Matthew - Lesson 26A

• The four Gospel accounts could have no purpose nor significance without the passion of Christ…in fact, they couldn’t rightly be called “Gospels” without it 

  • The “good news” of these four accounts is ultimately found in the death of the Lamb of God in our place and His resurrection to bring us to glory

    • Everything we’ve been studying for the better part of 2.5 years has been leading to this final section of Matthew’s book

    • This final section begins in Chapter 26 and takes us to the end of the book in Chapter 28

    • We’ll cover the Last Supper, Jesus’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, His trials, crucifixion, and resurrection

  • We’re going to take a fresh look at these events because our understanding is heavily colored by church tradition and even folklore

    • You probably know Jesus’ birth story has been overshadowed by Christmas traditions and the lyrics of Christmas carols

    • Likewise, the passion of Christ has been colored by Easter traditions of various churches and by popular culture

    • Even the day of the week on which churches typically claim Jesus died is wrong 

    • So we need to take a fresh look at Scripture as we move into the next chapter and set aside all our assumptions 

  • And since we are moving into a new section, let’s revisit our circumstances and the timeline of events

    • In His final week of life, Jesus entered Jerusalem on a Sunday and went directly to the temple courts

    • He taught that day and again on Monday and Tuesday, being inspected by the religious authorities 

    • Jesus passed their inspections, proving Himself to be a worthy sacrifice, the Lamb of God

  • Each night Jesus walked east over the Mt of Olives to a little town called Bethany and probably slept in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus

    • At the start of Chapter 24, Jesus was exiting the temple on Tuesday afternoon when His disciples posed those questions 

    • Jesus answered them seated on the Mt. of Olives and then after the discourse was over, He continued to Bethany Tuesday night

• That’s where we are now as we return to the text

Matt. 26:1  When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples,
Matt. 26:2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”

• Jesus says that in two days He will be handed over for crucifixion on the Passover

  • The phrase “handed over" implies a transfer of custody from one authority to another

  • In its simplest sense, Jesus was referring to Judas handing Jesus over to the Jewish authorities 

  • Equally likely, Jesus was referring to the Jewish authorities handing Jesus over to the Romans to be executed

• But in a spiritual sense, Jesus was also referring to the Father’s plan to hand His Son over to the enemy

  • And that’s the story Matthew is now setting out to tell in these final chapters

  • It’s the story of how the Lord of all Creation, a man popular in His day, could end up crucified with criminals 

• But before we get into that story, Jesus’ comments on the Passover give us an opportunity to introduce another important detail

  • There is still a good deal of mystery surrounding the timeline of the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection

  • Most have been taught that Jesus died on a Friday, but as we will see in future weeks, that doesn’t fit with Scripture 

  • And the timing of other important events like the Last Supper are also confused

• So as we study the events, I need to review a couple of important rules that will guide our time-keeping observations in this study

  • First, the start and end of a Jewish “day” is reckoned according to the pattern God established during the Creation in Genesis 1

    • In Genesis, each day of Creation began with a 12-hour period of darkness followed by a 12-hour period of light

    • God called the arrival of darkness “evening” and the arrival of light “morning” and the two periods together form a single day

  • Because God described each day of Creation as an evening and a morning, Jews adopted the same convention for counting days

    • A Jewish day begins as darkness arrives which is typically 6 PM and then continues for 24 hours until the next evening

    • For example, a Monday begins at 6:00 PM on Sunday night

  • We count the beginning of our days at midnight, which means our day starts six hours later in the middle of the dark period

    • Comparing the two side by side systems, we can see that the Jewish “day” begins six hours earlier than a modern day 

    • So when marking time, we need to remember that an evening event takes place on the next “day” in Jewish reckoning

• The second difference in Jewish reckoning is that when counting days, Jews consider any part of a day as equally a whole day

  • So if it was 5:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon, then the start of Monday is barely one hour away starting at 6:00 PM Sunday night

    • Nevertheless, a Jew in Jesus’ time would still consider that one remaining hour on Sunday as equally the whole “day” of Sunday

    • Therefore, if you asked how many days remain until Tuesday, the answer you would get is two days (i.e., Sunday & Monday)

