Commentary on Luke 22:1-27

This reading for Maundy Thursday includes most of the narrative focusing on Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples, which extends to Luke 22:38. The passage features exchanges between Jesus and his disciples that have become integral to our eucharistic liturgies and remembrances of Jesus’ Passion. But this passage does more than simply chronicle the portentous moments leading up to Jesus’ anguished prayer and arrest on the Mount of Olives (22:39–53). 

Luke crafts this section of the Gospel to help his recipients recognize the demonic inspiration behind the events culminating in Jesus’ crucifixion, and to experience Jesus responding in ways that foster hope and mirror God’s gracious dealings with God’s people, Israel.

Satan’s “hour of darkness”

My sense is that Luke intended the entirety of 22:1–53 to be encountered as a sequence enveloped by twin references to the influence of the demonic (see verses 3 and 53). Since the conclusion of Jesus’ wrangling with the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:1–13), where we learned that Satan “departed from him until an opportune time” (4:13), we have nervously awaited the Deceiver’s return. With many of the Israelite elite now hell-bent on Jesus’ destruction (verses 1–2), that opportune time has arrived. And so “Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve” (verse 3). 

In the verses to follow, we encounter moments of betrayal, denial, and misunderstanding on the part of Jesus’ followers, alongside the murderous aims of Jesus’ adversaries. It is truly—as Jesus describes it—“the hour of darkness” (verse 53). While this “hour” also encapsulates the narrative leading up to and following 22:1–53—with the obstinate rejection of Jesus and the Kingdom by the Israelite elite in the preceding narrative and the fulfillment of their scheme to kill him in the narrative to follow—this portion of Luke’s Passion narrative helps us to grasp the degree to which evil energizes the actions unfolding before us.

• Betrayal: Judas, a member of Jesus’ own intimate circle of disciples (verse 3) who are destined to steward God’s reign to the nations (verses 28–30), opens his heart to Satan (verse 3), joins with those seeking to destroy Jesus by stealth (verse 4), and betrays Jesus for cash (verses 5–6, 21–23, 48).
• Misunderstanding: The disciples, as they do throughout the gospel, fail to grasp Jesus’ mission of servanthood and suffering—even during the meal at which Jesus presents himself to them as the Passover Lamb slain for their deliverance (verses 14–23). They argue among themselves about which of them is to be regarded as the greatest (verse 24) and misunderstand Jesus’ instruction about the swords (verses 35–38, 49–51).
• Denial and Neglect: Jesus warns Peter that Satan is also coming for the disciples (note that the “you” in verse 31 is plural), and foretells that Peter will deny him (verse 34). The disciples are unable to stay awake and pray with Jesus (verses 45–46).

Countered by Jesus’ sacrifice and proclamation of God’s victory over evil

Just as Jesus has done throughout the Gospel, here too he counters the machinations of evil by proclaiming that they shall be overcome by his ministry of sacrifice and servanthood, and by the arrival of God’s kingdom. 

• Judas and the Israelite elites’ plan to betray Jesus ironically facilitates Jesus’ calling as the Passover Lamb that has to be sacrificed (verse 7), and Jesus’ mission to bring the kingdom of God to fruition as the One who creates a new covenant in his blood (verses 14–20, 37).
• In response to the disciples’ thickheadedness, Jesus continues to instruct them on the nature of true lordship (verses 24–27), pointing to himself as the exemplar: “But I am among you as one who serves” (verse 27). Jesus goes on to announce that they too will serve as stewards of God’s long-awaited kingdom (verses 28–30).
• As just noted, Jesus informs Peter that the disciples are being targeted by Satan, and foretells Peter’s own denial. But Jesus also tells him, “When once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (verse 32). Jesus will not give up on his disciples despite their inability to remain steadfast during this hour of darkness.
• Jesus heals the ear of the slave who is struck by one of the twelve and rebukes his disciples—“No more of this!” (verse 51)—reminding them of their calling to love their enemies and to respond to conflict and injustice with mercy (6:27–36). 

To be sure, our journey through the long, dark “hour” of Jesus’ Passion narrative is a trying one. There is so much unfolding in this climatic section of the gospel story that amplifies the vileness of the demonic and the worst of humanity. But in response to nearly every manifestation of evil, Jesus offers counter-testimony—testimony to his sacrifice, to mercy, and to the emergence of God’s reign in their midst that will conquer the evil raging around them and the weakness within them.

In doing so, Jesus enacts ways in which God has so often countered evil in Israel’s past. God will take the worst that humanity can dish out, and transform it—miraculously and astonishingly—into opportunities for extraordinary blessing. The Satan-inspired conniving of the elite, the betrayal by Judas, and the eventual murder of Jesus—these great acts of evil—are somehow received by God as the Passover sacrifice that will usher in a new exodus deliverance and a new promised land—the kingdom of God—for all people. 

In Jesus’ forbearance, and in his assurance to the disciples that they will be restored from their failings to “eat and drink at my table in my kingdom” (verse 30), Jesus also embodies the character of Israel’s God: “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). 

Yes, so much darkness, and the worst is yet to come. But even now, on this side of the cross, slivers of Easter light pierce that darkness and lead us to hope that evil’s reign will one day be no more.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Divine Servant,
You gave up all the power of the universe to serve humanity in the body of one who would endure great suffering. By your ultimate sacrifice you taught us how to serve. Make us grateful servants of the people of the earth, and feed our souls with your holy meal, for the sake of the one who held back nothing to give us everything, Jesus Christ our savior. Amen.

HYMNS

Go to dark Gethsemane ELW 347, H82 171, UMH 290, NCH 219
Stay with me ELW 348
Here is bread ELW 483
For the bread which you have broken ELW 494, H82 340, 341, UMH 615

CHORAL

We shall walk through the valley, Undine Smith Moore