The Leaders Plot
In Matthew 26:1-5 when the Mount Olivet prophecy is complete, Jesus reminds His disciples that in two days the feast of the Passover and that He would be betrayed to be crucified. Even though Peter had been admonished for suggesting Jesus just avoid the whole town, I'm sure those thoughts passed through many of the disciples minds. Just leave... why are we here?
While this was going on, the chief priests, scribes and elders - basically anyone who was anyone in the Jewish population of Jerusalem were gathered together at Caiaphas' (the high priest) palace.They were plotting against Jesus and probably as many disciples as they could manage to corral to quietly do away with them permanently. They just couldn't decide when. If they did it on the feast day there would be an uproar among the multitudes who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem and the converts He had made since then.
The old expression just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you from Joseph Heller's Catch-22 springs to mind. And you know that in many similar situations today, human instinct along with Satan's promptings are telling people the same thing. Just go. Disappear. Don't worry about what God wants you to do. It isn't worth dying for.
You should know before you go into a situation whether or not you are called to be there. Many are called but few are chosen. But those chosen need to understand their calling. If you know your calling, then you have to trust God that His will is done. Christ had been destined to die possibly as long as there was humanity on the earth, but at least since the fall in Eden. None of the disciples were caught or died then (although Judas didn't last long after).
To make the right choices, even when danger or disaster or death is a likely outcome takes courage. It takes a faith in God that ultimately all will be well for you regardless of what happens in this life on earth. Paul showed this strength of character in going to where he knew he would be arrested. I suspect many other early Christians had to make the same choices (certainly when Saul was out trying to do them in before his meeting with Jesus).
All Christians are thankful that Jesus didn't listen to Peter or Satan and followed through with God's plan, even at the cost of torture and death because we likely wouldn't be here otherwise. He made a willing choice to go through that for us. He could have had angels intervene and considering how many soldiers a single angel killed in the Old Testament or what happened in Egypt, if Jesus had wanted there wouldn't be any humanity left. But He chose the path set before Him. There's lots of reasons to throw crowns at His feet in heaven, but this is the biggest. He did it for us.
Anointing Jesus
Jesus then went to the house of Simon the leper in Bethany. While there, Matthew 26:6-13 tells of the woman who took an alabaster box of very precious ointment and poured it on Jesus head as He was eating.
The disciples saw this as a waste, as the ointment could have been sold to help the poor. These thoughts were probably instigated by Judas, and was evidently the final straw for Him in putting up with what He considered to be wrong choices being made around and by Jesus.
Jesus, however, told them that the price they would have gotten for one jar of ointment wasn't going to materially affect anyone for long. There would be poor people around forever and He wasn't going to be around more than another few weeks (counting the time until He ascended in Acts and literally just a couple of days before the crucifixion).
The woman was led to do what she did to anoint Him for burial. He told them that she would be remembered forever. Although not identified here, John says she was Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.
During your Christian life if you attend church regularly and are involved at all in decisions either as pastor, on a board of directors, or as a voting member, there will likely be times when you don't agree with the direction taken. Perhaps they will be frequent.
While it is hopefully very unlikely that you will go out and conspire to have the leader killed, you can do as much damage with words as with action. If you disagree strongly enough with some decision, it's okay to leave and find another church. It isn't okay to just check out of fellowship with other Christians all together. Hebrews 10:25 was included for a reason, and it seems clear that the end is closer now, certainly, than before Israel become a nation again.
So pray about where to go next if you aren't happy in your current church. But when you get there, you shouldn't go tearing down the previous church unless there was a serious doctrinal or sin problem at the top of the churches food chain that wasn't being addressed, and you had taken all of the Biblical steps to try to resolve it.
The vast majority of reasons why people leave church A and go to church B don't fall in that category. Usually it's because there is a new pastor or they stop providing some ministry you feel you need like Sunday School or the song service changes or something like that. If it's something like that you can simply say we or I didn't feel I fit in there anymore and let it go. Because that's the truth. The leadership felt God leading them in a particular way and you felt you were being led another. Both parties can be right in the sight of God and just need to go separate ways peaceably.
Judas Conspires With Leaders
But a peaceful exit was not to be the case with Judas Iscariot. In Matthew 26:14-16 he leaves and goes to the chief priests to figure out how much he would get if he betrayed Jesus into their hands. They settled on 30 pieces of silver which was worth around four months of labor at that time. A shekel was also the price of a slave if one was killed accidentally, so some also look on this as a shekel for each year of Jesus life [Zechariah 11:12-13].
From that point forward, Judas started looking for an opportunity to turn Jesus over to the chief priests.
As I noted above, there are likely to always be disagreements in the church as long as man is in charge. They would all disappear if the Christian church would seek the filling of the Holy Spirit in all members and leaders and let God lead the way. One day it will be so.
