Jesus Was Not Ambushed

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.

 

Jesus Incognito

Matthew 25:40b-46

Jesus Incognito

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Matt. 25:40b (part 2) (Holman) " . . .you did for Me."

 

The sheep's beautiful, unassuming kindnesses should speak volumes to us. They were not measuring what rewards might come their way.

Unlike these attractive sheep, many help others in order to earn merit, receive publicity, or up our self-esteem. These are nothing short of disguised selfishness. If we do kindnesses for reward, we are serving us, not God, and our virtue is no longer virtue. The best and only true giving is grace giving.

Jesus is more among us than we realize. We readily know He is with us through His Word, His Holy Spirit, and His followers. Our text says He is also present among us in an extraordinary way through the marginalized. In every act of practical benevolence we do for the disadvantaged, there is an element of mystery, of something beyond us we are not capable of seeing.

Jesus is still among us, continuing to relate to us intimately. Saul of Tarsus learned this the hard way. He thought he was persecuting only Christ-followers, but when he hit the ground on Damascus Road, he heard Jesus ask, "Why are you persecuting Me" (Acts 9:4b)?

Jesus is often incognito among us. This explains why according to this parable our everlasting existence is affected by the way we interact with the suffering; how we relate to the poor and needy tells us how we are relating to Jesus. Our actions toward them show where we stand in relation to Him.

In fact, by showing practical benevolence to people who are hurting, we receive double evidence of being God's children. By showing sympathy to the sick, hungry, poor, and neglected, we show we have Jesus Himself residing in us because, one, this is what He did while on Earth in the flesh, and two, we help Him, for He was poor, naked, hungry, thirsty, sick, etc.

In our day, we cannot touch Jesus, see Him, or help Him directly, as did Mary and Martha, and the woman who washed His feet, and Simon of Cyrene. Our kindnesses for Him have to be done through others. This is no small detail for a person like me, whose love language is touching.

The needy matter. Do not misjudge others by underrating them. It might be hard to see Jesus in someone who is rude, distant, or living in some sin we artificially deem extra hideous. Who can see Jesus in a beggar, in a prisoner, in people hungry and thirsty, or in someone eaten up with illness?

To look at people as representatives of Jesus lifts their value in our appraisals of them. They become more important to us, and when this happens, they sense our attitude of acceptance toward them. Seeing Jesus in the needy is a concept the Church better embraced in earlier years.

St. Martin's Church, in Basel, Switzerland, has on its front wall a statue of Martin of Tours, who was a Christian Roman soldier. One cold winter day a beggar stopped him, and asked for alms. Having no money, Martin took off his soldier's coat, used his sword to cut it in two, and gave half to the shivering beggar. That night Martin dreamed he saw Jesus in Heaven wearing half a coat. An angel asked, "Master, why are you wearing that tattered old cloak?" Jesus answered, "My servant Martin gave it to me."

A monk once picked up an unknown crippled man to take him to get help. As they approached the monastery, the Abbott saw them and said, "Open the gates; our brother monk is coming; and he is carrying the Lord."

Francis of Assisi was rich but unhappy early in life. One day he saw a leper whose disease had made him repulsively ugly. Francis threw his arms around the sufferer. He later claimed the face of the leper suddenly changed to the face of Jesus. Francis' life was forever changed in that moment.

The worth of a pearl fallen in the dust cannot be accurately weighed until you look past the dirt, focus on the pearl, and weigh it. Even so it is with others. We do not know their worth till we value the Pearl within them.

 

Matt. 25:41-45 Then He will also say to those on the left, "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn't take Me in; I was naked and you didn't clothe Me, sick and in prison and you didn't take care of Me." Then they too will answer, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick or in prison, and not help You?" Then He will answer them, "I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either."

 

Hear the woeful tolling--nothing, nothing, didn't, didn't, didn't--"Like the falling of clods on the coffin" (Robertson). They committed no major crimes: no murder, theft, or adultery. Many of them dutifully observed the Ten Commandments, and lived moral, ethical lives. They did not take away food, drink, and clothes from the needy. They did not put people in prison or exile them from their houses. Their downfall resulted from sins of omission.

They did not learn from the sin of Ammon and Moab, who angered God not by attacking Israel, but by not meeting God's people with bread and water (Deut. 23:3-4). The goats neglected their duty, like the foolish virgins who did not bring enough oil, and the sinful slave who did not use his talent.

What was so bad about the goats' sins of omission? In them Jesus was totally left out. By their not being kind, He received no praise and no honor.

