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Luke 22:63–65
“Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking him as they beat him. They also blindfolded him and kept asking him, ‘Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?’ And they said many other things against him, blaspheming him.”
In our study of Luke 22, we have seen that our Lord suffered a variety of indignities on the night of the Last Supper. Thus far, Luke has focused on what Jesus endured from those who should have loved Him the most—namely, His disciples. One disciple, Judas, betrayed Him and handed Him over to the Jewish religious authorities who were seeking to destroy Him (vv. 47–53). Another disciple, Peter, denied that he knew Jesus when affirming his relationship to Christ might have led to his own suffering (vv. 54–62).
Luke, in today’s passage, turns his attention to the indignities heaped on Jesus by those who, unlike the disciples, hated Him outright. We see in 22:63 that the men holding Jesus in custody beat and mocked Him. Our Savior was receiving the derision normally reserved for those who were outside the camp of Israel, those who were considered unclean or who had been cast out of the community for their transgressions (see Lev. 13:45–46; 24:10–16). Those committing these injustices had no doubt convinced themselves that Jesus was guilty of sin, though we know that He was fully righteous and innocent. But our Lord’s being treated as an unclean sinner depicts the theological reality of the atonement in which Jesus was regarded as a sinner under the wrath of God, bearing the punishment for His people that they deserved, so that our Father can regard us as righteous and give us the eternal life that we do not deserve (2 Cor. 5:21).
The custodians of Jesus blindfolded and struck Him, demanding that He prophesy, that He identify which person had hit Him (Luke 22:64). They were insincerely demanding that He demonstrate supernatural knowledge. In this, they were rejecting His prophetic office, repeating Israel’s long-standing practice of rejecting the word of the Lord (13:34; see 2 Chron. 36:15–16).
Blasphemy could get one sent out of the camp of Israel in the Old Testament era (Lev. 24:10–16). Many of the Jews thought that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy and deserved this treatment (see Mark 14:53–65). Ironically, however, the custodians of Jesus who beat Him were the ones who were truly guilty of committing blasphemy (Luke 22:65). Luke describes their verbal attacks on Jesus as their “blaspheming” the Savior, using the same Greek word found in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament and other ancient Jewish literature for blasphemy against God. By this, Luke informs us that Jesus is God incarnate.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Followers of Christ will experience the world’s hatred, but we must remember that the world hated Jesus long before it hated us (John 15:18). If He could endure such hatred for the sake of His kingdom and our salvation, trusting in His Father, then we by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit can do the same. Only by seeking the Lord’s help will we persevere through the hatred that we experience from the world and never compromise His truth.
For further study
- Zechariah 13:7–9
- Matthew 26:67–68
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 16
- Hebrews 12
- Ezekiel 17–21
- Hebrews 13–James 1