But no disagreement should ever rise to the level of seeking to harm someone. If you think it should, then you need to read the Sermon on the Mount a few more times. Jesus commanded His followers to turn the other cheek. That isn't the natural thing to do, and it can be hard without the help of the Holy Spirit, but the Christian church is called to be different from the world. Let us start acting like it.
The Passover Meal
Since it was the Passover celebration, there were certain Jewish customs to attend to, even though there wasn't much for the disciples to feel like celebrating. Matthew 26:17-19 records some of their preparation. First they had to figure out where they could partake with their somewhat large group. Jesus indicated someone they should approach and tell the man that the Master needed a spot to observe the passover meal along with His disciples. They did so and got the passover meal ready.
This is as good a point as any to talk a bit about the Passover. If you remember, the passover was celebrated to commemorate when the Israelites were finally freed from being slaves to the Egyptians. God told the Israelites to kill one lamb per household and to strike the upper and side posts of their doors with blood to keep their firstborn from being killed that night [Exodus 12:1-30]. They then ate the lamb. They did so and were saved.
The symbolism is significant. Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God would be killed on a cross and His blood would be offered as a sacrifice to cleanse the world of sin for anyone who accepted Him as their Savior. It isn't recorded if any Egyptians saw or asked what the Israelites were doing. The account in Exodus says there wasn't a house without one dead so probably not. By the same token, the Jews were tired of being slaves and treated miserably, so they had no friends to tell to try to get them saved.
If the Egyptians had listened, and had followed in their footsteps by sacrificing a lamb and sprinkling the blood over their doors, they would have been saved. The parallels to the Gentiles being extended salvation along with the Jews is striking. Once this final plague was done, the Israelites were free, just as we are free to live lives free of sin once we accept Christ. Unlike the Jews in the story, we are told to spread the good news of salvation through the blood of Christ to the entire world. How good a job are we doing?
Judas Identified
They sat down to eat the traditional Passover meal in Matthew 26:20-25. Jesus then drops the bombshell that one of them was going to betray Him. They were said to hear that, and began asking if it was them. I'm not sure what Judas asked, but I'll bet his bowels and bladder got a bit loose when that statement landed.
Jesus declared that He was gong to do the will of the Father, regardless, but woe to the person who betrays Him. It would be better if He hadn't been born. When Judas asks if it is him (knowing his plans were already in motion), Jesus doesn't disagree.
Have you ever wondered what the other disciples thought about then? Clearly, whew, I'm glad it wasn't me would be probably the first thing. But nobody tried to stop Judas. They clearly heard Jesus say He was going ahead with God's plan, and and been given a heads up to not intervene, but they still had to actually sit there and let something bad happen.
It takes a lot of trust in God to let something bad happen in your life, no matter how much you don't want it to happen, how bad you think it is going to turn out, and no matter what the personal cost is going to be. Trust in God is hard. True, the disciples had seen Lazarus raised from the dead. But they had also seen what the results of crucifixion were, to say nothing of what may happen to someone before crucifixion.
Sometimes it take a great deal of faith and trust in God to go down a path that looks bad. It can take even more faith if the path originally looked smooth and turned disastrously rocky like their path had. The disciples made the right decision to not pummel Judas to a pulp before he could continue with His plans. They listened to Jesus say He was going through with it. It was undoubtedly easier for them to hear Jesus say it to their faces than it is for us today to rely on the Holy Spirit directly or indirectly. That doesn't mean we shouldn't.
The First Communion
While water baptism had Jewish roots, it was the work of John the Baptist that set it as the first real Christian rite. Jesus established the next when He instituted communion, generally practiced now as it was then. In Matthew 26:26-30, Jesus describes what each of the elements meant.
He took the Passover bread, blessed it, broke it into pieces, and gave a piece to each to eat saying it was representative of His body. He took the Passover cup and gave it to them and said for them to drink as it was the blood of the New Testament, shed for the remission of the sins.
He doesn't say it is limited to mankind's sins, so an interesting and for us, largely pointless debate, would be if the fallen angels would be included. I'd say no, or that even if it was they would be too proud and sure of eventually winning to ever take that option. After all, Jesus sacrifice was replacing the sacrificial system of the Jews which was strictly for the Jewish people. But we won't know for sure until heaven. There isn't anything written that I've seen that would explicitly say it covered them as well.
He then says He won't drink of the fruit of the vine till He drinks it new with them in the Father's kingdom. This would happen at the second advent, so at some point in the future.
They all sang a hymn and then went out to the mount of Olives. I do miss hymns being part of the church service.
Warning to Peter
As they gathered there, Jesus warned them that they were all going to be offended because of Him that night [Matthew 26:31-35]. This would fulfill Zechariah 13:7. The disciples would largely scatter, along with the nascent Christians. He did give the promise that after He was risen he would go before them to Galilee.
Peter responds that even if everyone else was offended, Peter would remain steadfast. Jesus tells Peter that before the rooster crows in the morning signalling daybreak, Peter would have denied Jesus three times. Peter takes offense saying that even if he was to die with Christ he would never deny Jesus, and all the disciples said likewise.
