Preparing For Christ's Death
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 22 March 2015
Let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 26. We’re coming now to the most significant section in all of this gospel because its focus is the cross of Jesus Christ. Everything to this point is only introduction. This is the main theme, the cross of Jesus Christ, the climax of redemptive history and the greatest source of hope in the heart of any man or woman who ever lived. You cannot have Christianity without the cross of Jesus Christ.
The cross foreshadowed the acceptable sacrifice of Abel, foreshadowed the ark that saved Noah, foreshadowed the sacrifice provided on Mount Moriah--a ram in the place of Isaac, prefigured the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. We see it foreshadowed in the serpent lifted up in the desert for healing. We see the cross detailed in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. We see the pierced and wounded Savior in Zechariah 12 and in all Scripture.
Now Matthew deals with the cross in concise, straight-forward way. This is the narrative of the cross. And here we are dealing with the reality of it historically. Oh, we will see the theology and its meaning, but the story of the cross is as it happened. And Matthew breaks up the picture of the cross into clear, distinct elements. In Matthew 26 we see the preparation for the cross. And then in Matthew 27, we see the trials, execution and burial of Christ. And then in Matthew 28 comes the resurrection.
Let us look at the preparation for the death of Jesus Christ, seen in four elements, or four perspectives. Matthew 26:1-16, “When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”
11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”
And this is still Wednesday; it has been a very long Wednesday. In fact, this Wednesday has lasted about many months in our study. So much has happened on this Wednesday. We go all the way back to Matthew 21:23 where Wednesday’s activities began. Matthew 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and here we are in Matthew 26, and we are still on the very same day, a very eventful day.
Do you remember that Jesus arrived in Bethany on Saturday? Sunday He was in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, when a great crowd came there and He taught and ministered to them. Monday He got on the colt and rode into the city of Jerusalem where the crowd said, “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord,” as they threw palm branches and garments on the street. He went to the Temple that Monday, then returned to Bethany. Tuesday He came into the city, cursed a fig tree on the way, and then went to cleanse the Temple. And He came back on Wednesday morning and He began to teach.
And then began this conflict with the religious leaders and the conflict began in Matthew 21, 22, and reached its climax in Matthew 23 when Jesus pronounced a series of curses. So toward the evening of Wednesday, He ascended the Mount of Olives with His disciples, sat down and it was there in the twilight that He began to tell them the truths about His Second Coming. It’s now late Wednesday and Jesus has finished all these sayings, but He has something more to say. They were like impatient children.
Now Jesus comes right back to reality in Matthew 26:1-2, “When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” And so, the Lord says it’s time for the cross now. This is the fourth and last time that He tells them of His cross in Matthew.
And as we prepare to understand the death of Christ, He gives us four perspectives. The first one is the preparation of sovereign grace. Everything has to come together in the death of Christ: the plan of God, the hatred of the Jewish leaders, the adoration and worship of those who followed Jesus, the betrayal of Judas; all of this has to blend together. God plans all of these diverse things so that the death of Christ comes at precisely the right moment.
So first, we see the preparation of sovereign grace. And Jesus, because the Father has revealed it to Him, says here, “After two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.” Jesus says this is the Father’s time. It is not that this death of Jesus Christ is an accident, and people who write books like The Passover Plot saying that Jesus was a well- meaning revolutionary whose revolution went sour and wound up getting Himself killed, are wrong. No way, He knew exactly what was going to happen.
There were many times when the leaders tried to take His life, but they were not able to do that. It wasn’t a well-meaning revolution that went bad at the end. They had been trying to kill Him from the very beginning, but unsuccessfully because Jesus was always in control of everything. Everything was always on a divine schedule in a majestic, dignified, powerful and authoritative way.
And in John 10:18 Jesus said, “No one takes My life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” And Pilate, fool that he was, in John 19:10-11 said to Jesus, “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
People have tried to kill Christ from the time of His birth and from the beginning of His ministry in Nazareth. But all of these attempts to take His life were unsuccessful because it wasn’t God’s timetable. Do you know that this was a time when the Jews did not want to do it with Jerusalem swollen with pilgrims, many of whom are from Galilee. Verse 5, “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.” But this was the exact time when God wanted it done.
So we see the sovereign grace of God that brings Christ to the cross to die for the sins of men. Two days from Wednesday is Friday when all the Jews would be celebrating their Passover, when lambs were being slain all over every place, He would be offered as the Lamb of God. What perfect timing. The sovereign One has planned that the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world will be sacrificed on the Passover, when all the lambs, who couldn’t take away sin, were being sacrificed.
Why? Because He was the Lamb. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us,” in the last part of the verse. He is our Passover, He is the Lamb of God, John the Baptist said, that takes away the sin of the world. He is a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth, says John in Revelation. And when Philip was talking to the eunuch in the desert, he opens Isaiah 53 and he reads about a lamb that was taken to slaughter, a lamb that did not open its mouth, the sacrificial lamb, which was Jesus.
