Luke 22:21
¶ But, behold, the hand of him that
betrayeth me is with me on the table. 22
And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that
man by whom he is betrayed! 23 And they
began to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this
thing. 24 And there was also a strife
among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. 25 And he said unto them, The kings of the
Gentiles exercise lordship
over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
26 But ye shall not be so:
but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is
chief, as he that doth serve. 27 For
whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is
not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. 28 Ye are they which have continued with me in
my temptations. 29 And I appoint unto
you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; 30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my
kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. 33 And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go
with thee, both into prison, and to death. 34
And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day,
before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. 35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without
purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
36 Then said he unto them, But now, he
that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and
he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. 37 For I say unto you, that this that is written
must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors:
for the things concerning me have an end. 38
And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said
unto them, It is enough.
This is a fascinating and informative passage for us. Jesus states
that his betrayer, Judas, is right there and makes an important point about
evil. Even if an event is predetermined and ordained by God, such as Christ’s
crucifixion, the person or persons involved in it are still guilty. For instance, we can say that World War Two
was inevitable and God was going to use it for many and various reasons, but
that does not eliminate the guiltiness of those who caused it on both the
Allied and Axis sides.
Matthew
18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
We ask ourselves then why or how is a certain person used for evil
in an event of great or small importance. It would seem that our inclination to
do evil makes us a candidate for a particular job in God’s plan of history just
as our inclination to obey Him makes us a candidate for another job. In the
first we cannot blame God because of the fact that we choose to serve ourselves
and by that choice are chosen for our evil task. In the second case, God honors
our determination to obey Him with the blessing of being part of His plan of
redeeming mankind to Himself, or at least the part of it who will and whom He
knows will.
The character of Judas, as we have seen, was one part in making
him be selected as the traitor. Evil is going to happen in a fallen reality
because of man’s rebellious spirit. But, it is not necessary for you
specifically to be a part of it. You choose whom you will serve but the how is
not up to you or often at least not in the way you think it should be.
In the next section Christ defines servant leadership. A person
fit to lead must be one who is willing to and, in fact, does serve. A true
Christian leader is a servant. Throughout history many people have felt called
to lead by virtue of what their society called a noble birth or perhaps they
obtained status with money and power or military prowess without coming from an
aristocratic lineage. But the Bible sets certain parameters for a leader. One
is found in 2Samuel.
2Samuel
23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of
Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Christ left us the example of a leader, in this case God in the
flesh, humbling Himself to serve others, those weaker than Himself clearly but
also those who should be serving Him.
Here also is a hint of who twelve are seated around the throne of
God are in Revelation.
Revelation
4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty
seats: and upon the seats I saw four
and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white
raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
Perhaps Judas is replaced by Paul. But, these Apostles will suffer
with Christ and are worthy to sit in judgment with Him.
This brings us in verse 31 to the significance of using thee, the
singular you, and you, the plural, something more modern Bibles do not have.
The use of the singular thee, thou, and thine was dying out by the King James
translators’ time. They were used in intimate forms in Shakespeare such as, “O Romeo,
Romeo, wherefore are thou Romeo?” and resigned to dialects in Northern England
and Scotland, finally held onto by religious groups like the Quakers. However,
distinguishing between the singular you and the plural you can be important to
understanding as in this passage.
Jesus tells Simon Peter that Satan desires to harm the Apostles,
the plural you. But Jesus has prayed
to the Father for Simon, that his mind would be fully onboard with Christ’s
mission, that he would strengthen his brothers in the Lord.
Peter’s tongue then writes a check that his faith cannot cash.
But, Christ foretells that Peter will soon deny that he even knows Jesus.
The next part of this passage justifies a distinct dispensational
approach to the Bible and God’s way of dealing with mankind at different times.
Jesus had sent out His disciples, as reported in Luke 9, to preach depending
solely on the benevolence of the Jews to whom they would preach, trusting in
God for their needs.
Luke
9:1 ¶ Then he called his twelve
disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to
cure diseases. 2 And he sent them to
preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. 3 And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor
scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece. 4 And whatsoever house ye enter into, there
abide, and thence depart. 5 And
whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very
dust from your feet for a testimony against them. 6 And they departed, and went through the
towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
Now, they are to provide for themselves the things he had formerly
told them not to carry, even to a sword for self-defense. Brigands and robbers
were a common threat when traveling through the countryside. So, preachers must
be careful about picking out a passage and insisting that it applies directly
to their time and instructing their congregations that this is the model they
should go by.
