Luke 22:63-71 - Who do you think you are?

22:63,64

The guards would imagine themselves to be in a position of power over Jesus, so they mocked and beat Him, also blindfolding Him. They demanded that He prophecy, mocking Him. They beat him and taunted Him as to who had hit Him. It is a very human trait that when we are in what we think is a superior position we seek to take advantage of it, lording our “authority” over others. Instead we should always act with humility and seek to use any authority or superiority to bless others.

2:66-71

The apology for a judicial process now begins. None of the gospel writers gives a complete account of the “trial”, but there were two key elements to it. There were the hearings before the Jewish courts, and there were the hearings before the Roman courts.

Here we read of the trial before the Sanhedrin, an attempt to add some legitimacy to the goings on. Rather than presenting a clear charge against Jesus they invited Jesus to “incriminate” Himself. “If you are the Messiah, tell us”.

Jesus has no interest in defending Himself before the council. Today many atheists and sceptics act as if God has an obligation to “prove” Himself to them, it may come as a shock to some of them to discover that this is not the case! Jesus then declares that “the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God”. So the opinions of mere men on the council pales into insignificance in that light! Many atheists would do equally well to realise how unimportant their opinions really are.

The council clearly thought that this implied that Jesus was the Son of God, and Jesus agrees with them. They also took this as clear blasphemy. So Jesus was condemned for who He was!

Luke 22:54-62 - Disowning Jesus

22:54-62

Jesus was seized and taken to the high priest’s residence. The arrest of Jesus was at the instigation of the religious leaders, not the Romans. Though the Romans would, of course, play a big part in the succeeding events. What we are going to read about first is Peter’s denial of Jesus. The synoptic gospels put the various denials into a single section, while John has Jesus being questioned in between the first and subsequent denials. This is a just a matter of the way they have arranged the material. Within the synoptics there is a superficial difference in who spoke to Peter, a servant girl, two servant girls, a man etc. It is likely that when one person raised the matter other people in the group would weigh in as well. Whatever the case, various people challenged Peter, saying he was one of Jesus’ followers. In each case, despite his earlier protestations, Peter denied being a follower of Jesus.

Peter’s denials get more vehement. Then on the last one the rooster crows and Jesus looks at him. Peter then realises what he has done and he is full of sorrow at his failure.

This is a very important incident. It is perhaps the clearest example of the gospels doing nothing to exalt the apostles, but instead to highlight their human failings. If the gospels were a man-made fabrication then it is highly unlikely that they would do this. Then it illustrates our human weakness. We can all be shocked at what resides within us, and extreme circumstances can bring it to the surface. In his letters Peter tells us to prepare our minds for action. In the heat of the moment it is so easy to do the wrong thing, whereas if we had prepared our minds beforehand we would have been alert to the danger and might have responded differently. Finally, there is the matter of denying Christ. Jesus has said severe words about those who deny Him, yet Peter, as we know, was restored and went to serve Jesus faithfully. So we should give these warnings of Jesus full weight, but also give the importance of repentance and forgiveness full weight. If we favour one over the other we are going in the wrong direction. In the early centuries of the church one of the issues that arose was how to treat Christians who had denied Jesus under persecution, and then came back. Some wanted them written off for their failure. Others were more forgiving. Interestingly, it was those who had endured persecution and remained faithful who tended to be the most forgiving. If we ever have to endure severe persecution it will only be by the grace of God that we manage to stand up under it, may He give us that grace!

Luke 22:47-53 - An act of betrayal

22:47,48

The betrayal is now set in motion. Judas was leading a crowd that was coming to arrest Jesus. Matthew, Mark and John give further details on the composition of the crowd, but Luke does not. The kiss was a normal means of greeting in the middle east, and signified honour and respect.

22:49-51

Earlier Jesus had instructed the disciples to make sure they had some swords with them, so it would seem natural to them that He wanted them to fight with them, and now was the time. They asked Jesus, but without waiting for an answer Peter (John 18:10) struck the ear off one of the servants. This could be said to illustrate that Peter wasn’t very skilled with a sword! Jesus told them to stop and healed the man.

22:52,53

Even the manner of their arresting Jesus betrayed the nature of the religious leaders. Jesus was not leading a rebellion. Day after day He was in the temple courts teaching openly. They could have arrested Him at any time. But the religious leaders were acting out of fear and darkness, so their deed was done at dead of night. It was an act of darkness. Yet Jesus was still in control.

Luke 22:43-46 - Why are you sleeping

2:43,44

Matthew and Mark tell of angels helping Jesus after His temptation (Matt 4:11; Mark 14:36), Luke is the only writer to mention this incident. So notice first of all that an angel did come to help. In Acts an angel came to help Peter when he was in prison. Now notice how this angel helped. He did not set Jesus free, but strengthened Him to enable Him to carry out the task that lay ahead. And the helping of the angel did not make the task any easier, rather He gave Him the strength to see it through. It lead to Jesus praying more earnestly, “Sweat like drops of blood” could either just be the size of the drops of sweat, or there may actually have been blood mingled in. Whatever the case, these are real events, genuinely experienced by the Lord.

2:45,46

As we know, the disciples were asleep, unable to keep watch, either physically or in prayer. Luke tells us that they were exhausted with sorrow. Although they did not really understand what was going on, they knew something big and traumatic was about to happen. They were wrapped up in their own feelings, with no strength left to be concerned for Jesus. This is a very human reaction. One of the many amazing things about the Easter events is that even in the midst of the most terrible events Jesus still had active concern for others: His disciples, His mother, the thief at His side. Jesus told them again to pray so as to avoid falling into temptation. So prayer is a valuable weapon in our battle against temptation.

