June 1 – Reading Luke 22:54-65

Read and believe in Jesus.

“And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.”  Luke 22:60

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The Gospel according to Luke 

Review – Judas led a virtual army of Jews and Romans with clubs and swords to arrest Jesus.  Their intent was to convict Him of a capital crime.  Judas’s intent in kissing Jesus was to earn 30 silver pieces.  Jesus was calm, but Peter was not. He drew his sword and sliced off an ear of the nearest man.  Jesus stopped that and healed the man.

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Vss. 22:54-60.

They (probably part of the Sanhedrin’s guard under the high priest) seized Jesus and led Him away (out of Gethsemane, into Jerusalem), to the high priest’s house.

Annas was the “official” high priest that year, although his recently deposed father-in-law, Caiaphas, held the real power. They took Jesus first to Annas’ house. It may have been that Annas’ and Caiaphas’ houses shared the same courtyard.

Peter (and John) followed Jesus at a distance.  John, being known in the household, went in first, then got Peter into the courtyard (see John 18:15-16).  He sat down with some others by the fire. The servant girl who questioned Peter first was probably the doorkeeper to Annas’s house and the one who let him into the courtyard.

“This man also was with Him,” she accused, after looking at Peter closely when he sat down in the light.

“Woman! I do not know Him!”

Later, someone else saw Peter and said, “You also are one of them!”

“Man, I am NOT!” said Peter vehemently.

An hour later, another person insisted, “Certainly this man also was with Him, for he too is a Galilean.”

“Man, I do not know what you are talking about!”

And immediately, WHILE he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

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Vss. 22:61-52

And at that minute, Jesus was being led over to Caiaphas’ house. He turned and looked at Peter. (This was a fixed, intent look.)

“And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’”

And the devastated disciple went out and wept bitterly.

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Vss. 22:63-65.

After this, the abuse begins with Jesus. The men holding Him blindfolded him and punched Him again and again.

“Prophesy!  Who struck you?”

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(Imagine being blindfolded, not knowing where the next strike would come from. A fist to the stomach, a blow to an ear, a kick to the groin…)

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“And they said many other things against Him, blaspheming Him.

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“Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death…” Philippians 2:6-8