Endgame - 1 (2021)

Endgame - 1

Matthew 26:6-13

Introduction

The game of chess is divided into three distinct categories…Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame. While strategies on opening and middle game continue to evolve, theories about endgame strategy tend to remain constant. During Endgame, there are fewer pieces on the board, all placed very strategically. Now it is time to go for the win. Everything in the game has been leading up to this moment. Endgame is where the game is won or lost.

Today we are beginning a new series that will lead us up to Easter Sunday. Over this next month, as we walk through the final week of Jesus’ life as recorded in Matthew, we will see how Jesus plays his Endgame. All the pieces are set. All of history has been building up to these moments.

Andreas Kostenberger - “The stage is set for the final act. The characters are in place. Their goals, motives, and intentions are clear. The king has come for his kingdom and has issued a clear and direct challenge to the reigning structures of political, economic, and religious power. The drama can end in only one of two ways. Either Jesus will topple the reigning powers and establish his messianic kingdom - or he will be killed. No one at that time could possibly comprehend that in God’s mysterious plan, there was a third option.”

TS - Let’s spend some time in Matthew 26 today looking at how the Endgame begins. When we get to his chapter we find that everybody is preparing for the Endgame, they are all getting ready for Jesus’ death. Some in good ways, others not so much.

Matthew 26:1-2 - When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Jesus himself is preparing everyone around him. He has told them multiple times before that this is going to happen, but they don’t seem to be getting it. And here we discover that we truly are in the Endgame…in Matthew, this phrase “When Jesus had finished all these sayings…” is repeated five times, signaling a change of direction in the book. This is the fifth and final time. We are indeed in the Endgame.

Matthew 26:3-5 - 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

The religious leaders are getting ready for Jesus’ death by planning it. They are conspiring, plotting, scheming how to get rid of Jesus. They don’t want it to be during the Passover because it could cause an uproar. And if Rome finds out there is another uproar, it could be bad for them.

Matthew 26:14-16 - 14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Judas is getting ready too. He plays a key role as he prepared to be the one who will betray Jesus to those authorities who want Jesus dead. So far, Jesus gives bad news, the leaders are plotting and a disciple is betraying. All bad. But sandwiched in the middle of all that bad is a shining example of good.

Matthew 26:6-13 - 6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 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. 8 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.” 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. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 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.”

In the midst of all the ugliness of the Endgame, here is a woman who does something beautiful. It is an extravagant act of love for her Savior. Let’s set the context…

Jesus is in the city of Bethany, just a couple miles outside of Jerusalem over the Mount of Olives. He is at the home of Simon the Leper. We don’t know who this man is, as this is the only time he is mentioned in the Bible. Is this someone that Jesus healed previously? Jesus’ public ministry that began after the Sermon on the Mount begins with him healing an unnamed leper. Maybe this is him. Or, maybe this is the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They live in Bethany and their home was the home base of Jesus whenever he was in the area. In reality, this could be anybody. Simon was the most popular name in Jesus’ day. There are four other “Simons” in Matthew alone. Fun to speculate about, but we do not know.

v. 7 - an unnamed woman comes to Jesus. She is only unnamed in Matthew. The Gospels of Mark and John both carry this account as well. They identify her as Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. These are Jesus’ closest personal friends. And Mary does something spectacular.

She breaks open a “very expensive” ointment. Very expensive indeed. Mark and John note that it was worth 300 denarii. One denarii was a day’s wage. So this is 10 months of salary. You do the math for you. To put this into perspective, when Jesus fed the 5,000 the disciples said that it would take 200 denarii to feed them all. This is incredibly valuable ointment/perfume.

Perhaps Mary grew up with money, we don’t know. Maybe this is a family heirloom. Maybe this is her retirement plan. Regardless of what its original purpose was, she lavishly pours it on Jesus. An amazing act of worship. This introduces us to one of the themes of this section…how much is Jesus worth? The religious leaders think Jesus is worth more dead than alive. He is worth a little bit of time and trouble to get him killed, but otherwise worthless. Judas thinks he is worth 30 pieces of silver. He was likely given Tyrian shekels, which made it worth about 5 months wages. According to Exodus 21:32, 30 pieces of silver is what the owners of an ox have to pay if their ox gores a slave to death. Judas thinks Jesus is no more valuable than a slave. Mary, though, believes Jesus is worth much much more.

