Overall Themes
1. The passion narrative is part of the Journey
These are aspects of Luke’s Passion Narrative that are special or exclusive to him. Together with Jesus’ predictions of his own death, the death of a prophet – 9:31, 51; 12:50; 13:32-33; 17:25, it forms the climax of a journey to the cross upon which Luke has taken us. It must end in Jerusalem, for as Jesus says, where else could a prophet be killed than in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is, for Luke the centre of God’s purposes still. Jesus was proclaimed Messiah and Saviour in Jerusalem first when he was a baby. At his Bar Mitzvah held in Jerusalem, he took upon himself the adult task of ‘being in His Father’s House, he has been greeted at a king by the crowds in Jerusalem a week earlier. He will die, rise and appear in Jerusalem. His disciples will say goodbye to Him in Jerusalem, before settling down to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which they will receive in Jerusalem. The church will start in Jerusalem. The gospel will then go out from Jerusalem to all the ends of the earth.
2 Jesus dies an innocent man, a victim of injustice. Pilate states three times that Jesus is innocent, or has done nothing wrong. The thief on the cross declares that Jesus has done nothing wrong. Finally, in one of Luke’s most interesting redactions, the centurion at the foot of the cross declares that Jesus is innocent (as opposed to being the Son of God, as in Mark and Matthew).
The Jesus who is accused before Pilate by the chief priests and scribes of ‘perverting our nation’ (Luke 23:2) is one whose infancy and upbringing was totally in fidelity to the Law of Moses (2:22, 27, 39, 42). Similarly, the Jesus who is accused of ‘forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar’ is a Jesus who has only recently (20:25) declared concerning the tribute: ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’. All of this casts light on the affirmation made by various dramatis personae in the passion that Jesus is innocent (23:4, 14, 22, 41, & 47).
3. Jesus is in control of his fate , accepting it and triumphing in it as opportunities for forgiveness and renewal of those He came to save arise. However healso says his death fulfils scripture
The Jesus who calmly faces death is one who had already set his face deliberately to go to Jerusalem (9:51), affirming that no prophet should perish away from Jerusalem (13:33). In the Lucan account of the ministry, Jesus showed tenderness to the stranger (the widow of Nain) and praised the mercy shown to the Prodigal Son and to the man beset by thieves on the road to Jericho; it is not surprising then that in his passion Jesus shows forgiveness to those who crucified him.
And, of course, Jesus’ death and the manner of it fulfils Scripture. In his account of the last supper, Luke (alone) has Jesus quote Isa 53, identifying himself with the suffering servant, who is counted as a criminal (numbered among transgressors) although he is innocent, for his sheep. The risen Jesus explains that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer all of these things in order to ‘enter into his glory’. And old Simeon’s prophecy to Mary is fulfilled as she suffers the pain of seeing her child on his cross, pain like a sword entering her heart.
4. Jesus also dies for the thieves on the cross and for those who crucify Him, although only two of them understands this. In one of the most famous sayings of Jesus reported only in Luke, he asks His Father to forgive those who are crucifying Him, on the grounds that they do not understand what they are doing. To the thief who takes pity on Him as He hangs, an innocent man, on the cross, the promise is greater. ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise.’ Jesus’ authority to forgive penitents has been a theme throughout the gospel -see the story of Zaccheus – and reaches it’s climax here.