Verse 37 alludes to Isaiah 53 and when Jesus does that as he does
with Psalm 22 from the Cross itself it is good to read the entire passage. But,
here is the direct verse He is referring to;
Isaiah
53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul
unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of
many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Read Isaiah 52:13 through chapter 53. Here, Jesus affirms this is
about Him. In the 11th century a Jewish commentator nicknamed Rashi
began insisting that the passage in Isaiah was about the Jews as a whole rather
than the Messiah in an attempt to counteract Christian teaching. To accept
Rashi’s viewpoint is to call Christ a liar. While not the first teacher to
suggest it Rashi was the first to teach it as a doctrine of Jewish belief. Scholars
note that while the interpretation of the suffering servant in Isaiah as Israel
itself was not unknown among the Jews as far back as the third century
typically the servant was the Messiah until the Middle Ages and the time of
Rashi. Writing after the massacres of Jews during the First Crusade Rashi was
the first to seek a unifying meaning for the entire passage as a reference to
the suffering of the Jews.(8) Rashi is so influential that I’ve read that some
Jewish Bibles in their commentaries predominantly reflect his opinions. The Jewish Study Bible, edited by Adele
Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler notes that, "...the ArtScroll
Tanach follows rabbinic interpretation rather than a more literal rendering of
the biblical text itself..." and explains how the Biblical translators of
that Bible relied heavily on Rashi.(9)
(8) Joel E. Rembaum, "The Development of a
Jewish Exegetical Tradition regarding Isaiah 53," The Harvard
Theological Review75, no. 3 (1982): 294. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1509755.
(9) Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds. The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014),
2017, 2018.
Luke 22:39
¶ And he came out, and went, as he was
wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. 40 And when he was at the place, he said unto
them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. 41 And he was withdrawn from them about a
stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, 42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. 43 And there appeared an angel unto him
from
heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being
in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops
of blood falling down to the ground. 45
And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found
them sleeping for sorrow, 46 And said
unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
From this we see that Jesus regularly went to the mount of Olives
as evidenced in Luke 19 and 21 plus the other three gospels. Jesus’ prayer here
is an example to us. There are difficult things we must face in this life and
we ask for mercy, that we do not suffer, but we should and must always
acknowledge that it is God’s will that must be done, not ours. We make it clear
that we acknowledge our dependence on God and that all things are by His hand.
All we can do is to ask for mercy acknowledging His authority over our lives
and giving Him the glory.
This is very difficult for modern Christians who have bought into
the evil that has divorced the God of the Bible from reality. We have created a
caretaker God who stands off but is not active in every moment or function of
life and existence. We call on Him for help, assistance, or for a blessing but
do not see His hand in every difficulty, every joy, and, indeed, in every cell
function, heartbeat, and stirring of a breeze.
It was the era of Isaac Newton that began to relegate God to a
sort of ‘First Cause’ who set up processes that function normally just fine
without Him. You’ll even hear preachers talk about things like childbirth or
the death of someone as if, when something goes wrong, God needs a phone call
or a text message to know what’s going on. God isn’t an absentee landlord who
you call when the plumbing breaks. He either broke the plumbing or allowed it
to be broken for a reason you may never know, if you study the book of Job, and
you need His mercy, His wisdom on how to fix it or have someone fix it and
understanding of what He wants from you as a response to this life challenge,
blessing, or sorrow.
Here, the visible image of God, the very body of God, the man who
is fully God and yet fully man, shows that while He is not looking forward to
the suffering He must face in order to die for our sins, the sins of the world,
He acknowledges that the will of God, which is also His will as He is God, must
be done.
Hebrews
5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when
he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered; 9
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto
all them that obey him;
An angel or appearance of someone from heaven ministers to Him.
Psalm
104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Hebrews
1:7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and
his ministers a flame of fire.
This reinforces our understanding of what Christ knew about His
upcoming physical death and relates it to our suffering if we are not drugged
or unconscious when it happens to us.