William Barclay - “Love never calculates; love never thinks how little it can decently give; love’s one desire is to give to the uttermost limits; and when it has given all it has to give, it still thinks the gift too little.”

What has Mary just done? She has anointed Jesus. Jesus will explain this a little more in a bit, but she has acknowledged his value and has expressed her faith in him. In the OT, kings and priests and prophets were anointed. That anointing with oil set them apart as God’s man for the job. The Hebrew word for anoint is meshiah. When she anoints him with the incredibly expensive oil, she is declaring him to be the anointed one. The messiah. He is the promised one of the OT who will come to save God’s people. He is God’s man for the job.

She has done a beautiful thing…but not everyone agrees. v. 8, the disciples freak out. What a waste! John’s gospel has Judas leading the charge of complaints, but then John inserts the note that was because Judas was a thief who regularly helped himself to the funds. They see this highly valuable jar get poured out…wasted…on Jesus. They totally miss the beauty of what she has done. They miss the declaration of her faith. All they care about is the money. We could’ve given that money to the poor!

ILL - several years ago some church members felt called by God to go on a missions trip to Rwanda in Africa. They were going to be able to meet their Compassion child, an amazing opportunity. The church agreed to help them raise funds for the trip. The 10-day trip cost about $10,000 with flights, housing, shots, etc. We sent a letter to the entire church about it and asked them to donate to such a worthy cause. I got a phone call from a woman in the church who tended to not like anything we did…that is such an expensive trip! I can’t imagine all the good we could do for the poor in our city with $10,000!

It didn’t matter to Cranky McCheapskate that people in Rwanda matter just as much as her white American neighbors. Nor did it occur to her that this trip might change the lives of the ones going on it. And it did. Jason and Annie ended up being called by God to become missionaries. They spent years as missionaries on an island in the South Pacific. Jason has since become a pastor now in the States. Countless lives have been impacted and countless people won to Christ…all because of what God did on a trip to Rwanda.

We dare not create a false dichotomy that spending money on something is an offense to the poor. Otherwise we’d all end up with nothing because that argument can be made about your house, your car, every purchase you make. That is what these disciples do…they miss the beauty of what has happened and criticize that the money didn’t go to what they think it should’ve gone to.

Jesus addresses them directly. v. 10 - she has done a beautiful thing to me. What she has done is good, right, amazing. Then v. 11 - You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. Now, sadly, this verse has been used to minimize the reality of poverty and used as an excuse to not help the poor. They’ll always be around. You won’t fix the problem anyway.

That is not Jesus’ intent. He is paraphrasing Deuteronomy 15:11, where God continues on from that sentence to say that it is always a responsibility of believers to care for the poor. Jesus himself was very generous to the poor. In chapter 19 he told the Rich Young Ruler to sell all his possessions and give them to the poor. In Matthew 25 he described those who will be in eternity with him as those who “do for the least of these.” Jesus isn’t dismissing the poor, he is simply acknowledging the unique, unparalleled moment this is. The disciples missed it, but Mary sees it.

With this we see another contrast…not just how they value Jesus, but how they value worship to him. They see this as a waste. To Mary, Jesus is a treasure to be worshiped.

Jesus says in v. 12 that Mary has anointed him for his burial. He has just predicted his death earlier in v. 2, now he shows how close it really is. Jesus knows he will be crucified as a criminal…those who were executed as criminals were denied burial rights and proper anointing before they were buried. Mary provides for Jesus what his enemies never will. Dead bodies were anointed with ointment like this to mask the smell. The kind and amount of the ointment used showed the level of respect for the dead. How much respect does Mary show? She uses the very best, most expensive ointment, and pours it ALL out. Jesus deserves it all and even more.

Notice verse 13 - 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.”

