The Adoration of the King

The Adoration of the King

Matthew 26:1-16

Sunday, February 8, 2026 — Land O’ Lakes Bible Church

Introduction

Class dismissed! That was the final line of one of my favorite boyhood shows, Boy Meets World. A show that followed around a group of friends who were students from Middle School through University. And as the show closes, their beloved teacher, Mr. Feeney had taught his final lesson to them, encouraging them as they part ways. For the show, it was a powerful ending.

These words were appropriate then, but they are appropriate now as Matthew 25 has now closed. For in Matthew 24 and 25 we had the fifth and final teaching section of Jesus’ ministry. His formal teaching sessions are now complete as Calvary draws near. Through the five discourses, that is teaching sessions, in Matthew, we have been taught the following:

1. Kingdom Living (Matthew 5-7)

2. Kingdom Mission (Matthew 10:1-42)

3. Kingdom Mysteries (Matthew 13:1-53)

4. Kingdom Community (Matthew 18:1-20:34)

5. Kingdom Coming (Matthew 24:1-25:46)

Therefore, while the Gospel of Matthew is not yet done, the teachings are. What is left though is essential for what we as Christians believe. For in Matthew 26, Matthew 27, and Matthew 28reveal to us the betrayal, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And it is through these things that Jesus will be established as God’s Anointed and Glorious and Forever King! A King who has crushed the head of the ancient serpent.

This morning, we head towards that in our passage. We will be in Matthew 26:1-16. Please then let me ask you to open your Bibles with me there, to Matthew 26:1-16. If you do not have your own copy of the Bible, you can grab the Red Bible there in your seats and open it to page #...

As we make our way towards the Jesus’ death, let us in these coming weeks examine ourselves and ask, what then do we believe about this Jesus? Do we truly believe that he is both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God who was slain for us to take away our sin? Do we rightly see the cost of sin and the glory of God’s mercy? Do we rightly then adore Jesus in all he did? Or do our hearts harden? For we see both of these in our passage this morning.

Let us then hear the word of the LORD from Matthew 26:1-16.

Main Idea: Jesus is worth every ounce of our devotion, for he is both our Sovereign Lord and our Merciful Redeemer.

1. The Rule of Jesus (Matthew 26:1-5)

2. The Worth of Jesus (Matthew 26:6-16)

While you may at first not see the structure here of what Matthew is doing, it becomes clearer as we consider another gospel account, the Gospel According to John. For in the Gospel According to John, the account that we have here in Matthew 26:6-13 about this woman and this anointment comes in John 12, right before Jesus enters Jerusalem in the Triumphant entry. John is right in that this event comes prior to Jesus’s entering Jerusalem. Matthew does not argue that even as he states now when Jesus was at Bethany there in verse 6.

What Matthew is therefore doing here is placing this story about this unnamed woman in his account and her loving devotion to Jesus between two accounts of those who reject Jesus. The plotting of the wicked rulers of Israel and between the betrayal of one who was in Jesus’s inner circle.

So friends, this morning as we then consider these two points, let us marvel at who Jesus is and how he indeed is worthy of our ultimate devotion.

1. The Rule of Jesus (Matthew 26:1-5)

It would be easy to look at these first five verses as kind of transitional in this narrative account building up to Jesus’s death. And yet, these verses reveal much to us about these events. Particularly that those who thought they were in control were not. Look again there at verses 1-2….

As was already noted, Jesus has completed his sayings, his teachings. And now everything is preparing for his coming death. Which, he tells his disciples is coming and coming soon.

He prophesies that in two days as the Passover feast comes, that he, the Son of Man will be delivered over to his enemies and put to death. Not just any death though. Jesus says he will be delivered up to be crucified.

To be crucified is to be laid on two beams of wood. One going vertical and the other horizontal. And as you are laid on it, long piercing spikes are driven through both hands and your feet. Picture railroad spikes here.

And then those beams in the form of a cross are lifted up and dropped into the ground. The weight of your body then collapses your lungs, making it impossible to breathe. The only way then to take in air is to press up on those nail pierced hands and feet to open your lungs before you collapse again. Jesus here predicts precisely what kind of death lays ahead of him in this.

Jesus foretells of these two things to let his disciples (both then and now) know precisely what lays ahead, preparing them for these events. But notice the placement of this prophecy of Jesus here in Matthew’s gospel. This prophecy about the timing and the means of his death come directly prior to the plotting of the religious leaders in Israel in verses 3-5. We read there (V.3-5)….

These religious leaders gather themselves together or in their gathering, they plot on how and when to arrest Jesus in order to kill him. But one, Caiaphas, the high priest, does not want to arrest and kill Jesus during the Passover. For he knows if this happens with the masses around during the Passover, an uproar, a riot will be stirred. And it will not be good for the Jews. And so, they desire to wait. A wait that would then be expected to last for at least 9 days, as the Passover Feast would extend for a week, and here it is now two days before the Passover as we are told back up in verse 2.

