I’ve often described our Sunday morning corporate worship as a dialogue (a conversation) between the Lord and his gathered people. It’s our weekly liturgy if you will. We hear God speak through the reading of Scripture in our call to worship, and then we respond by praying and singing. Then we hear the Lord speak again through the reading of his Word, and we respond in prayer, singing, and giving. Then we hear the reading and preaching of God’s Word, and we respond by singing and coming to the table. And finally, we hear the Lord through the benediction (which is simply a quotation of Scripture), and we respond by going out and living a life of devotion to him. It’s simple, it’s Word-driven, and I believe it’s a scriptural portrayal of Christian worship, which is simply the Lord’s people responding to what our Lord has done and revealed.
In fact, I think we can say that this is a pretty good summation of the entire Christian life. The Christian life itself is simply lived out as we live our lives rightly responding to what our Lord has done and revealed. We see this throughout the Scripture, as we are told, for example, in 1 John 4:19 that we love him because he first loved us. Give unto him because he has first given to us so that we can rightly say, “What can we give that we have not first been given?” We serve our Lord and his people only because he first came be serve us and give himself for us. And we could go on and on.
But this idea that we live our lives as a response to what the Lord has done and revealed is not only given to us in statements in the Scripture like we read in 1 John 4:19 (we love him because he first loved us), but we also see it pictured and played out in the narratives of Scripture. And one place where we see his love for us and our response to that love played out in an extremely powerful way is in Matthew 26:1-16, where, after being reminded through the narrative of the Lord’s greatness and love for us, we see a woman respond to Jesus and his love by pouring a very expensive ointment on Jesus’ head as an act of worship and anointing.
Therefore, this morning, I want to approach this text very simply. I simply want to lay out what I think this text clearly teaches, namely, who our Lord is, what he has done, and how we should respond. With that said, then, let’s look at who our Lord is, and what we see in these verses is that:
With the start of chapter 26, we are now in the very last moments before the death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, after chapters filled with Jesus teaching, most of these last three chapters in Matthew’s gospel will be filled with action. We’ll see Jesus share the Passover meal with his disciples, institute the Lord’s Supper, pray in Gethsemane, be betrayed and arrested, be abandoned by his followers, stand trial, be crucified, buried, and raised. But our text begins with one more teaching element, it’s actually a prediction, as we read in 26:1-2, “When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
This meant that it was most likely Tuesday evening (or as the Jews considered the days, the beginning of Wednesday), and Jesus tells his disciples that in about 48 hours he’s going to be handed over to be crucified, which is the first time he’s told them specifically about the manner in which he will be killed. So, let’s hold on to this prediction for just a second because this narrative is going to be interesting. Jesus is telling people that after two days, right in the middle of the Passover feast, he’s going to be delivered up to be crucified.
The next scene we have is the chief priests and elders gathered together at the palace of the high priest, named Caiaphas. And they’re plotting together how they can arrest Jesus in secrecy and kill him. Now, they reason they want to do this secretly (or “by stealth” as the text says) is because they know many who are in Jerusalem for the Passover feast think highly of him, even believing that he may well be the Messiah. And they’re afraid that if they arrest him publicly and try to kill him, they’ll have a riot on their hands. Therefore, they decide to delay his arrest and murder, saying, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people” (v. 5).
So, you can see the tension, can’t you? On the one hand, Jesus is predicting that in just over 48 hours, during the middle of the Passover feast, he’s going to be taken and delivered up to be crucified. But in the next scene the very people who are plotting his arrest and murder have decided that they’re going to wait until after the feast is over. They can’t both be right.
Then, in the third scene, a lady comes and anoints him with a very expensive ointment. Now, I’ll look at this incident in more detail in a second, but I want to note one thing briefly about it. Jesus interprets her pouring of this ointment on him as her anointing his body for burial, which would have been common but would not be carried out by the authorities if one was executed as a criminal, which is what Jesus is predicting will happen to him. In other words, in spite of the scene that just unfolded in which the chief priests, elders, and the high priest all made their plans, Jesus is sticking to his guns. He’s about to be arrested and handed over to be crucified in two days.
