Matthew 26:1-16

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Introduction

The Plot to Kill Jesus

26 When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Judas to Betray Jesus

14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Well, it’s been more than two months since we were plodding our way through the book of Matthew, and since finishing our series on Amillennialism we’re going to start the new year back in Matthew’s Gospel, starting in chapter 26. Now, the end of chapter 25 was the catalyst for our series on Amillennialism, and it’s also the end of a major section in Matthew’s Gospel, therefore chapter 26 begins the final section of his Gospel. You’ll notice there in verse 1 of chapter 26, that Matthew begins by saying, and,

26 When Jesus had finished all these sayings,

In other words, Matthew is wrapping up much of what Jesus taught up to this point, and not just since his arrival in Jerusalem, but likely even since the genesis of his ministry.

Transitional statements

Biblical scholars for centuries have taken notice of this short transitional statement, because they find four other statements like it used throughout Matthew’s Gospel, therefore many believe Matthew intentionally divided his book into several sections, which follow Matthew’s use of these statements. For instance, at the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount Matthew says,

28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

then in Matthew 11:1, Matthew writes that,

11 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

and then in Matthew 13:53, he says that,

when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,

and finally, in Matthew 19:1, Matthew says,

19 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

So, by the time we get to chapter 26, we get the impression that Matthew has been ordering his Gospel account, not only chronologically, but by the certain kinds of teachings or discourses that Jesus gave throughout his ministry. That, at the beginning of his ministry, in his Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) that he taught his disciples concerning the ethics of the kingdom of heaven, to love your enemies, how to fast and pray, to lay up treasures in heaven, to not be anxious about anything.
Then in chapter 10, that he had instructed his disciples privately to prepare them for ministry. He sends them out to the lost sheep of Israel to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons, but he warns them that persecution will follow. That this message will set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, but that whoever receives them will receive a righteous person’s reward.
Then, at the end of Matthew chapter 13, Matthew concludes his focus on Jesus’ parables, concerning the kingdom of heaven. Parables that teach his disciples the nature of the kingdom of heaven. That it’ll be like a sower who sows seed, and that the seed will fall on all kinds of soils, and therefore yield all sorts of responses to the Gospel message. That the kingdom of heaven will be like a mustard seed that begins small, but later becomes the largest of all the garden plants, and that the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field worth selling everything you have to purchase that field.
Then at the beginning of chapter 19, when Jesus finishes is teaching about relationships within the church, to be careful not cause any of his little ones to to sin, to not despise any of his disciples, and that if their brother sins against them, to go to him and tell him his fault, that he might repent.
Then, finally, when we arrive at chapter 26 we reach the end of Jesus’ teachings in Jerusalem, his judgement against her religious leaders, and his teaching to his disciples concerning eschatological events, and his second coming. To be ready, to be prepared, because Jesus will come at an hour that they do not expect.

The beginning of the end

But chapter 26 is also the beginning of the end. It’s marks the beginning of Jesus’ passion, it marks the beginning of his suffering, his death and resurrection. The final chapters of Matthew’s Gospel (chapters 26-28) will be consumed with the climactic events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. If you’ve been with us since chapter 16 you might remember that Jesus has been preparing his disciples for this moment all along. Shortly after Peter famously confesses and identifies Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God” we’re told that Jesus “strictly charged his disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ,” then in Matthew 16:21 Matthew says that,

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

And at first, this is so shocking to the disciples that Peter even takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you,” (v. 22) but we’re told that Jesus turns to Peter and says, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (v. 23) Jesus intends for them to see that this is why he has come, that his suffering and death should not be seen as defeat, but instead at the the very heart of God’s redemptive plan.
However, the disciples won’t understand this until after Jesus’ resurrection. Even after his transfiguration in chapter 17, when his face began to shine like the sun and his clothes become white as light in front of Peter, James and John, we’re told that when Jesus said to them,

“The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”

that “they were greatly distressed.”
And finally, just before Jesus entered Jerusalem in chapter 20, we’re told in verse 17 that,

he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death 19 and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

So, in one sense, they know that Jesus’ end in Jerusalem is to suffer and die, but they still can’t see why this must happen, or how his death can be a part of God’s redemptive plan, and how it can be central to the mission of the Messiah, because this is not how they had envisioned the circumstances of the Messiah playing out. How could his death result in victory, how could his death result in triumph? And what did Jesus mean that he would be raised on the third day?
But, regardless, Jesus tells them again, a fourth time, in verse 2 of chapter 26, when he says to his disciples,

