Honor and Betrayal

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 23

Psalm 23 ESV

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 53:1-3

Isaiah 53:1–3 ESV

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Sermon

Well, good morning church. I was glad when they said to me, let us go and worship in the house of the lord.

Well, as I've been saying for, probably the last few months. We're reaching the end of Matthew. And here really, we are the end. I sort of began, If we remember, saying, “well, this is the beginning of the end of Matthew” all the way back even in chapter 16. For, in chapter 16, Jesus approaches Peter and the disciples. “Who do people say that i am?” The disciples answer: Some say, john the baptist some Elijah or some other prophet. Then Jesus looks to the disciples and changes the question. OK, but who do YOU say that i am? And Simon Peter replied: “you are the christ, the son of the living god”. And it was there in chapter 16 -- immediately after peter's confession -- that jesus began foretelling his death and resurrection

Matthew 16:21 ESV

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

And Then we watched as this thought sort of grew. Three times Jesus predicted his death at the hands of the Pharisees in Matthew Which is what the book of Matthew is building to, So that was the beginning of the end. But then we look to the fact that this thought of jesus heading towards jerusalem, that is the location that we're building to. So thematically the end began in chapter 16 but then when we got to chapter 21. If we remember back to that THAT is where I said, well, now for real, we're in the beginning of the end. For that was the triumphal entry. Jesus, coming into jerusalem on the colt. The people proclaiming: “hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord.”

So since we were building to Jesus coming to Jerusalem, where all the end events are taking place, Chapter twenty one was really the beginning of the end in that regard. Here we start the last week of jesus life. The the passion week is, it's often called began in Chapter 21. And so, Chapter 21 is the beginning of the end in terms of location and travel and what Jesus is heading TO. But now, there are no qualifications needed. We are not in the beginning of the end, not building to the end, no, now we are here, the end. Gone are the discourses, gone is the sort of flow of discourse narrative. We don’t really look to Jesus performing more miracles, we won’t find more parables, these sorts of things that we've grown accustomed to Well, they're going to be gone as jesus begins his journey to the cross. It starts here.

Matthew and Jesus have already told us what is happening. He will be delivered over to the high priests and they will kill him. and now is when the plot is hatched — we will read it. Today we will see Jesus being anointed for his burial (even though this happens before he dies). And then here we will read that Jesus’ betrayal is set. So This is what we will look at this week. But we can and should note, this is truly the end. From this, jesus will have the last supper, the Passover meal with a disciples. Immediately after that, he will be arrested drug before the high court drug before Pontius pilot -- All of this is a great sham — Then he will be crucified. He will die. But the grave will not hold him. We all know the end of the story of Matthew. He will rise victoriously, he will show himself risen to the disciples. They will see his resurrected body. They will be changed forever. And then he will ascend to the right hand. Of the father. We're at the end.

And as we begin the end. At the beginning of the end it's important, I think, to see what Matthew is doing. He uses three rather short stories to paint one picture. In truth these are a sort of picture of the dichotomy of jesus’ life of all of his ministry. Matthew has been laying out the distinction between the crowds and his disciples. Jesus has highlighted for the past three weeks the distinction between those who truly know him, and who are known by him, and those who are not. But how does that play out? Well a lot of different way but here He will receive in this passage one of the greatest honors anyone on earth would bestow upon jesus. And he will be betrayed a more deep and a more piercing betrayal than any one of us has ever Experienced.

And so there's much for us to learn here from this passage. We'll just read it all at once. To start matthew chapter 26, verses 1 through 16 this morning.

Matthew 26:1–16 ESV

When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.” Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 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.” Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

These are the words of the lord for us this morning. Let’s open with the word of prayer.

Dear Lord we thank you. Thank you for all of the precious gifts you give us. We thank you in particular as we begin this passion narrative and the end of the book of Matthew, we thank you for the precious gift of the cross. We thank you that though it was a high cost, It was not one reckoned too high to be paid by you. WE know and do believe that Jesus christ, knowing what lay before him, Would gladly endure the pain and suffering and shame. He did so to purchase a people — to purchase us. Thank you for this precious gift. We pray that you would be with us this morning. Open our eyes to see what you have said and done. Give us ears to hear your word. Speak to our hearts this morning. It's in jesus name we pray. Amen. And amen.

