The Passion Narrative in Luke’s Gospel by Steve Mueller
This year in the Lectionary for Palm Sunday we read the passion narrative from Luke’s Gospel. The passion narrative is the core and climax of each Gospel. Each Gospel author presents a distinctive picture of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus that fits with his theological viewpoint and emphases in his Gospel. Each evangelist shaped his passion narrative to help his community deal with the paradox of the cross. The passion account is not an appeal to pity, sorrow or even repentance. It witnesses to the presence of God, to the evidence of God’s purpose at work in the midst of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s chosen messiah (Christ). The response called for from us is faith.
In adapting Mark’s Gospel to the needs of his primarily Gentile community in the mid-eighties, Luke wanted to show that what happened with Jesus was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and continued after Jesus’ death in the life of the Christian disciples. Luke tells the story of our salvation in two volumes, the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles.
Throughout his Gospel, Luke presents Jesus as the Son of Man, full of compassion, love and patience in dying as he was in living. He is in command of the situation and is not seized by guards until he gives himself over. He heals, responds with compassion to the pain of others and forgives. Luke emphasizes the serenity of Jesus’ death, recalling his utter confidence in the Father’s plan.
Here is a brief reading guide to help you understand and appreciate more fully the passion narrative as Luke shapes and tells it in his Gospel.
In Jerusalem:
Rejection & Victory on the Christian Journey (19:28–21:38)
Entry into Jerusalem (19:28-48)
The increasingly hostile conflict between Jesus and his opponents over his identity, mission and ministry now climaxes during the Passover in Jerusalem, which provides the framework for Luke’s passion narrative.
Jesus’ final week began with a great public demonstration indicating the popularity of Jesus the prophet, who mocks the pomp of a military messiah by riding in a “triumphal” entry into Jerusalem on a donkey while people joyously celebrated by spreading their cloaks on his path.
Jesus in Dialogue with the Leaders of Israel (20:1–21:4)
Jesus teaches in the Temple, reaching out for the final time to his opponents and offering an invitation to conversion. He also performs another prophetic sign by disrupting the Temple business to call attention to God’s judgment upon it that will bring its destruction.
Vision of the Destruction of Jerusalem Temple & the End Time (21:5-38)
Luke arranges this discourse in temporal sequence: a description of the time of persecution facing the disciples (21:5-11, including what must precede these events, 21:12-19), a description of the fall of Jerusalem (21:20-24) and a preview of the time of liberation through the son of man (21:25-38).
From Jerusalem to God:
Jesus’ Passion, Resurrection & Ascension (22:1–24:53)
Although Luke follows the general outline of Mark’s passion rather closely, he makes several significant additions to Jesus’ way of the cross to emphasize that Jesus continues the saving/healing activity that characterized his ministry in Galilee. Luke stresses that Jesus is an innocent martyr and carefully notes that Pilate (23:4, 14, 22), Herod Antipas (23:15) and the Roman centurion at the cross (23:47) all declare him innocent. Jesus dies as he lived—forgiving his persecutors (23:34) and saving a good thief (23:39-43).
Introduction: Conspiracy, Betrayal & Preparation (22:1-13)
Jesus proclamation of God’s kingdom and his advocacy for justice inevitably led to a confrontation with the Jewish authorities who conspired with the Roman occupation force to bring about his murder. Luke understands this suffering to be an essential part of the prophet’s role.
Passover Supper, Prayer & Arrest (22:11:14–22:53)
Luke follows Mark closely here in the sequence of events, making minor changes. He describes Jesus’ eagerness to share the supper (22:15-20) and emphasizes in the consecrating words that Jesus’ body is “given for you” and his blood “poured out for you” and that the action should be repeated “as a remembrance of me” (22:19-20). He also prays that the disciples will “eat and drink at my table in the kingdom” (22:29-30). Though Jesus knows Peter will betray him, he prays for Peter’s faith and expects him afterwards to strengthen others (22:31-34), reminding the disciples not to rely on human power or their “two swords” but on God for their needs (22:35-38).
Peter’s Denial, the Jewish Trial & the Roman Trial before Pilate (22:54–23:25)
At the time of Jesus’ arrest by the Judean leaders and the crowd with Judas, only Luke has him heal the man whose ear has been cut off. At the Jewish trial, Luke introduces the accusations that Jesus is “perverting our nation, forbidding us to pay taxes to the emperor, and saying that he himself is the messiah, a king” and “stirring up the people” by his teaching in Judea and Galilee (23:2-5). When Pilate learns he is a Galilean, he sends him to Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, whose soldiers (not the Romans) mistreat Jesus. He finds no merit to the charges and returns Jesus to Pilate (23:6-12). Then though Pilate finds Jesus innocent, he succumbs to the pressure of the mob, frees Barabbas and sends Jesus to the cross.