2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Delivered up on Passover

And what’s particularly significant this time, is that Jesus begins to connect his death with the Passover. In fact, within this same chapter, starting in verse 26 Jesus will institute the Lord’s Supper during the final Passover meal with his disciples. His intention will be to demonstrate to them that he is the fulfillment of the Passover, that the Passover finds its ultimate fulfillment in his death. That their own deliverance will come by his sacrifice. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 the Apostle Paul would later describe Jesus, as “our Passover Lamb” who had “been sacrificed” on our behalf.

The plot to kill Jesus

And so the beginning of Christ’s passion begins with the chief priests and the elders of the people plotting together to arrest him. We read there, starting in verse 3,

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Now, while Jesus had been telling his disciples that he was going to be delivered over to wicked men to suffer, and to be put to death, Jerusalem’s religious leaders had developed an increasing hatred for him. Even while he was still preaching in Galilee we’re told that Jesus wouldn’t go about in the region of Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him, in John 7:1 it says,

7 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

Back in Matthew chapter 12 when Jesus had entered a synagogue on the Sabbath he saw a man with a withered hand, and immediately the Pharisees ask him if it is lawful for him to heal on the Sabbath, knowing that this could be an opportunity to accuse him of breaking the Sabbath laws, but Jesus confounds them by saying,

“Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then Jesus proceeds to miraculously restore the man’s withered hand, and then we’re told that,

the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

And it only got worse as Jesus made his way to Jerusalem, beside the fact that he had the audacity to ride into the city on a donkey as though he were their king, he also proceeded to drive out all who bought and sold in the temple, going so far as to overturn their tables. We read in Luke 19, starting in verse 45,

45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”

and you can imagine how the religious leaders took this, so Luke goes on in verse 47 and says that,

he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

In Mark’s account he records it like this,

18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

You see the religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat, because they feared him. His teaching threatened their own institutional power, Jesus’ teaching exposed their own hypocrisy, made them look bad in from of the people, and his teaching commanded the crowds, and this made them jealous of him. Jesus was a threat to everything they had built, therefore he had to be destroyed, but they had to do it under the cover of darkness, and they wanted to avoid arresting him during the Passover feast, “lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Jesus the fulfillment of Passover

Yet God had other plans. Not that Jesus would escape their hands, or that he would escape death, but that the circumstances would lead to Jesus being crucified during Passover, in order that Jesus might bring about the feast’s ultimate fulfillment. That he would become the Passover Lamb.
I’m often reminded of Acts 4:27-28, that,

truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

My point here is simply that Jesus was not at the mercy of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, as to whether he lived or died, but rather he was going to lay it down willingly. Jesus famously said in John 10:18 that,

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

So, I want us to remember, throughout chapters 26-28, that Jesus is not subject to the whims of human history, but that even in his impending death he remained the potentate of time, the author of history, and his suffering, death and resurrection was right at the heart of his intentions.

Jesus anointed at Bethany

And this is what the disciples couldn’t yet see. However, there was a woman in Bethany who seemed to grasp some measure of this reality, that seemed to understand, at least in part, the value and magnitude of Jesus and his impending death. And we read about her there in verses 6-13 of chapter 26,

Jesus Anointed at Bethany

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

This particular account is found in three of the four Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and John. The Apostle John tells us that her name is Mary, likely the sister of Lazarus and Martha, and John tells us that they’ve all gathered in the house of Simon the leper. Now, we don’t know anything about the identity of Simon, other than he must have been a leper at some point given that he had come to be known as Simon the leper. They’re in Bethany, one of the small towns just outside of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley on the Mount of Olives, which is the same area where Jesus and his disciples had been lodging since arriving in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover feast.
Now, John indicates that this incident took place six days before the Passover which tells us that Matthew inserts it here not in the interest of being chronologically precise but to make a point to his readers. Matthew sandwiches this account between telling us that the high priest is plotting to kill Jesus, and Judas’s plot to betray him. And my suspicion is that Matthew does this for a couple of reasons, 1) so that we might see how Jesus’ death was instigated to take place during Passover (despite the Jews desire to do it after the feast), and 2) for us to see a contrast between Mary’s extravagant concern and devotion to Jesus with Judas’s cheap willingness to betray Jesus for a few pieces of silver.

