The Gospel Of Luke
Chapter 22/23
(V1-6) The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover – Because it was a major feast, many of the people who had heard and seen Jesus in the region of Galilee were in Jerusalem. They generally had respect and great expectation for Jesus and His ministry.
Plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction – This is to show that they didn’t fear God, but they did fear the people.
JUDAS ISCARIOT
The name Iscariot may mean that he was from Kerioth, a city in southern Judea. This would make Judas the only Judean among the other disciples, who were all Galileans. Some wonder if Judas resented the leadership of the Galilean fishermen among the disciples, and finally had enough of it. Others think the name Iscariot is linked to the word sicarius, meaning “assassin” – a connection to the Jewish zealots who carried out underground warfare against the Roman occupiers.
Many have wondered about the motives of Judas; some have even said that he might have had a noble motive, such as wanting to put Jesus in circumstances where He had to show Himself as Messiah. The Bible indicates no such praiseworthy intention
They were delighted, and they promised to give him money – Matthew 26:14-16 Says Judas asked how much they would pay him to betray Jesus, showing his true motive, money.
(V7-13) Jesus sent Peter and John ahead – Its unusually in the fact that James is missing here as they were normally seen as the inner three but traditionally the Passover meal was prepared by only two as with too many they would get in each other way.
Now this whole section reads like a spy novel meeting stranger with no name to an unknown location. But even in this Jesus shows His complete control over everything. See Jesus knew if he had said ” were all meeting at 7 at John Marks house” then Judas would have know exactly where and when to have Jesus arrested, and Jesus had a specific timetable of events that were all planned with perfection with timing that only God could accomplish.
So first of all the man carrying a pitcher of water, this would have been an unusual sight as women carried water pitcher not men, and then not to name Jesus but to just say ” the teacher” as there would have been thousands of teachers in Jerusalem at this time. Now whither Jesus had arranged all this before hand or if it was all miracles done by God we don’t know, but it was all significant to the perfect timing of the events that follow.
(V14-18) The Last Supper would have taken place on the Thursday night which has lead many Christians to scratch their heads as Passover was on the Friday ? Well it would depend where you lived in Israel what day it was. If like Jesus you came from the northern area of Galilee they said a day started at night fall so to them Thursday night was the start of Friday, but if you came from the south and were a Judean your day started at day break so Friday started at first light. This was actually quite handy as there were to be thousands of lambs sacrificed for the Passover meals and this could mean there would be two separate times to accomplish it. Also as there was tension between both the Galileans and the Judeans this would also keep the two groups apart.
(V19-20) Remember that the Passover had been celebrated for over a thousand of years (First was 1528BC) and the disciples would have celebrated every year from birth, so when Jesus changed the usual prayers to what Christians now say this would have been a extraordinary occasion, as this is the birth of the new covenant. Jesus had now changed celebrating getting taken from slavery from Egypt to now celebrating His act on the cross.
This cup is the new covenant ….confirmed with my blood – The precise understanding of these words from Jesus have been the source of great theological controversy among Christians.
The Roman Catholic Church holds the idea of transubstantiation, which teaches that the bread and the wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus. Where Protestants say they are symbols to represent his blood and body.
(V21-23) Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him as it was a prophecy that the Messiah should be betrayed Psalm 41:9. Judas was so good at covering his intentions that even the other disciples didn’t suspect him.
(V24-27) Its almost unbelievable that after three years of getting taught by Jesus that they would even now be arguing as to who is the best among them, but this seem to be a common argument Matthew 18:1, Matthew 20:20-26, Mark 9:33-34, Luke 9:46. Rather than be angry with them Jesus showed them by in turn washing their feet which was the lowest slave job, to show them how to act.
(V28-30) Being a servant does not mean that we are unrewarded. Quite the opposite; God’s greatest servants receive the greatest rewards. But a great servant does not serve for the sake of reward, but for the sake of God’s glory.