Jesus’ Crucifixion, Death & Burial (23:26–23:56)
On the way to the place of crucifixion, only Luke has Jesus meet the women of Jerusalem (23:26-32) who were sorrowful because of what was happening to him. Jesus comforts them, at least indirectly, by indicating that those who are now doing this violence to him will have their day of judgment. But his prophetic warning is also alarming because he recognizes that innocent women and children will always be victims in acts of violence.
The story of the two thieves is found only in Luke. It exemplifies Luke’s portrait of Jesus as the Son of Man, full of compassion, love, and forgiveness in death as in life. Like the epitaphs on some contemporary gravestones, the thief requests “Remember me when you come into your kingdom” (v. 42), but he receives more than he asks for, more than mere remembrance—he receives Paradise.
For Luke, the kingdom of God is present in Jesus and manifested in his death and resurrection. Today, not in some vague future, he will be with Christ—not just accompanying him but sharing with him in his royalty in Paradise. This is also the promise for those who acknowledge Jesus’ kingship and share in his passion and death.
When Jesus is crucified between two criminals, Luke adds the dialogue (23:39-43) between Jesus and the good criminal who recognizes Jesus’ innocence and refuses to revile him. Jesus responds to the criminal’s request to be with him in his kingdom by promising that this will happen that very day. Even on the cross, Jesus offers forgiveness to all who desire to enter the kingdom. We are also the recipients of this promise when we begin to follow the kingdom guidelines that Jesus outlined for us.
With Luke’s version of Jesus’ dying words, he gives his Spirit back to God (23:46), trusting that God will now accomplish what Jesus had only begun but could not complete. Whatever was left to do in order to bring God’s kingdom on earth was now handed over to God and the disciples. In Acts, when the Holy Spirit descends on the community of disciples at Pentecost, they will indeed take up Jesus’ mission and ministry to bring the kingdom on earth. This responsibility has continued down to our own time.
Visits to the Empty Tomb, Recognition & the Disciples’ Mission (24:1-53)
After Jesus died he was taken down from the cross and hastily buried, the disciples then had to wait until Sunday morning when the Sabbath was over to prepare his body according to the traditional burial customs. When Mary Magdalene and other women disciples came to the tomb bringing spices to anoint his body, they discovered that the tomb was empty and his body gone. Their perplexity gave way to joy when they experienced Jesus suddenly alive again and, through a series of appearances to the disciples, he confirmed his identity and revealed his enduring presence with them on their journey both in scripture and in their eucharistic sharing.
For Luke, all of Jesus’ resurrection appearances take place in and around Jerusalem, which was the culminating point of Jesus’ ministry. From here the gospel message will spread in all directions to every nation and people.
For the disciples, the empty tomb was not a “proof” that Jesus had risen from the dead. Rather, it presented the disciples with perplexing information that led in many directions and demanded an interpretation of its meaning. Only when some divine help was provided (here by the angelic messenger and later by the risen Jesus who appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem and on the way to Emmaus) did the true meaning emerge.
Like us, the women are told that in order to discover the meaning of his resurrection they must remember everything that Jesus said and did. Only by seeing this event in continuity with his birth, life, ministry and death can they recognize that the resurrection is the culmination of all that Jesus was trying to accomplish.
Jesus’ Death, Our Death
We die as we live, so the saying goes. From a Christian viewpoint, Jesus’ death was the culmination of a life lived in dedication to God his Father and to God’s plan for a new community on earth. Jesus’ death was a unique instance of God’s saving presence for the salvation of all who could see that a new age was dawning. Jesus offered us an example of how to approach our death in full dedication to the God who has given us life.
Jesus never sought death but accepted his death when it came. The meaning of his death emerged only within the larger context of God’s plan. Jesus’ life, ministry, death and his resurrection would change the relationship between God and humanity forever. The evangelists help us make sense out of the non-sense of Jesus’s passion and death. They provide the significance and so the meaning which transforms the facts of suffering into the faith that saves. Our human suffering is not senseless but is transformed when we understand it in the light of the suffering and death of Jesus.
Steve Mueller is the author of the five books in the Catechist's Guide to Reading the Bible Series.
Comments