What Old Testament prophecies connect to the events in Luke 23:21? Getting Our Bearings in Luke 23:21 “ But they kept shouting, ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ ” (Luke 23:21) The crowd’s relentless cry fulfills a tapestry of prophetic threads woven centuries earlier. Prophecies Foretelling Public Rejection • Psalm 22:6-8 – “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD deliver him…’ ” • Isaiah 53:3 – “He was despised and rejected by men…” • Psalm 69:4 – “Those who hate me without cause outnumber the hairs of my head.” • Psalm 118:22 – “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Prophecies Pointing to Violent Death by Piercing • Psalm 22:16 – “A band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.” • Zechariah 12:10 – “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.” • Isaiah 50:6 – “I gave My back to those who strike… I hid not My face from disgrace and spitting.” Prophecies Highlighting Unjust Condemnation • Isaiah 53:8 – “By oppression and judgment He was taken away.” • Daniel 9:26 – “After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.” • Zechariah 13:7 – “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.” Prophecies Anticipating the Role of Gentile Authorities • Psalm 2:1-2 – “Why do the nations rage… The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One.” • Isaiah 53:12 – “He was numbered with the transgressors…” (fulfilled as Rome’s method of crucifixion placed Him between criminals) Prophecies Echoed in the Crowd’s Cry for His Blood • Exodus 12:6 – The Passover lamb slain “at twilight” foreshadows the substitutionary death the crowd unwittingly demands. • Deuteronomy 21:22-23 – A man “hung on a tree” is under God’s curse, prefiguring the curse Christ bears as the people call for crucifixion. Pulling It Together Luke 23:21 is no tragic accident; it is the precise outworking of God’s foreordained plan. The voices shouting “Crucify Him” become unwitting agents fulfilling Scripture’s portrait of the rejected, pierced, yet ultimately victorious Messiah. |
    |