No one was ever saved from Hell because of what the goats did. They did absolutely nothing that could have been done to point others to Jesus.

Their non-actions proved they had devalued and rejected Jesus. In whatever giving they did do, there was no thought of concern about Him.

They for sure never supposed Jesus was in the needy or poor. They completely separated Him from daily life, and relegated Him to oblivion. On the final day, Jesus will tell them, "Somewhere in all this, you missed Me."

 

Matt. 25:46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the

righteous into eternal life.

 

The doctrine of everlasting condemnation causes many to not believe the Christian message. We dread discussing this, but if Jesus spoke of it, we must too. Also, we must realize our loved ones will lose if we neglect it.

Many of our doctrines are controversial, including the virgin birth, the blood atonement, the resurrection, the deity and exclusivity of Christ. Paul did not stop preaching the cross because it was a stumbling block to many.

Heaven and Hell are both mysteries. Everlasting bliss does not make sense. Infinite gifts beyond our understanding await believers, but we know we can never be good enough to earn this much reward. We humans are the ones who destroyed Eden's perfection. We sent the world into chaos, and marred the ideal of God's Kingdom in the world, yet we can go to Heaven.

We also struggle with everlasting retribution. How do we reconcile such a terrible punishment with a God of love? For one thing, we have to define love precisely. Much of what we call love is sentimentality. Another pitfall is; we often do not grasp how bad sin is.

John A. Broadus (1827-1895), one of our greatest Southern Baptist patriarchs, felt it would help if we constantly remembered punishment is not the same for all: "The great fact that there will be degrees in future punishment--as well as in future rewards--ought to be more prominent in religious instruction." I also like another of Broadus' statements, "God is certainly a better judge than we are, as to what is consistent with his goodness." In the final analysis, we stand beside Abraham, the father of faith, and say, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25).

 

Last Quotable Quotes

“May all your grandchildren be twins” came from Pete Ramsey, who I worked with in Fort Smith. I have always felt it was a good, humorous blessing. It gets different kinds of rises out of people. Some love it. Others groan. It all depends on your perspective.

“I am not a theologian” is a statement preachers are never supposed to make. Of course, its meaning hinges on what you mean by a theologian. If you mean a person who studies and tries to explain the Bible, I am one. If you mean one who stays tucked away in a library, trying to write huge books in small print on the finer details of Christianity, I am not one.

“You aren’t listening fast enough” is an old preacherism intended to divert attention away from the fact you are preaching too long. It always gets a good reaction from the crowd, unless you really are preaching way too long.

"In Heaven, I want to preach 1,000 years.” Ruth replies, “Honey, turn out the lights when you are done.” Wives are wonderful helpers who aid us with reality checks.

Worldwide Christianity

No individual can lose salvation, but a people group can lose its candlestick. The anointing can be removed. Power to proclaim the message effectively can be transferred to others.

Jerusalem, Antioch, and Ephesus were early centers of Christian zeal, but each lost its gift. Rome was at one time the heart of genuine faith, but now spiritual vitality can only be found there in the haunts of the catacombs.

         Luther’s Germany carried the mantle awhile, but then it passed to England’s Puritans. As the light began to wane there, Richard Baxter feared the Gospel center was moving from his country to the Americas. He was right.

         We rejoice to hear of revival in China, Korea, Nigeria, and elsewhere, but these reports also sober us. Is God preparing to remove the candlestick from the USA? The anointing can be preserved only through faithfulness. May God purge our sin, and retain for us the honor of being a candlestick to our dark world.

Humility Is Attractive

Matthew 25:37-40b (part 1)

Humility Is Attractive

Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall

 

Matt. 25:37-39 (Holman) Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord,

when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give

You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger, and

take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? When did we see

You sick, or in prison, and visit You?"

 

Those who helped were not famous, nor were the ones they helped. Most of the deeds that were done for the needy were deemed unworthy of human acclaim. No newspapers or other media outlets reported them.

Even the Christ-followers who helped others could hardly remember they had done anything good. They ministered gladly, and then forgot it.

I love their winsome humility. Even as Moses, when he descended from the mountain after his encounter with YHWH, did not know his face shone, these believers had no idea the love they showed to others with their hands were advertisements of an inner love they had for God in their hearts.

A spirit of lowliness, of downplaying our sense of self-importance, makes our lives attractive. Self-oblivion makes our behavior beautiful.

