Matthew 26

April 10, 2022 · Ben Hoyer · 35:21

A Palm Sunday message walking through Matthew 26, from the woman anointing Jesus with costly perfume through the Last Supper and Gethsemane, presenting faith as believing more is going on than reason and logic can see.

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So the story before, but growing up for me at church, the church I grew up at Palm Sunday was a big deal. My dad, who was our pastor, really loves Palm Sunday, so I always made a big deal about it. Lots of pom-pronze waving, lots of processing. Sometimes there were live animals involved. On more than one occasion, the church is moving in and out of the building, walking on Main

Street. Palm Sunday was always a big deal growing up. One of the things that I took from that big deal always was how satisfying it was to see a moment where Jesus gets recognized for who he is and is okay with it. Often when he is recognized in the gospel, he is like, hey, don't tell anyone about this until the time is right. He has that whole messianic secret.

In Palm Sunday, they are shouting, they are shouting, to the son of David, and the church leaders come out and they are like, hey, why would you let these people call you this? Tell them to be quiet. It is a big deal to receive worship. One of the biggest signs culturally of the divinity of Jesus is that he lets people worship him. Even angels, if you bow down in front of them, they will tell you to stand up, I am not the one you should worship. John the Baptist does the same thing, right? So the church leaders, when they are calling Jesus, son of David and saying, Hosanna to

him, they are like, hey, tell your people to stop. And Jesus says, if they stop, even the rocks will cry out because today is the day or day or day. Great moment for him, right? Of course, it goes downhill quickly after that very quickly, right? Within a week, they are shouting for him to be killed. And we are following the lecture this week and the historic lecture, the one year historic lecture doesn't give us the Palm Sunday reading on Palm Sunday because they are preparing

us for the past week. So if you looked ahead, which you probably didn't, but if you did, you would see the gospel reading is two full chapters of Matthew. It's a long reading. And when I, in seminary, when we got to this gospel reading, they would have chapel every day. When we got to this gospel reading, no joke. One dude stood in the back of the chapel in the choir loft and chanted this whole reading,

two full chapters. It was long. It was not terribly pretty. But I'm going to work us through half of the gospel reading this morning. And then we'll look at the second half on Good Friday when we gather around seven this Friday. My five is coming apart. So we're at Matthew chapter 26 starting at the beginning. We're going through a lot. So I'm going to kind of, there's a couple of themes I want to pull out from several of

these stories in this first section. So we'll just keep moving through chapter 26 verse one, when Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, so this is after the triumphal entry. He's been in Jerusalem. He's taught any kind of retreat. And it says, you know that after two days, the Passover is coming and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

And the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name is Paiaphas, and plowed together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said not during the feast, left there be an uproar among the people. The thing to point out here is it's interesting. I haven't really paid attention to this, but I'm reading a new novel. It's got me paying attention to voice. And I was like looking at how Matthew is like in this third person omniscient, like in this

storytelling, where he's telling us what's happening with campus and the people and what the conversations they're having and then the conversations. He's not telling it from his perspective, which I think is so interesting. Matthew, remember, is one of the 12. So he would have been there when Jesus said in two days, the Passover is coming, so get ready and go prepare it. But he's also, he knows because he was, remember he was a tax collector, so he grew up in the Hebrew system. He knows when the Sanhedrin means. But also there are some defectors after Jesus is crucified, ascended, and launches the kingdom

when the Holy Spirit comes down after Pentecost. There are some defectors from that ruling group of Sanhedrin where he might have heard about what happened there. And so I just want to point that out that no one's making up this story telling the third person omniscient, but it's worth thinking about. Matthew had to go around and find out that. And he did, and he records it for us so we can track the story. It's interesting that this section, this week of Jesus's life from Palm Sunday through

to the ascension, or yeah, through to the ascension, takes up like a third of the whole gospel. And it's one week, like the gospel goes through it like, like depending on who you read up to three years of the life of Jesus, but the passing story takes up such a big bulk of it because remember this is the reason for which to pain. So they slow way down and tell the story carefully so we track it and get it all. And now verse six, when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, I looked

it up because, you know, when I've said this before, when they mentioned people's names, it probably means they went on to be something in the church. Like it's like a ping. Like when you're reading the story, like, oh, this is where Simon the leper comes in. I looked it up. We don't have anything more really about the Simon leper. At least not in my first look. We might find more. But I love he definitely is not a leper now, right? Because they're all gathering in his house. And so Simon the former leper, right, that Jesus healed.

