Matthew 26:1-16
Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” Twice Jesus predicts His death in today’s reading – first in verse 2 when He says that …the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified…, then again in verse 12 when He said of the woman who had anointed His head with oil that …she has done it to prepare Me for burial. These are probably two different occasions, but I don’t recall any reading that we’ve had where He predicts His death twice in just a few verses. Interesting.
Also, twice in today’s reading we see different aspects of the Jewish leaders’ plot to kill Jesus, first in Mt. 26:3-4 where they are openly discussing taking Him by trickery (stealth) and killing Him and then later in Mt. 26:14-15 where they bargain with Judas for Judas’ betrayal of Jesus.
This betrayal thing is interesting. All this final week of Jesus’ life we have seen Him openly teaching in the temple with the Jewish leaders unwilling to take Him at that time because of His support among the people. So the bargain with Judas must have been for Judas to alert them as to where Jesus would be with no crowd around. Just a few days ago we learned that Jesus was spending his nights that week on the Mount of Olives with His disciples. After a few days Judas would have known that pattern. So it may have been that Judas was leading the Jewish leaders to Jesus’ evening/nighttime location and that he was fortunate to find Jesus praying alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, with only Peter, James, and John nearby and the rest of Jesus’ disciples (followers?) further away at their evening resting place. So Judas’ betrayal would have been some days in the making, in the end a well-thought, well-planned, well-executed activity. So sad…
Slava Bohu!
I pondered on the part with the anointing of the perfume. When the disciples were outraged, Jesus said there would always be poor. I looked up the Deuteronomy quote, Deut 15:11, which said what Jesus says here, then says THEREFORE open your hand to the needy and poor. Very different verse than when only the first half is quoted. Jesus pointed out his burial, devotion to God, as well as his many statements and actions about serving others.
Interesting, Debbie. Given your post, you’ll enjoy tomorrow’s reading…!