(V31-34) Jesus was aware of a spiritual battle behind the scenes. Peter was no doubt ignorant of the fact that Satan wanted to completely crush and defeat Peter or that Jesus had pleaded for him in return. It’s very moving to remember that Jesus prays for His people, protecting us from Satan Hebrews 7:25, Revelation 12:10. Surely there are many times that we would have perished, but Jesus prayed for us and protected us.
Peter’s faith would falter but not fail. Jesus did not see the temporary lapse that was to come as a failure of faith, because He knew that Peter would return to Him. In the Christian life, we may falter, but we must never fail. If we have denied Jesus in some way, then we must return to Him immediately and, having returned, we must turn our focus towards helping other.
(V35-38) The intent of Jesus seems to be, “I am on the point of leaving you, and when I am gone, you must use common sense means for provision and protection.” Such practical considerations were not needed before, but were needed now.
The disciples had been sent out to do ministry without Jesus before Luke 10:1-17, but then they were received with goodwill and hospitality. Now they faced a hostile world without Jesus and must be prepared.
“we have two swords among us.”“That’s enough,” he said
When offered the swords Jesus said this, meaning “Enough of this kind of talk” and was a firm way of ending the conversation. Jesus did not mean, two swords will be enough to battle the crowd that comes to arrest Me.
(V39-46) Jesus had spent His nights there during that week, and He refused to change this routine, even though He knew it meant that Judas could easily find Him. As Jesus began to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane He began by warning the disciples of their need to pray. Jesus Himself needed to pray for strength to pass the difficult ordeal to come and the disciples would had their own ordeals to face.
In response to Jesus’ prayers, the Father did not take the cup from Jesus; but He strengthened Jesus with angels, as sadly they now had to do the work of the sleeping disciples.
(V47-53) A crowd approached – The number of those sent to arrest Jesus shows that the religious leaders clearly regarded this as a dangerous operation, to be done without risk of riot or failure.
Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss – Judas warmly greeted Jesus, even giving Him the kiss. But the kiss was only to identified Jesus to the authorities. Apparently, Jesus was normal enough in appearance so that it was necessary that Judas specifically identify Him. Of course, Jesus knew the irony of being betrayed with a warm greeting; so He essentially asked Judas “are you so dead to all feeling that you can kiss and betray?”
The betrayal of Jesus was terrible sin, and Judas bears full responsibility for it. Yet God, in His wisdom, used it as the best way to deliver Jesus into the hands of His enemies .
- If they captured Jesus in a fight or if Jesus ran and hid until they found and caught Him, it would show that He was an unwilling victim.
- If Jesus surrendered Himself it might excuse His murderers or be seen as suicide.
- If it happened accidentally it would lessen the full effect of the bitter cup Jesus was about to drink.
And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear – Luke doesn’t say which disciple slashed at this slave who would have been unarmed but John lets us know it was Peter, but with Luke’s medical precision, identified the ear as the right ear. Assuming Peter was right handed, the only way to cut off someone’s right ear in this manner is if you attack from behind. It’s likely – though not certain – that Peter attacked the unarmed slave from behind. Which just shows when the Church takes sword in hand, it usually shows that it does not know how to wield it, and as often as not has struck the wrong man.
he touched the man’s ear and healed him – Even here, Jesus was present to clean up the mess His disciples left behind. He healed the damage done by Peter.
By all outward appearance it would seem to be their hour, not Jesus. But as Jesus had said many time before it’s not my time, now it was perfect.
Jesus had to be arrested tried and crucified all that same day as to make the timing perfect as He had His last supper made the New Covenant and would now die on the cross on the Friday at 3:00 at exactly the precise time the sacrificial lambs would be getting slaughtered for the Passover meal.
(V54-60) Before Jesus came to the home of Caiaphas (the official high priest), He was led to the home of Annas, who was the ex-high priest and the “power behind the throne” of the high priest according to John 18:12-14 and John 18:19-23.
Luke did not record the details of this appearance before Caiaphas, the high priest and a hastily gathered greeting of the Sanhedrin council Matthew 26:57-68. Luke will begin his focus at the official, daylight meeting of the council Luke 22:66.
