Let us continue our walk through the Gospel According to Matthew. Last week we worked through Matthew 25.
Last week’s look at Matthew 25 ended with Jesus closing out His answer to the disciples’ question, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3b). The disciples had come to Jesus privately for this lesson. Jesus wasn’t speaking to the multitudes here.
Matthew 26 (ESV) | The Plot to Kill Jesus
1 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 tells the disciples plainly that He would be delivered up to be crucified. Now, maybe the disciples struggled to understand how or why the Romans would crucify Jesus on account of the chief priests and the elders. Maybe they couldn’t see the chief priests going for a Roman style of execution for an offense to them. We don’t know because it’s not written in here. We do know that despite all of His warnings and statements, they weren’t intellectually or emotionally prepared for what was about to take place. I praise God that Faith is not dependent upon our intellect or emotions. God knows their hearts… and He preserves them through the storm they are about to experience.
Beginning in verse 3, we have a scene change in Matthew’s writing. We move away from Jesus and His disciples and we are let in on the plotting of the chief priests and elders. Now, Jesus told His disciples that He was to be crucified. The plot is to secretly arrest and kill Him. They decide to wait until the end of the Passover to enact their plan.
Matthew 26 (ESV) | 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.”
Okay, so here to get a sense of what was going on at this event, we need to do some cross-referencing. Mark’s account adds some details but mostly follows Matthew’s account here. Biblical scholars attribute Mark’s account to those of the Apostle Peter’s teachings. The account found in John focuses a little more on the woman and her actions than Mark and Matthew. John also gives some insight into the motivations of one who was most offended by the act.
John 12:1-8 (ESV) 12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 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?” 6 He 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 into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
A couple of notes here, the tracking of time looks like a conflict between John and Matthew (six days vs two days), but in neither account do we have an exact reference point to when the “passage of time” clause comes in. We know Passover. John says that Jesus entered Bethany six days out and Matthew says that Jesus told them He would be crucified “after two days the Passover is coming”. Neither account is slavishly following a chronological timeline. We don’t need it here, since we know the Passover and we have what is being taught by the events we have recorded. As for the anointing of the Head vice the anointing of the Feet of Jesus, it was most likely both. It was customary to anoint the head with oil, yet in those accounts we see Jesus referring to her act as anointing His body. A pound of ointment is a lot of oil. The difference in John’s account, I think, is because this act of humble worship isn’t the norm. We see throughout John’s account of the Gospel the focus on the Deity of Jesus and the heart of worship. John gives us the purpose of his account of the Gospel in John 20:20-31:
John 20:30-31 (ESV) 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John’s account begins with the Deity of Christ and carries that not throughout. Mary was indeed anointing His body for burial, but she also worshiped at His feet. John’s gospel was probably written much later than Matthew’s, and to an audience that is less Jewish and more Gentile Believers. We return to Matthew’s account now, where we’ve been operating under the notion that his target audience was primarily Jewish Believers.
Matthew 26 (ESV) | 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.
Matthew 26 (ESV) | The Passover with the Disciples
17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.
20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I,Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
Matthew’s account makes a bit of an aside letting us know that Judas had gone to the chief priests offering to betray the LORD for a fee. When the time comes to reveal Judas to the other disciples as His betrayer, notice we see a similarity to Matt 18:7 (ESV), “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” Here, Jesus affirms that whatever transpires next will be according to the Will of God, what has already been Written of Him… but the vessel or agent of this betrayal is doomed. The pronouncement of judgement against Judas is striking. Judas doesn’t stand as the example of one who is shaken in the faith, or overcome with fear, doubt, or anxiety… we’ll see that later. No, Judas is the example of the false teacher, the false prophet who teaches for shameful gain what should not be taught.
Matthew 26 (ESV) | Institution of the Lord’s Supper
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
There is a tendency these days for Christians to think that the Passover (Exodus 12) Meal became the Lord’s Supper. That is not what is happening here. The Passover points to Jesus Christ. They were indeed gathered for the Passover Meal. During that meal, Jesus then institutes something new. The New Covenant of the Blood of Jesus. This covenant is superior to the Old Covenant, of which the Passover was a major part. The New Covenant had done away with the need for yearly sacrifice, for Christ is the Perfect and Final sacrifice (Hebrews 8-9). I would love to discuss this institution of the Lord’s Supper further, but doing so would cut along denominational lines (Lutheran, Reformed, Baptist, Methodist) so I leave this to you to search out and discuss with your Pastors/Elders. For now, let us close by looking at what is taught in Hebrews 8-9.
Hebrews 8 (ESV) | Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant
8 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 9 (ESV) | The Earthly Holy Place
9 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
Redemption Through the Blood of Christ
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Until Next Week
Next week we’ll be working through the remainder of Matthew 26. As we closed today with the Gospel, we will also close next week’s study with the Gospel. We are working through some of the toughest passages of the Gospel According to Matthew. It seems we will be pressing into the Advent season by the time we close out our study of Matthew. Until next week, remain in the Word and stand firm in the Faith.
Jude 1:24-25 (ESV) | Doxology
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Amen, indeed.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge
I’ve made my personal position on Halloween very clear in the past. It will be the topic of Monday’s CTT post, too. Today, we will be playing an archived segment of Issues Etc, and interview with Pastor Mark Buetow (10/31/2011). In an attempt to temper my anger at the unholiday, I decided to share this viewpoint that actually cuts across my grain. It is not comforting to me, personally, but Pr Mark Buetow does make some solid points here, and I will have to consider these defenses of the Church’s “we were here first” claim to the date. For most, I believe, this interview will be of comfort and blessing.
Faithful Stewardship 
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