"A saint loses his sanctity when we see that he thinks himself saintly" (Bridgeman). We should shine unconsciously. Love does not make a big deal of the sacrifices it makes. It almost blushes when praised.

Humility is not only winsome; it is also the prime virtue prerequisite to all other virtues. Humility alone enables us to forsake self-dependence, and yield to the power that comes only from the Holy Spirit. What we do for God's sake has to be done by God's grace, by depending on Him. He rewards us as if we do kindnesses on our own strength, but the action is pure grace.

The helpers were humble to the point of being utterly astonished. I like the Old English word sometimes found in the KJV--"astonied". They were astonied, bewildered. Their innocent surprise was a breath of fresh air.

I know Heaven will be full of surprises; many of them will be happy ones. In this lifetime, Christ-followers must be lowly, but we are sometimes too harsh in our self-analysis. We tend to second-guess even our best deeds.

We fear our motives may have been wrong. Often we feel no matter how much we did, there was much more we could, and should, have done.

When we minister to others, we should celebrate this attribute about ourselves. Our outward actions of voluntary, self-forgetting love ought to give us evidence we had proper motivations within us. Our kindnesses reveal true self-sacrifice because we know the needy cannot pay us back.

We do kindnesses not for reward, but because Jesus did them. We feel honored to walk in His footsteps. Christ's life was beautiful. He went about doing good, living a helpful life: encouraging, relieving, comforting, uplifting, healing, and feeding. We want to imitate His attractive life.

The Holy Spirit has given Christ-followers, through the new birth, an inner compulsion to imitate Jesus. We imitate our Master not because some law or obligation forces us to, but because the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in us has made us want to do so.

The sheep in this parable did practical benevolence because they enjoyed doing it. They felt gladly driven to help. They could not not do it. The new born-again nature drove them. They could not stop themselves.

Their outer deeds displayed an inner reality. Why do Christians feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, receive the immigrant, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit prisoners? Because something—yea Someone—beautiful inside us is compelling us, joyfully driving us forward.

 

Matt. 25:40a And the King will answer them, "I assure you: Whatever

you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, . . ."

 

People have long debated Jesus' words: "these brothers of Mine". Did our Master want us to do kindnesses for all people or only for believers?

As believers, our first focus, for sure, must be fellow Christ-followers. Paul the Apostle wrote, "As we have opportunity, we must work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith" (Gal. 6:10b). Our Master told His followers, "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).

No doubt, our practical benevolence is to begin with believers, but it must never end there. Helping our own is a springboard, an experimental lab, serving as our steppingstone to help the lost. Cold-heartedness is never excused because the person in need is an unbeliever. A heart of compassion never draws a hard and fast dividing line. Jesus healed many who were not believers, and who may have never followed Him, including the Canaanite woman and her daughter. He ministered in the regions around the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon, and in the heathen cities of the Decapolis.

The moment we begin to discuss helping believers to the exclusion of unbelievers we create an icy atmosphere of "better than thou" pride. This decision cannot help but convey the notion we are more special than they are. This prejudice can lead to an out and out spirit of discrimination that actually seeks to justify neglecting unbelievers.

 

Matt. 25:40b (part 1) " . . .you did for Me."

 

This statement is the burning core of the parable. It shocked both sheep and goats. They were unconscious of this searing reality. They did not know Jesus was somehow personally present in the neediest, most obscure, the least known, last ones considered, and the lowest in the eyes of others.

Jesus was saying the ones who are not able to help, who are the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick, and criminals are not prohibited from His smile because they are unable to serve others. In this parable, Jesus had previously identified Himself with the givers; now He did so with the receivers. They too are identified with Jesus, connected with Him directly.

Lazarus, who had nothing to give and no way to help others, was seen reclining in Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:22). Jesus will someday for sure come in His glory followed by dazzling angels, but His primary focus will be beggars, lepers, the blind, aged, orphans, immigrants, poor, prisoners, etc.

The undergirding driving piston of Christian benevolence is; Jesus identifies Himself with the disenfranchised, the marginalized. Here is the chief consolation of the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the immigrant, and the prisoner--in their lack, Jesus is their counterpart.

Fellow Christ-followers, the best and most compelling motive for doing practical benevolence is found in our doing it for Jesus. When did we last do something for someone while we as it were blocked that person from our minds and thought of Jesus instead? After the instant Jesus spoke these words, from this moment on, self-forgetfulness and others-forgetfulness in contemplating Jesus was to be our principal motivation in helping others.