    • In summary, in Scripture new days start at sundown and we count any hours remaining in the current day as a day

  • Looking at Matthew 26, Jesus says that the Passover would come after two days (or we could say it was two days away)

    • So to determine what day of the week Passover took place, we need to determine the day of the week Jesus spoke these words 

    • We get the answer by carefully consulting the time references that we find in Matthew and the other Gospels 

  • First, the Gospels report Jesus came to Bethany and stayed in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus the day before He entered Jerusalem

    • Jesus entered Jerusalem on Sunday, Palm Sunday as we call it now, so that means He entered Bethany on a Saturday

    • John’s Gospel reports that the day Jesus entered Bethany was six days before Passover

    • So we count Saturday as one day and then five more days puts Passover on a Thursday that year

  • After Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey on Sunday, He went to the temple to teach late that afternoon.

    • Mark tells us that Jesus spent Sunday afternoon and the next two days in the temple

    • Each night Jesus went back to Bethany to spend the night and the next day He returned to the temple 

    • And all the Synoptic Gospels report that Jesus delivered the Olivet Discourse on Tuesday afternoon

• That brings us to the start of Chapter 26…it’s Tuesday afternoon shortly before sundown, so Wednesday is just an hour or so away

  • And at that moment, Jesus says two days remain until Passover

    • Using our rules, we count the hour remaining on that Tuesday afternoon as a whole day plus the next day, Wednesday

    • So if Passover started two days later, then it must been on Thursday, which begins on Wednesday night…confused yet?

  • The point is, Matthew’s time references in Chapter 26 agree with John’s time references in John 14…the Passover happened on a Thursday

    • Which means that Jesus died on a Thursday, not on a Friday as tradition tells us

    • And we will see additional evidence later in Matthew that confirms Jesus did, in fact, die on a Thursday

  • Now you  may be thinking this is interesting, Steve, but do we really need this level of detail? Is it really that important?

    • Let me answer that question with a question: is it important to you that your accountant can do math correctly?

    • What if your CPA’s math was correct most of the time, but once in a while he was a little off…maybe he missed a zero here or there

    • Would that be important to you?

  • Obviously, we want our accountant’s math to always be precise because it’s our money he’s dealing with, and we don’t want it mismanaged

    • But there’s actually a more important reason why we want a CPA who does math properly…

    • Knowing how to add and subtract properly is a basic test of competence and trustworthiness for an accountant

    • If your CPA can’t do math, he isn’t competent to manage your finances 

• That’s why we should care about getting details like timelines correct when studying Scripture…it’s a basic test of competence 

  • Making sense of Scripture is ultimately the job of the Holy Spirit working inside us

    • But the Bible says He brings understanding to those teachers who handle the word with care and precision

2Tim. 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

• Those who work diligently to handle the word of God accurately are approved by God, and His approval is evidenced by insight

  • He reveals answers to those who seek the truth in a diligent manner because this brings Him glory

  • Conversely, when teachers approach study in a lazy manner or if we’re content with “rounding errors,”  we will not be approved

• But as with our accountant example, the biggest problem with being a poor workman is the damage it does to our reputation

  • When any Christian upholds traditions that are not supported by Scripture, we set up ourselves and others for a crisis of faith

  • I’ve encountered believers who came across a Bible verse that contradicted what they had been told, and it rocked their world

  • They encounter a crisis of faith, because they suddenly wonder if the Bible can be trusted or if their faith was in something false

  • Some feel cheated or deceived to the point that they walk away from following Jesus

• So we may think understanding exactly which day Jesus died on to be a minor thing, and you may question why we spend time on it

  • But for a believer wrestling with the trustworthiness of Scripture, these details are the make-or-break differences

  • And if our Bible teachers and pastors can’t find biblical support for traditions, we need to abandon our traditions

• And in their place, we need to teach what the Bible says, and more than that, we need to be able to defend it in detail

  • We need to take care with God’s word so that we get everything right, as best we can, not overlooking even the smallest detail

  • Because the Bible validates itself, and there are no contradictions…just our own misunderstandings

• So let’s return to Chapter 26, and from this point Matthew’s narrative will jump around from scene to scene to highlight certain events

