Serving One Another

Luke 22:1-30

1-2

The "Feast of Unleavened Bread," immediately following the Passover, lasted seven days (Ex 12:15-20).

FEASTS (Heb. moedh, an assembling, hagh, dance, or pilgrimage). The feasts, or sacred festivals, held an important place in Jewish religion. They were religious services accompanied by demonstrations of joy and gladness.

The Passover (Lev 23:4-8) was the first of all the annual feasts, and historically and religiously it was the most important of all. It was celebrated on the first month of the religious year, on the 14th of Nisan (our March April), and commemorated the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt and the establishment of Israel as a nation by God’s redemptive act.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the day after the Passover and lasted seven days (23:5-8). This feast together with Passover was one of the three times that all male Jews who were physically able and ceremonially clean were required by Mosaic Law to attend (Exod 23:17; Deut 16:16). The other two were the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. These were known as the pilgrimage festivals; on all of them special sacrifices were offered, varying according to the character of the festival (Num 28-29).

Earlier the Pharisees were prominent in opposing Jesus.

 Jesus was teaching over a period of some time, and this event occurred on one of those days. It seems that Jesus’ reputation had aroused the attention of the Jewish religious authorities, who considered it important to hear what he was teaching. By doing this Luke lays stress on the crucial nature of the religious issues soon to be raised. This is his first mention of the "Pharisees and teachers of the law."

 The "Pharisees" had, earlier in their history, helped the Jews maintain the purity of their religion by teaching how the Mosaic Law and the traditions that grew up alongside it ought to be applied in daily life. Many of them became rigid, imbalanced, and hypocritical. The "teachers of the law", most of whom were Pharisees, had expert knowledge of the details of the Jewish legal tradition and so would be expected to form an opinion about the correctness of Jesus’ teaching.

Now the "chief priests and teachers of the law" were taking the initiative against him. In that society the priests were not only religious leaders, but they also wielded great political power. The teachers of the law were involved undoubtedly because their legal expertise would be useful in building a case against Jesus. "The people," on the other hand, were a deterrent to the schemes of the leaders.

3-6

SATAN (Gr. Satan or Satanas, an adversary). The chief of the fallen spirits, the grand adversary of God and man. He is often called the devil (Gr. diabolos), meaning "the slanderer"

Satan is the ruler of a powerful kingdom standing in opposition to the kingdom of God (Matt 12:26; Luke 11:18). He exercises authority in two different realms. He is the head of a vast, compact organization of spirit-beings, "his angels" (Matt 25:41; Eph 2:2; 6:12). Acts 10:38 makes it clear that the outburst of demonic activities during the ministry of Jesus was Satan-inspired. Satan is not omnipresent, but through his subordinates he makes his influence practically world-wide. He also exercises domination over the world of lost humanity (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11), the evil world system that he has organized on his own principles (2 Cor 4:3-4; Col 1:13; 1 John 2:15-17; 5:19).

Animated by an unrelenting hatred against God and all goodness, Satan is engaged in a world-wide and age-long struggle against God, ever seeking to defeat the divine plans of grace toward mankind and to seduce people to evil and ruin. His primary method is that of deception--about himself, his purpose, his activities, and his coming defeat (Rev 12:9). Satan was the seducer of Adam and Eve (Gen 3:1-7; 2 Cor 11:3); he insinuated to God that Job served him only for what he got out of it (Job 1:9); and he stood up against Israel (1 Chron 21:1) and God’s high priest (Zech 3:1-2). Under divinely imposed limitations he may be instrumental in causing physical affliction or financial loss (Job 1:11-22; 2:4-7; Luke 13:16; 2 Cor 12:7). He snatches away the Word of God sown in the hearts of the unsaved (Matt 13:19), sows his counterfeit Christians among the children of the kingdom (13:25, 38-39), blinds the minds of people to the gospel (2 Cor 4:3-4), and induces them to accept his lie (2 Thess 2:9-10). Often he transforms himself into "an angel of light" by presenting his apostles of falsehood as messengers of truth (2 Cor 11:13-15). He clashes in fierce conflict with the saints (Eph 6:11-18), is ever alert to try to destroy them (1 Peter 5:8), and hinders the work of God’s servants (1 Thess 2:18). Certain members of the church who were expelled are said to have been delivered to Satan but with the design to produce their reformation, not their destruction (1 Cor 5:5; 1 Tim 1:20).