These three passages together form, what a lot of commentators call a sort of betrayal sandwich. We have the betrayal in the beginning, the high priests, and the palace. We have the betrayal of the end, Judas. But in the middle, well there we have this great honor. And so, in order to see how this pans out, it's best, i think if we just sort of walk our way through it. And so we start with the first passage really laying the groundwork for the entire rest of the book of Matthew.

Starting in verse 1, Jesus finishes these sayings he says to his disciples. Hey it's time. I've been predicting this since chapter 16. We've been dealing with this now for a while, But guess what it is down to two days. Two days passover is going to happen and then i will not be here. But that is not all that is happening at that time. Because then it is as if while jesus is saying this Matthew, in his narrative wants us to see that WHILE jesus is saying this prophecy -- It is coming true.

Because the scene shifts and this clandestine meeting is taking place. And what i think it's important for us to know in this first betrayal, Is these are all the usual suspects.

All the USUAL suspects

These are All the usual Suspects,Kind of. When I first had this point I ended it with a question mark, because yes, but with intentional differences.

As we start, lets ask: who's our first usual suspect when we're looking at anything the gospels? Its the “Sunday School” answer: Jesus. But even this is a little bit different. This is what we'll talk about in depth on Thursday, at grace group, But instead of this, well, i'm heading to jerusalem. Instead of it being this idea. Something like Well, it's eventually going to happen. no here, Jesus gives a specific date: two days. It's not that the end is close. It's not that the end is soon. The end is here.

This is coming off the heels of the Olivet Discourse and if we remember there the disciples asked jesus, when will these things happen, the destruction of the temple, and all of these things? What will be the signs of the end of the age? And jesus gave them an answer. Kind of. It was apocalyptic, prophetic talk. So it's hard to nail down an exact date. In fact, he told them know exact date is going to be known. It cant be more clear that: No one knows the day of the hour of those things. But there is a day or an hour that jesus knows very well. It's the day an hour of his passion, his death, his crucifixion. “You know,” He says to his disciples, “it's coming”. This is the usual suspect. It's jesus and really it's the usual suspect jesus, doing something that has become his usual thought: predicting his death. But it's not far off anymore. We're here.

The first of the usual suspects is jesus. But then there's another usual suspect. And here again it’s just a little different. We're used to the strife that the pharisees and the Sadducees and the high priests have caused jesus. To put it lightly they've been a thorn in his flesh. We walked through the the temple scene where he's tested over and over again and finally turns it back on them. And in fact, that was the last time we heard from these sort of “usual suspects” of the religious elite. They went, if we remember, they sent their great lawyer. We're going to trap jesus. We're going to trick him. What is the greatest commandment? Jesus answers Perfectly. But then Jesus turns it around. Okay. You think you know all of this stuff? How about this? How can David's son be his lord? How's that going to work? We've read the psalm. You've all read the psalm. How does this work? And they couldn't answer him. They dare not answer him a word. And they dare not ask him any more questions. So jesus goes into his final long discourse, the Olivet Discourse. And now again, We hear from the chief priests the pharisees.

But now it's not just the chief priests a group. It's not the pharisees as a group. This is THE high priest. This is the head of the sanhedrin. This is the most high up in the sort of religious and political culture you could have in jerusalem. It's no longer just this sort of unnamed unknown group, “The pharisees”, no, we're getting into heady details here. The man sitting in the seat that belongs to the spiritual descendants of Aaron. WE don’t have the same thing, the closest would be like if we were to read that they were meeting in the palace of the POPE. But Matthew tells us that they're all meeting in Caiaphas' palace.

