Tonight, we continue our study of Luke’s Gospel with the Passion readings of Luke 22:39-23:56. Next Tuesday is our annual Christian Seder Dinner. All are welcome, including guests, but RSVP is required. Dinner is a traditional Mediterranean meal of lamb and vegetables, and we use the Jewish Passover seder service as a framework for our Holy Week remembrance.
Jesus’s Trials (vv.1-25)
Luke’s Gospel is the only Gospel that divides Jesus’ trial into three parts, with Herod appearing as part of the process. First, the Jewish Council takes Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, with their accusations against Jesus. Pilate asks if Jesus is “King of the Jews,” and Jesus does not give a direct answer. Pilate finds no reason to condemn him.
The Council tells Pilate that Jesus is a Galilean (who are known for their revolutionary tendencies), and Pilate takes the opportunity to send Jesus to Herod Antipas, who has jurisdiction over Galilee. Herod is in Jerusalem for the Passover and finally meets Jesus. Luke 9:9. Herod wants to see magic tricks. Jesus does not oblige. Herod mocks Jesus and sends him back to Pilate.
Pilate then calls the Council and now the people before him and reiterates that Jesus is not guilty of anything. Pilate resists trying to give the Council and their supporters the condemnation of Jesus they want. But Pilate is weak and ultimately releases Barabas, an insurrectionist, at the demands of the Council and the people, and sentences Jesus to death.
All of the cowardice, violent depravity, and perversion of justice that we see in Jesus’s pretrial travails are present here as well. As you read through these verses, think through what goals each of these characters has and how the condemnation of Jesus fulfills these desires.
The Crucifixion: (vv.26-56a)
We should all be familiar with the account of the crucifixion. With some minor exceptions, Luke generally aligns with the other Gospels. However, Luke does give a few details that the other gospel accounts omit.
First, in Luke, Jesus directly addresses the women wailing and following him. Throughout our journey through Luke’s Gospel, we have seen Luke emphasize Jesus’s interaction with women. He calls them “daughters of Jerusalem,” echoing the words of Isaiah 4:4. Jesus’ message to them as he is marched outside of Jerusalem to Golgatha is similar to the lament for Jerusalem he gives during his triumphant entry. vv. 28-31, Luke 19:41-44. These two laments bookend Jesus’s entry into and exit from the City.
Second, Luke is the only gospel to record Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” v.34. Throughout his ministry, the kingdom Jesus preached was often mistaken for an earthly kingdom. He was killed as a revolutionary, and Pilate, the soldiers, and the crowd all mocked him as being “King of the Jews.” In expressing forgiveness towards those who mocked and crucified him, Jesus demonstrates the type of kingdom over which he rules – one based on forgiveness and mercy, not power and violence.
Finally, only Luke gives us the conversation between the two criminals crucified next to him. One of the criminals participates in the mockery like those in the crowd below; the other asks Jesus to remember him. In the Rite of St. Basil used in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the final line of the final prayer before communion ends with the words, “But as the thief, I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.” Basil’s liturgy for the evening of Holy Thursday also invokes the wise thief with this hymn: “The Wise Thief didst Thou make worthy of Paradise, in a single moment, O Lord. By the wood of thy Cross, illumine me as well, and save me.” (A sung version of the hymn is here.) The wise thief is our example of living a life of repentance.
Holy Saturday: (v.56b)
Luke’s account of the Crucifixion concludes with the words, “On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.” As we looked at in the Nativity, Jesus came into the world being obedient to the Law, and now, in death, he remains obedient. Between the horrors of Good Friday and the celebration of the Resurrection, everyone rests. The world is silent.
- April 15 – Christian Seder Dinner. RSVP required.
- April 22 – No gathering.
- April 29 – Luke 24
- May 6 – Richard Beck’s Reviving Old Scratch – Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is Boston clam chowder in honor of George’s return. Discussion about 6:45. Compline at 8. Hope to see you here.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7-9