Luke 22:39-42 - Not my will, but yours be done

22:39,40

Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives to pray. Note that it says “as usual”. We need to develop good habits of praying, praising, Bible reading etc, so that when crisis points arise we have a good foundation and are better able to deal with the situation. at the onset of a crisis it is usually too late to suddenly develop good habits!

Then notice that Jesus says to his disciples “pray that you will not fall into temptation”. He was still concerned for them and their well being. We also know from the other gospel accounts that they were to keep watch. Maybe this was to watch for the coming guards, or to keep watch in the sense of praying. Either way, they failed miserably.

22:41,42

This demonstrates the humanity and full reality of the situation. The events of the cross, the physical suffering inflicted, and experiencing the wrath of God, were real. This is something that makes no sense to our human understanding. Elsewhere Paul says it was an offence to the Jews and nonsense to the Greeks. Islam considers it impossible that God would allow Himself to be treated in such a way. Yet He did. So Jesus prayed that if there was any other way then let this suffering be taken away, but above all else, the Father’s will must be done. This teaches us much about following the Lord. It is normal and OK to find things difficult at times, for Jesus found things difficult. What we need is not the ability to not find things difficult, but the commitment to the Father’s will even when we are really struggling. Then there is the matter of the Father’s will. There is so much misunderstanding about the cross, especially from those who talk about “cosmic child abuse”. Such people do nothing but demonstrate their own stupidity and spiritual blindness. The Father and the Son were in complete agreement over what needed to be done in order to save humanity. The Father sent the Son, the Son came willingly and went to the cross willingly. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were working together in complete unity.

Luke 22:31-38 - A prediction of denial

22:31-34

We now get the famous prediction of Peter’s denial of Christ. Jesus tells us that Satan had asked to sift all of them. This is reminiscent of the beginning of Job where Satan goes before God seeking permission to have a go at Job. In both case, Job and Peter, Satan was allowed to do certain things, and deep weaknesses and flaws in Joba and Peter were exposed, and much trouble was caused to them. Yet in both cases they were ultimately stronger, not because of anything within themselves, but because of the grace of God. The workings of God, and what He allows Satan to do, can sometimes seem strange, even to the point of being totally wrong, but in all cases we can trust the Lord and His wisdom.

Jesus says He had prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. Now look at what happened. On any human level of understanding Peter’s faith did fail, and in a major way. He denied the Son of God three times. Yet he still “followed” Jesus. He was there at the tomb, he was with the disciples in all the events after the cross. Then he had that famous meeting with Jesus recorded in John’s gospel. Even when we have failed badly, we need to to stick with God’s people, and keep on holding on to Jesus in hope. Peter protested his dedication and commitment, and no doubt was sincere in this, but Jesus knew the deep weaknesses in Peter, just as He knows the deep weaknesses in you and me.

22:35,36

Some time ago Jesus had sent them out telling them not to take a purse, bag or sandals. They had obeyed Him and had everything they needed.  Now He tells them to take a purse, bag, and even to buy a sword. This is a lesson against applying particular instructions (ie instructions given for a particular occasion) as universal commandments. There may be times when we have to “live by faith” in the sense of having no visible means of support, but this does not mean that in general we do not act “sensibly”, making sensible provision for practical needs. There is a danger of us being super-spiritual idiots.

22:37,38

Jesus then quotes from Isaiah 53:12. We should note that while just one verse is quoted, it may well be intended that we understand that Jesus had the whole section in mind. Jesus knew what was going to happen, and why it was going to happen. He knew that the events prophesied in Scripture were being fulfilled. The disciples remain oblivious to all this and are focused on the practicalities, ie how many swords they have. When things are beyond our understanding we tend to find comfort in focusing on things we can handle. As a wee aside we have another example against an overly literal interpretation of parts of Scripture. Jesus’ earlier words could have been taken as implying everyone should have a sword. Having two between them was regarded as sufficient.

Luke 22:24-30 - Who is the greatest?

22:24

It one sense this part is pathetic. Jesus is just about to be betrayed and go to the cross and suffer on behalf of all mankind, and here are the disciples arguing about which of them was the greatest. Yet this is an all too human response. We get upset about things that really don’t matter at all, and when the truth is that none of us are great on our own merits.

2:25,26

Jesus takes the opportunity to correct and instruct them. Authority, leadership and greatness in the Kingdom are completely different than they are in the world. In the world these things are used to exalt oneself, to gain advantage for oneself, and to belittle others. In the Kingdom the leader and greatest is the one who serves. where we have authority, we must exercise authority, but we do so as servants, and to build others up.

2:27-30

Jesus then points to Himself as an example of this, and in John’s gospel we read of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. It is interesting that the other gospels do not mention this, yet here is a clear indirect reference to the event. Then Jesus speaks about conferring a kingdom upon the disciples. There is such an important balance here. We tend to go to one extreme or the other. We either just talk about servanthood, or we just talk about the rewards of the kingdom. Jesus always spoke about both! Paul in his letters seems to imply that the rewards mentioned here apply to us all as well (eg 2 Tim 2:12; 1 Cor 6:3), and this would seem to be consistent with the tenor of Scripture. In Hebrews it says that Jesus endured the scorn of the cross for the joy set before Him, and in John 13 that He served because he knew who He was. If we are to have a true servant heart we also need to be confident in who we are in Christ, and in the future blessings that will be ours.