Luke 22:14-23:56 | Explaining the Readings

It is very important to preface this presentation by saying this: The indoors production of what is commonly called “The Passion Play” follows the outdoors production of that called “The Liturgy of the Palms.”

In Exodus 16:4 is read, “Then Yahweh said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.”

Because Palm-Passion Sunday is still in the testing period of Lent, this verse should be seen as Yahweh giving all who say they believe in Him and His Word through Scripture a clue that says, “Here is how I test faith.”

In Exodus 16:16-19 is written: “This is what Yahweh has commanded: ‘Gather as much of it [manna] as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.’” The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over until morning.”

Aaahhh. But human beings are like children that do not listen. They love to fail tests. So, in Exodus 16:20-21 says this: “But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, as much as each needed; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.”

On the sixth day (Friday), the Israelites were allowed to collect two days’ worth, so they had to do no work on the Sabbath Day. Still, they only had one day’s worth of manna to consume; never having fifteen days’ worth.

On the fourth Sunday in Lent this Year C (three Sundays prior, or fourteen-fifteen days ago), the Old Testament reading was from Joshua 5, where we read: “The manna ceased on the day they ate the produce of the land, and the sons of Israel no longer had manna; they ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.” (Joshua 5:12) The deeper meaning of that verse says manna from the sky ceased, but spiritual food became those who were truly “sons of Israel.” The source of spiritual food was within those who Joshua crossed over into the Promised Land [which is not physical land, but a marriage of a soul to Yahweh’s Spirit – a Yahweh elohim, divinely saved]. As such, that state of blissful marriage only lasted a year; and, then they began having children and not teaching them how to do as they had become, in order to be truly “sons of Israel.” They soon fell onto hard time, needing to receive their spiritual food from Judges, Samuel, David, and a series of Prophets. Still, those only passed out spiritual food in daily amounts, not half-month loads.

The land, once the “sons of Israel” diminished to a trickle of souls, split and fell into ruin, scattering the peoples around the known world. When a few ‘sons of Israel” led some people back to what was once their physical earth once owned, but since lost, a new series of “sons of Israel” began dispensing spiritual food. The Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles are their versions of ‘manna from the sky.’ Still, only a daily allotment will lead a soul to being Spiritually self-sufficient, able to become a Yahweh elohim – a “son of Israel” (regardless of human gender). Cutting off huge chunks and letting them go uneaten before the next day’s sunrise means that huge chunk melts in the next day’s sun, turning to maggots and stinking to high heaven. That makes Yahweh angry.

The moral of this story I have told is this: I am going to salvage the spiritual food carved from Luke’s Gospel, and place it into omer-sized baskets for one’s daily nourishment from ‘manna from the sky.’ Any church that presents over 2,500 words in one morning service cannot possibly spend the time necessary to explain that spiritual food, so it has the benefit intended. It is like offering an all-you-can-eat buffet of Christian religion, paying nothing to get this freely provided ‘manna,’ while expecting to receive twenty dollars a head for using it in pageantry, not caring if it all goes to waste. To eliminate the shame that comes from just a couple of morsels here, which have been served up as one huge Passion Sunday dinner, will ever be taken out again (like leftovers) and served at other times in a three-year cycle; I will address everything as an individual lesson that should be known.

As I have now completed this project (one that was well worthwhile), I will say that I began it on one day, completing it eleven days later. I want you to think about that.

In eleven days, I examined ever word of every verse; and, there are 113 verses. Having never been told any of the meaning to those 113 verses (with Palm Sunday’s Gospel reading adding another thirteen verses), people calling themselves ‘Christians’ will go a lifetime never fully understanding the powerful message that Yahweh had Luke write. AND … that is just one of the four Gospels that tell additional details to this “Passion Play!”

In the past eleven days, I have written almost in a trance, so at this point there are plenty of nits and burs (misspelled words and grammatical errors) that will run off all English teachers (I presume there is a special place in hell for them, for that reason). So, beware reading unedited texts. My email is available for any questions (like that would ever happen!); but I feel enough is clear enough to see how much is missed in the theatrics of a “Passion Play,” when the players have no true passion (pains of dying with Jesus within).

It is important to know that this story is not told so everyone remembers how Jesus sacrificed his life so others could be saved. It is told (one way or another) every year because those sitting in the pews are killing Jesus over and over again, never once stopping to think, “I wonder what true commitment like that feels like?”

Every true Christian needs to see just how much they play the role of Temple Jews … the Sanhedrin … screaming at Pontius Pilate, “Crucify him!” More people calling themselves ‘Christians’ show up for church on this Sunday and the following Easter Sunday; so, they must prefer killing Jesus, rather than killing themselves so they can be reborn as Jesus.

For all the lazies that only have an hour or two a year for church things, I have made it easy to read each little section, one at a time, as your lazy leisure. Just click on the links

Don’t thank me. Enjoy! Eat all seventeen meals (over seventeen days or a lifetime) and grow into a true “son of Israel.”

Here are the first nine.