Indeed, dying and death rank highly among some of mankind’s
greatest fears and we go to great lengths to increase our years or try to
ameliorate the suffering of death with drugs. God came as a man, in part, for
this very reason.
Hebrews
2:14 ¶ Forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the
same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took
on him the seed of Abraham.
By Christ’s agony in the garden and from other events detailed in
the Bible we can relate our own fears, anxieties, and thoughts over the
end-of-life suffering and be comforted. You are not sinning or showing
faithlessness if you resist the agony you may face because even our Lord did
not look forward to it. God comforts us with the Bible when we see that we are
not alone and that it is not wrong to not be a Stoic with the proverbial
stiff-upper-lip when it comes to life’s pain and grief.
2Corinthians
1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God.
From the Bible we learn that we are not condemned when we suffer
because we respond to it in our humanity. We are also taught how to respond to
the suffering of others.
Romans
12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice,
and weep with them that weep.
A temptation is something that can cause you to doubt God or calls
into question your faith or makes you deny Christ. Prayer here is one answer to
the danger of temptation. Remember the prayer Jesus taught His disciples that
mentioned temptation. See the
comments on chapter 11:1-13. This is not tempted to do wrong but tempted to
doubt God or turn from Him, to not do what Jesus has done, acknowledge that it
is God’s will that must be done.
The disciples are said to be sleeping
for sorrow. Only Luke gives us the cause of their sleepiness. It is the
result of emotional exhaustion. The disciples have been experiencing an
emotional overload. Different people respond to such things differently. But,
here, these frail human beings who follow Christ can bear the extreme stress
placed on them as the Lord they love told them that He must die no more. In an
ongoing time of grief and sorrow that is unremitting and merciless some people
eat a lot, some go about their daily trivialities with an obsessive-compulsive
attitude, and others fall down exhausted in their hearts.
It is also possible that these exhausted disciples were being
oppressed by Satan although it does not say so in the text. Remember;
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Simon Peter’s emotional catharsis, that moment of relief as the
floodgate of tears opens and he is enabled to be the Apostle he would become,
the one Jesus prayed for, is coming up here in verse 62.
Finally, keep in mind that as it were is an idiomatic
expression that means “so to speak”. Having bloody sweat is a rare but real
condition called hematidrosis and has been
recorded at times throughout history even into modern times. I have seen
pictures purportedly of the condition.
Luke 22:47
¶ And while he yet spake, behold a
multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them,
and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. 48
But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a
kiss? 49 When they which were about him
saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?
50 And one of them smote the servant of
the high priest, and cut off his right ear. 51
And Jesus
answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.
52 Then Jesus said unto the chief
priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be
ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves? 53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye
stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of
darkness.
Judas, the informer and traitor, arrives with a crowd to arrest
Jesus. Peter attacked the servant of the high priest with a sword but Jesus
healed the wounded man. The verses in John make you wonder if perhaps that
servant became a Christian later as one reason his name is mentioned.
John
18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword
drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The
servant’s name was Malchus. 11 Then said
Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father
hath given me, shall I not drink it?
Paul uses the phrase the
power of darkness, as well.
Colossians
1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son:
Jesus is the light of this world and while He was walking in the
flesh in the world there was light in the world.
John
8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world: he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John
9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am
the light of the world.
Christ’s presence illuminates the spiritual world of men as the
light of day illuminates the physical world.
John
11:9 Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because
he seeth the light of this world.
This illumination of God the Creator’s standard and purpose of
redeeming mankind back to Himself from the spiritual ignorance or darkness in
man’s soul would soon, with Christ’s departure, be shrouded by night.
John
9:4 I must work the works of him that sent
me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Romans
13:12 The night is far spent, the day
is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on
the armour of light.
Through the last two thousand years of false churches, religious
murder, and wicked kingdoms and nation-states propped up by falsely saying they
were God’s special vehicles to do His work on earth a glimmer of light has
shined through the darkness in Christ’s body on earth. As Jesus said to His followers;
Matthew
5:13 ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but
if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is
thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot
of men. 14 Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
2Corinthians
4:6 For God, who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The darkness which like light can have two meanings, I believe,
one purely physical and one spiritual, which God separated from the light in
the beginning;
Genesis
1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the
evening and the morning were the first day.
