Luke 22 Study Notes

22:1 By NT times, the Festival of Unleavened Bread and Passover had come to be almost interchangeable ideas. For the Jews, Passover was a meal commemorating the night the angel of death “passed over” those Jewish homes in Egypt whose doorposts were covered by the blood of a Passover lamb (Ex 12:1-14; Lv 23:5). Unleavened Bread was a weeklong feast immediately following Passover that commemorated the exodus (Ex 12:14-20; Lv 23:6-8). These feasts were celebrated during our months of March or April.

22:2-6 The religious leaders (chief priests . . . scribes) were committed to finding a way to put Jesus to death because they feared his popularity among the people. The perfect opportunity presented itself when Judas . . . Iscariot, one of the apostles (see note at 6:14-16), motivated by Satanic influence and money, agreed to betray Jesus.

22:7 All leaven, or yeast, was excluded from Jewish households from the beginning of the week of Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. In that sense, the day when the Passover lamb was sacrificed was called the Day of Unleavened Bread. The lambs were sacrificed from midafternoon to late afternoon in the court of the priests at the temple complex. This was on Thursday of Passion Week.

22:8-13 The effect of Jesus’s words here is the same as when he sent two disciples for the donkey on which he rode during the triumphal entry (see note at 19:30-34). God had the details worked out in advance. A man carrying a water jug would have been a strange sight since that chore was typically performed by women. Many homes in Jerusalem had an upstairs guest room with an outside entrance which could be rented to pilgrims observing a feast in the city. The wording suggests that the owner of this room knew Jesus or was even a disciple.

22:14 The Passover meal began at sundown. Participants reclined on their sides on low couches, leaning over the low table to eat.

22:15-18 By saying that he fervently desired to eat this Passover with his disciples before suffering (going to the cross), Jesus encouraged them to interpret the following events in light of Passover imagery. The cup here could have been the first or second cup of the traditional Jewish Passover ritual.

22:19 To institute a new memorial meal (the Lord’s Supper), Jesus chose the unleavened bread of the Passover meal to represent his physical body, which would be broken on the cross much as bread was broken during the meal. His death would be offered (given for you) as a substitute for sinners, all of whom deserve to die for their sins.

22:20 The new memorial meal also lent fresh meaning to the cup after supper (probably the third of four cups in the Passover ritual). The cup was reinterpreted to refer to the blood of Christ, poured out as a payment for sins by Jesus, the ultimate Lamb of God (Jn 1:29). The mention of the new covenant related to Christ’s shed blood means that the prophesied new covenant (Jr 31:31-34) would be ratified by Jesus’s death on the cross.

22:21-22 Judas was guilty as the one betraying Jesus (vv. 3-6), yet it remains the case that his actions were determined (planned, ordained) by God as part of the plan that would culminate in Jesus’s crucifixion (Ac 2:23).

22:23-24 This argument recalls the earlier similar one on the way to Jerusalem (9:46-48). Luke is tenacious and honest about the immaturity of the disciples. After so great a spiritual experience as the Passover meal, conducted by the Lord himself, they argued over who was greatest among them. Had they misunderstood everything?

22:25-27 The wording in these verses is significantly different than that in Mt 20:25-28, suggesting that the apostles argued about greatness more than once. Greatness in the world is based on power and public recognition, but Christ taught that spiritual greatness requires humility and self-sacrifice. Jesus is our example because he came among us as the one who serves.

22:28-30 Because the apostles stood by Jesus in his trials (i.e., his troubles generally, not the trials he would soon face before Roman and Jewish authorities), they would be rewarded by the rights and privileges of leadership in the coming kingdom, including close fellowship with the King and rulership over eschatological Israel (Mt 19:28).

22:31-34 In these verses Jesus addressed Simon Peter as the leader of the apostles and their spokesman. The plural you indicates Satan wanted to sift all the apostles like wheat, a rough action that symbolizes tempting them to spiritual ruin. Peter protested that nothing would cause him to deny Jesus, but Jesus knew better. When you have turned back demonstrates that Jesus also knew that Peter’s denial would be temporary and that he would play a significant role in church history.

22:35-38 On when I sent you out without, see notes at 9:1-2,3-5. Because of the rejection they would face, Jesus emphasized that the apostles must prepare to take care of their own needs (money-bag, traveling bag) and protect themselves physically (a sword). By arming themselves, Jesus’s apostles unintentionally paved the way for Jesus to fulfill the rebels’ prophecy of Is 53:12. Jesus’s call for a sword was likely only figurative, but the apostles responded that they had two swords among them.