One interesting comparison to make here quickly. The chief priest and the elders get to meet in the PALACE of the high priest. Jesus's earlier said in the book of Matthew that “even foxes have places to lay their head, but the son of man has no where to lay his” Well on one hand we have jesus, our first usual suspect, looks forward to what he knows is coming. And on the other hand, here are our other usual suspects. The pharisees. Plotting, and scheming. Jesus, who will need to find a house, Someone to host him, for the his last supper. Is being plotted against by these men in their palaces in their high places. That speaks much of how unjust all this will be, But even here. Their heart is seen.

Ultimately, They're afraid. Afraid of what man might say. Afraid of what the crowd might do. Afraid that their plan might backfire. All of their plans so far have. We can note, that In one sense, their fears there would be warranted because even this plan will backfire, they're not going to be able to keep him dead. For he will raise. But here, in this session of plotting, got them what they wanted. Jesus crucified, Jesus dead, at least for a while. Here we start with all the usual suspects and we even now see the injustice of what our savior faced.

For he faced Certain death. And he knows that it's coming. It didn't take him by surprise. It's start here in Matthew is seen scheming and plotting from the chief high priests in the elders in the palace of the high priest. It's politically socially religiously powerful men. Trying to kill him. They plotted verse 4 to arrest him by stealth and kill him. They're not playing any games here. This is the end. Jesus was prophesying and his enemies were plotting. But this really is, for jesus, Par for the course.

Again We're here with a “The usual suspects” thought. We've grown accustomed to this sort of thing. They don't like him, they won't listen to him because they don't know him and they don't love him. To use the context of what we talked about before, they're proving that they are, the foolish virgin. They're proving that those they may be sitting in the palace of the high priest, they are one talent servants. For, they don't know the master. They're proving that they are goats. But Matthew will twist this on us, he changes the narrative up completely. We move from this thought of seeing the usual suspects, We've seen this. But then he goes to to a very unexpected. Honor.

An UNEXPECTED honor

And the reasons we could enumerate that this is unexpected. They're plentiful. Again, just to read it.

Matthew 26:6–13 ESV

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 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.”

First unexpected thing is we read is this: Jesus was in the house of “Simon the leper”.

Days before Passover THAT'S where he is, that should be unexpected. Part of the reason, if we sort of look at the context and we understand what's going on here, part of the reason, all of the chief priests and all these people had to be in Caiaphas's palace. Is because they had to be very careful who they saw, who they touched who they affiliated themselves with. Because Passovers coming soon, and if you're not careful, you might be unclean when Passover actually rolls around.

This is why jesus, for his whole ministry has been judged for eating with the lepers going to the house of the prostitutes and speaking with these people. Because In their minds, In the mids of the well to do, jesus’ very presence with that sort of person gives him a sort of tangential uncleanness, But here jesus is in the house of a leper. If we were to put all the unclean people on a spectrum of uncleanness, One of the most unclean people would be a leper. Was this a leper jesus healed? who exactly, is this? We don't know. But it's not accidental that Matthew wants us to read that he's in the house of a leper because that's unexpected. Two days before Passover-- You don't do this.

But even here, jesus is teaching. In the eyes of the religious leaders at the time. Jesus table fellowship with the ritually or morally unclean commuted uncleanness to himself. Here's the twist. This is what one commentator said. “Jesus, of course, saw the other way around. Rather he was communicating salvation To the outcasts.”

It's unexpected, that jesus would even be here. But then, it continues. A woman. We know from other gospel writers, this is Mary. She comes an anoints jesus head. That's not necessarily that unexpected, guests of honor would be anointed this was a sign of honor. But this is: She comes to him with an alabaster flask with very expensive ointment. If you try to calculate it is worth a lot. Commentators sort of like to put values on these things, it's helpful for us, right? I don't know what's a alabaster flask of very expensive Ointment going for nowadays. So they calculate was probably worth something like a years worth of wages, accounting for inflation something like 45 thousand dollars. A year's worth of wages. And she pours it out on jesus. This is unexpected. That jesus would receive such a high honor, really that anyone would receive such a high honor. Who is worthy Of wasting a year's worth of income in 30 seconds of pouring oil, on their head? Well, Jesus is. And She knew it. She knew it because she knew him. She looks at him sitting there. Ready to eat. No one's honored him the way he deserves. Well, no one else is going to, she will.

