Verses 1-71

VI. His Rejection, Suffering and Death -- Chapter 22-23

CHAPTER 22

1. The Betrayer. (Luke 22:1-6.)

2. Preparation for the Passover. (Luke 22:7-13.)

3. The Last Passover. (Luke 22:14-18.)

4. The Lord’s Supper Instituted. (Luke 22:19-20)

5. The Betrayal Announced. (Luke 22:21-23)

6. Strife for Honor; True Greatness. (Luke 22:24-27)

7. Rewards Promised. (Luke 22:28-30)

8. Peter and the Disciples Warned. (Luke 22:31-38)

9. The Agony in the Garden. (Luke 22:39-46)

10. The Betrayal and the Arrest. (Luke 22:47-53)

11. Peter’s Denial. (Luke 22:54-62)

12. The Son of Man Buffeted and Before the Council. (Luke 22:63-71.)

And now we reach the story of His Rejection, Suffering and Death. What pen is able to describe it all! What mind can fathom it! We shall again confine ourselves to those things which are peculiar to Luke and not repeat annotations as given in Matthew and Mark. Notice the difference in the words of the institution of the Lord’s supper. Matthew and Mark have “My blood shed for many.” In Luke we find the words “My body which is given for you”; “My blood which is shed for you.” His love shines out fully in these words. In Luke alone we have His loving request “this do in remembrance of Me.” Oh! that His people for whom He shed His blood may never forget this beautiful word and remember Him in this simple way.

And Luke shows us the contrast between Himself and His disciples. He was about descending into the deepest depths of humiliation; sorrow and shame were before the willing victim, yea the greatest agony and death. Among them was strife, who of them should be accounted the greatest. This was the second instance of contention for preeminence recorded by Luke. (Luke 9:46.) Then He announced the denial of Peter. Luke 22:31-32 are peculiar to Luke. Satan was to sift him as wheat, but the Lord knew all about it and had prayed for him and therefore Peter could not succumb and be lost. And the Lord is the same today. He knows His own and prays for them before Satan can ever come near with his temptations. The word “when thou art converted” does not mean that Peter was unconverted. It has the meaning “when thou hast returned back.”

There is also a marked difference in the account Luke gives of Gethsemane from the accounts in Matthew and Mark. Luke tells us of an angel who strengthened Him. How could an angel strengthen Him, who is the Creator of the angels? He certainly could not strengthen His holy soul. That an angel strengthened Him must belong to His deep humiliation.

“But the body suffers, and presently the strain upon it is seen in the ‘sweat, as it were great drops of blood,’ that fall down upon the ground. Laborer for God and man as He is, His labor is a warfare also: the enemy is here, as He presently says to those who come to apprehend Him: ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness.’ The Seed of the woman is planting His heel upon the head of the old serpent, but His heel is bruised in doing this. In the weakness of perfect Manhood He suffers, and conquers by suffering” (F.W. Grant).

Then follows the Betrayal with a kiss, the arrest of the Son of Man, Peter’s Denial. Luke alone tells us that the Lord looked upon denying Peter; what look that must have been! The chapter ends with the cruel treatment of the Son of Man, the Friend of sinners, who had come to seek and to save that which is lost, received from man, His glorious self-witness and unjust condemnation by the council.