  • It reads a little like a movie script, where a writer weaves together action from different scenes so he can tell a single story

    • In this case, the events of this week involve three primary scenes

    • There is Jesus in and around the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mt. of Olives

    • The Jewish officials in their exclusive homes of the upper city of Jerusalem

    • And the Romans officials in the Praetorian

  • Chapter 26 started with the scene of Jesus in the Garden, and now Matthew moves to the home of the high priest, Caiaphas

Matt. 26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas;
Matt. 26:4 and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.
Matt. 26:5 But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”

• Caiaphas, the official high priest of Israel, convenes a secret meeting of the chief priests and the elders of Israel, referring to the Sanhedrin 

  • The chief priests were leaders in the temple, and the Sanhedrin were Pharisees and Sadducees who collectively ruled the nation

    • Of course, all these authorities operated under Roman occupation and control, so their power was limited

    • They acted as a quasi-government that enforced Jewish law but still required Rome’s approval to carry out most punishment 

  • They meet in a courtyard on Tuesday evening, probably at Caiaphas’ home in the wealthy, upper side of Jerusalem

    • Under the Law of Moses, the high priest was to be a descendant of Aaron, who inherited the position from his father

    • But by Jesus’ time, Israel was under Roman control, so Romans selected the high priest, and they chose men loyal to Rome

  • Decades earlier, a man named Annas had been high priest, but he resisted Roman rule, so the Romans removed him from the office

    • In his place, Rome eventually installed his son-in-law, Caiaphas, in AD 18 as high priest

    • But Annas was still living in Jerusalem at the time of these events, so Jews remained loyal to Annas 

    • So at this particular time in history, there were said to be two high priests in Jerusalem

• In this meeting, Caiaphas initiates a conspiracy to seize Jesus at some point during the week of Passover and kill Him

  • Jesus’ popularity had become too much of a threat, and His public rebukes of the Jewish religious leaders were too damaging

    • There were rumors floating around that Jesus’ disciples might try to install Jesus as king of Israel by force

    • And the religious leaders knew that if this happened, they would lose power as the Roman army retaliated against Israel

  • So they conspire to kill Jesus as a patriotic effort to save their nation and a cynical ploy to maintain their positions of authority

    • But they are caught between a rock and hard place…any attempt to kill Jesus during Passover would also be dangerous 

    • The city of Jerusalem was not a large place, geographically speaking, and at Passover it swelled to over a million pilgrims

    • If these leaders moved against Jesus in a public way, the crowds might riot, they say in v.5

  • So their fear of reprisal leads them to seek a way to move against Jesus outside the view of the crowds, under cover of darkness

    • But that raised a new problem: how to find Jesus at night

    • There were no cameras or cell phones, so finding a single man among millions at night over such a broad region required help

    • They needed insider information to know where to find Jesus at a particular time of night so they could move against Him 

• This conspiracy sets the stage for Judas’ betrayal later in this chapter, meanwhile Matthew switches the scene again

Matt. 26:6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,
Matt. 26:7 a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.
Matt. 26:8 But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste?
Matt. 26:9 “For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”
Matt. 26:10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.
Matt. 26:11 “For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
Matt. 26:12 “For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
Matt. 26:13 “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

• Matthew goes back in time to Saturday afternoon to retell a story that connects the leaders’ conspiracy to the man who eventually betrays Jesus 

  • This scene took place in Bethany on the day before Jesus entered Jerusalem on a Sunday

    • Matthew say Jesus visited the home of a leper named Simon, and John reports Martha, Mary and Lazarus were there also

    • And during the course of the meal, a woman approaches Jesus with a valuable vile of perfume to anoint Jesus

  • John tells us that this woman was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, and both women were serving Jesus at the table

    • In Jesus’ day, people reclined on the ground toward the table leaning on their left elbow while eating with the right hand

    • So while Jesus is reclining, Mary approaches with this vial and begins pouring perfumed oil on Jesus’ head and feet

  • The perfume was pure nard, a costly scent imported from India, and it was a large amount of perfume

    • John describes it as a litre of perfume, which was a Greek measure of 11 ounces, about the size of a soda can