Jesus is so overwhelmed by her love for him, by her worship of him, that he memorializes what she has done. Wherever this gospel is proclaimed…what gospel is that? The good news of his upcoming death. Whenever anyone hears about that, they will hear what Mary has done. Her example of extravagant love should go out to the whole world. Why? Because this is what Jesus deserves. There is no gift too valuable. There is no act of worship too large. He deserves all that we are, all that we have, and even more.

I said earlier that it is Mark and John who identify her as Mary. Matthew does not include her name. Yet…he wants the world to know what she has done! Apparently he isn’t concerned with people knowing her name, but with knowing her actions.

ILL - After WW 1 and 2, the nations involved became obsessed with war memorials. How do we best honor the fallen? The nations that won focused on their victory and strength. The nations that lost focused on bravery and courage. All around the world memorials popped up with countless names etched on them to honor those who gave their all. But another kind of memorial began to appear as well…to unnamed soldiers.

On March 4, 1921 the US Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American serviceman from World War 1 in the plaza of the new Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery. On November 11 of that year, the unknown soldier was brought back from France and interred below the three-level marble tomb. The tomb is a memorial to all the unknown soldiers who have given their lives around the world for the cause of freedom. Why a memorial for someone without a name? Because their name is less important than their cause.

That is Matthew’s view apparently. Mary’s name is less important than her cause. She has declared who Jesus is and by her anointing, she has declared what he is about to do by giving his life to save sinners. Her extravagant love for Jesus, her lavish worship of Jesus matter more than her name. Her identity does’t matter. Her savior is her identity.

How valuable is Jesus? What is Jesus worth to you? Really, you don’t even need to answer that question. Your life has already answered it for you. Your worship of him, your love for him, have already answered that question. Take a look at your worship. Take a look at how generous your love for him really is. What is the answer? Is it a good one? Does something need to change?

Conclusion

You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. Jesus highlights how special this moment is, because it’s going to end soon. In two days Jesus is in a tomb. The opportunity for this worship has a countdown clock. If she doesn’t do this now, she will never have the chance again. It’s now or never.

I got to spend a couple days this week with one of our missions partners, Josh Howard from India. One of my favorite parts of spending time with missionaries is missionary stories. They have the best stories. Here is one Josh told to a group he was training on Monday night…

A missionary friend of his was walking along the banks of the Ganges River. Of the hundreds of millions of gods that are worshiped in the Hindu religion, the Ganges River is believed to be a god. It is believed to have miraculous power and carry the souls of the dead into the afterlife. So people will have their bodies burned upon their deaths and their ashes spread on the river. Sick people will dip themselves into it hoping to be healed.

One of the great cities along the river is Varanasi. This missionary is walking along the river banks praying for the city. He can see all the funeral pyres lit as hundreds of the dead are being burned. Thousands have gathered along the river for worship. As he was praying he came up to a couple who were standing along the river and were crying. He asked them what was wrong and they told him they had been praying for a son, but had a third daughter instead.

They had just gone to a Hindu priest who told them that if they wanted a son, they needed to sacrifice their third daughter, who was 6 months old, to the gods and they would give them a son next time they got pregnant. The missionary is horrified. He shares the Gospel with them. There is one God and he is the one who puts babies in the womb. And he would never ask you to kill a child. You don’t have to earn his favor. In Jesus Christ, he is satisfied with you. He loves you.

They cried harder. He asked why. They husband said, “If you would have only come 5 minutes earlier…we just threw our baby girl into the river.” You know, good news is only good news if it gets there in time. As you go to share the gospel courageously, don’t let the gospel be 5 minutes late. Maybe you have a friend or coworker you want to talk to about faith…it could be now or never.

To those of you who do not know Jesus…you do not have an eternity to make up your mind. The age of grace will end. The opportunity for worship will end. Judgement will come. Don’t keep putting this off and end up missing your chance. Jesus is infinitely valuable. He deserves all of you. He wants all of you. He stands ready to forgive. Ready to welcome. Ready to adopt. You may never have this chance again.

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