Student Question
What rebuke did Jesus give to the chief priests, temple guard captains, and elders in Luke 22:51-53?
Quick answer:
In Luke 22:51-53, Jesus rebukes both his disciples and those arresting him. After healing the servant's ear, he criticizes his disciples for using violence. He then rebukes the chief priests, temple guards, and elders for treating him like a dangerous criminal, despite knowing him from his peaceful teachings in the temple. Jesus highlights their hypocrisy in arresting him with weapons at night, contrasting their inaction during his public teachings.
In these verses, Jesus has just been betrayed by Judas. The temple guards and the chief priests come with Judas and are going to arrest him. Some of Jesus’s disciples want to defend him and one (identified in John as Simon Peter) strikes off the ear of the chief priest’s servant with a sword. In Luke, Jesus first rebukes his own disciples for their violence and then heals the servant’s ear.
Jesus then turns to the people who have come to arrest him and rebukes them. He says that they are coming after him as if he were a rebel (or, in other translations, a thief). He criticizes them for coming after him armed as if he were some dangerous person. He tells them that they know him and that he has been preaching in the temple (as seen, for example, in Luke 21:37). He points out that they never did anything to him then and he rebukes them for now acting as if he is dangerous and deserves to be arrested.
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