    • This is a ridiculously large amount of perfume, and an extravagant gesture on Mary’s part

    • Matthew confirms this vial was very costly, and John reports it was worth three hundred dinarii

    • A denarii was about one day’s wages for a working man, so we’re talking about nearly a year’s wages

• Mary had probably saved most of her adult life to purchase this vial of perfume in preparation for a future wedding day

  • In an age when bathing was not common, perfume was greatly valued for its ability to cover odor and “purify”

    • Young women saved for years to purchase the perfume they would use on the special night they met their groom

    • So for Mary, this vial probably represented her life savings and it was her most important preparation for marriage

    • But now she’s given all of it to Jesus instead in one, extravagant gesture of love

  • Matthew says her perfume was kept in an alabaster vial which means it could only be opened once by breaking the cruse

    • Once opened, it would dissipate in time, so Mary pours the entire contents on Jesus lavishly

    • And both report that the scent filled the house, and I’m sure that’s an understatement

  • John tells us she not only poured it on Jesus’ feet but then she also wiped His feet with her hair

    • This was a tender act, a sacrificial act of love, that both honored Jesus and humbled Mary 

    • In those days, a Jewish woman never let down her hair in public before men, since to do so was considered shameful

  • So in choosing to use her hair to dry Jesus, Mary was making a gesture of humility, accepting shame so she could bless Jesus

    • Anyone observing this moment would have been struck by a remarkable contrast

    • On the one hand, we see a humble woman assuming a position of great shame before her guests

    • Yet at the same time, her humble gesture and extraordinary sacrifice bestowed great honor upon Jesus

• In Jesus’ time anointing with perfumed oil was a practice reserved for a handful of situations

  • First, it was used in consecration rituals in the temple

    • Secondly, it signified a man chosen to serve God either in a spiritual role like prophet or priest or as a king

    • Thirdly, oil was applied to a sick person as an appeal to God for healing

    • Finally, it was applied to a dead body to prepare the body for burial

  • Jesus tells us in v.12 that Mary was applying the oil to His body as a preparation for His coming death and burial 

    • Jesus wasn’t going to die for a few more days, but Mary heard Jesus say He would be crucified in Jerusalem

    • She knew what that meant, so before He was taken from her, Mary honors Jesus with a burial anointing reserved for kings 

  • Can you imagine the conversation that Mary had with the Holy Spirit when she felt Him prompting her to give up her life savings?

    • Do you supposed Mary felt a little conflicted at first?

    • What would you say if you felt the Lord asking you to take a prized $60,000 bottle of wine and pour it out as an offering?

    • Or to burn $60,000 in cash in your fireplace to warm your house on the occasion of a neighbor’s visit?

  • Wouldn’t you question whether this is the best use of those resources? Wouldn’t you look for an excuse to avoid the sacrifice? 

    • I think Mary probably had a moment of reflection, because that would have been normal and expected

    • But then just as quickly, she grabbed the vial, opened it and poured it out on Jesus, giving Him the anointing God intended

• The Lord asks all of us to humble ourselves and make our lives a living sacrifice so that He may receive glory – are you prepared to do it?

  • Jesus makes this request because He gave Himself up for us, to the point of dying in our place to give us eternal life

    • So it’s a reasonable request on His part…he made a dying sacrifice for us, so He asks us to make a living sacrifice for Him

    • But we tend to set limits on what we give God…He can have everything except that ONE thing we say we can’t give up

    • It might be our money or our time or a relationship or a bad habit or an attitude or a grievance we can’t forget, etc.

  • When you set a limit like that with God, guess what thing He will demand from you? 