And as she does this, another unexpected twist, this woman anointing jesus head is met with opposition. Who would oppose honoring jesus? Heres another unexpected twist - the very people who know him the best, the disciples. She's wasting it! What is she doing? They have this sense of false piety, “i mean, we could have sold that and given the money to the poor.” Would you really done that? Probably not. But that's their excuse. What's unexpected is that this anointing happens. What's further unexpected is that the disciples would be in such opposition to it.

So Jesus just tells them. You only got two days left. If you knew someone only had two days left, wouldn't you endeavor to make it special to honor them? But there's something else that's going on here. With this, as France calls, “spontaneous act of extravagance, which is met with horrified results to the pragmatic disciples.” Truly there is a depth of beauty here. And jesus uses this to teach. For this unexpected honor points to the crucifixion. This woman probably doesn't know or fully understand but she's anointing him for his burial. Jesus knows she is. And so he says,

Matthew 26:12 ESV

In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

She might not know it, the disciples might not get it, but Jesus knows, He says Let me tell you just exactly what's just happened. It's not just that you'll always have the poor, here it is important to remember that you won't always have me. You will always have the poor. I'm only going to be here for two more days. Any the disciples judge her for this. So the first thought is that Points to his death. but It also points to the repeated call that we've seen over and over again, in Matthew. In particular that we must proclaim the gospel.

The kingdom of heaven is here. For here's something else that's very unexpected: when we proclaim the gospel. We also remember this woman. A lot of weights been put into, why does she remain unnamed when we know it was Mary? Why does Matthew choose to not name her? I think he has a reason. It's because as this is gospel is proclaimed. The ones who receive the goodness, the ones who receive this proclamation. The ones whose lives are changed are very often. Dare i say, always. The less than. The broken down. The nameless face in the crowd. You see this woman may be nameless to us, but God knew her, Jesus knew her. And so the unexpected honor is in one sense. Jesus being anointed with this oil by this woman, but the real unexpected honor here for being honest. Is that this woman would be memorialized as far and as long as the gospel is proclaimed. And she becomes a picture of us, for us. But then the beauty of HER honor. one commentator writes, i think this is very interesting thought. “It's not often we see and watch prophecy come true. But here, today, Jesus’ prophecy came true in our hearing.”

Here we are a church built. Sealed by the holy spirit built on the foundation of christ and the apostles doing these things. And what are we doing? We are Proclaiming what this woman has done. And remembering her. We just helped fulfill the prophecy. And until he returns, this will happen over and over and over again. The beauty of this is that when we understand what she did — her heart, who she did it for, what's going on here — we can then learn some things for ourselves.

Two quotes i want to read because i think they sum up what our heart should be as we read this. The first is this: “The beauty of un calculating generosity should not be measured by the yardstick of utility.” In other words, We should not gauge our service to the Lord by pure pragmatic means. Some cold calculating, thought of, well, if i preach the gospel 13 times to this person and 12 more times to this, As we calculate and we sit and do our budgets and we say, well, i can maybe afford 10 percent to God if i do this and do that, As we see people in need around us and we so give to them because we remember that in giving to those media around us we are in fact serving christ. Don’t do that based on some checklist, or based on some sort of calculation of if it is “worth it” to you, whatever that would mean. Rather give freely and boldly like this woman. once again: “Un calculating generosity should not be measured by the yardstick of utility.”

But then there is a second quote. This one to our hearts as we think through what we might be willing to give up and even face to live this out. Here's what spurgeon says, he sort of summarizes this thought that she's willing to give everything but also that she's met with opposition to the disciples. This is what he writes “when you do the best you can do from the purest motives. And your lord, accepts your service. Do not expect that your brethren will approve of all of your actions. If you do. You will be greatly disappointed.” Trust me, if you're doing everything to seek the approval and the applause of man you are doomed. Rather, If you do things because you love your savior There will be a reward. Because Spurgeon finishes. “There will never” he writes and I agree, “There will never be a more beautiful proof of love to christ than this anointing at Bethany. And yet even the disciples found fault with it.” She couldn't please everyone. No way you can either. So what do we do? We pour out to christ. Selflessly, abundantly. All that he has given us.

