This Tuesday, we continue our study of Luke’s Gospel with Luke 22:39-23:56. These are the Passion readings of Luke’s Gospel.
On the Mount of Olives: (vv.39-53)
After the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples retired to the Mount of Olives, as was their habit. Luke 21:37. As they reach the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples to stop, but Jesus continues on a little way to be by himself to pray. Jesus will be apart from his disciples for the rest of our readings this week.
Jesus’s prayer on the Mount of Olives is a practical example of the prayer that Jesus previously taught his disciples. Luke 11:1-4. Jesus prays to the Father, he prays that God’s Kingdom be present, and he also prays to be delivered from trial. Most of the elements of the Lord’s Prayer are present here.
As Jesus returns from prayer, he is met by a crowd led by Judas. Luke tells us that this crowd comprises temple officials and their armed guards. One of the disciples strikes out with a sword, cutting off the ear of the High Priest’s slave. (John blames Peter. John 18:10.) In an act of mercy and forgiveness, Jesus heals the severed ear. He then chastises both the disciples’ violence and those of the Temple authorities.
Jesus ends his verbal interaction with the Temple authorities by proclaiming this is now “your hour, and the power of darkness.” Jesus confirms that the Jewish leaders are allied with the dark, evil, enslaving powers of this world – with Ceasar, with Pharoah, and with Satan. What began at the appropriate hour with the celebration of the Passover meal (v.14) has now ended with the hour of darkness.
Pretrial Detention (vv.54-71)
Luke describes Jesus’s pretrial detention in three parts. Each part of this process should give each of us an insight into our fallen human nature.
First, we have Peter’s denial. At the Last Supper, Peter proclaimed that he would go with Jesus to prison and death. v.33. But Peter is weak and falters. Peter’s weakness is highlighted in that he does not deny he knows Jesus to someone in authority, but to a paidiske – a young slave girl. In his Antiquities (written in 94 AD), the Jewish historian Josephus writes that neither women nor servants are competent witnesses. Bk. IV, Ch. 8.15. In other words, Peter could have told her anything, and the Council would not have admitted her as a witness against Peter. He did not need to deny Jesus to her, but he did anyway. Peter goes on to deny Jesus two more times before the rooster crows.
Next, we have the Temple guards beating and mocking Jesus. Jesus is blindfolded, and they make him the object of their games. The soldiers are bullies who make themselves strong by beating on the weak. No one steps forward to defend Jesus’s basic humanity.
Finally, Jesus appears before the Temple council of chief priests and scribes. It is daybreak. The officials were scared to arrest Jesus publicly in the Temple while he was speaking, but now they have him in their custody, and a little roughed-up before the crowd that follows Jesus knows what is going on. The Council is not interested in the truth, but in getting rid of Jesus. They only need one word from him to twist, spin, or misquote to obtain their “evidence.” Jesus never gives them any direct answer as to whether he is the Messiah, only that “You say that I am.” Despite the lack of evidence, they declare him guilty. The Temple Council had their verdict before they had a trial.
From here, the real trial before Pilate will begin in Luke 23.
In Luke’s story of Jesus’s pretrial, we see Jesus as the Lamb of God who has taken upon himself the sins of the world – our weakness, our violent depravity, and our perversion of justice. As we read through the lesson for this week, from the Mount of Olives to the Cross, see yourself in each of the characters Luke gives us.
SCHEDULE: Tuesday, April 15 is our annual Christian Seder Dinner. All are welcome, including guests, but RSVP is required. Dinner is a traditional Mediterranean food of lamb and vegetables, and we use the Jewish Passover seder service as a framework for our Holy Week remembrance.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is Boston clam chowder in honor of George’s return. Discussion about 6:45. Hope to see you here.
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; *
O LORD, make haste to help me.
Let those who seek my life be ashamed
and altogether dismayed; *
let those who take pleasure in my misfortune
draw back and be disgraced.
Let those who say to me “Aha!” and gloat over me turn back, *
because they are ashamed.
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; *
let those who love your salvation say for ever,
“Great is the LORD!”
But as for me, I am poor and needy; *
come to me speedily, O God.
You are my helper and my deliverer; *
O LORD, do not tarry.
Psalm 70