Life Project Blog

Matthew 26:17-30

This passage opens with Jesus giving instructions to the disciples about the arrangements for the Passover meal that remind us of His instructions to them in 21:1-3 about the arrangements for His entry into Jerusalem. After everything had been arranged, the scene opens at the meal itself. This narrative is broken into two sections, each beginning with the words “while they were eating”. The first, 26:20-25 is all about the betrayal of Jesus, the second (26:26-30) covers Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper.

Matthew’s account, though it gives these details, omits most of the details that John includes, such as Jesus’ washing their feet, and John’s lengthy account of the final discourses, and in this, Matthew is continuing the choppy pace that began at the beginning of this chapter; he reminds us a little of the way Mark covered most everything. Yet while he is leaving out some of the dramatic discussions of that evening, Matthew is once again focusing our attention on the ultimate mission of Jesus: His appointment with the cross.

In the first part, notice that when Jesus tells them that His betrayer is in their midst, the disciples are “sad” and say “surely you don’t mean me, Lord” (26:22). Matthew gives a direct quote from the denial of Judas in 26:25: “Surely you don’t mean me, Rabbi”. It may be nothing, but there is a slight difference between the eleven who said “Lord” and the one who said “Rabbi”, for in calling Jesus “teacher”, Judas seems to be expressing respect for Jesus as a teacher, but withholding his obedience to the Lordship of Jesus. Whatever his intent, Judas’ remark was disingenuous at best.

In His reply to Judas, Jesus seems to be revealing that He isn’t buying the denial.

In 26:26-30, we have the institution of the Last Supper, one of the most hotly debated aspects of the Faith traditionally, as disagreements among believers have literally divided the Body multiple times for the past thousand years or so. Ironically, however, everyone agrees that the partaking of the bread and the cup point us to the cross, the one thing that unites all Christians.

Matthew 26:1-16

We have now begun the final section of Matthew’s Gospel. I don’t want to interrupt the narrative of Matthew’s story, so I will compile a Bonus Post with the background on this section, which is quite interesting. I will say that you will notice that Matthew really picks up the pace from this point forward…

This text has three parts that flow in rapid succession. By arranging the narrative in this way, Matthew shows us that there is quite a lot going on behind the scenes at or about the same time. We begin with Jesus and the disciples (26:1-2) which is set in time as “When Jesus had finished saying all these things…” (26:1). From this transition we come to see that they are all sitting there where Jesus has been giving the Olivet Discourse; Jesus finished the Parable of the Sheep and Goats… and then said…

That He was about to be crucified.

Isn’t it interesting that He has told them everything we have seen in 24-25, and then brings them right back to His messianic mission:

He must die?

Matthew immediately follows this statement by shifting to the Jewish leaders behind closed doors plotting His secret arrest and His murder (26:3-5).

Next, in verse 6 we have a scene change; now Jesus and the disciples have left the Mount of Olives and walked the few miles to Bethany where they are in the home of Simon the Leper. Nothing more is said about Simon, and thus we can’t be quite sure of who he was, or if he was even present. The scene centers on an unidentified woman who anoints Jesus with “a very expensive perfume”. The disciples object, saying that the ointment could have been sold for a lot of money, and then the money given to the poor; apparently they had been listening to Jesus’ story of the sheep and goats. Yet Jesus tells them something else that should bring them back to His messianic mission: she was preparing His body for burial!

Is It just me, or are those disciples just not hearing Him when He tells them that He is about to be killed?

Then Judas slips out and goes back into Jerusalem and makes his deal with the chief priests to deliver Jesus into their hands so they can kill Him.

Yes, momentous events are moving quickly now.

Matthew 25: 31-46

The Parable of the Sheep and Goats answers the question asked in 24:3b another way, for here we are not dealing with virgins awaiting the bridegroom or servants awaiting the master’s return but instead, with judgement day.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Matthew 25:31-33

The parable begins with Jesus sitting in judgment of the Nations where His followers (sheep) are at His right and His non-followers on the left. Then His judgment begins:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ (25:34-36)

The righteous want to know when they did those things… and Jesus answers:

‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (25:40)

No doubt you will recall that Jesus spoke of “the least of these” several times in Matthew’s account already− what we are seeing here is what being “ready” for His return looks like. Those who took care of “the least of these” went into the Kingdom that was prepared for them, but the others went elsewhere (24:46).

How do we live our lives− are we kind, generous and attentive to the needs of others? Do we put others ahead of ourselves? Are we willing to give to those in need?

Or do we prefer to let others get their hands dirty… or reach for their checkbooks?

I remember how old Ebenezer Scrooge answered that question: “Are there no prisons, are there no workhouses… Surely the taxes I pay to support these institutions are enough…”

For a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, that is clearly not enough, for Jesus has made it crystal clear that the way we each live our lives is the determining factor in whether or not we are “ready” for His return… which could happen Today.

