Luke 22

Chapter twenty-two details the events of Thursday into the early hours of Friday morning. The first few verses (1-6) probably happened on Wednesday, because Luke seems to make a distinction between verses one and seven. When Jesus did not make the power move against Rome that Judas expected and wanted, Judas must have considered him a fraud and made plans to have him arrested.

The Passover was on Friday that year, 1 so Jesus had Peter and John make the preparations on Thursday (vs. 7-13). After 6:00 that evening it would have actually been Friday (the days run evening to evening), so Jesus did eat the Passover with his disciples on Friday. During the meal he stated that his body would be given for them, and eating the Passover was to be done in his remembrance. After supper he did the same with the wine, linking it to his blood which would institute the new covenant (vs. 14-20). Jesus then mentioned that he would be betrayed by one of the Twelve. Their genuine surprise and investigation devolved into an argument about their personal greatness (vs. 21-30).

Within the prophecy that Peter would deny Jesus, only Luke included the conversation where Jesus mentioned that Satan wanted to scatter the disciples. In another overlooked prophecy, Jesus declared that Peter would return first, and he commissioned Peter to help restore the others (vs. 31-38). Luke noted that Jesus “customarily…[went] to the Mount of Olives”; this is why Judas knew he would find him there (vs. 39). During Jesus’ torturous prayer, only the doctor recorded the physical effects that it had on him: “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (vs. 44). Likewise, Luke made special mention that the disciples did not sleep because of apathy; they were “exhausted from grief” (vs. 45).

As he expected, Judas found them. When the disciples attempted to put up a fight, Jesus would not allow, to the point of healing a wound on an enemy. (All three other Gospel writers include the skirmish, but only Luke mentioned the healing.) The final section of the chapter records the juxtaposition of Peter denying that he even knew Jesus while Jesus was being beaten and abused for Peter and the rest of us. After his unjust beating, Jesus stood trial before the Jewish Council and was condemned for blasphemy (vs. 54-71).

Notes:

  1. Harold Hoehner does a fantastic job detailing this in his Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. ↩