rock could be used by one's family for generations (remember our discussion about secondary burial?). However, once a tomb had someone not from the owners family buried in it, it could not be used again. So this was a huge gift on Joseph's part--the equivalent of giving away a house, except multiply it by 10 because no one in Joseph's family (the generations after him) could use it either.