A wait that reveals the religious leaders’ desires to kill Jesus in their plotting, but their inability to even plot well enough to know the outcome. Now wonder that in Psalm 2, we learn that he who sits in the heavens laughs as the kings of the earth and the rulers rage and plot against the LORD (יְהוָה) and his Anointed!

For even as the chief priests and the elders sit here plotting together about the timing to arrest Jesus and kill him, Jesus has already declared the timing and means of his own death. This revealing that it is not the chief priests and elders in Israel who are in control of the events ahead. No, but even in his death, Jesus is in complete control. He has prophesied the timing and means of his death and goes willingly towards it. For this is precisely how he will fulfill the purpose for which he came. He will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Jesus will take away the sins of all who believe in him as the new and greater Passover lamb. As the lamb of God who was slaughtered on the cross, whose blood was shed to cover our sins, allowing the Lord to Passover our sins and look at them no more.

There is therefore massive implications of this for us today. Do we believe this truth about who Jesus is and that he came for this very purpose? If we believe, then it is by that very belief and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone that our sins are forgiven.

If however you do not believe, you can join the chief priests and the elders of the people with your plotting to resist Jesus, thinking yourself to either escape his judgment or to be good enough without Jesus, but the LORD and his Anointed laugh at your foolish attempts. Because there is but one way, the way of Psalm 2, to declare allegiance to this Anointed King and rest in him. And all who refuse this way will be broken to pieces and perish. But blessed are all who come and take refuge in Jesus!

So, friend, turn from your sin today and come to Jesus. Trust in him who is the lamb of God who came and laid down his life for us while we were still sinners.

But there is another implication of verses 1-5 for us. There is the implication that not only was Jesus in control in that of his own death, he continues to be in control. For even death itself did not have victory over Jesus. He died, then on the third day rose again as the victorious King! And he has now ascended into glory where he is at present seated next to the Father where the earth is being made his footstool.

Jesus is the Reigning King! The Apostle Paul applies this in the book of Colossians, telling us that Jesus holds all things together.

Apply…

Jesus’s prophesy in the midst of the plotting of the wicked gives us hope as we see the rule of Jesus. That’s point #1.

2. The Worth of Jesus (Matthew 26:6-15)

In contrast to these religious leaders though, there is an unnamed woman who is the focus of verses 6-13.

A woman who comes to Jesus while he is at the house of Simon the leper there in Bethany. Again, Matthew emphasizing even in his writing, that he is pointing back to an earlier chronological event. It is kind of like one of those flashback moments in your favorite tv show or movie, looking back at something that happened x hours or days ago to set up the scene. That’s what Matthew again is doing here.

As for this man Simon the leper, he too is not even known by his last name or lineage, but by the fact that he was a former leper. Leprosy is a very serious skin disease that would have eaten up one’s skin and left it white. It was also highly contagious, which meant any current leper would have been removed from the camp of Israel and isolated. But here, we see Simon the leper hosting Jesus.

And it is at Simon’s house where he is hosting Jesus that our unnamed woman enters. She enters and comes to Jesus and anoints him with oil. Which typically, this would not have been completely uncommon. For most hosts would anoint their guests with some kind of oil as they entered. But it would have been on the cheaper side compared to what this woman comes with.

This unnamed woman comes here as we read there in verse 7 with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment. Matthew does not give us any more details here. However, Mark (Mk 14:3-9) and John (Jn 12:1-8) do. They both note that this expensive ointment was pure nard. Which, according to what it could have been sold for according also to John, was worth 300 denarii.

A denarii was roughly a day’s wages. So, going by a lunar calendar versus our solar calendar, about a year’s wages. A year’s worth of wages is what this unnamed woman comes and pours on Jesus’s head.

Of course, the disciples quickly are indignant, angry at this woman for what she has done. They even turn to piety in saying that they could have sold this for a large profit (a year’s wages according to John 12) and given them to the poor.

But Jesus, those are the words we read there in verse 10. Jesus is aware of the disciples’ indignation. This indicating that this was not outwardly expressed, yet Jesus was aware of it and makes them aware of it as he calls them out. Asking them why they trouble this woman for this beautiful thing she has done!

In verse 11 there, Jesus tells them that they always have the poor with them, but that they will not always have Him with them. For again, Jesus has told them that at the coming Passover in two days, he will be delivered up to be crucified. His death is coming where he will no longer be there as he is now. But the woman, Jesus says there in verses 12-13…

And indeed, the accounts of this woman are being proclaimed wherever this gospel is proclaimed. Whether here in Matthew or Mark or John, as the gospel is read and proclaimed, what this unnamed woman here in Matthew has done is being told, or Mary as we know from John’s gospel. Her loving act of devotion is told as one who truly loved Christ and was devoted to him.

One who came and anointed him with such costly devotion! And Jesus tells that even in this act of devotion, that this woman prepares him for burial. This preparation was possibly known by this woman, but more likely Jesus here is telling the further beauty of what she has done in what he knows lays ahead with his coming death.