I note this last, because there is a tendency to pick on Peter. The reality is that he was the only disciple who put himself immediately in a position where he had to choose whether or not to deny Christ. Everyone else ran off and hid. So let's not be too hard on Peter. I doubt if any Christian today would have done much better if we were back then when Christianity was just starting out.
In many countries, Christians have faced this question and problem on an ongoing basis. We might not see it in America, but around the world 5,000 or so people give their lives each year in continuing support for Christ rather than buckling to Satanic forces. Good estimates are that 70 million Christians have been martyred so far in the world's history. It's going to get even tougher in the anti Christ's empire after the rapture. Hopefully everyone who reads this will be with me in heaven at that point - maybe not because I'm a senior citizen now - and the time of the rapture may still be far away. But I think the time is close enough to stop playing around and make a decision for Christ. Don't you?
Gethsemane
They then went to Gethsemane where Jesus wanted to stop and pray [Matthew 26:36-56]. He told the disciples to tarry while He went on to pray, taking Peter, James and John with Him further into the garden. He went off to pray three times by himself while the other three waited. Each time, they fell asleep. Each time He came back, He woke them up (or the ensuing commotion did the last time).
He encouraged them to pray for themselves that they would not enter into temptation - that they would be strong. He would give that same encouragement to each Christian today. Pray to be strong and make the right choices when temptation comes in your life. Our spirits are frequently willing but our flesh is frequently weak as well.
Jesus prayed that if there was a way that He wouldn't have to go through everything that He knew was in store for Him that it could happen that way instead. But He ended each prayer with accepting God's will over His own.
When He returned the third time, Judas showed up with a large contingent from the chief priests and elders and kissed Jesus to identify Jesus to the temple guards who promptly grabbed Him. One of the disciples who came with Jesus grabbed his sword and cut off the servant of the high priest's ear.
Jesus told them to put up their swords and told them plainly that if Jesus wanted to do so, He could pray to the Father and have more than twelve legions of angels at His side. Considering that one angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night [Isaiah 37:36], 72,000 angels could wipe out more people than are alive on Earth today by an impressive margin. The margin back then was over 50 to 1. But if He took that path, Old Testament prophecy wouldn't be fulfilled. God's plan from at least Adam's time would fail.
Jesus would have none of that. God's plan was going to succeed. He asked the group that came with Judas why they came with swords and staves when He was teaching in the temple every day. They didn't want to answer that, but probably figured that considering the disciple's response, the multitudes surrounding Jesus in the temple would have done likewise. The disciples scattered to keep from being caught up in the dragnet. Although not recorded here, Jesus healed the ear that was cut off. He put some of His comments in the Sermon on the Mount to practical use.
Trial by High Priest
Matthew 26:57-58 records that Jesus was first led away to the Caiaphas the high priest where the scribes and elders of the people were gathered. Peter followed at a distance. Everybody else had run off.
The sham trial is recorded in Matthew 26:59-68. Those seeking to try Jesus had tried to find false witnesses who would give testimony against Jesus about something worthy of death. Many false witnesses were examined until finally two came who said Jesus said He was able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days. You'd think they'd have put together a better case.
Through it all, Jesus held his peace [Isaiah 53:7]. Finally, the high priest ordered Jesus to swear an oath whether or not He was the Son of God. Jesus replies that the high priest has said it and moreover one day they would see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.
The high priest went off the deep end, tore his clothes and said Jesus had blasphemed. He asked what everybody thought and they found Him guilty and worthy of a death sentence. They all then spit in Jesus face and hit Him with palm strikes asking Him to tell them who hit Him.
They didn't have the authority to kill Him directly though, which was where the Romans came in.
Peter's Denial
Peter is outside with the servants, listening to what is going on inside. I suspect with the raised voices, it wasn't hard to hear. In Matthew 28:69-75 it appears that he was recognized and the maid who saw him said he was with Jesus of Nazareth. This happened two more times, and each time, Peter's denials were issued more strongly, ending up swearing. He was a fisherman (pretty close to a sailor), after all.
When he denied knowing Jesus the third time the rooster immediately crowed and Peter remembered Jesus prophecy. He went out and wept bitterly.
Situations will come up in life. Hard times. People deserting us. Health problems. People betraying us. In all these things, we are going to be saddened. If not then, then as soon as we get a minute to feel again. At every such instance, we have a choice. We can weep bitterly and then put our sorrow away and get on with God's plan. Or we can quit and decide the pain is too much to bear and we don't want to put ourselves at risk again. If God has a plan for you, don't give up.
Jesus had given Peter the keys to the kingdom or authority as the head of the disciples. Jesus planned for Peter to become a significant part of the church that would form. Peter could chose to give up when he realized he had failed God. Or he could continue on. He chose the latter. We need to do that also. We can't stop hurts from coming or bad things from happening. If we are a Christian long enough, we are going to fail God in some way in all probability. But we need to stick with God's plan and not give up.