22:39-41 Throughout Passion Week, Jesus and the apostles spent the nights on the Mount of Olives (21:37). John 18:1 says the location of this incident was a garden, and Mt 26:36 calls the place Gethsemane. On this occasion, Jesus instructed the apostles to linger in prayer so they would not be tempted by the devil and so their faith would not fail (Lk 22:32). Jesus then met the Father in prayer in order to seek strength in a time of deep suffering.

22:42 This cup refers to Jesus’s upcoming judicial trials and execution on the cross (Mt 20:22-23). Jesus addressed God as Father, just as he had instructed his disciples to do (see note at 11:1-4). If you are willing, take this cup shows that Jesus, fully aware of the suffering that awaited him, struggled with going to the cross. He resolved his struggle in favor of doing God’s will, which was always his focus (Jn 6:38).

22:43-44 Though God the Father would not allow Jesus to bypass the upcoming suffering (v. 42), he did send an angel to minister to him. However, this did not eliminate Jesus’s anguish. As he prayed, Jesus’s sweat poured off his body as if he were bleeding. Some believe Luke is describing a condition called hematidrosis, in which sweat and blood mingle in extreme cases of anxiety, but most likely his language is only figurative.

22:45-46 Human physical weakness (hunger, fatigue, etc.) can lead to spiritual weakness and temptation (see note at vv. 39-41).

22:47-48 Knowing exactly where Jesus would be spending the night (see note at 21:37-38), Judas Iscariot led a group of Jesus’s enemies to arrest him. They are described as a mob because they carried swords and clubs. A kiss on the cheek was a common greeting between friends and family. Thus Judas used his intimacy with Jesus and his disciples as a platform for betraying the Son of Man.

22:49-51 The apostles’ earlier misunderstanding about wielding the sword (see note at vv. 35-38) now came to a climax. Luke did not name the apostle who cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, but Jn 18:10 discloses that it was Peter. Jesus immediately healed the man’s ear, averting certain disaster if the mob had attacked Peter.

22:52-53 That Jesus was viewed as a criminal fulfilled Is 53:12 (see note at Lk 22:35-38). Jesus’s prior awareness of the time (this is your hour) and place (not in the temple) of his arrest indicates that everything was according to God’s design even though the chief priests and elders were in league with the dominion of darkness (Satan and the demons) in carrying out the arrest.

22:54 John 18:13 says that Jesus was first taken to the house of Annas, a former high priest who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the current high priest (see note at 3:2-3). Most of the apostles fled from Gethsemane, though Peter circled back and tracked down the arresting group, all the while careful to keep a safe distance in the darkness. John 18:15 indicates that “another disciple” (probably the apostle John) also followed.

22:55-62 In a period of only slightly over an hour, Peter disowned three years of discipleship. Jesus had predicted this only a few hours earlier (see note at vv. 31-34), and when a rooster crowed after Peter’s denials, Jesus turned and looked at him. Immediately Peter remembered Jesus’s prophecy and wept tears of shame and regret. Since Jesus was inside the high priest’s house (v. 54), there must have been an open window or door through which he could look into the courtyard and catch Peter’s eye.

22:63-65 Jesus’s horrific treatment is also described in Mt 26:67 and Mk 14:65.

22:66 By rule it had to be daylight outside for the Sanhedrin (ruling council of the Jews) to hold a trial in which they decided on the death penalty (which could only be carried out by the Roman government). This explains why they waited for daylight. However, in several other respects the trial was illegal: (1) No trial could be held on the morning of a feast day (i.e., Passover), (2) there was no formal defense offered for Jesus, and (3) the verdict was reached in one day, not the two days required for capital offenses.

22:67-69 In a tactical move that may have been designed to keep Rome from thinking Jesus intended to ascend Israel’s vacant throne, Jesus did not give a direct answer to the question of whether he was the Messiah. Since he knew he could not expect fair treatment from the members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man who would sit as judge over them in a much higher court in heaven (at the right hand).

22:70-71 The Sanhedrin understood Jesus’s previous claim to be Messiah, but they wanted to catch him in what they thought was a more clear-cut blasphemy: the claim that he was the Son of God. Jesus’s response seems vague to modern readers, but those present understood it as a clear confession. Having this in hand, they concluded there was no need for any more testimony.