Matthew 26:1-16

The last few days

Jesus’ prophetic picture of the kingdom’s future has it’s roots in the OT. What is to come has even deeper roots in Revelation.

Lets start with the OT. The Passover marks the Jewish New Year, a time of new beginnings and an annual festival that marked a true spiritual beginning for OT people. & 12 record the story of the plagues and the failure of Pharoah to let the people go. God then issued Egypt it’s final judgement. With His angel of death and the blood sacrifice of the lamb, God redeemed Israel by a blood sacrifice from slavery.

Jesus was about to fulfill the deepest meaning of the OT celebration meaning of Passover. Jesus reminds the disciples of the upcoming Passover on Wednesday, but he goes further then that. He tells them he will be crucified. No record of the disciples reaction to this is recorded in Matthew. But, he did record the plot that was under way by the high priest Caiaphas. They wanted to dispose of Jesus quietly by waiting until the Passover festival was done so as to not incite the crowd.

#1 If the chief priest was waiting until the end of the passover, when would that have been (how many days would have to pass before Jesus was taken)?

The priest would have seized Jesus 9-10 from the time Jesus told the disciples he would be crucified. 7-8 days for Passover and the 2 days prior to it.

#2 Why is this different then what Jesus spoke of?

Because God’s timing is not man’s timing.

Prior to being seized Jesus would spend evenings in Bethany on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. On this night Mary worships Jesus with performing an anointing on Him. A very costly act of love. The disciples were grumbling, probably under their breath and in secret to one another, and Jesus was aware of their comments…better yet their thoughts. Every time scripture says this, I just marvel that this supernatural power to know what another is thinking happened frequently with the disciples - yet they may not have even put 2 and 2 together to learn an important lesson from Jesus addressing their secretive mumbling and grumbling

#3 What lesson should we learn from this?

That Jesus knows our very thoughts because He is present in our lives. We should be ever mindful that kingdom living begins in the heart and mind. If we are mumbling and grumbling thinking Jesus isn’t listening to us then we are mistaken and are not living with a kingdom mindset.

Jesus so far has spoken several times about his coming death and the repetitive announcing of it seems to be needed for the disciples to heed it and prepare for it. Mary on the other hand believed what He told them and performed the anointing. Her devotion is recorded and future peoples would know of her faith. The anointing has a double meaning. Jesus equates it to burial rites where the women would prepare bodies. But, anointing the head is acknowledging that Jesus is King and so anointed as a king.

Over the rest of the study start to note all the women mentioned. try and keep an awareness of their roles and functions.

he head is acknowledging that Jesus is King and so anointed as a king