Part I, Divisions A through I (Luke 22:14-71)

A: Luke 22:14-23

B: Luke 22:24-30 [verses 24-30 also read on Saint Bartholomew – a Wednesday in 2022]

The change of chapters has to be seen as significant, in the terms of timing. All of the readings from Luke’s twenty-second chapter begin after six o’clock in the evening. Everything must be seen in terms of a fixed number of days in the Passover festival recognition, which is eight days: It begins and it ends on the same day of the week – ALWAYS. In this case – Jesus’ final Passover festival, where he is the sacrificial lamb – The first day of the Passover was a Sabbath, which began at 6:00 PM on the Friday night prior (14 Nisan). Because there are two Passover Seder meals that the Jews recognized then (and still today), the first Passover Seder was in Bethany, at Simon the leper’s house. Because travel from Bethany to Jerusalem (the upper room in the Essene Quarter) would be beyond a ‘Sabbath’s day’s walk,’ Jesus and his disciples and all family members in Bethany would have not begun to go there, from Bethany, until after six in the evening (in the Evening Watch of night). That travel would have been on an official timing of Sunday, on 15 Nisan. Therefore, everything written in Luke 22 told of the events that spread from about 6:45-ish P.M. on Saturday night (officially Sunday) 15 Nisan and extended into the Morning of Day, before the Sanhedrin, on official first day of the week. The arrest followed Jesus’ second Seder meal for that Passover, therefore his “last supper” (as opposed to his first supper).

Realizing the story of Joseph and Mary, when Jesus was born (unexpectedly) in Bethlehem, the reason there was “no room at the inn” was all the surrounding villages and towns of Jerusalem were packed like sardines, due to the Passover. Pilgrim from all around the globe had traveled there for this event; and, they would remain there until the Shavuot Festival (the fiftieth day, or Pentecost). So, imagine the tourists in a city for a Super Bowl, or coastal citizens fleeing their homes to an inland city, when a major hurricane is forecast. Everywhere is packed with people. There are no idyllic, peaceful roads, where silence and solitude are easily found. Due to that hectic level of activity, the Roman soldiers in the garrison of Fort Antonia and surrounding forts and placements, were on high alert to make sure no riots were caused by Roman force. All non-Jews headed to, through, or by Jerusalem would have been halted and forced to camp or take another route. Only Jews would be allowed in Jerusalem; and, it would have been packed with Jews. Because of that heightened level of people, there would be a long list of citizens requesting an audience with public officials; and, there would be no city clerks leaning on the elbows with nothing to do. All would be working feverishly to keep up with heightened demands for attention. Therefore, anyone who thinks Jesus went from seeing the Sanhedrin, to seeing Pilate, to seeing Herod Antipas, to back to seeing Pilate in one day is an idiot, who does not realize what getting a day in court demands. Try calling the governor’s office for your state and tell them you demand to see the governor in two hours. You will find out you are an idiot and certainly unimportant.

This means the text of all the Gospels that tell of the same time period during Jesus’ sacrifice as the lamb of Yahweh are not written to denote a short timeframe between verses. The Passover Seder meal begins after six o’clock, but Jesus’ arrest was around one in the morning, some six hours (or so) later. When Matthew and Mark and Luke says Jesus bork bread and then blessed wine, there was real time that passed between the verses that act as stenographer notes, in between sips of wine and eating a ritual dinner. Thus, in the same way, one can see a day taking place between Jesus being told to send Jesus to Herod, because all Galileans were under his area of rule. Herod was a king (puppet to Rome as that title was), but at this time the puppet ruler of Canada is acting like a baby tyrant, threatening peaceful demonstrations; but the word out recently says his family is in hiding, due to threats on his baby tyrant life. So, some person name Jesus of Nazareth, who Josephus belittles as nobody significant, was not some mega rock star or Hollywood celebrity, who would demand any ‘cutting in line,’ just so Herod could see him a.s.a.p.

Because it is shown that Jesus’ dead body was taken down from the cross on a Friday, when there had to be special approval to take a criminal’s body down before death had occurred – a statement that crucifixion was not a speedy form of death – it is highly likely that the other two men crucified on the same day as Jesus were near death, but still alive. That led to Jesus being proved to be dead, which allowed for his body to be taken down on Friday, when three days had not yet passed. Because Jesus appeared before the Sanhedrin on a Sunday and was taken down from his cross on a Friday, five days had passed, with the last two being when Jesus hang dying and dead on the cross, before being taken down. This timing says Jesus appeared before Pilate on Sunday; and, then he appeared before Herod Antipas on Tuesday morning, before being brought back to Pilate on Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday after noon was when Barabbas was chosen to be freed; and, Tuesday evening Jesus was scourged, then kept in a cell overnight. Wednesday morning he was led to Golgotha, crucified and died by three o’clock in the afternoon. He had been dead forty-eight hours when speared and taken down on Friday. Thus, it was on his Father’s day – the Sabbath – that Jesus resurrected, at three o’clock in the afternoon. All of this must be seen as planned by Yahweh.

Each of these nine sections from Luke 23 will be discerned separately and posted separately. A link to each commentary will be created, so all are welcomed to understand the great depth that comes from Scripture; so, it is not misused as too much manna gathered for one day. Of course, the whole of the Passion Sunday reading could be justified IF everyone reading and hearing read were committed to stay for the whole day, discussing the meaning of this divine Word.

Divisions A through F (Luke 23:1-56)

A: Luke 23:1-7

B: Luke 23:8-12

C: Luke 23:13-25

D: Luke 23:26-43 [Verses 33-43 read also on Proper 29 A]

[Part A] Luke 23:26-32

[Part B] Luke 23:33-38

[Part C] Luke 23:39-43

E: Luke 23:44-49

F: Luke 23:50-56