Luke 22 Study Notes

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.