The rest of the disciples fled. Peter followed at a distance, hoping to prove wrong Jesus’ prediction that He would deny and forsake Him at His death.
Peter denied Jesus in at least three specific ways. First, Peter denied even knowing Jesus “I don’t even know him!”, then he denied being a follower of Jesus “No, man, I’m not” finally he denied that he was even from Galilee “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Matthew 26:74 says that at the last denial Peter even began to curse and swear – hoping that it would help distance himself from Jesus.
(V61-62) At the crowing of the rooster, Jesus looked through the crowd around Him, and made eye contact with Peter. Peter was immediately convicted of his sin; not only of his denial of Jesus, but also of the pride that led him to think he could never deny Him.
NOTE – The ancient Greek word translated as looked usually signifies a look of love, or concern.
Sadly, he remembered it too late – after he had sinned. At the moment, Peter’s only reaction was weeping bitterly but Peter was not without hope. As much as Jesus’ promise that Peter would deny Him was true, so was the promise “when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers”
(V63-65) Luke did not record the proceedings of this first, night time trial of Jesus before the high priest and the hastily gathered council Matthew 26:57-68. He did record what happened immediately after that trial – that Jesus was mocked and beaten by the religious authorities.
(V66) On the night of His betrayal and the day of His crucifixion, Jesus actually stood trial various times, before different judges. The order of events can be summarized.
Jesus was first brought to the home of Annas, the ex-high priest and the “power behind the throne” of the high priest John 18:12-14, John 19-23.
Then Jesus was brought to the home of Caiaphas, the sitting high priest. There He was placed on trial before an lynch mob gathering of the Sanhedrin still during the night Matthew 26:57-68, when false witness were brought before the council and the high priest demanded to know of Jesus if He was the Son of God. To this question,- Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right handand coming on the clouds of heaven.”Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Blasphemy! Why do we need other witnesses? You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?”“Guilty!” they shouted. “He deserves to die!” Matthew 26:64-66
After that, the beating described in Verses 63-65 began. Then At daybreak the Sanhedrin gathered again, this time in official session, and they conducted the trial described inVerse 66-71 and mentioned in Matthew 27:1-2.
This daytime meeting of the Sanhedrin council was necessary because by the Sanhedrin’s own laws and regulations the night trial described in Matthew 26 was illegal.
- According to Jewish law, all criminal trials must begin and end in the daylight. This second trial was necessary because they knew the first one – the real trial – had no legal standing.
- According to Jewish law, only decisions made in the official meeting place were valid. The first trial was held at the home of Caiaphas, the high priest, so they called together this trial, held at their council.
- According to Jewish law, criminal cases could not be tried during the Passover season.
- According to Jewish law, only an acquittal could be issued on the day of the trial; guilty verdicts had to wait one night to allow for feelings of mercy to rise.
- According to Jewish law, all evidence had to be guaranteed by two witnesses, who were separately examined and could not have contact with each other.
- According to Jewish law, false witness was punishable by death; nothing is done to the many false witnesses in Jesus’ trial.
- According to Jewish law, a trial always began by bringing forth evidence for the innocence of the accused before the evidence of guilt was offered; this was not the practice here.
(V67-71) “Tell us, are you the Messiah?” – They wanted to hear from Jesus Himself if He claimed to be the Messiah. Again, this was all a formality because they had already passed judgment on Jesus with the illegal trial held the night before , where essentially the same question was asked.
“If I tell you, you won’t believe me” – Given the circumstances – that Jesus had already been found guilty and that the present trial only a show – this was the perfect response. They pretended to have an open mind and ask sincere questions, but it wasn’t true – only pretence.
But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand – This was essentially the same reply Jesus gave to the high priest at the earlier trial. Jesus warned them that though they sat in judgment of Him now, He would one day sit in judgment of them – and with a far more binding judgment.