And so he carries this identity about who he used to be. And then he hosts everybody with him, right? And then so now Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman pink. Now a couple of other people tell this story and they name her as Mary. This is where Martha's moving around. So not only is Simon the former leper there, but also Lazarus the former dead is there. Like walking towards the triumphal entry, Jesus, like a gom comes, heads back, raises

lazzards from the dead, heals blind Bartimaeus, eats at the house of Simon the leper. No wonder there's like a parade when he comes in, man. He brings all his greatest hits with him when he comes in to do the final teaching there, right, before he cleans out the temple and stuff. Okay, Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment. She poured it on his head as he reclined at the table.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant. If you read John, John blames this completely on Judas, which is funny, interesting at least. He says all the disciples complained. John says, Judas, it was Judas. And he said, John says it was Judas and Judas wasn't worrying about the poor. He wanted to steal from the coffin. That's what John says, right? Matthew is a little bit more equitable. He understands the temptation to steal when you're holding on the money.

He was, after all, a tax collector. He says all the disciples were indignant about this waste of money. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant saying why this waste? Or this could have been sold for a large sum and get into the poor. So the disciples get a bad rap, but that's a very reasonable action. Like without doing a whole bunch of exegesis, it's worth like the alabaster jar of perfume

is very expensive. And you use it in little... You don't break the jar so you can't reseal it and put all of it in one... It fills the whole house. It's more than extravagant. It is wasteful. Filling. The disciples are being perfectly reasonable here to say, hey, there are poor folks.

We could sell this and get a lot of good done instead of having to sit in this room where all this smell now is walking around us all. And Jesus is wet with perfume. But this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor, but Jesus, aware of this, said to them, why do you trouble the woman? But she has done a beautiful thing to me. But you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. And in pouring this oardment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. And I say, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will

also be told in memory of her. I don't know. It doesn't tell us that the woman, whether it's Mary or someone else, it doesn't tell us that she somehow knew everything that was going to happen, that Jesus would die and need to be buried. So if he was, why wouldn't he want to anoint him when he's dead? Like you're supposed to. Like this pre-annoying thing is interesting. I think that she's just so moved by what Jesus has done that she can't think of something

else to give him. This is the most beautiful, expensive thing she can think to give him. And so if he just does it right now, even though all the people are there, they're all reclined around the table. And it's this intimate thing. And on other ones, she wipes it with a hair. Remember, which like to let down your hair in public is this intimate thing. But she doesn't care. She has this intimate and important for our conversation today, intimate and unreasonable interaction with Jesus.

I mean, just there's no logic that makes this make sense. Unless there is something significantly more going on than reason and logic can see. A moment. The disciples are reasonable and logical. The woman is not unreasonable, illogical in this moment.

And Jesus says, ah, here is faith. He is motivated by something without reason or logic to do something that the savior of the world says this right here is laudable. And every time we tell the story of Jesus, we're going to tell the story of this woman. Or have it. Somebody wasn't paying attention. Right? Okay. Unreasonable, illogical. But the only way is that there's a notion that something more is going on here.

Right? Okay. Keep going. Then one of the twelve whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief of priests and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you? And they paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he sought an opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?

And he said, go to the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand. And I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus directed them. And they prepared the Passover. Now, he just walks in and the guy has it. It's not probably like a Jedi mind trick. It's probably that the guy knew Jesus. And when they said master, he was like, Jesus wants to eat Passover here and the guy is down for it.

And when it was evening, he reclined at the table with the twelve and they were eating the bread. He said, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were sorrowful and began to say to him one after another is at eye and he answered it's he who dipped his hand in a disc with me will betray me. The son of man goes as it is written, but woe to him by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been better before that man had he not been born. And Judas, who would be grand, answered, is it I, Rabbi?

