Matthew 26:1-7a
Jesus Was Not Ambushed
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Matt. 26:1-2 (Holman) When Jesus had finished saying all this, He told
His disciples, "You know that the Passover takes place after two
days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."
Till now, Jesus' ministry had been very public. The rest of it will be spent primarily in private with His Father and His disciples. The prediction in our text was made on Tuesday. Passover would begin Thursday evening.
It is ironic; the Judge of the Universe (Matthew 25:31) will now be judged. He will someday sit on the throne of His glory, but first—a cross.
With these words, our Master switched as it were from prophet to priest. He had been speaking about our salvation; now He will accomplish it.
Jesus entered the midnight of His soul so you and I could enter the sunrise of our salvation. He walked into darkness so we could walk out of it.
Everything in Matthew 26, this book's longest chapter, will point us to the cross. Our study in Matthew has now brought us to where, in our hearts, we need to humbly take our shoes off as we walk on holy ground.
Each Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) gives a disproportionately large amount of space to the events immediately surrounding the crucifixion. We understand why. It is our salvation, the most wonderful story ever told.
From the first days of Christianity, the cross and resurrection have been the bedrock core of our message, the singular nucleus that must be told everywhere. All else is ancillary, given to help explain and endorse the story.
Our Master approached death with calm confidence. I admire His lack of dismay. May He enable us to do the same when leave-taking comes to us.
In our dark moments of dying, Jesus will come, offering to help us. Most of us do not need this special grace yet, but all of us will someday.
Die once, not often. Sometimes death is more difficult to think about than to go through. For the time being, be calm, be confident, do not obsess over death. Miraculous undergirding will come in the moment we need it.
Matt. 26:3-4 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill Him."
Jesus planned; they plotted. He was confident; they were perplexed. He was calm; they were flustered. He lovingly prepared the disciples for trouble; the leaders hatefully prepared the trouble. Caiaphas (High Priest 18-36 A.D) and the other religious leaders proved position does not guarantee holiness. Beneath their whitewashed veneer, they were devious and vicious.
They envied Jesus' fame with the common people, were confounded by His miracles, especially Lazarus' recent resurrection from death, and were humiliated at Jesus' Triumphal Entry and His cleansing the Temple. They had already decided to kill Jesus. All they needed was a scheme.
Their secrecy betrayed their mean intents. Be wary of plans made behind closed doors. "Whatever needs secrecy has something evil in it. There are few more important lessons that we need to learn than to leave undone whatever we should like to remain unknown. No life is safe from dishonor which has anything concealed. Live in the daylight" (Glover).
Matt. 26:5 "Not during the festival," they said, "so there won't be
rioting among the people."
Notice their misstep. They were so radically bent on having their own way that they never stopped to considered what God might think. They worried about what the people thought, but not about what God thought.
At the first Passover, a lamb's blood was applied to the doorposts of families. On this Passover, a Lamb's blood was spilt for all the "doorposts" of Earth. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7).
Jesus spoke of His own death not in a whining way. He knew words about His suffering would help the disciples think less fearfully of their own suffering. He wanted to protect them. They needed to know the crucifixion was planned by God; not a surprise victory for evil. Jesus was not ambushed.
Jesus, not a helpless victim, said, "No one takes it (My life) from Me, but I lay it down on My own (JN 10:18a). On the cross He prayed, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit" (LK 23:46b). We did not dispatch Jesus. He was the Passover lamb, and also the High Priest offering the sacrifice.
The religious leaders were about to learn; God is in control. The Festival lasted eight days. They wanted to wait till it ended, but Judas' soon coming, sudden offer would change their minds. When he told them of a private place he could take them to arrest Jesus, they could not resist. The result was; they crucified Jesus one week earlier than they had planned to.
God had disrupted their timetables before. They had previously tried to kill Jesus quickly, on the spur of the moment, but were delayed. Now they wanted to postpone His death; this also failed. They could not stop God's plan to stall or speed up the cross more than they could stop Earth spinning.
God was determined to confirm the connection between Jesus' death and the Passover. God had chosen Passover. The greatest festival of the year would be desecrated by the worst crime ever perpetrated, but this crime would result in God accomplishing what the Passover lamb had pictured.
They wanted Jesus' death private; God wanted it public. Our faith's bedrock deeds were not done in a corner. They were done out in the open for all to see. God wanted many witnesses to His Son's death and resurrection.
Matt. 26:6-7a While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man
who had a serious skin disease, a woman approached Him
with an alabaster jar of very expensive fragrant oil.
Near Jerusalem, on the Mt. of Olives, sat Bethany, where Jesus often stayed overnight on His trips to the Holy City. This was His quiet retreat. Jerusalem was a place of hate and anger; Bethany a haven of love and peace.
"Had a serious skin disease" may have been a reminder to people of what Simon had had been rescued from. Jesus may have healed him; it was a violation for anyone with a skin disease to be in a crowd, or to have anyone in their house with them. Whoever you were, Simon, and whatever your skin condition was, thanks for welcoming our homeless Savior into your home.
Due to the religious leaders' hostility toward Jesus, there was probably plenty of worried confusion in the room, but slipping in through the shadows toward Jesus is a calm lady on a deliberate mission. She intends to bless Jesus.
Alabaster is a malleable type of marble. Due to its beautiful white and brownish swirls, it was often used to make jars to store valuable perfumes in.
Except for servers, this room would have been essentially a man's domain. This lady knew she probably could not verbalize many words in this man's world, but was feeling compelled to communicate something.
Since she couldn't use words, she chose to act out her message. She was determined to let Jesus know at least one person sensed His sadness, and deeply cared. She knew hurricane winds were swirling around Him; she was determined to be this storm's center of peace. We often say do not fear the storm; seek the peace that is inside it somewhere. This lady reminds us; if we know someone going through a storm, seek to be in it peace for them.
I envy this lady. She got close to the heart of Jesus. She moved God, touched Him at His essence. We want this. Life's best quest is to know Him and the fellowship of His suffering. She had what we want. Thank you, dear lady, for anointing Jesus on our behalf, and showing us He can be moved.
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