“Why do we need other witnesses?” – At this daytime trial, they made no effort to find testimony against Jesus, because the witnesses at the night time trial had hopelessly contradicted themselves Therefore they avoided witnesses at this daytime trial.
Chapter 23
(V1-7) Took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor – The Roman government did not allow the Jewish leaders the authority to execute a criminal. So the religious leaders sent Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor over the region of Judea. The Jewish leaders had reason to expect a favourable result when they went to Pilate. Secular history shows that he was a cruel, ruthless man, completely insensitive to others. Surely, they thought, Pilate will put this Jesus to death.
Not to pay their taxes…. and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king – The religious leaders knew Pilate would be unconcerned with the accusation of blasphemy. Therefore they brought Pilate false accusations.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” – Seeing Jesus beaten and bruised he saw that the man before him was not likely to be a pretender to royalty in any sense that he need trouble himself about.
“You have said it.” – Jesus gave Pilate the same simple reply He gave to the high priest
“I find nothing wrong with this man!” – Though Pilate was a cruel, ruthless man he wasn’t stupid. He could see through the motives of the religious leaders and had no problem in estimating Jesus and the whole situation by the declaration.
Oh, is he a Galilean? – Pilate seems unwilling to stand behind his verdict that Jesus was not guilty. So he sent Jesus to Herod, because Jesus was from Galilee, the area where Herod ruled.
(V8-12) Hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle – Herod gave his attention to Jesus and was even delighted to see Him. He wanted to hear from Jesus on Herod’s own terms and wanted to see Jesus do a miracle. Yet for all this, Herod’s interest in Jesus was not sincere and was to his condemnation, not his praise.
NOTE – At one time Herod Antipas had expressed some religious interest. He heard the Word of God from John the Baptist Mark 6 yet intending to continue in his sin.
He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer – Jesus understood that Herod was a wretched, shallow man and had therefore nothing to say to Him. The same man who murdered John the Baptist now regarded Jesus as a miracle performer for his own entertainment.
Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus – The mockery finally showed what Herod really thought of Jesus. When Jesus refused to entertain him, Herod entertained himself by mistreating Jesus.
(V13-17) Find him innocent so I will have him flogged, then released – This is crazy to think if you were called to court found innocent then told but we will still whip you first !
NOTE – The Roman custom of scourging was a brutal whipping. The blows came from a whip with many leather strands, each having sharp pieces of bone or metal at the ends. It reduced the back to raw flesh, and it was not unusual for a criminal to die from a scourging.
Pilate believed he had a way for Jesus to escape death. He planned to release Him according to the custom of releasing a prisoner every Passover season. Pilate perhaps thought, “If this Man claimed to be king and is even the slightest bit hostile to Rome, then the crowd will love him. These Jewish leaders don’t want Jesus to go free, but the crowd will sympathize with Him.”
(V18-25) “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!” – The crowd, whom Pilate was convinced would release Jesus, instead condemned Him. Because of this, Pilate did not find the courage to oppose both the religious leaders and the crowd. This was a strange, almost insane scene, a cruel, ruthless Roman governor trying to win the life of a simple Jewish teacher against the efforts of both the Jewish leaders and the crowd. Their loud cries give the impression that a riot was beginning to build up. It must have been obvious to Pilate that the situation was becoming increasingly ugly.
NOTE – We may wonder why the crowd who now shouted Crucify Him crowd had just a few days before, cried out Hosanna when they had seen Jesus. But this was because it was very early in the morning and this crowd was now mainly Jerusalem Jews as the Northern Galilean Jews were still out at the campsites around the city and as such these crowds were firmly in the pockets of the Seduces and would never go against what their leaders said for fear of being excommunicated from the Temple.
He released Barabbas, the man in prison for insurrection – The crowd rejected Jesus and embraced Barabbas, whose name means son of the father, and who was a terrorist and a murderer. If anyone should be able to say, “Jesus died for me,” it was Barabbas. He knew what it was to have Jesus die on his behalf, the innocent for the guilty.
AMEN