And he said, you have said so. Now, I don't know if Judas is, I don't know what's going on there. Why does he ask that? Right? Is he like trying to test Jesus out? To see? I mean, whatever the motivation, a complete lack of faith that Jesus is even approaching who he says he is. Like because Jesus is saying, I know one of you is going to betray me.

Then he even does the thing about the one who dips his hand in, which just keep your hands away at that point. And then Judas has the gall to go, hey, is it me? And he says, hey man, you said it. Right? Complete. It just must be, he has no confidence that Jesus is approaching at all who he says he is because it's completely illogical and unreasonable. Judas maybe if he were, some people figure that Judas was trying to incite like a rebellion

when he did this betrayal piece. Okay, we'll get to that. But I just want to show you first, like he asked and Jesus says, hey, you said it. And then they just keep going with the meal. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. They took a cup and when he had given things he gave it to them, saying drink of it all this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of

sins. And I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the Father's Kingdom. At this point I am 100% the disciples do not know what is going on and figure Jesus does. Like they have been through the Passover a bunch of times. There are specific prayers you say at specific times. You lift up the cup at the right time, you pass the things at the right time, you say the right prayers at the right time, you do each thing the right number of times and Jesus

is there to celebrate the Passover and reinvent the order and the words. And the words are unreasonable and illogical. This spread is my body, this wine is my blood, forgiveness of sins, not to do this again so we get into the Father's Kingdom. The only way they make any sense at all is if there is more going on in this meal than

what reason and logic can infer. More going on than what reason and logic can infer. They go on. Wait, oh the last thing, do this has that business about is that I and Jesus says you said it, then they all go on and commune together. Now as they were eating Jesus, oh we did that. Verse 30.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives and then Jesus said to them, you will all fall away and maybe because of this night, for it is written, I will strike this shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered, but after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered him, hey man though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away. Does it man? This very night before the rooster crows you'll deny me three times. Peter said to him, and even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.

The disciples said the same. Peter gets a bad rap for being so adamant, but all the disciples said the same. Remember, Peter speaks for all the disciples over and over again. Verse 36. Then Jesus went limp up to the place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, this is a real bummer. So they had the meal, interesting, right? Jesus has reinvigorated the process, this business about betrayal. Everybody's adamant it won't happen.

Then they walk to the garden of Gethsemane, which is up on a hill overlooking Jerusalem, right? And he takes his buddies at night to the garden. And they take him with him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. Oh, he takes Peter and James and John even further. I love that. And he began to be sorrowful and troubled and he said to them, my soul is sorrowful, even to drink, even to death. So remain here and watch with me.

He's like done this illogical, irrational words, reinvigorating the past. So we're taking them to this garden at night and says, I'm sad like the point I want to die. Would you just hang out here with me? So that would be alarming if you were his three closest friends. Be concerned. And he said to them, my sorrow, okay, and going a little farther, fell in space and prayed saying, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. I mean, I guess they're tired. They've had a big meal. That's what's going on with Jesus. But there is definitely something broken here. They are like missing it. Jesus is in carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and they're his three closest friends and they are checked out. They're at peace enough to sleep.

So he goes a little farther and Jesus really does not want to do this. He prays three times. Hey, God, is there a way where this we could do something else here? Again, for the second time and they just keep sleeping. Verse 45, then he came to his disciples and said to them, sleep and take your rest later on, see the hours at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Rise, let us be going. See my betrayers at hand. While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve. With him a great crowd with swords and clubs. You hear that? It's not interesting. And the chief priests and the elders, the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign. See, part of what Judas was thinking, or some people figure Judas was thinking, is that when Jesus was talking about being the Messiah or the Christ that he was going to take off

Rome, and as a matter of fact, when you read like Josephus and you see this, you can find some stories of people who had claimed to be the Messiah around the time of Jesus before and after that had done that, had put together little groups of folks and tried to forcibly kick out the occupying country. Some people figured Judas thought that if he could bring a mob to come and get Jesus, Jesus would finally have to take up arms and defend himself. So they come because they don't know if Jesus, I mean just a week ago he had a parade of

people all his great assists, Simon, the former leper, Lazarus, the former dad, Bartimaeus, the former blind, walking with him into Jerusalem. So they think maybe he's going to put the people together right after Passover. And so they come with clubs and swords. And then this is the other thing that's interesting that I hadn't really thought about. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying the one I will kiss is the man sees him. They don't know who Jesus is.

