From The Plot To The Tomb.

FROM THE PLOT TO THE TOMB.

Matthew 26:1-75, Matthew 27:1-61.

I). JESUS PREPARED FOR DEATH.

Matthew 26:1-13.

There are two ways in which Jesus was prepared for death in this passage. The first is in the sense that He was prepared within Himself: nothing that was about to happen took Him by surprise, even right down to knowing the date when He would be crucified (Matthew 26:2). The second is in that He described the anointing which He received at the hands of a woman in Bethany as being in preparation for His burial (Matthew 26:12).

1. Jesus Anticipates His Death (Matthew 26:1-5).

Matthew punctuates each of the main teaching blocks within this Gospel with words to the effect of ‘And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings’ (cf. Matthew 7:28; Matthew 11:1; Matthew 13:53; Matthew 19:1). Here in Matthew 26:1 the writer adds the word “all”: “when Jesus had finished ALL these sayings.” Jesus’ public preaching ministry was over, and He was anticipating what was to come next.

Jesus had, of course, repeatedly predicted His death to His disciples (Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22-23; Matthew 20:17-19). It was also the subject of His discussion with Moses and Elijah on the mount of Transfiguration (cf. Luke 9:31). But now He predicted just how soon this would take place (Matthew 26:2).

Meanwhile, “the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people” were making an unholy alliance (cf. Psalm 2:2), consulting how they might take Jesus by guile and kill Him (Matthew 26:3-4). But (literally) “not during the feast,” lest there might be a tumult among the people (Matthew 26:5; cf. Acts 12:3-4). However, in the instance before us, Jesus proved to be right as to the timing, and the conspirators wrong.

2. The Body of Jesus Anointed for Burying (Matthew 26:6-13).

Matthew next describes an incident in Bethany, in the house of one “Simon the leper.” In a singular act of devotion, “a woman” approached Jesus having an alabaster box full of very precious ointment, and poured it upon His head as He sat. “The disciples,” we are told, were indignant. “To what purpose is this waste?” they argued. “For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:6-9).

This must have upset the woman; whose humility and spirituality is apparent. Jesus came to her defence: Why trouble her? “for she has wrought a good work upon Me” (Matthew 26:10). The woman had the rights of the matter, because she had the insight and precognition to thus anoint Jesus for his burial (Matthew 26:12).

When our work proceeds out of a devotion to Jesus, we will find ourselves criticised, sometimes even by our fellow-believers. Yet our heart’s extravagance is a sacrifice of a sweet savour to the Lord. What this woman did was accepted as part of her reasonable service, because her motives and her motivation were sound (Romans 12:1).

This is not to undermine the place of almsgiving in Christian service. Jesus says that we will always have the poor (Matthew 26:11), and we should always minister to them appropriately. This is taught throughout the Bible.

Yet for the Christian this is no longer a legal obligation, but a debt of gratitude for what Jesus has done for us through His death and resurrection. Jesus applauded the woman for her perception that this costly ointment was intended to be kept for His burial. It was now poured out in an act of sacrificial giving because His time had come.

“The gospel shall be preached in the whole world.” And wherever it is preached, says Jesus, the fragrance of this woman’s act of devotion shall stand as a testimony (Matthew 26:13). And so it is!

II). THE LAST PASSOVER.

Matthew 26:14-30.

Even before the chief priests and the scribes had wrongly determined that the death of Jesus should not take place ‘during the feast’ (Matthew 26:5), Jesus had already predicted exactly when His death would take place (Matthew 26:2). They were wrong, He was right. Jesus remained in control throughout.

Jesus also knew that the anointing which He received at the hands of a woman in Bethany was in preparation for His burial (Matthew 26:12). Today’s passage follows on immediately after Jesus’ prediction concerning that woman (Matthew 26:13).

The Greek wording of Matthew 26:14 is stark, dark, and foreboding: “Then having gone one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests.” Having gone, Judas asked a price: and “thirty pieces of silver” - the value of a slave (cf. Exodus 21:32) - was fixed upon. Thereafter Judas sought an opportunity to “deliver up” Jesus (Matthew 26:15-16): but the matter was in Jesus’ own hands.

The Passover meal was designed to commemorate the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 12:14). Out of it grew our Lord’s Supper, in which we remember what Jesus was accomplishing on this very night, centuries later, in delivering us out of ‘the bondage of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2). It was only apt that Jesus and His disciples should keep the Passover one last time (Matthew 26:17), before Jesus fulfilled all it stood for in His Passover sacrifice on Calvary’s hill (1 Corinthians 5:7).