¹⁴ And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵ And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶ For I tell you I will not eat it^[b] until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." ¹⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. ¹⁸ For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." ¹⁹ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." ²⁰ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.^{[c] 21} But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. ²² For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!" ²³ And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this.

Who Is the Greatest?

²⁴ A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. ²⁵ And he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. ²⁶ But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. ²⁷ For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

²⁸ "You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, ²⁹ and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, ³⁰ that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Jesus Foretells Peter's Denial

³¹ "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,^[d] that he might sift you like wheat, ³² but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." ³³ Peter^[e] said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death." ³⁴ Jesus^[f] said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me."

Scripture Must Be Fulfilled in Jesus

³⁵ And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." ³⁶ He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. ³⁷ For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors.' For what is written about me has its fulfillment." ³⁸ And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough."

Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives

³⁹ And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. ⁴⁰ And when he came to the place, he said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." ⁴¹ And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." ⁴³ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. ⁴⁴ And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.^{[g] 45} And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, ⁴⁶ and he said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation."

Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus

⁴⁷ While he was still speaking, there came a crowd, and the man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He drew near to Jesus to kiss him, ⁴⁸ but Jesus said to him, "Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" ⁴⁹ And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?" ⁵⁰ And one of them struck the servant^[h] of the high priest and cut off his right ear. ⁵¹ But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him. ⁵² Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? ⁵³ When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

Peter Denies Jesus

⁵⁴ Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. ⁵⁵ And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. ⁵⁶ Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, "This man also was with him." ⁵⁷ But he denied it, saying, "Woman, I do not know him." ⁵⁸ And a little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." But Peter said, "Man, I am not." ⁵⁹ And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, "Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean." ⁶⁰ But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about." And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. ⁶¹ And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly.

Jesus Is Mocked

⁶³ Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. ⁶⁴ They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" ⁶⁵ And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.

Jesus Before the Council

⁶⁶ When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. And they led him away to their council, and they said, ⁶⁷ "If you are the Christ, tell us." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe, ⁶⁸ and if I ask you, you will not answer. ⁶⁹ But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God." ⁷⁰ So they all said, "Are you the Son of God, then?" And he said to them, "You say that I am." ⁷¹ Then they said, "What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips."

22:14–23
Eating the Passover

Both the preparation for Passover and its eating are mixed with promises and foreshadowings of the betrayal, because the Passover here itself prefigures Jesus' death. Following the Old Testament prophets, Judaism looked for a new exodus when God would again deliver his people from bondage, although contemporary Judaism was looking for a new Moses—not a new lamb.
22:14. The Passover was to be eaten at night. April's sundown in Jerusalem came by 6 p.m., so the meal should have started then. Table fellowship was intimate at the feast; one or two families normally shared the meal, but here Jesus and his closest disciples make up the family unit. One "sat" for most meals but "reclined" for feasts, like Passover.
22:15–16. Vows of abstinence were common in Palestinian Judaism: "I will not eat any such and such until this happens," or "I vow that I will not use this until that happens." Jewish tradition often portrayed the time of the kingdom as a banquet. It was customary to give thanks over the cup of wine at regular meals and also at Passover.
22:17–19. The head of the household customarily gave thanks for the bread and wine before any meal but said special blessings over bread and wine in the Passover meal. We should not understand "This is my body" literally, just as we do not take literally the standard Jewish interpretation spoken over the Passover bread: "This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate when they came from Egypt."
22:20. Covenants were ratified by the blood of sacrifice; God had redeemed his people from Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb. "On behalf of the many" probably alludes to Isaiah 53 (see comment on Mk 10:45). Passover ritual interpreted most elements of the meal and included blessings over the cup. But the ritual certainly did not interpret the cup as blood, because Jewish law and custom were revolted by the idea of drinking any creature's blood, especially human blood.
22:21. Ancient Jewish readers would view betrayal by one sharing a meal as particularly scandalous, because they saw hospitality and the sharing of table fellowship as an intimate bond.
22:22–23. Most people in ancient Judaism stressed both God's sovereignty and human free will, which they saw as complementary. (Modern views that see them as contradictory are based more on Greek logic than on Jewish thought or the Bible.)


