Luke 9:26

Matthew 26:6

In Matthew 26:6-13 the Bible says, “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as He sat at the meal. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said to them, Why do you trouble this woman, because she has performed a good work upon me. For you have the poor always with you; but me you have not always. For in that she has poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Truly I say unto you, Wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, this shall be also, what this woman has done, be told for a memorial of her.”

There is a very important spiritual significance to what this woman did. She came with an expensive ointment and anointed the head of Jesus. Jesus said that she did it for His burial. Of course, Jesus had on several occasions, declared the fact that His death was certain to come shortly at the hands of the religious leaders. As for the disciples, they never did understand until after the resurrection the necessity or the significance of the death of Jesus. They even tried to talk Him out of it.

But the time had come for Jesus to die. Verse 4 of this chapter says that the scribes and chief priests were consulting how they might take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. In just a few more verses, Judas Iscariot will go to this group of treacherous persons and sell the life of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

Death was in the air. The time had come. It must have seemed as though the spirit of evil took control of everything; everything except the mind and heart of Christ. He had come into the world for this moment. It appeared to be the moment of the triumph of evil; but it was really the moment of the triumph of good over evil, because it was the moment when Jesus would pay the price for all the sins of man since the beginning of time.

Surely there would be people who would honor Him, who would appreciate Him, who would esteem Him for what He was about to do, for the death that He was about to die. But there was no one, no one who understood or who cared: No one except this woman. She understood and she cared, and she brought this very precious ointment and anointed Christ with it, and Jesus said, “Wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, what this woman has done, be told for a memorial of her.”

In that day and at that time, looking forward to the death of Christ, the issue was: who would understand, and who would be grateful, and who would return God’s love? In our day and time, looking back to the death of Christ for our sins, we must ask the same question: who understands, who appreciates, and who returns the love of God?

We learn a spiritual lesson from this incident from the love and appreciation that this woman had for Christ because of His sacrifice of Himself. There is also a practical lesson to be learned from the same incident. The disciples, probably at the instigation of Judas, complained about what this woman did with her expensive ointment. They judged her for what she did with her personal finances. Don’t make the mistake that was made here by the unspiritual disciples. Don’t ever think that you know what someone else should do with their money in the service of God. If God wants someone to use their resources in some way for His glory, He is more than able to let them know. You don’t need to give your opinion. If you do, you will probably be just as wrong as the disciples were. After all, giving is the least important of things to do in the service of God. Most people don’t need to be concerned about what they do with their money, but what they do with their heart. Jesus said to love God with all of our heart. If we aspire to do that, the other things will follow.

Matthew 26:14-16 says, “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they made an agreement with him for thirty pieces of silver, and from that time Judas sought opportunity to betray Jesus.” During the three years that Jesus and the disciples lived together, they probably did not have much money. Jesus left His regular job as a carpenter. James and John, and Andrew and Peter had left their fishing businesses. Matthew no longer had his income as a tax collector, and the other disciples were in the same condition. We know that there was a group of women who served Jesus with their substance, probably because they saw that Jesus and His disciples were in need. Luke 8:2-3 says, “And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven demons, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, Ministered unto him of their substance.” We all remember the incident when Jesus and the disciples picked grain in the fields on the Sabbath; this was food that was set aside by Jewish Law for the poor.

One of two things probably happened to Judas. 1. Either he entered the company of the disciples from the beginning planning to profit financially, maybe hoping that he would eventually become the Minister of Finance in the kingdom that Jesus would set up; and so being disillusioned with his original plans, he sold out Jesus. 2. Another possibility was maybe that Judas started with good intentions as one of the disciples of Jesus, but eventually grew tired of living on the edge of poverty, and selfishness took over. Perhaps his initial noble goals were replaced by greed that led him to commit one of the worst sins ever committed by a human: he betrayed the Son of God and sold Him for 30 pieces of silver. As we all know from looking at the state of some religious organizations today, Judas was not the last to claim to be a follower of Jesus, and then to sell their souls because of greed. The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

Selfishness and self-centeredness are at the core of almost every sin. If you start with selfishness and let it go unabated and unchecked in your heart, it will eventually bear its evil fruit and you will be capable of almost anything, including treachery, greed, and violence. That’s exactly what happened to Judas, and Jesus said about him, “it had been better for that man, had he never been born.”

Remember what happened to Judas and why it happened as a warning that the same thing does not happen to you. His was a downward progression that he did not check and did not stop when he had the chance. No one is standing still. You are either becoming worse or you are becoming better. You are heading in a certain direction. Do you know what direction you are heading, and do you know how to change it if you are going the wrong way?

