Sermon Tone Analysis

Chapter 26

Read and summarize

The following material is adopted from John MacArthur’s commentary on Matthew and his Study guide.

Additional material taken from sources listed at the end

Look for

— Prayers ( Blue )

— Promises ( Green )

— Warnings ( Red )

— Commands ( Purple )

Preparing for Christ’s Death ( 26:1-16 )

— This is the longest Chapter in Matthew.

It documents the final events in the life of Jesus immediately before the Cross; the plot to arrest Him; the anointing by Mary of Bethany; the selling by Judas Iscariot; the celebration of the first Lord's Supper; the predicted denial by Peter; the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; the betrayal by Judas; the arrest by the chief priests; the trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin; the denial by Peter.

— All things recorded in this chapter and chapter 27 should be studied in the light of His determination at Caesarea Philippi -- six months previously -- to go to Jerusalem to die:

"From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day" (Matt.

16:21)

( 26:1-16 ) Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, 2 “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

6 And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.

8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?

9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a good work for Me.

11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.

12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.

13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” 14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?”

And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.

16 So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

— In Matthew’s Gospel, the teaching of Jesus is finished here.

In these last days leading up to His betrayal and crucifixion, He warned the multitudes about the corrupt religious leadership and He spoke to His disciples about things to come.

Now, it was time for Jesus to fulfill His work on the cross.

— The disciples knew, at least should have known, that Jesus was going to be crucified, for this He had predicted again and again

— And now for the fourth time He tells of His upcoming death and resurrection ( 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19 )

— Something new is added when Jesus now designates the very day when this being handed over for crucifixion would take place, namely, during the night from Thursday to Friday, with the the crucifixion itself to occur on Friday

— It is through the cross of Christ along that the Lord has provided a way for sinners to be saved

— There is no salvation and no gospel without the cross, so that Paul could say, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

( 2 Cor 2:2 )

— Chapter 26 picks up on Wednesday just two days before Christ’s crucifixion

— Already an eventful week

— Teaching the multitudes in the temple

— Excoriating the Jewish leaders for their hypocritical ungodliness

— He taught His disciples about His second coming ( Matt 24:3-25:46 )

Going Deeper

— The Cross is central to the Christian faith and the story of Christ’s work is found everywhere in the OT — the so called “scarlet thread” of redemption

— Possibly some of these examples were shared with the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus ( Luke 24:1-13 )

— The Cross is foreshadowed in

— The acceptable sacrifice of Abel ( Gen 4:4 )

— In the ark that saved Noah and his family ( Gen 7 )

— In the substitute ram provided to Abraham on Mount Moriah as the substitute for his son Isaac ( Gen 22:13 )

— In the deliverance of Israel from Egypt ( Ex

— In the struck rock that brought forth water in the wilderness ( Ex 17:6 )

— In the Levitical sacrifices

— In the serpent lifted up in the wilderness for healing( Num 21:9; Jn 3:14-15 )

— In Boaz as Ruth’s kinsman redeemer ( Ruth 4:1-10 )

The Preparation of Hateful Rejection ( 26:2-5 )

( 26:2-5 ) “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

3 Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people

— Caiaphas was the ruling high priest during Jesus’ ministry; scripture depicts him as conniving, treacherous and deceitful

— The Roman government had taken over the process of appointing all political and religious leaders

— Caiaphas served for 18 years, longer than most high priests, suggesting that he was gifted in cooperating with the Romans

— He was the first to recommend Jesus to death in order to “save” the nation ( John 11:49,50 )

( 26:3 ) the people assembled at the palace of the high priest

— Caiaphas has a palace?

What is priest doing with a palace?

Indicative of the spiritual corruption in Israel

— the use of both assembled and plotted is deliberately suggestive of Psalm 31:13:

For I am the slander of many; fear is on every side; while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life

( 26:5 ) Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people

— From the standpoint of the Jewish leaders, the Passover was the worse time to take action against Jesus, especially to put Him to death

— They feared it would cause a riot among the people

— But the Passover was the time God had chosen, and those hateful rejecters would crucify Jesus according to God’s plan rather than their own

— During the many times when they wanted to kill Jesus they could not

— Now, when they wanted to postpone putting Him to death, they could not

— When, by God’s sovereign allowance, Jesus’ enemies finally succeeded in putting Him to death, it was at the very time that they wanted to avoid

Going Deeper

— The high priest was traditionally passed through the Levitical line

— During the Roman occupation the position was generally sold or bestowed as a political favor

— Because the Jewish people could not have tolerated a high priest without some Levitical heritage, Caiaphas married the daughter of Annas, his predecessor

— Caiaphas served as high priest from A.D. 15 to 37, an unparalleled time

— To hold the office for that long a time required a close relationship with Rome, and over the period of some hundred years, 28 different men served as high priest

— Caiaphas’s successor lasted only 50 days in office

The Preparation of Loving Worship ( 26:6-13 )

( 26:6-13 ) And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.

8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?

9 For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.” 10 But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a good work for Me.

11 For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.

12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial.

13 Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

— Matthew and Mark put this event just before the Last Supper, while John has it before the Triumphal Entry

— Both Mark and John give us interesting details about this event — Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8

— Of the three, John places this event in the most likely chronological order

— We must remember that the main purpose of the Gospel writers was to give an accurate record of Jesus’ message, not to present an exact chronological account of His life

— Matthew and Mark may have chosen to place this event here to contrast the complete devotion of Mary with the betrayal of Judas, the next event they record in the Gospels

— “Simon the leper”… No longer a leper… Jesus probably healed him

— Matthew completely omits the raising of Lazarus which took place a few days prior

( 26:7-9 ) a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table.

8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste?

— John tells us this woman was Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who lived in Bethany ( John 12:1-3 ); Martha and Lazarus were also present

— This was a jar of white ( or perhaps delicately tinted ) fine-grained gypsum

— The perfume was “very precious” ( Matt 26:7 ), “very costly” and nearly a year’s wages ( Mark 14:3 ) and had been extracted from pure nard ( Jn 12:3 )

— Nard was an oil extracted from the root of a plant ( Nardostachys jatamansi ) grown in India.

The term appears twice in the Song of Songs (1:12 ESV; 4:13–14) and in two of the Gospel accounts of the woman anointing Jesus at Simon’s house in Bethany (Mark 14:3; John 12:3; “spikenard,” KJV).