Luke 22

V 1–6: PASSOVER PLOT When the religious leaders look for a way to kill Jesus, Satan influences Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve. Judas agrees to betray Jesus in return for monetary payment. He will lead them to Jesus at a time when there is no crowd to antagonise or to witness their taking Jesus into custody. V 7–23: SPECIAL SUPPER Peter and John prepare the Passover in a room designated by Jesus for the Lord’s Supper and divinely preserved for Him. Jesus, with His disciples, takes the form of words of the Passover and applies them to Himself. His body and His blood will be given for them and God’s covenant will be ratified in the shed blood of His Son. But He knows that one will go out to betray Him. The disciples question who the betrayer will be. V 24–30: DISTURBING DISCORD Amazingly, at such a sacred time, the disciples then dispute which of them will be the greatest. Jesus teaches that the greatest is the one who serves. He bestows kingdom rights and privileges on His disciples who have continued with Him in various trials. V 31–34: PETER’S PRESUMPTION Jesus prophesies about Peter, that he will fall but will be restored to strengthen his brothers. Peter then proclaims, with impulsive presumption, that he is ready to be imprisoned or to die. Jesus responds that before the rooster crows, he will deny Jesus three times. V 35–38: COMING CLIMAX Jesus gives other instructions to the disciples to meet the changing circumstances. God tells Him that the climax is coming when He will be ‘numbered with the transgressors’, (in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53), and that the Scriptures will be fulfilled about Him. He faces the cross. The disciples tell Jesus that they have two swords. Jesus tells them he has heard enough about that. V 39–46: PAINFUL PRAYER Jesus continues His habit of praying on the Mount of Olives. His disciples follow Him. He tells them to pray that they will not enter into temptation, and then goes a short distance away and prays that the will of the Father will be done by Him, even if it means His taking the cup of suffering and sacrificial death on the cross. In agony and in earnest prayer His sweat becomes ‘like great drops of blood falling down to the ground’. Christ returns from prayer to find His heavily sorrowful disciples not praying, but asleep. He wakes them to rise and pray in order to resist temptation. V 47–53: DIVINE DIGNITY Judas leads the crowd of people to arrest Jesus and approaches to kiss Him. Jesus quietly rebukes Judas by asking if he will betray Him with a kiss. He restores the right ear of one of the servants of the high priest, severed with a sword wielded by one of Jesus’ disciples (identified elsewhere as Peter). Jesus, calmly and rhetorically, asks the religious rulers and the captains of the temple why they did not try to seize Him when He was with them in the temple every day. Then He quietly concedes that this is their hour of darkness, and He does not resist. What dignity we see in Christ. V 54–62: DISTANT DISCIPLE Peter, following afar off, three times denies that he knows Jesus. As His Master prophesied, the rooster crows. Jesus turns and looks at Peter, who remembers. He goes outside to weep bitterly. V 63–65: MASTER MOCKED The guards mock and beat Jesus. They play a game with Him. They blindfold Him and ask Him to prophesy who hit Him. They insult Him in many ways. There is no response from Jesus. V 66–71: TRUTHFUL TESTIMONY After an all-night ordeal, Jesus is led to the council (the Sanhedrin) of the elders, chief priest and scribes. Jesus tells the Sanhedrin that in the future, the Son of Man (a title used to refer to Himself) ‘will sit on the right hand of the power of God’. He then confirms, in answer to their question, that He is the Son of God. Jesus never shrinks from telling the truth about Himself, or about others. They take this as a confession of blasphemy and move on to the next unconstitutional stage in their perverted judicial process, intent to do to death the Son of God.