If you were to see a painting of the Last Supper, you would see Jesus and all 12 of the disciples represented. Judas would also be there, at his worst, having already planned the treachery and betrayal of Jesus. It has been said of one of the paintings of the Last Supper, that the artist needed to find someone to be a model for each of the men to be represented at the Last Supper. The artist started with Jesus and found someone that he thought at least a little bit who appeared to characterize what he was looking for: a combination of goodness and compassion and strength in one man’s face and eyes. This was a painting that the artist took several years to complete, because he would set it aside from time to time and work on other things, and then he would come back to it when he had the time. One by one, he found men to sit for him as he painted his representation of what he thought might reflect the qualities that each disciple possessed. Finally, he came to the last that he needed to paint: Judas Iscariot. The artist had to find someone whose face and features would be a good representation of the treachery and deceit, the cowardice and greed, and the brooding ill-temper that an evil mind can give. The artist finally found a person who had a face that was evil enough to fill his need; but to his utter astonishment, it turned out to be the same person that the artist had used years before to represent the face of Jesus. Evidently, this person had started well, but had gone the wrong direction, had made selfish decisions, had gone the way of sin, and now the wages of sin were etched on his features.

I don’t know if the story is true or not, but the principle is true. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.” “Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” The only way to keep from becoming like Judas is to realize that you have the capability of being just like him. But if you learn to live a life of turning from sin, your sins will never drag you all the way down like they did Judas. You will be like the person spoken of in Proverbs where it says that the just man falls seven times, yet rises again. Whenever you fail, ask God to forgive you. Whenever you fall into selfishness, don’t remain in the spirit of selfishness. Constantly bring your thoughts back to God, and He will always forgive you. Don’t be like Judas, and continue on a path of selfishness and sinfulness until it destroys you. Turn to God before it is too late. First John 1:9 says; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Matthew 26:17-19 says, “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto Him, Where do you wish that we prepare for you to eat the Passover? And He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The Master says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the Passover.”

The Feast of Unleavened bread was meant to symbolize the way that believers are supposed to live in this world, separate from sin. Leaven symbolized sin and wickedness. Therefore, unleavened bread symbolized the absence of sin and wickedness. “Be you holy, because I am holy”, said God. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. Our goal should always be to love all the people of the world, but to not join in their excesses and failures.

Even though this is our goal, we never are quite able to achieve it. The selfishness of our own human lives grabs a hold of us so easily at times. And so the feast of unleavened bread is followed by the Passover. It is our goal to live a holy life, but we never really achieve it. At best we can only live a life of continuous improvement, but we never can reach the goal of complete practical holiness. We mess up along the way. And we need a Passover lamb. We need to have the effects of the blood of Christ applied to us individually and personally, in order to receive mercy and be passed over at the time of the wrath of God and the judgment of God. For those who have Jesus as their Passover lamb, they are given the standing and the position of holiness through faith in Christ, even though they themselves have not and cannot achieve it in this life in a practical sense.

When Jesus told the disciples that they would find someone who would provide the facilities needed for the Passover meal, He said to tell that person, “The Master says, My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house.” In Matthew 23:10 Jesus said, Neither be you called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.” Sometimes there are naive people who follow some person in the name of religion. They ought to have learned to follow Christ. God had a few people that He could count on during the days of Christ, just like the man who opened his house to the disciples as soon as he knew it was the desire of the Master. And God still has a few who organize their lives on this principle: What does the Master want me to do?

Jesus also said, “My time is at hand.” The woman who brought the alabaster box of precious ointment understood that the time for Jesus to die was at hand, and evidently this homeowner also understood. All that Jesus had to say to him was, “My time is at hand”, and he sprang into action. He had probably owned that home for many years; but now it was time to do something different that he had never done before. There is a time for everything. There is a time to live and a time to die. There is a time to stay where you are, and a time to move. Timing is everything. Learning to recognize the right time to do certain things is one of the key ingredients to following God. If you are in tune with God, and if you are in tune with your environment, you will know when the time is right.

Sometimes when things go bad, it may mean that you are supposed to dig your heals in and live by faith and conquer those circumstances. Other times when things go bad, it may mean that the door has closed for you and it’s best to go somewhere else and do something else. How do you know the difference? You must understand the timing of things as they fit into the will of God for you. Only God can give you such understanding.

For Jesus, the time to die had come. It was the will of God. It all fit into perfect timing. The Roman government was there, with death by crucifixion as their instrument. The Jewish religious leaders were there, filled with jealousy and hate, willing to lie and scheme at anything to get Him out of the way. Judas Iscariot was there, full of greed and treachery and willing to sell his soul for 30 pieces of silver. But God the Father was also there, having permitted these things so that He could offer His Son as a ransom for the souls of humanity. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

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