This chapter contains three parables in which Jesus expands on His answer to the question we looked at in the last post:

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (24:3)

Remember that Jesus answered the first part of the question in 24:4-35 and began the answer to the second part in 24:36 and that continues through the end of chapter 25. Therefore, all three of the chapter 25 parables were given in answer to this question:

what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? (24:3b)

The three parables in chapter 25 are The Parable of the Ten Virgins (25:1-13), The Parable of the Bags of Gold (25:14-30) and The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (25:31-46). The real point of all three of these parables is that Jesus will return when He returns; there will be no particular sign. He will come back on a day that is like any other day, and when He does, we will all be surprised: So, be ready for His coming at all times.

The Parable of the Virgins is easy to understand: There were ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom to arrive; five had oil for their lamps and five did not, which is to say that half were ready for his coming and half were not prepared for it. When the bridegroom came the five who were ready were able to find their way to the banquet while the other five had to rush off in search of lamp oil. When they finally arrived at the banquet the doors were closed and they were left out: A wonderful day for the first five, but a sad coming for those who were unprepared.

The Parable of the Bags of Gold is also easy to understand: The master is leaving on a long trip and before his departure he gave a certain number of bags of gold to three servants, each according to the servant’s ability. By doing this, the master entrusted gold to each servant with the expectation that they will use it wisely to generate an increase in his money. Upon his return, each of the first two servants had doubled the master’s money, but the third one had simply buried the gold, and when he returned it to his master without an increase the master gave that gold to the first two as a reward, and the lazy servant was tossed out on his ear.

The master’s return was a great day for the first two, but not a happy day for the third servant.

The third parable is a little more revealing, for in it, we deal not so much with metaphors (lamp oil and gold) but with the reality of the way we live our lives; we’ll take a look at that one next time…

Matthew 24:36-50

Once the transition (24:29-34) is completed, Jesus answers the second question the disciples asked Him, about the sign and time of His coming (24:3).

The short answer is: He will come when He comes, and everyone will be surprised.

This is a hard answer for most people to take; even now there are many who write books with long lists of “signs” and “what must happen” before He comes. I’ve often said that if I wanted to make a million dollars in a hurry, I’d write one of those and make a video series with every last titillating detail, but I fear that I’m not clever enough to make them all up!

24:36-37 makes this point about as clearly as it could possibly be made: Jesus didn’t even know when He would return. He expands on this theme in vv. 38-41: It will be just like the flood in Noah’s time. People were going about their lives, just as on any other day, and then it happened: Surprise!

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (24:42-44)

There it is again; it will be a surprise; enough with the signs already! The real question is not when will He return, it’s “are we ready if He returned today”? Maybe this is unfair of me, but I’ve often wondered if so many people were fascinated about wild speculations, signs and lists simply to avoid having to answer that question…

The last few verses of the chapter (24:45-50) make the point yet again with a servant and returning master, which of course would be us (His servants) and Jesus (our master). If He returned today, what would He find us doing? I haven’t been counting, but Jesus, in this short passage, has told us that His return will be a surprise several times, several different ways; we might think He’s made His point by now. Yet still, even now, people today speculate and invent and write…

What makes this even more amazing, is that the entire next chapter keeps giving the same answer to this question, as Jesus tells the disciples three parables; we’ll begin our look at them next time.

Matthew 24:1-35

Matthew 24:3 contains the question the disciples asked Jesus privately about His remarks in 24:1-2, when overlooking downtown Jerusalem; He told them that the place was going to be destroyed. Their question, as I mentioned last time, was a twofold one: When would “this” happen”, and “what would be the “sign of your coming and the end of the age”. In our text Jesus answers the first part of the question: “When will this happen?”

Verses 4-14 speak of the run up to this time of Jerusalem’s destruction: There will be false Messiahs, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, persecutions, hatred…

His message is that they should not be alarmed or deceived, for these things show us business as usual in this world, not the end.

What? You don’t believe me?

People in our time tend to be unfamiliar with history, but surely no one will claim that war, famine, earthquakes, persecution, hatred turning away from God and false messianic claims were just invented! No, of course not; these things have been going on since day one, and they will continue until day last…

The next section, in 24:15-28, tells of how they would know that the end has come for Jerusalem: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel” they are to get themselves out of Judea as quickly as humanly possible. To fully understand this statement, we must first recognize that the word “desolation” means “emptiness”; a “desolate” place is a place that is empty. In this case, Jesus is referring to a pagan Roman army that has arrived at the holy city for the purpose of destroying it and murdering its inhabitants. In the end, the ruins of their once great city were desolate indeed.

24:22-25 tell of an opportunity to escape the siege of the city for those who had been unable to flee earlier, for without any warning, the Romans withdrew from the siege, fell back, joined with another Roman army that had come to reinforce them, and then returned to the siege. When this happened, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, the Jews celebrated, while the Christians fled. The Christians were saved, the Jews were not.

Finally, we see some transition in 24:26-28 where Jesus once again reinforces that we need never listen to anyone who tells us that He is coming or about to come soon. His coming did not take place when God’s judgment of the Jerusalem occurred in 70 AD; that is for certain. When He does come, everyone will know about it.