    • God knows the things we cling to in our hearts, and He will ask for that ONE thing standing between us and obedience

    • If you hold on to that thing, you miss the opportunity to see the Lord work miracles in your life and in your walk with Him

  • In Mary’s case, the Lord promoted her to sacrifice her lifesavings for Jesus, and obediently she gave Jesus literally everything she had

    • But by her obedience, she glorified the Lord in at least two ways

    • First, she gave Jesus the burial honor He could not receive at His death, which honored Jesus in the eyes of His disciples 

    • No man who died in Jerusalem was more richly honored in death than was Jesus by this woman’s gift of anointing

  • Secondly, Mary created a beautiful picture of the purpose of His death

    • Mary humbled herself and endured shame to bestow great honor upon Jesus in death

    • So too Jesus humbled Himself, enduring great shame in death so that He might bring Mary and all God’s children to glory

• Finally, the Lord also had a reward for Mary for making this sacrifice

  • Notice in v.13 Jesus declares that as a result of her obedience, her story will be known by everyone in the church, everywhere the Gospel goes

    • Can there be any higher reward than to be honored in God’s word in this way?

    • This woman made a great sacrifice, yes, but that great sacrifice brought a great reward

    • And that reward could only be obtained through her sacrifice

  • Moreover, I wonder how the Lord plans to reward her in the Kingdom for her obedience to Him in this life?

    • Whatever the value that vial of perfume was, it will pale in comparison to the value of her eternal inheritance

    • You will be more willing to make great sacrifices for God when you understand two things

      • The magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice

      • And His willingness to reward us in eternity when we please Him

  • Mary apparently understood both, but some of the men don’t understand her motivation, so they object to her actions

    • Matthew doesn’t name those who objected, but John tells us that the main objections came from Judas Iscariot 

    • Judas criticizes Mary’s actions as wasteful, saying they could have sold the perfume and given the money to the poor

  • At first, Judas appears to have a sincere concern for the plight of the poor, but John gives us the real reason for Judas’ objections

    • Judas managed the money box for Jesus’ disciples, like the treasurer for a small civic organization

    • He collected donations as they came to Jesus and used the money to pay for the disciples’ meals, accommodations, etc. 

    • But Judas frequently pilfered from the funds, so Judas was upset that he missed out on access to all that wealth 

• That detail is a window into the heart of Judas, revealing him to be a man who didn’t love Jesus or his fellow disciples and couldn’t understand Mary’s gesture

  • John’s Gospel confirms that Judas was an unbeliever at the end of John 6

    • Jesus says He selected His twelve apostles knowing full well that one of them, Judas, was a devil, meaning an unbeliever 

    • So Jesus intentionally picked an unbeliever to be included among His inner circle so that this man could betray Him

  • The conspirators imagine themselves driving events, but in reality God had hand-selected the man who would help them three years earlier

    • Perhaps nowhere in the Bible is the sovereignty of God more evident than in the fact that God selected His own enemy

    • And by this selection, the Lord ensured that His own death would take place on His terms according to His timing

  • Finally, Judas’ comments offers us a glimpse into the heart and motives of unbelievers, who use godliness as a cover for sinful desires 

    • Judas spent three years with this group of disciples, hearing the teaching and experiencing the miracles of Jesus

    • Yet in the end, the best his unbelieving heart could do was adopt stereotypical religious thinking and ritual

  • For example, when he saw Mary dumping out her perfume, he couldn’t understand the value of her gesture

    • He considered giving money to the poor to be a greater way to honor God than worshipping God directly 

    • Why? Because unbelievers are, by their nature, limited to seeing and understanding earthly, temporal matters

    • True spiritual understanding about eternal matters lies outside the grasp of an unbeliever

    • Because such understanding requires the Holy Spirit working in their heart

1Cor. 2:14  But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

• If unbelievers can’t understand God in spiritual ways, they have to fall back on earthly expressions of religion

  • So for unbelievers, helping the poor is their highest form of religious expression because this world is all they understand or value

    • Unbelievers who are drawn to religion are seeking to make this world a better place, to make this world into heaven 

    • But it’s all a game, and in the end it’s a hypocritical pursuit hidden behind a veneer of self-serving piety

  • And Christians need to be aware of this game too so that we don’t become too distracted by trying to make this world into heaven

    • Those who have the Spirit of God know that this world is passing and so what truly matters is waiting in the world to come

    • Like Mary who willingly gave away her life savings, we need to be ready to make sacrifices

  • But we need to make sure we are making the right sacrifices according to the leading of the Spirit and not the spirit of this world

    • The Church is called to show charity to others, primarily to those in the church, and always for eternal purposes