Alabaster flask of pure nard

Look at this story with me. We’re told that Mary comes up to Jesus with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment and pours it on Jesus’ head while he’s reclining at the table. Now, at first, this seems strange to us because when we invite guests over we’re not inclined to pour oil onto their heads, because our guests would not find that amusing, but in their culture oil was used for all sorts of reasons, from anointing the head of a king, to anointing someone for burial, and it wouldn’t have been strange as a means of welcoming a guest into their own home.
So we’re not intended to be shocked that she poured oil on Jesus’ head, but we’re intended to notice what she poured on Jesus head. For example, this is no ordinary container, this is an alabaster flask, and the mineral alabaster was considered the best kind of rock to house fragrant oils, because it held onto the fragrants better than any other kind of substance. However, the problem was that alabaster could only be sourced from Egypt, which made the flask itself very expensive. Moreover, Mark and John tell us that this expensive ointment was pure nard, or spikenard, that could only be sourced and imported from the Himalayan mountains in northern India, which made this product extravagantly expensive.
Which, of course, leads to the disciple’s objection in verse 8,

8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”

And while Matthew indicates that all of the disciples were carried away with indignation, John tells us, in his account, that it was Judas who likely started it. We read in John 12:4,

4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

300 Denarii

Now, it’s important to note that 300 denarii is nearly an entire year’s wages for a typical laborer. And, on the face of it, I think we’re prone to sympathize with Judas’ objection, because it does seem like it would have been more prudent to have spent such a large sum of money on something more pragmatic, like helping the poor. In fact, it was expected that all Jews give regularly to the poor, because of what was taught in the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 15:7 tells us that “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land … you should not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.”
So, Judas and the disciples seem to have legitimate grounds for their indignation, but listen to what Jesus tells them starting in verse 10,

10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Now, there are at least two arguments here, 1) Jesus takes priority over giving to the poor, which reminds me of when Jesus told his disciples back in chapter 10 that they must be willing to love him more than their own farther or mother, that whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and 2) they will always have the poor among them, in other words, you’ll always have an opportunity to give to the poor, but they’ll not always have Jesus with them, and the opportunity to honor him in ways like Mary did. And Jesus doesn’t mean to minimize their obligation to remember the poor, but rather to understand the value of his own death.

Sin cloaked in virtue

What’s more, John records for us in his Gospel account that, “[Judas] said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put in it.” So, not only was Judas wrong to berate Mary and her gift, but he does so under the cover of virtue. And I think this is where our sin can be the most insidious, and where our sin can be the most deceptive, when we cover our sin with virtue when we know it’ll be almost impossible for anyone to know otherwise. And all you have to do is read the daily news to see secret vices and agendas paraded around as morally virtuous. For instance, the reason so many Christians are prone to falling for ungodly ideologies like social justice and critical race theory is because they fly under the banner of moral virtues. Of course a Christ should abhor racism, of course Christians should care for the poor, of course Christians should care for the sojourner and the foreigner, but the Christian must also be discerning, so as not to be fooled by the trappings of unbiblical worldviews that fly under the banner of righteousness. Furthermore, we must always be on guard of the deceitfulness of our own hearts, that we too don’t fall prey to self-deception.

Jesus betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (conclusion)

And finally, we reach verses 14-16,

14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Not only will Judas give the high priest an irresistible opportunity to apprehend Jesus sooner than he had intended, but Judas is willing to betray Jesus for only 30 pieces of silver, probably equivalent to 30 days wages, while Mary was willing to anoint Jesus’ head and feet with pure nard, worth more than 7 times that. And my hope for us as we move through these remaining chapters in Matthew that we too will come to better understand the value of Christ’s death and his resurrection.

Prayer

Lord, I ask that these texts would be impressed upon our hearts are we hear them read and explained. I pray that you would convict us of our personal sin, prompting us to persist in turning about from it. I ask that your Holy Spirit would make our hearts sensitive to any sin that we may have cloaked in virtue, even sin that we’ve been almost completely unaware of that we might honor you will our hearts and lips. My desire Lord is that you would impress upon our hearts the significance and value of your Son’s death, and I pray that it would be the catalyst for our own spiritual growth. Amen.
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