Remember the context in which this passage falls; Jesus has just completed the conflict with the Jewish authorities (21-22) and has just pronounced God’s judgment on their unbelief in chapter 23, then He tells the disciples Jerusalem will be destroyed; they ask about it, and He gave His answer that we have just surveyed briefly. Next time, we will look at His answer to the other question they asked in 24:3.

As mentioned in the last post, after Jesus completed His final public address with His lament for Jerusalem in 23:37-39, He and the disciples left the Temple area and walked to the Mount of Olives which overlooks the Temple Mount. Their conversation begins along the way as the disciples call His attention to the Temple:

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings.  “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (24:1-2)

It is vital that we catch the timing of this: First the lament for Jerusalem, they leave and as they do, the disciples call His attention to the Temple, and He tells them it will be completely destroyed.

You may recall that when Jesus first arrived in Jerusalem, He went to the temple and cleared it in an act of active prophecy, directing our attention to its having been corrupted by the reigning Jewish religious establishment. Then we had that odd little scene the next morning when Jesus cursed the fig tree; another prophetic act that hinted at what would happen in the city. That was followed by the conflict at the temple, which has just ended; Jesus laments the city, and now, only minutes later, after pronouncing judgment against the religious establishment, tells the disciples that the temple will be destroyed. They arrive at the Mount of Olives, and sit down privately; they ask Him a question:

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (24:3)

It is important for us to notice that “this” can refer to nothing other than the destruction of the temple, for that is what they have been talking about: it is the context. It is also important that we note that their question contains a premise that the destruction of the temple is going to happen at the same time He returns and the age ends.

As the disciples would soon discover, the premise of their question was false; Jesus answered two different questions in His rather frank response that extends from 24:3 all the way through chapter 25.

This text is a controversial one today; there are many views on it and gallons of ink have been spilled as people record their thoughts. You may have a view that differs from mine, and that’s OK with me. Rather than get into a laborious discussion of the exegetic details, I will continue with Matthew’s larger narrative as we continue, for in my view, the larger narrative is vastly more important than getting lost in the details.

Matthew 23:13-39

After the preamble of 23:1-12 that we discussed in the last post, Jesus continued into this passage, often referred to as “The Seven Woes”. In these verses, we reach the very climax of the confrontation that began when Jesus entered the city, in which Jesus, now very much on the offensive, pronounces the judgment of God upon the “teachers of the law and Pharisees”, representing the entire Jewish religious leadership of the day. For best results, please read the passage before you continue…

“Woe” is a noun meaning “great sorrow or distress” and is used in conjunction with the judgment of God in apocalyptic passages throughout the Old and New Testaments, as Jesus, whom you will remember is still on a prophetic mode, does here. It is important that we remember the makeup of the audience He is speaking to as set forth in 23:1 “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples”; for the most part, the religious leaders had retreated to their private lair to lick their wounds, but I’m sure their “eyes and ears” were lurking…

As we read His words, what forms is really the antitype of a disciple, a person who is the exact opposite of what it is to be a follower of Christ. In 23:13-15 we see that they have dedicated themselves to keeping people out of the Kingdom while Jesus invites all to enter. In 23:16-24 we see them characterized as “blind guides” whose fallacious reasoning is focused on their obsession with the minutia of the law instead of things that are truly important, which creates an unbearable burden upon the faithful.

In 23:25-28 we see that their great and awesome piety is nothing more than an external show for the benefit of others and to advance their social standing, while inside they are filthy with corruption. The final “woe” in 23:29-32 connects the leadership of that day with all of those who had come before and tortured and murdered God’s messengers for brining God’s truth to their guilty ears. Oh yes, the “teachers of the law and Pharisees” spoke of their high regard for the prophets of old, whom their ancestors had murdered, but even now they were plotting to murder Jesus: “Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!” (23:32)

The next paragraph is huge:

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. (23:33-36)

And so it did come to that generation, for the book of Acts is full of this story as the early church was persecuted by the Jewish religious establishment, just as Jesus said it would be, until God stepped in and destroyed Jerusalem. The destruction of Jerusalem was clearly on His mind as Jesus wraps up His address:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ (23:37-39)

For centuries God wanted a real relationship with His people, but time and time again they rebuffed Him. They turned their backs on Him, they perverted His laws, they murdered His messengers while pretending to be holy, and now they would murder His Son. Regrettably, they would pay a steep price for their obstinate unbelief. These were Jesus’ last words in a public address.

The harshness of chapter 23 stands in direct contrast to His words in the Sermon on the Mount, for the Sermon was a blueprint for a disciple, and the Woes describe the opposite approach, the approach of an adversary of God. With this, the stage has been set, the actors are all in their places, and Jesus has completed His work in Jerusalem for now. He and the disciples descend from the Temple area, cross the narrow Kidron Valley (more of a gulch than a valley), and ascend the Mount of Olives that overlooks the Temple. It is there where the action resumes a short while later as Jesus and the disciples discuss what has just taken place.