It is such devotion that Jesus here says will be remembered. That will be proclaimed. And it is a good word of encouragement to us as we seek to live as Christians a life of devotion to our King as his disciples. That no matter the act in and of itself, when we rightly walk in acts of devotion towards him, he will remember it and it will be a most precious thing in his sight!

Listen to how the 19th Century Anglican, J.C. Ryle put this in his excellent Expository Thoughts on Matthew. He writes:

“Do we know what it is to work for Christ? If we do, let us take courage, and work on. What greater encouragement can we desire than we see here? We may be laughed at and ridiculed by the world. Our motives may be misunderstood. Our conduct may be misrepresented. Our sacrifices for Christ’s sake may be called “waste,”—waste of time, waste of money, waste of strength. Let none of these things move us. The eye of Him who sat in Simon’s house in Bethany is upon us. He notes all we do, and is well-pleased. Let us be “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as we know that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58.)”[1]

Beloved, indeed what encouragement these words are to our hearts and minds! No matter what the world thinks or says about our service to our King, King Jesus, it is a service that is lovely and beautiful!

It is not a waste of time or strength or money to labor to make much of our King and to proclaim his deeds and his teachings to the ends of the earth!

It is not a waste to go deeper into the things of Christ, teaching others about the one whom we love! It is not a waste to forsake our lives in taking up a cross and following after Jesus, because it is in him alone in whom life is to be found! For to follow after anyone or anything else leads not to life, but death.

Therefore, let our devotion to Christ be greatly encouraged! For such devotion is the overflow in the life of one who has realized the love that Christ has first shown us! A love that brought about those nail scarred hands and feet in him willingly going to the cross in death to lay down his own life as the lamb of God! A sacrifice so that his blood can wash away our sins, purifying all who will come to him by faith!

You see, unlike other so called religions, our devotion is not to Jesus because we first loved him. Our devotion to Jesus is in who he is and what he has done, just like for this woman here in Matthew 26:6-13.

Therefore, when you feel your devotion growing cold, when you feel your worth of Jesus is struggling, do not grow weary, but press in more to Jesus! Press more into knowing him, to studying all that he taught. For it is precisely here that our love and devotion grows!

As Aslan told Lucy in the Chronicles of Narnia, for we read:

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.” “That is because you are older, little one,” answered he. “Not because you are?” “I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

Beloved, as you grow in the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of our Triune God, you will find Him bigger! And from finding God bigger, so will your devotion grow!

Of course we must beware, because to simply be in the presence of Jesus does not mean devotion will flow out of us. For this unnamed woman, a beautiful devotion flowed from her because she treasured Jesus! She though him worth giving up a year’s wages to anoint him.

But one of Jesus’s twelve was quick to sell him out. Look there at verses 14-16 again. We read…

Judas one who had been with Jesus for three years takes this opportune time to profit off Jesus rather than giving his devotion to him. Where the woman poured out a precious and expensive oil worth a year’s wages, Judas betrays Jesus for a mere 30 pieces of silver.

These 30 pieces of silver is significant. For one, it was the price to be paid by the owner of an ox if it gored a slave to death back in Exodus 21:32. It was the equivalent of four month’s wages. And Judas here earned these four month’s wages by his betrayal compared to the pouring out of a year’s worth of wages to Jesus with her anointing of him.

But these 30 pieces of silver also points back to our earlier Scripture reading this morning from the book of Zechariah which again is there in your Worship Guide. There in Zechariah 11, a shepherd is declared to have rescued his flock who was doomed to slaughter (Zech 11:4). Yet, this shepherd became impatient with the sheep and the sheep detested the shepherd. And so they were left to devour themselves.

The shepherd then asked for his wages and was paid the wages of a slave instead. The wages for a gored slave (Ex 21:32). Wages unworthy of his service due to the rejection of the sheep.

And this is precisely what Judas is doing here in verses 14-16 in our passage. He is betraying Jesus for the price of a slave in his rejection of him. And in so rejecting Jesus, Judas becomes the very one who will be the means to the plotting of the wicked chief priests and the elders of the people. In them all acting like their father, the devil, as the offspring of that ancient serpent.

And yet again, despite all their plotting and their scheming, Jesus is the one in control. For he is the Great Snake Crusher who has come! And in the very death plotted by these evil ones, including the betrayer Judas, they bring about the own crushing of their head with their Father the devil. Their doom is sure!

So beware to those who would reject Jesus, selling him out for the temporary pleasures or wealth of this world. Beware of a greater devotion to the things here and now than to the one who laid down his very life so that we may have abundant life in Him!

And for those who are following Jesus, let this betrayal of Judas be a humble reminder to us. That we must continually be guarding our hearts from the snares of sin. From the snare of a love of money and notoriety in this life.

Let us continue to look to Jesus, marveling at who he is and what he has done, increasing our love for Him more and more!

Let’s pray!

[1] J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Matthew (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 349.