…that darkness which could not comprehend, which at one time could
also mean besides understand to contain, repress, conquer, or overpower, the
light…
John 1:1 ¶
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. 2 The same was in the beginning
with God. 3 All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light
of men.
5 ¶
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose
name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness
of the Light, that all men
through him might believe. 8 He was not
that Light, but was sent to
bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
…has its moment here. We know who the ultimate author of this
betrayal is, even though it works against him in the end. Satan entered Judas,
the traitor.
Luke
22:3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the
number of the twelve.
We
know that the religious elite that sponsored Judas, denying Christ’s authority
over them as their Messiah, was unknowingly answering to Satan.
John
8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for
he is a liar, and the father of it.
I
think it might be helpful now to review who or what Satan is and what might be
his purpose.
If
the majority interpretation is correct, Satan is first mentioned as a serpent
in the Garden of Eden. A serpent or worm in English has also traditionally been
a term for a dragon in historical mythology.
Genesis
3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD
God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden?
Satan
is also said to be a dragon.
Revelation
20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the
Devil, and Satan, and bound him
a thousand years,
How
was Satan found to be in the Garden of Eden? Judging by his appearance he
filled some kind of role of priest as Aaron and his sons would eventually do.
He is said to be a cherub, an animal type of creature, with cherubs as perhaps
the spiritual prototypes of all creatures, with Satan described in Job 41 as
reptilian. See Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10 for descriptions of cherubs. The
Bible often does double and triple duty, describing one person or one event
while also describing others prophetically. Here, in this passage, the King of
Tyre is addressed but, as he is likened to Satan, Satan is described.
Ezekiel
28:11 ¶ Moreover the word of the LORD
came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man,
take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of
God; every precious stone was
thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the
jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship
of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast
created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain
of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created,
till iniquity was found in thee.
Although
many modern, evangelical and fundamentalist commentators have Satan falling
from grace in some mystical, unexplained time between verses 1 and 2 of the
first chapter of Genesis we only have evidence of his attempting to subvert
God’s order starting in Genesis, chapter 3. Of course, God knew his heart even
though his iniquity was not made apparent until then. His pride led him.
In
another prophecy against the King of Babylon this time, Satan, under another
title of his, Lucifer, is described by way of his thinking.
Isaiah
14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the morning! how
art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will
ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will be like the most High.
And yet, we know from reading the first two chapters of Job that
he cannot go beyond what God allows and we know that he can be used by God,
unleashed, if you will, for a purpose.
2Sa
24:1 And again the anger of the LORD was
kindled against Israel, and he
moved David against them to say, Go, number
Israel and Judah.
1Ch
21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number
Israel.
It is clear from reading Job and these two verses and contexts
that a human being will likely not be able to tell if a thing is done directly
by God or if it is a matter of Satan’s hatred and rage being used or allowed
for a purpose.
Satan tried to divert Christ from His mission by tempting Him to
take the crown first, before the cross. Christ resists being crowned a king by
the Jews until it was time.
Luke
4:1 ¶ And Jesus being full of the Holy
Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 Being forty days tempted of the devil.
And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward
hungered. 3 And the devil said unto him,
If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. 4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is
written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into an
high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of
time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All
this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto
me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7
If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. 8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get
thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and him only shalt thou serve. 9 And he
brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said
unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: 10 For it is written, He shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee: 11 And
in their hands they shall bear
thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is
said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 13
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him
for a season.
John
6:15 When Jesus therefore perceived that
they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
By
now, at this point, Satan appears to have decided to simply try to destroy
Christ. Perhaps it is from desperation, or rage, or pride alone but Satan is
out on a very weak limb here. As John the Baptist had asked if there would be
another Messiah to come in Luke 7, as there may have been a belief in more than
one Messiah, a conqueror and a sufferer at least, Satan also does not have 100%
understanding of God’s purpose. God keeps quite a lot close and only reveals
things when He is ready.
Deuteronomy
29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but
those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our
children for ever, that we may
do all the words of this law.
So, whatever Satan’s motivation here, we know he is doomed. Only
immense pride can blind someone so completely to reality. For human examples
see Adolf Hitler in his invasion of Russia or any number of organized crime
figures who eventually end up murdered or imprisoned for life.