22:24–30
Exaltation of the Servants

22:24–25. Jewish people were well familiar with the Gentile model of authority: ancient Near Eastern kings had long claimed to be gods and had ruled tyrannically; Greek rulers had adopted the same posture through much of the eastern Mediterranean. Jewish people would view the Roman emperor and his provincial agents (who often showed little concern for Jewish sensitivities) in much the same light. Rulers and others who doled out favors from the vantage point of power were called "benefactors"; the practice of benefaction was widely praised in Greek circles. Jesus' reminding the disciples that seeking power is a Gentile (i.e., pagan) practice is tantamount to telling them they should not be doing it.
22:26. In antiquity age often determined rank; the youngest had the least respect. A slave was always powerless and without social status compared to the master (regardless of the position slaves had relative to peasants and others who were socially inferior to their masters).
22:27. Slaves waited on masters at table. "Reclining" was the standard Greek posture for eating, which Palestinian Jews adopted at feasts.
22:28–30. Jewish literature often portrayed the kingdom as a future time when Israel would partake of a banquet prepared for them; a standard Jewish expectation for that time was that the lost tribes of Israel would be restored. Those who "judged" Israel in the Old Testament ruled it.


22:31–38
Preparing for the Betrayal

22:31–32. Wheat would be sifted to separate the genuine wheat from other items that had gotten mixed in with it; for the image, see Amos 9:9. For winnowing away the chaff, see comment on Matthew 3:12. The background for Satan's demand is presumably Job 1:6–12 and 2:1–6, where Satan tries to prosecute Job before the heavenly court (the Hebrew has "the satan," literally "the adversary," i.e., the accuser).
22:33–34. Ancient sources typically regarded the rooster as a reliable reporter of the advent of dawn (attested by Apuleius Metamorphoses 2.26; 3 Maccabees 5:23; Babylonian Talmud Berakot 60b). But commentators report that in Palestine nocturnal crowings are familiar to night watchmen beginning at 12:30 a.m.; the second was about 1:30 a.m. In either case the point is that the denial is imminent.
22:35. See comment on 9:3.
22:36–38. By mentioning the "sword" here Jesus is not inviting revolution like the Zealots did (cf. Pseudo-Phocylides 32–34). Instead, Jesus calls for a temporary and symbolic act—two are sufficient (v. 38)—so he may be charged as a revolutionary and hence "reckoned among transgressors" in accordance with Isaiah 53:12. (On the messianic import of Is 53, see comment on Mt 12:15–18.) To be without one's outer cloak at night would leave one cold; yet Jesus suggests that it is better than being unprepared for the conflict these disciples are about to face.


22:39–46
The Prepared and the Unprepared

22:39. The walk from the upper room to the Mount of Olives took at least fifteen minutes.
22:40. They may have arrived at Gethsemane by 10 or 11 p.m. (which was normally considered late in the evening, because agriculture and business operated by daylight). Jewish people customarily stayed awake late on Passover night to speak of God's redemption. The disciples should have been able to stay awake to keep watch; they had probably stayed up late on nearly every other Passover of their lives.
"Temptation" here means "testing"; given the common Jewish religious uses of the word, Jesus is saying: "lest you fall prey to the testing you are about to face."
22:41–42. On the "cup of judgment" see comment on Mark 10:39.
22:43–46. The disciples are to "stand watch" like porters (slaves in charge of the door) or sentries. Some ancient texts report the rare phenomenon of sweating blood; Luke may mean this phenomenon or simply that Jesus' sweat is profuse and dripping the way blood would.


