Luke 22:47-46

Second Cycle: The Passion, Luke 22:47 to Luke 23:46.

The death of Jesus is not simply, in the eyes of the evangelists, and according to the sayings which they put into His mouth, the historical result of the conflict which arose between Him and the theocratic authorities. What happens to Him is that which has been determined (Luke 22:22). Thus it must be (Matthew 26:54). He Himself sought for a time to struggle against this mysterious necessity by having recourse to that infinite possibility which is inseparable from divine liberty (Mark 14:36). But the burden has fallen on Him with all its weight, and He is now charged with it. He dies for the remission of the sins of the world (Matthew 26:28). The dogmatic system of the apostles contains substantially nothing more. Only it is natural that in the Epistles the divine plan should be more prominent; in the Gospels, the action of the human factors. The two points of view complete one another: God acts by means of history, and history is the realization of the divine thought.

This cycle embraces the accounts of the arrest of Jesus (Luke 22:47-53); of His twofold trial, ecclesiastical and civil (Luke 22:54 to Luke 23:25); of His crucifixion (Luke 23:26-46).