Luke 23:39 · World English Bible
Luke 23:39 Meaning One of the Criminals Who Was Hanged
One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
What does Luke 23:39 mean?
The mockery from the one crucified beside the Christ is the unredeemed lower nature, hung on the same cross of the flesh, jeering at the very consciousness that could raise it. The 2 malefactors are the twinned energies of the body fixed to the wood, and this one is the part that will not turn, the coarse self-will demanding a rescue on its own terms, wanting the higher self to prove itself by escaping the pain rather than passing through it.
From the Esoteric reading below.
Luke 23:39 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Esoteric
ESOTERIC
Esoteric
The mockery from the one crucified beside the Christ is the unredeemed lower nature, hung on the same cross of the flesh, jeering at the very consciousness that could raise it. The 2 malefactors are the twinned energies of the body fixed to the wood, and this one is the part that will not turn, the coarse self-will demanding a rescue on its own terms, wanting the higher self to prove itself by escaping the pain rather than passing through it. The cross is the crossing-point of spirit and matter where the awareness is stretched between them.
What unfolds is the failing lower mind taunting the awakened self to abandon the ordeal, to save the flesh instead of transforming it. The unturned energy asks for deliverance without surrender, and in demanding escape it shows it has understood nothing of what the crossing means.
Malefactor: the unredeemed lower energy hung on the same flesh, the coarse self-will that will not turn Hanged: fixed to the body's cross, the awareness stretched between spirit and matter Cross: the crossing-point of spirit and matter where the self is transformed through the ordeal
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Live Luke 23:39 today
- When something hurts today, sit with just the plain fact of it for a minute without adding the long story about how unfair it is. One arrow is enough.
- When a friend tells you something heavy, resist the urge to fix it in two sentences so the discomfort ends. Stay in it with them; that is worth more than the rescue you were about to offer.
- In the hardest hour of your day, catch yourself bargaining for an exit, the excuse, the cancelled plan, the message you half write to get out of it. Take one more breath and walk through instead of around.
Where are you asking to be saved from something you are actually meant to walk through?
The same truth in other traditions
Buddhism · the second arrow
The first arrow is the pain itself. The second is the one we fire into ourselves by raging that it happened at all, and that one is optional.
Stoicism · Epictetus, Enchiridion 8
Stop demanding that things happen the way you want them to. Want them as they are, and you will have peace instead of a fight you cannot win.
Sufism · Rumi
Do not try to seal the wound shut. That break in you is exactly where the light is getting in.
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