As Jesus is dying he prays for his executioners (above), promises paradise to the penitent thief calls God ‘Father’. This is exclusive to Luke, and reflects the intimate and trusting relationship that Luke protrays between Jesus and the Father, seen most strongly in the words of Ps 31:5 quoted at 23:46 ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit’ – a prayer said by Jews (and many Christians) as they settle down to sleep
5. His death brings a reaction too that only Luke reports. Some leave the scene of his death ‘beating their breasts’, a classic symbol of admission of guilt and request for repentance. (23:48) Perhaps these are some of the ones who are converted at Pentecost (Acts 2:23; 37)
6. Luke’s merciful depiction of the Disciples
Luke, who has described the disciples/apostles with extraordinary delicacy during the ministry (unlike Mark who dwells on their failures and weaknesses), continues a merciful portrayal of them during the passion, never mentioning that they fled. Indeed, he places male acquaintances of Jesus at Calvary (23:49). This fits with Luke’s unique post-resurrectional picture where all the appearances of Jesus are in Jerusalem area (as if the disciples had never fled back to Galilee), and where apostles like Peter and John will become chief actors in the Book of Acts. The Jesus of the passion, accused by chief priests before the Roman governor and the Herodian King, prepares the way for a Paul brought before the same case of adversaries (Acts 21:27 – 25:27). The innocent Jesus who dies asking forgiveness for the enemies and commending his soul to God the Father prepares the way for the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who will perish uttering similar sentiments (Acts 7:59–60). Consistency from the Law and the Prophets to Jesus and ultimately to the Church is a Lucan theme in which the passion is a major component.
5 main scenes in the Narrative
A. LORD’S SUPPER 22:14-22;38
Sitting down at a meal was not unusual for Jews. The Passover meal was central, but so also was the weekly remembrance of the Passover in the Sabbath evening seder that gave a weekly shape to the religious life of the Jews
But this one different – a teaching meal and one for God to become flesh and sit at table with them and give them food from his own, fleshly hands was scandalous. And he talks about the dawn of a new era.
Why did Jesus "earnestly desire to eat this passover meal" with his disciples? Luke mentions that "the passover lamb has to be sacrificed" on this feast (Luke 22:7). This would be Jesus’ last meal with his chosen twelve. It was not coincidental that he would suffer and die on a cross at passover time. Luke points to Jesus’ death as the sacrificial passover lamb who fulfills and makes obsolete the sacrifices of the old testament. This meal is both a celebration of the passover according to the old covenant and the institution of a new covenant to be commemorated by a new meal. Jesus institutes this "new covenant" in the form of a last will and testament. Jacob and Moses, just before their deaths, blessed their heirs with their last will and testament (Genesis 49; Deuteronomy 33). Jesus’ passover is similar as he blesses his chosen twelve who would become the leaders of the new Israel. Jesus’ institution fulfills the old testament promises of a "new covenant" and "new exodus" which would bring about true freedom from slavery to sin, as well as the promise of blessing.
Luke ties the last supper meal with Jesus’ death and the coming of God’s kingdom. Jesus transforms the passover of the old covenant into the meal of the "new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:20). In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to their Creator. Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine, who was both priest and king (Genesis 14:18), prefigured the offering made by Jesus, our high priest and king. The unleavened bread at Passover and the miraculous manna in the desert are the pledge of God’s faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blessing" at the end of the Jewish passover meal points to the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
Jesus’ passing over to his Father by his death and resurrection, the new Passover, is anticipated in the Last Supper and celebrated in the Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, which fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the church in the glory of God’s kingdom. In this meal Jesus identifies the bread as his body and the cup as his blood. When the Lord Jesus commands his disciples to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he invites us to take his life into the very center of our being (John 6:53
There is a section unique to Luke – instructing his disciples
Luke 22.35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. 22.36 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. 22.37 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. 22.38 And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.
B. MOUNT OF OLIVES – PRAYER & ARREST (22:39–53) :
The Lucan form of this scene is less suspenseful and dramatic in relation to the disciples than is the comparable account in Mark/Matthew. Jesus goes to a customary place, the Mount of Lives, so that Judas has no problem in finding him. No words of rebuke are spoken to the disciples who follow Jesus. After all, at the Last Supper (in Luke alone) Jesus has praised them by anticipation, ‘You are those who have continued with me in my trials’; and he has assured them that they will have a kingdom, as well as a place at the eschatological table, and thrones of judgment (22:28, 29) – how can they then seriously fall away? Accordingly, Jesus does not separate himself from the body of the disciples and then from the three chosen ones, as he does in Mark/Matthew. He simply withdraws a stone’s throw urging them to pray. If they sleep, it is ‘for sorrow’ (22:45); and they are found sleeping only once, not three times.
