Judas quietly strikes a deal with the chief priests while the rest of the twelve are still preparing for a holiday meal. Around the same table where Jesus institutes the bread and cup that will define His church for two thousand years afterward, the disciples find themselves arguing about which of them is the greatest. And in a garden a stone’s throw from where His own friends have fallen asleep, Jesus prays so hard that His sweat falls to the ground like drops of blood.
A study in Luke 22 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 28 min read
This Do In Remembrance Of Me
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-sixth chapter and Mark’s fourteenth chapter already cover Judas’s bargain with the chief priests and the institution of the Lord’s Supper in full.
“Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.”
Luke 22:3-4
Luke’s own phrasing is direct in a way Matthew’s and Mark’s parallel accounts are not — naming the source of the betrayal as Satan himself entering into a man who was still, by title, one of the twelve.
“And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
Luke 22:19-20
Only Luke and Paul’s own account in 1 Corinthians record the words “this do in remembrance of me” — the instruction that turned a single Passover meal into an ordinance the church would keep for as long as it existed.
I Have Prayed For Thee, That Thy Faith Fail Not
“And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them… 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.”
Luke 22:24-26
Found in no other Gospel at this exact moment, this dispute breaks out at the very table where Jesus has just spoken of His own body being broken. The contrast could hardly be sharper — His self-emptying announced in one breath, their self-promotion argued in the next.
“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”
Luke 22:31-32
Found in no other Gospel, this warning is not addressed to Peter alone — Satan asked for “you,” plural, the whole group — but the prayer of protection Jesus names is specifically for Peter, and specifically for his faith rather than his safety.
“And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.”
Luke 22:33-34
“Peter called to mind his promise of a few short hours before that he would go with his Lord to prison and to death. He remembered his grief when the Saviour told him in the upper chamber that he would deny his Lord thrice that same night. … He recalled the caution, ‘Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 713
Peter’s confident promise and Jesus’s quiet, specific prediction sit only one verse apart. Before the night is over, both will have come true — the failure exactly as foretold, and, just as certainly, the prayer that had already been prayed for that failure not to be final.
“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.… And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.”
Luke 22:36, 38
Found in no other Gospel, this strange instruction is not a call to armed resistance — Jesus will rebuke the use of a sword within the hour, in the very garden they are about to walk to. It reads instead as a warning about the harder, more hostile world the disciples are about to enter, once the crowds that once welcomed Him with palm branches have turned.
Being In An Agony He Prayed More Earnestly
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-sixth chapter and Mark’s fourteenth chapter already cover the prayer in Gethsemane in full.
“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
Luke 22:41-42
“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 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.”
Luke 22:43-44
Found in no other Gospel, both of these details — the angel, and the bloody sweat — belong to Luke alone, the physician among the Gospel writers, whose account is the one that names the exact physical cost of this prayer.
“Again the Son of God was seized with superhuman agony, and fainting and exhausted, He staggered back to the place of His former struggle. … As the agony of soul came upon Him, ‘His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 689
“The heavens opened, a light shone forth amid the stormy darkness of the crisis hour, and the mighty angel who stands in God’s presence, occupying the position from which Satan fell, came to the side of Christ. The angel came not to take the cup from Christ’s hand, but to strengthen Him to drink it, with the assurance of the Father’s love.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 693
The angel’s mission was never to remove the cup. It was to give Christ the strength to drink it — the same shape of prayer He had just taught Peter’s own faith would need, and the very shape of help every believer since has been promised in their own smaller Gethsemanes.
“And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”
Luke 22:45-46
The Lord Turned, And Looked Upon Peter
This site’s own studies of Matthew’s twenty-sixth chapter and Mark’s fourteenth chapter already cover the betrayal, the arrest, Peter’s denial, and the mocking in full.
“But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?”
Luke 22:48
“And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.”
Luke 22:50-51
Only Luke, the physician, records that Jesus stopped to heal the wound — His very last miracle before the cross, performed on the servant of the men who had come to arrest Him.
“And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord… And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.”
Luke 22:60-62
Found in no other Gospel, this single detail — “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter” — is what breaks him, not the crowing of the cock alone. Bound, exhausted, and on His way to a trial that will end in His death, Jesus still finds a moment to look at the friend who has just denied Him for the third time.
“Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.”
Luke 22:70-71
The council gets exactly the confession it wanted, spoken plainly, with no evasion — and treats the truth, once confirmed, as the very evidence it needs to condemn Him.