The guys of the swords and the clubs are just like doing somebody's job. Is that even been paying attention to what's going on? They're not sure. Maybe they've heard about Jesus. They don't know which one he is or what he looks like. And they came up to Jesus at once and said, Greens were out by and he kissed him and Jesus said to him, Friends, do what you've come to do. And they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him and he told one of those who were with Jesus, stretched out and handed, drew a sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

So, and then Jesus said to him, Put your sword back into its place. We're all who take the sword. We're perished by the sword. You think I cannot appeal to my father? He puts the ear back on. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man.

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He doesn't condemn them in the moment. He doesn't embarrass them or call them out. It's because you know that they miss the invitation this time. They'll get another one. Fool for Mary with the Alabaster jar. The invitation of faith has an enormous opportunity. I imagine that exchange with Jesus in the room changed her life forever.

Right? She got this amazing exchange with Jesus because she was able to believe that there was more going on than what reason on logic could say. God might know something. She did not move towards the God with faith. Faith is this really incredible invitation and it comes around like all the time. If it's you don't get it now, maybe after Pentecost when the spirit comes out.

You might get it. Peter, you don't get it now. I mean, you miss Gethsemane, which is a bummer, but you'll get the breakfast on the beach with the resurrected Christ. Look at it then. I'm saying like you and I, in regular moments, all the time have invitations for faith.

I'm saying like your regular day has moments where you might be invited to believe that there's more going on than what reason and logic can see. That God might know more than you about a situation, that you might move in and risk being wrong because faith is not about being right. It's about recognizing that God knows more than you. There might be more going on than you can determine. Open up in a situation and be available to God.

Right now Hazel is going to the Christ school and she's in first grade and they do chapel like a lot of the Christ school. But once a year of different classes, and the chapel, so last week or two weeks ago, Hazel's

class did the chapel and she did the prayer, her job to do the prayer to start chapel. And she was writing out the prayer and it stuck out to me at the end she said in Jesus' name. And I don't think she knows exactly why she would say that. Her that that's how we pray. She's heard prayers that end in Jesus. But I was thinking about this time together for us and the opportunity that you have for faith all the time.

Now thinking the reason Jesus puts up with all this situations is friends that don't get it, that fall asleep on them, the abuse of the power, the hungry church, the crucifixion, the ostracies, right? The reason he puts up with all of it is that we might for his sake, for his sake, for Christ's sake, face is available to you. But he went through all of this in order that you might have an opportunity or lots of opportunities for faith.

Come up on it. I have started praying often that his sacrifice might not be wasted on me. That might be someone who believes. It went through the ridicule and the least I could do is I don't know what there's more going on here than what I could see. You know more than I do. Let me just look, understand what trust looks like. This being wrong.

Even there might be more going on here than what I could see. You let loose of my logic and my reasonableness and truth of generosity. You know what's going on here more than I do. The invitation of this week is to recognize that Christ went through a lot, that you would have a lot of opportunities to believe.

You are not obligated. You may pick it today and not pick it tomorrow. You may pick it this morning and not pick it this afternoon. Just as we are able, you make choices for faith. Eventually you'll have memories like holy cow you guys. I had this encounter with Jesus of Nazareth.

Nothing is the same. It'll be like Simon the former leper. Lazarus the former dad. Bartimatus the former. Bill B with him on the cloud. Bill B the triumphal entry. He will be afraid that we can be those people. Hey Lord, give us the gift of faith today. A thick, confident hope.

That you know what's going on. More than we do. What's going on in the week is to do.