Secondly, we see the preparation of hateful rejection. As Jesus was speaking these words to His disciples on Wednesday night, that same night the Sanhedrin had called a special meeting in the palace of Caiaphas with the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people (verse 3). They were the wealthy, the aristocratic people of the society. And they had only one thing in mind.
Verse 4, “and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.” Again they are plotting His death, only this time it’s going to happen, not in the way they thought, because verse 5 says they did not want to do it during the feast and so their plan was to wait at least eight days. God’s plan was just two days. In spite of what their plan was, God would accomplish His plan.
So the Sanhedrin, the ruling body, is threatened; Caiaphas is insecure. Josephus tells us his real name was Joseph Caiaphas. He was a wicked man who was always trying to kill Jesus. Ordinarily the office of high priest was always from the Levy tribe, but that had gone by the wayside. And since the Roman occupation you had to buy your way in. But the people demanded some sort of priestly ancestry. So Caiaphas married the daughter of Annas, the previous high priest.
So he was the epitome of symbolism in the religious system of Israel, decadent as it was. And yet he carried out all the priestly function. He alone could go into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. And so the hypocrite Caiaphas gets his group together and they want to do something with Jesus. But they needed a way to pull it off. And, of course Judas became their opportunity, he became the betrayer.
Now that takes us to a third preparation, a loving worship. “Now when Jesus,” verse 6 says, “was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.” Now we move from Wednesday back to the previous Saturday. Why does He jump back?” Because this is part of the preparation for the cross. And it happened on Saturday when Jesus arrived. Really? Yes, because John records the same event in John 12:1 where he says it was six days before the Passover and that is on Saturday.
Now Simon was a healed leper. The only cure for leprosy was Jesus Christ. And one way he could show his gratitude to Christ was to offer Him a supper. Simon now having God in human flesh, in his own home and inviting also Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and all twelve of the disciples. This is a group of twenty people for supper and Matthew, Mark and John all record this incident.
And all of a sudden, verse 7, “a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.” How precious? A year’s wages Mark tells us, 300 denarii, very expensive. John says it was Mary, who understands that Jesus is moving to His death and she understands something of the resurrection and she wants to prepare Him for that.
And so you have the preparation of loving worship here. And when she came to Jesus, she shatters the whole bottle. And it says in Matthew here that she poured it on His head. John says she poured this perfume on His feet. Which means she poured it all over Him. What in the world made her do that? It was an act of love, it was an act of honor. And she was so adoring and so controlled by worship that she could not deal with restraint.
She was pouring out her love, her heart of compassion and her devotion. She was honoring the One that was going to die and rise again for her salvation, to bear her sin. She did it for you, for me; and we all should have done it. She understood what the disciples didn’t understand. She wasn’t bound up in wanting to get right into the kingdom and have the glory. She apparently understood more of Jesus’ teaching then they did. She symbolizes the outpouring of love that God desires.
Those disciples in verse 8-9, they saw it but they did not understand, “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.” But this was not a time for the poor, this was a time for worship. In John 12:6 it says, “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.”
Jesus says to Judas in John 12:7, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.” And in Matthew 26:10, “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.” Jesus literally said to them, ‘Why are you making her feel bad or guilty as if this is a wrong thing?
And then He says this in verse 11, “For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me.” Jesus is saying it’s a question of priority; yes, there’s a time for charity, and there’s a time for ministry. But this is a time for worship. And as much as we should pour out on those who have need, so we should pour it out in an act of worship to God. We need to learn this kind of overflowing gratitude, this kind of adoration.
In verse 12 Jesus says, “She poured this perfume on My body, she did it for My burial.” This was an act of preparation, this was her way of showing love to Me, a devoted follower who sat at His feet, according to Luke 10:39. And Jesus said in verse 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.” Here two thousand years later, we see the sacrificial worship of this lady who loved Jesus Christ.
And so we see the preparation of sovereign grace, hateful rejection, and loving worship. And then finally, the preparation of betraying hypocrisy. Verse 14-15, “Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests. 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.”
Money was the most important thing to Judas. He was going to get as much as he could. He set up the betrayal that Saturday night. Luke 22:6 and Matthew 26:16 says, “From that time on he began looking for an opportunity to betray the Lord in the absence of the multitude.” So all the time Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as Jesus is in the city teaching, he is looking for the moment when he can betray Him. And Judas bargained for 30 pieces of silver, which according to Exodus 21:32, is the price of a slave.
The greatest example of lost opportunity is Judas Iscariot. There are only three ways to approach Jesus Christ’s death. One, you can ignore it and reject it. Two, with loving worship together with Mary or three, you can stand with Caiaphas, the priests, the scribes, the elders and Judas who claims to love but really hates. Where do you stand? Let’s bow in prayer.