All the drama in the scene is centered in Luke’s unique portrayal of Jesus. He is not one whose soul is sorrowful unto death or who lies prostrate in the dust. He has prayed often during the ministry; so now on his knees he utters a prayer to his Father prefaced and concluded by a subordination of his will to God’s wish. The Son’s prayer does not remain unanswered; rather God sends an angel to strengthen him.
It is a mark of Lucan sensitivity that when the arresting party comes, led by Judas, the perverse kiss is forestalled. Jesus addresses his betrayer by name (the only time in all the Gospels) and shows a foreknowledge of the planned strategy (22:48). Sensitively, too, Luke adds a motif to the traditional cutting off the ear of the high priest’s slave, namely, that Jesus who has so often healed in the ministry heals this opponent, even in the midst of his own peril. The figures who come to arrest Jesus on the Mount of Olives are not simply emissaries of the Jewish authorities as in the other Gospels; rather, the high priests, the Temple officers, and the elders themselves come out against him. The scene of the arrest terminates with Jesus’ dramatic announcement that it is their hour; with them the power of darkness has come (22:53).
C. PETER’S DENIAL – SANHEDRIN INTERROGATION (22:54–71) :
It is the look given to him by Jesus who seemingly is present all the time that Peter is denying him! This dramatic look, peculiar to Luke, is an aspect of Jesus’ continuing care for Peter promised at the Last Supper (22:32). The court yard is also the scene of the abuse of Jesus as a prophet, an action which ironically confirms his foreknowledge that he would die in Jerusalem as a prophet (13:33).
D. THE TRIAL BEFORE PILATE & HEROD (23:1–25) :
Luke’s staging of the Roman trial, almost as elaborate as John’s, goes considerably beyond the picture in Mark/Matthew. Although some of the same basic material is included (the issue of the ‘King of the Jews’ and the alternative offered by Barabbas), the overall development is uniquely shaped by parallelism with the Roman trials of Paul in Acts 16:19–24; 17:6–9; 18:12–17; 23:23–30. There are clear similarities in such features as detailed charges involving violations of Roman law and of Caesar’s majesty, indifference by Roman officials to the religious issues that are really involved, and the desire to let the prisoner go, or at most chastise him with a whipping.
The unique and fascinating Lucan contribution to the Pilate scene is the interspersed trial before Herod, the tetrarch or ‘king’ of Galilee, who is present in Jerusalem for the feast, and to whom Pilate sends Jesus upon learning that he is a Galilean. Christian memory has preserved a series of Herodian adversary images: a Herod (the Great) who with the chief priests and scribes conspired to kill the child Jesus (Matt 2); a Herod (Antipas) who killed John the Baptist (Mark 6:17–29; Matt 14:3–12), reputedly sought to kill Jesus (Luke 13:31), and would be remembered as aligned with Pilate against Jesus (Acts 4:27); a Herod (Agrippa I) who killed James, son of Zebedee, and sought to kill Peter (Acts 12:1–5); and a Herod (Agrippa II) who sat in judgment on Paul alongside a Roman governor (Acts 25:13–27
These traditions have been woven together into the passion narrative in different ways in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (where Herod becomes Jesus’ chief adversary who crucifies him) and in Luke. Although annoyed by Jesus’ silence and contemptuously mocking him – two details that the other Gospels relate to Jesus’ appearance before Pilate – the Lucan Herod confirms Pilate’s judgment that Jesus is innocent (Luke 23:14–15). In turn, contact with Jesus heals the enmity that had existed between the Galilean ‘king’ and the Roman, an enmity that may have been caused by Pilate’s brutally killing Galileans (Luke 13:1). Once more Jesus has a healing effect even on those who maltreat him.
E. CRUCIFIXION, DEATH & BURIAL (23:26–56) :
In this section of the passion narrative, Luke is most individualistic. Since he narrates no mocking of Jesus by Roman soldiers after Pilate’s sentence, the deliverance of Jesus ‘up to their will’ (23:25) creates the impression that the ones who seize Jesus, take him to Calvary, and crucify him are the chief priests, the Jewish rulers, and the people – the last plural subject mentioned (23:13). Eventually, however, we hear of soldiers (23:36), presumably Roman: and the people are shown as following Jesus without hostility, lamenting. Thus Luke alone among the passion narrators portrays a segment of Jews who are not disciples of Jesus but who are touched by his suffering and death.
