The bull of St Luke

The Passion according to Luke

Overview

22,1 gives us a new beginning by stating an important new time, the coming Passover festival. Luke makes 21,37-38 a closure of Jesus' time teaching in the Temple as we have seen.

The Passion in all four Gospels is told in two lengthy chapters yet the story takes place over less than twenty four hours. It is noticeable how more space is given to less time as the Gospels unfold.

We begin with the two references to the feast of Unleavened Bread, 22,1 & 22,7. 22,1-6 describe the conspiracy, 22,7-13 describe the preparations for the meal.

Verse 14, "when the hour came" then opens the meal in the upper room (22,12) which continues with Jesus' farewell speech until 22,38.

Verse 39, "he came out" indicates the move to the Mount of Olives. There is a minor introduction in verse 47 "while he was still speaking" before the crowd arrives for his arrest.

Verse 54 sees Jesus taken to the house of the high priest. The denials of Peter are described while Jesus is held overnight and Jesus is mocked.

A new day dawns in verse 66 when Jesus is taking for a hearing before the Sanhedrin. The announcement of the new day means it makes sense to read the various hearings or trials of Jesus together, that is 22,66-23,25.

In 23,1 Jesus is brought before Pilate for a first hearing (23,1-7). Herod then has his encounter with Jesus (23,8-12) before Jesus is brought back to Pilate for another hearing in verse 13. Finally at the end of verse 25, Pilate hands Jesus over "as they wished" (23,25).

The way of the cross now follows in 23,26-32 with the involvement of Simon of Cyrene and the weeping women.

Verse 33 marks the arrival at the place of the Skull followed by the crucifixion.

In verse 44 there is a note of the time. The death of Jesus is then described (23,44-49).

In verse 50, a new character appears, Joseph of Arimathea. He makes sure that Jesus is buried before nightfall (23,54).

Finally, in verse 56, there is a pause for the sabbath rest.

Back now to the main page.

Comparison with the Other Gospels

We can see that all four Gospels follow the same sequence of events for the Passion:
Conspiracy - Meal - Garden and arrest - Jewish hearing - Roman trial and condemnation
- way of the cross - Crucifixion - Death - Burial. It is quite likely that the story of the Passion was the first to be told by early Christians and so quickly took on a fixed form.

At the same time, it is signifcant just how much the accounts differ in detail. Within the framework, each evangelist makes his own presentation of events so as to bring out his particular message. Our aim here is to read Luke's Passion so we need to highlight what is special about Luke's presentation.

For example, a look at the chapter division shows that in both Gospels it comes when Jesus is brought before the Roman governor. That is correct for Mark. But for Luke as we have seen, the new day a little earlier would make for a better division.

Summary of the Gospel Passion Accounts

I have drawn up an outline comparison of the passion in Luke, Mark and John as a pdf file. It's a good idea to print this and have it as a handy reference as we read. (You may need to use the computer back arrow to return to this page.)

All four Gospels begin with the conspiracy to put Jesus to death and the preparations for the meal. The meal itself is described briefly in Mark and Matthew. In John, this is found in chapters 12-13 because the meal is followed by the lengthy discourse by Jesus in chapters 14-17. Luke as we will see uses the last supper as the setting for a farewell discourse (22,14-38).

Luke tells in chapter 7 of his Gospel the anointing of Jesus at Bethany which is described by Mark (Mk 14,3-9) immediately after the conspiracy.

After the meal, all the Gospels tell of Jesus going out with his disciples but only Luke tells us that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives (22,39). He does not mention Gethsemane. There the arrest follows in all the Gospels.

Luke then tells us of Peter's denials as Jesus is held overnight in the house of the high priest. He has no nocturnal hearing about Jesus. In the other Gospels, Peter's denials are intertwined with the interrogation of Jesus.

A new day begins in verse 66 and Jesus is taken to the Sanhedrin for a Jewish hearing. This daytime hearing is just one verse in Mark (Mk 15,1). The trial before Pilate follows with considerable differences between the various accounts. Mark descibes this in 15 verses, Luke in 25 verses, while for John, the interrogation by Pilate is a major feature of his Passion account. Only Luke has Pilate sending Jesus to Herod (23,6-11).

Both Mark and John tell of mockery by the (Roman) soldiers. You may have noticed that this mockery is carried out in Luke by Herod and his soldiers (23,11).

Notable as we will see is that in Luke, Pilate hands Jesus "over to them to do as they wished". In the other Gospels, it is Pilate who hands over Jesus to be crucified.

Like Mark (but not John), Luke has Simon of Cyrene carrying the cross (23,26). Unique to Luke is the encounter between Jesus and the women of Jerusalem (23,27-31).

During the crucifixion, only Luke has Jesus speaking with the two criminals (23,39-43). Jesus's last words on the cross are also special to Luke (23,46), as is the reaction of the centurion (23,47).

Joseph of Arimathea appears in all four Gospels as the one who placed Jesus in the tomb. Only in John is the dead Jesus wrapped in spices at this point (Jn 19,39-40).

In conclusion, this comparison has hopefully thrown up plenty for us to explore further as we read the Passion according to Luke more closely.
We now return to the main page to see our reading plan for chapter 22 and then begin our reading.