We are now coming towards Easter and it is a time to prepare our hearts and minds for what our Lord Jesus went through for us so that we could be in perfect communion with God. This is the reason why I took a break on the Genesis Creation Story. After Easter I will back to the Genesis Creation Story.
In this section we will see the planning and scheming of the leaders planning to murder Jesus through lies and treachery. We also see great faith demonstrated by the woman who prepared Jesus’ for burial while he was still free and alive.
Jesus had finished his woes to the religious leaders in Jerusalem. If Jesus was unpopular with the leaders before this occasion, he is definitely less popular now:
When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.” Matthew 26:1-2
Verse one, brings the woes section to an end and the effect of this was for the leaders to plan to kill Jesus in whatever way they could without getting into trouble with the Romans or getting the blame for starting a riot.
The disciples still did not grasp the seriousness of this situation that in a short period their Master our Lord was to be killed by the scheming of these leaders. As a side issue even Judas who was a thief perhaps did not grasp the fact that his betrayal would lead to the death of Christ. Obviously, Jesus’ death had the effect of playing on his emotions and this led him to commit suicide. Another side issue is Peter who said he would never turn his back on Jesus when confronted by various people he denied his Master our Lord. When we come closer to these situations, we will look closer at them and in more detail.
The Chief Priests and Elders reactions
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him. But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.” Matthew 26:3-5
So we have various groups of leaders gathered together
• Caiaphas the Chief Priest
• Other Chief Priests
• Elders of the people
• Scribes
All these high-ranking officials got together with one goal; to kill Jesus. This means that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were of one accord. Usually, they argued about politics and religion but here on this rare occasion with one objective; to kill Jesus. They also agreed using, ‘any means possible’ that is the implication of by stealth, meaning ‘secretly’. Stealth (dolos) can be translated as depending on context:
• as bait
• fig. craftily
• deceitfully
Whatever translation you put on ‘dolos’ the outcome would be the same; they decided to kill Jesus.
Then at the same time they were afraid of the Roman authorities:
But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.” Matthew 26:5
Obviously, a riot would cause a lot of physical damage but also the Romans would not be too happy to have to step in and clean up in their usual manner with death by sword and crucifixions. All the time holding the leaders responsible. In other words, the leaders were afraid. In the story we will see these leaders again and again. At this point the disciples had not grasped Jesus’ words that he was going to die. Perhaps the disciples were very tired and started to make irrational decisions. First, we have the disciples acting irrationally towards the woman over the expensive perfume. By this time the disciples had been with Jesus for three years and it was coming close to completing their graduation. Judas was also going to act irrationally.
Both stories where the disciples are mentioned money is mentioned. They haven’t realized the enormity of the situation. Peter didn’t grasp the enormity of the situation either when he said he wouldn’t deny Jesus. We are also Jesus’ disciples and we have faults too just like the disciples. Perhaps it would sometimes help if we could imagine that we were in their situation at the time. How would we have fared? Dare I say it? Imagine you were in Judas’ shoes; How would you fare? Even though he was a thief what was the real reason for him betraying Jesus? He felt upset enough after to go and kill himself so he knew he did wrong and was not able to cope with it.
I wonder how the Good Samaritans would have talked Judas down from killing himself after handing the Son of God to the authorities, the rejected King of Israel. If this was Macbeth, a great evil crime was committed, the murder of king Duncan; ‘regicide’. Macbeth was fully conscious of his murder of King Duncan, but did Judas fully understand and fully grasp his involvement in the murder of King Jesus? I’m not making any judgement on this but it is a very interesting question. Perhaps one day we could answer this question but in the story the most important person here is our Lord Jesus and we will cross each bridge as we come to it.
The Precious Ointment (image taken from ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfume#/media/File:EAM_-_Perfume_amphora.jpg)
6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table. 8 But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste? 9 For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. 11 For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. 12 For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. 13 Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” Matthew 26:6-13
Which is more important?
• Jesus’ death?
• The expensive perfume?
None of the disciples (all of them including Judas) listened to what Jesus actually said. Jesus said that he was going to die soon. They focused on the value of the perfume not on the death of Jesus.
The other thing is that Jesus always had respect for women. Somehow, she had the faith and she understood that Jesus was going to die. More information can be found at the following places:
• Matthew 26:6-13
• Mark 14:3-9
• John 12:2-8
The woman’s name was Mary and was related to Martha and Lazarus. She would have been there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. My perspective is that she had the intelligence and faith to have realized that Jesus our Lord was going to die. Anointing Jesus was an act of faith and although her feelings are not shown, this act was with sadness and sorrow, from the deepest recesses of her soul. She was on the fringes of the disciples, yet at this moment in her life she had more faith than all of the Apostles put together.
Reflection
The plot to kill Jesus has begun and in this section, we saw who some of these people were. There was a lot of evil happening around Jesus and he knew that Judas would betray him. What a contrast between the faithful woman and Judas. Mary anointed Jesus’ head with very expensive oil preparing him for his coming death. (Judas just wanted to sell the oil and make a profit)
Peter James and John can also be contrasted with Judas. The reason the disciples fell asleep in the garden was because of genuine grief for our Lord Jesus whilst Judas was wheeling and dealing to make some dirty money out of Jesus’ arrest.
Weaver1has's Blog 
Leave a comment