Jesus addresses these ‘daughters of Jerusalem’, not in reference to his own impeding fate, but to the catastrophe that awaits them. They belong to a city that has killed the prophets and refused all Jesus’ overtures of grace, a city already destined to be dashed to the ground and trodden by Gentiles (13:34–35; 19:41–44; 21:20–24). Elsewhere, Luke shows great reluctance in having Jesus speak harshly; if he permits that here in threatening words borrowed from Isaiah (54:1–4) and Hosea (10:8). Luke is probably constrained by the factuality of the destruction of Jerusalem that has already taken place at Roman hands by the time he writes.
The contrast in Jesus’ attitudes is heightened by the first words he speaks upon coming to the place of the Skull: ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’. This hint that the Jewish chief priest and scribes acted out of ignorance, which is reiterated in Acts (3:17), runs against the general NT judgment of deliberate blindness and malevolence on the part of the Jewish authorities involved in the crucifixion. It constitutes not only a more humane understanding of the complex responsibilities for the death of Jesus but also a directive for the gracious treatment of one’s enemies that has often been simply called ‘Christian’. There are many who would come after Jesus, beginning with Stephen (Acts 7:60), who would find hope in facing unjust brutality by repeating the prayer of the Lucan Jesus.
Three groups (but not the people) mock the crucified Jesus in response to his forgiving words: the rulers, the soldiers, and one of the two criminals crucified with him. In a major departure from the Synoptic tradition, the other criminal in Luke acknowledges the justice of his own sentence and confesses the innocence of one whom he addresses intimately as ‘Jesus’ – an address used elsewhere in the Gospels in a friendly manner only by the blind beggar of Jericho. And the suffering Jesus responds with greater generosity than the petitioner requests, for Jesus will not simply remember the man after entering into his Kingdom; he will take the man with him this very day. The oft–used observation that the ‘good thief’ ultimately stole the Kingdom is not too far from the truth.
In the last hours of Jesus’ life (the sixth to the ninth hours), darkness comes over the earth (which Luke explains as a failing of the sun or as an eclipse, which technically is not possible at Passover time), but it does not obscure the confidence of the dying Jesus. His last words are not those of abandonment (Mark/Matthew) or those of triumph (John) but words of trust: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’. Adapted from Psalm 31:5–6 (especially as phrased in the Greek Bible), these words, like those in which he forgave his enemies, have offered many a way of meeting death in peace. Once again, the first of the followers of Jesus on this path was the martyr, Stephen (Acts 7:59). Luke places the rending of the Temple veil before Jesus’ death, not after (Mark/Matthew); for only acts of grace will follow the death of Jesus. The first is a final affirmation of the innocence of Jesus drawn from a centurion, so that time wise on either side of the cross a Roman governor and a Roman soldier have made the same declaration of not guilty. Then the Jewish multitude who followed Jesus to Calvary and looked on (Luke 23:27, 31) is moved to repentance, so that the people return home beating their breasts. A sign of goodness is evoked even from the midst of the Sanhedrin, as Joseph of Arimathea, a saintly member of that body who had not consented to the purpose or the deed of crucifying Jesus, asks for the body of Jesus in order to render the required burial service. If the daughters of Jerusalem wept over Jesus on the way to Calvary, providing the mourning required for burial, the women of Galilee (alongside Jesus’ male acquaintances!) look on the burial from a distance (23:49,55) and prepare spices to complete the burial. The words that will ultimately be addressed to the Galilean women will not be words of warning such as those addressed to the Jerusalem women but words of joy – their burial ministrations will prove unnecessary, for Jesus is among the living, not among the dead (24:1, 5). It has often been critically observed that the cross bears for Luke none of the atoning value that it had for Paul. Lucan crucifixion, however, is clearly a moment of God’s forgiveness and of healing grace through and by Jesus. The theological language may be different, but the atoning effects are the same.