22:47–53
The Betrayal

22:47. Because they had been sent by prominent men of Jerusalem, the band that comes to arrest Jesus is probably the temple guard. This guard is known to have possessed the weapons mentioned here (swords and clubs); clubs were said to have characterized the corrupt priestly aristocracy, as well as being useful in controlling rioters.
22:48. A kiss was a sign of special affection among family members and close friends, or of a disciple's honor and affection for his teacher. Thus Judas's betrayal kiss is a special act of hypocrisy (cf. Prov 27:6).
22:49–50. Being well-to-do, high priests had many servants. Although the servant mentioned here is probably not a Levite and is thus unable to minister in the temple anyway, it is worthy of note that those who were missing appendages such as ears were barred from serving in the sanctuary. This attack on this servant would confirm the armed (22:47) expedition's suspicions that Jesus' followers are violent revolutionaries (22:36–38).
22:51. Many people associated Messiahs with popular revolt and the overthrow of the Gentile kingdoms that oppressed Israel; a Messiah who would heal his attackers was not part of anyone's messianic picture.
22:52–53. Subversives (e.g., the later assassins who slew Jewish aristocrats under cover of the crowds in the temple) did their acts secretly or in a way that would avoid capture; Jesus' alleged subversion was public and unconcealed. Night was commonly associated with evil; in popular superstition (later found in rabbinic teaching as well), night was the time when the demons ruled and witchcraft operated.


22:54–62
Peter's Denials

22:54. This trial breaks a number of Jewish legal rules, if later documents correctly indicate the state of Jewish law in this period. Taking Jesus to the high priest's home at night was against the rules.
22:55. Peter's trespassing on private property—that of the high priest himself—required serious commitment from a Galilean fisherman. The guards are probably members of the temple guard, waiting to see the results of the trial inside. They may have planned to stay up late for Passover anyway.
22:56–58. Slaves in aristocratic households exercised more power and status than the average free person. Although the high priest had many servants, the slave girl would recognize that Peter and the guards are not from the household; further, Peter was not dressed like one of the guards. As a servant in an aristocratic priestly household near the temple, she had no doubt been at the temple and could have gotten a good look at Jesus' disciples in the temple courts.
22:59. Galilean accents differed from Judean accents, certainly in Aramaic and presumably (as undoubtedly here) in Greek; Galileans were especially noted for mispronouncing guttural sounds. The high priest's servants and temple guard lived in Jerusalem and would see themselves as Judeans. Regional accents were difficult to hide (cf. Judg 12:6).
22:60–62. For most people in the ancient Mediterranean, a rooster's crowing marked daybreak. Some scholars have suggested that this crowing refers to an earlier Palestinian rooster crowing between 12:30 and 2:30 a.m.


22:63–71
The Decree of the Sanhedrin

22:63–65. Jewish law permitted public flogging of a condemned person; it did not permit the treatment described here—mocking and beating—certainly not before a person had been proved guilty in a trial. Jewish law meticulously guarded the rights of the accused and erred on the side of mercy in official decisions; thus the behavior described here would have revolted the Pharisees and other pietists.
22:66. By at least waiting till morning for an official hearing (as opposed to any informal interrogations that may have taken place earlier), those representatives of the Sanhedrin present maintained some semblance of legality in the proceedings; night trials were illegal.
"Leading priests," "elders" and "scribes" were the three groups represented on the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious court of Israel. The full Sanhedrin, with seventy-one members, normally assembled in a meeting hall in the temple called the Chamber of Hewn Stone, where they sat in a semicircle with the high priest in the center. Although the body acted as a whole, not all its members concurred (23:51); writers would often make a general statement about a group without listing explicit exceptions (cf. Jer 26:16, 24).
22:67–68. If extant reports of ancient Jewish law are accurate, the high priest could not legally force Jesus to convict himself out of his own mouth. Nevertheless, he asks whether Jesus thinks of himself as a Messiah—hence, to the high priest's mind, as a revolutionary.
22:69. Jesus' response is a claim to be not a merely mortal messiah but the cosmic ruler of Daniel 7:13–14. "Power" was sometimes used as a Jewish title for God; Luke simplifies the phrase for his Greek readers as "power of God."
22:70–71. The religious authorities serve as their own witnesses that Jesus claims to be a subversive, a revolutionary (23:2).


Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary: New Testament (Lk 22:14–71). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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Regards,
Ryan Chia

It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world,
as that God has a church for his mission in the world.
Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission—God's mission.

From The Mission of God by Chris Wright