But then, as if caught in a major traffic accident whiplash, again, we move straight from this unexpected honor. This beautiful thing that this woman does for jesus to an unexpected betrayal.

An UNEXPECTED betrayal

The devotion of the unnamed woman is contrasted with the treachery That jesus will face, but this is what's even more heartbreaking when we put this together.

The unnamed woman will honor jesus. The named man will stab him in the back.

Even here verse 14. The betrayer is listed as one of the 12. This is one of jesus inner circle. The contrast here is this: We have here, a disciple of jesus. One of the 12 who walks with him. In fact, we know from other scripture, the one who is in charge of the purse strings, he's the accountant of the group. The treasurer of the entire disciple organization: Judas Iscariot.

On the other hand, you have some unnamed woman. I tell you right now, only one of these people is truly a disciple.

Only one of these people truly knows, and truly loves the savior. It's not the big name. With all the power. It's the humble woman pouring everything she owns. Literally pouring it out in love and devotion to christ.

This betrayal is unexpected. We expect more of the disciples and we would think that we should. But now think of this: Now, For just as this woman and what she has done is told in memory of her, what Judas has done is too, but for completely different reasons. If someone betrays us, we call him a Judas Iscariot. His is more of an infamy. but his name, still remembered.

Notice what he does. HE goes to Caiaphas and the elders and the chief priests.

Matthew 26:14 ESV

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

You can imagine they're shock as their scheming and plotting and planning. How are we going to get them? What are we going to do? We gotta, we're going to sneak in, we're going to do this. How are we going to get this jesus? The answer falls in their lap, Judas walks in.

“I'll do it. What do you give me?” Here's another unexpected nature of this betrayal. He looks to them: “what do you give me?” The price they settle on is 30 pieces of silver. I mean that seems like a lot, i don't have 30 pieces of silver. And it was not a little. Probably about a month's worth of wages.

But wait. This woman was willing to waste quote, unquote, waste, a year's worth of wages. Pouring oil over the head of jesus. Judas calculates, that his life is worth about a month's worth of wages. Four thousand dollars. What's the life of The only perfect one to ever live worth? Heres another unexpected twist: The woman, I think she would say there's no cost too great. Nothing given up in service to jesus Is wasted. She would not be able to put a price on it. For what price can you put on love and the life of the one you cherish more than anything else. On the other hand Judas can give you a price: 30 pieces of silver. That’s what It is what it's worth.

This is truly heartbreaking. And serves to illustrate all that we talked about for the last four weeks. The key to all of this. Is knowing your savior. If you know him you will love him and know that there is nothing greater or of more worth. So You sing old hymn: “Jesus paid it all. All to him, i owe.” But do we believe that? Another hymn. “Oh for A thousand tongues to, sing My great redeemer's Praise.” such love and devotion that I wish that I could give him more. I can give him every word of my mouth and that is not enough, so maybe if I had a thousand mouths to sing his praise I could almost try and praise him enough. Finally, “Were the whole realm of nature mind. It would be an offering far too small.” To give him EVERYTHING would be too small an offering to give to him. and there are Thousand ways we could say how great he is.

So ultimately Here's your choice. Love the savior. Or reject him. May we we never undervalue him. Or forget the priceless preciousness of he who is reckoned to be worth No more than a slave.

Here's the other unexpected thought of this The king of kings, the lord of lords. The one. By whom and through whom, and for whom all things were made. When Judas did his calculus. He's worth about as much as a slave. This was the cost, 30 pieces of silver. If you were to accidentally kill someone's slave, maybe You borrowed him for a day. Your ox kicked him and he died. This is what you would owe. It's what the savior of the world was worth in the eyes of one who didn't love him, but now, to us, and for all time he has been given the name that is above every other name. From Betray to honor to betray to the right hand of the Father. That’s Our savior, that’s our King. That’s jesus. May we love him, evermore.

Let's pray.