Finally, we see the resolution in the fourth scene of our text. Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ twelve close disciples goes to the chief priests and offers to deliver Jesus up to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. And the chief priests decide that Judas’ offer to hand Jesus over at a place and time a bit removed from the crowd, but right in the middle of the feast (though not what they intended), was too good of an opportunity to pass up. And the text tells us of Judas: “And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him” (v. 16).
Do you see, then, what just happened? Matthew is showing us that though everything looks like everything is spiraling out of control, everything is happening right in accord with Jesus’ declaration. He’s in total control.
Jesus says they’ll deliver him up in two days. They say, “Well, let’s wait a while till after the feast is over.” Jesus confirms his death is coming soon, saying the woman is anointing him for burial. And then the chief priests “happen to decide” that Judas’ offer is too good to pass up. In other words, the chief priests, Judas, the elders, nor the high priest are in control here. Jesus is. They think they’ve planned out everything perfectly and know when it will happen. Jesus has already declared they’re wrong, and they’ll end up carrying out their plan right in accord with his timeline. Jesus is the sovereign Lord, in control of all things, even his own death.
This is in accord with what we see elsewhere in the Scripture, isn’t it? We heard read earlier in the service, that Jesus had said, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). Moreover, Herod, Pilate, and the crowds of Jews and Gentiles were all conspiring to end Jesus’ life, but Luke tells us in Acts 4:28 that they were simply gathering “to do whatever [God’s] hand and [God’s] plan had predestined to take place.” Jesus was in control even of his death.
But I want us to linger on this note for a while. And maybe the most helpful way to do this is to consider what it would be like if you would have been one of Jesus’ disciples in the first century in Jerusalem. What would you have thought and how would you have felt when he was being betrayed, arrested, and handed over to be crucified? No doubt we would have been fearful, anxious, fretful, wondering why all of this was happening, and concerned about what Jesus’ death would mean for us. We perhaps would have been tempted to look around at the work of the chief priests and elders and thought, “Why, God, are you letting all of this happen? Don’t you care? Why are you letting evil prevail? Why won’t you show your mighty, powerful, and sovereign hand?”
And you know what we would have been missing? We would have missed that Jesus was firmly in control. No one was taking his life from him. He was choosing to lay it down. We would have missed that God was indeed showing his mighty, powerful, and sovereign hand. It might not look like we thought it would look, but right in our midst, he’d actually be carrying out his work of salvation for us, even as Herod, Pilate, and the overs were doing exactly what his hand and plan predestined to take place.
Now, let’s take it a step further. If that would have been true in Jerusalem in the first century, isn’t it also true today? Perhaps today you’re looking at the circumstances of your life, and you’re full of fear, anxiety, fretfulness, wondering why all of this around you is happening, and concerned about what everything around you means. And you know what? Jesus is still squarely in control. His plan and hand are still orchestrating his sovereign purposes to bring about good for his people. Even when things seem like they’re going exactly wrong, he’s no less in control of the details of my life and yours.
In fact, if you were to have had a sit-down conversation with Jesus last month, he’d have been able to say to you, “Now, here’s what going to happen next month,” and he’d say it with no panic in his voice because he’s always in control, always good, and his purposes and plans will never be thwarted.
That’s what we see in this text: Jesus is the sovereign Lord, firmly in control of all things, even his death.
But if he was indeed in control, then why did he allow himself to die? Now, this answer isn’t given specifically in our text, but it’s a question we have to ask and answer in light of this first truth we’ve seen in the text, so I want to answer it for it. Here’s the answer:
You see because God is holy, he cannot and will not simply ignore sin. He is a just judge who will not let evil go unpunished. Therefore, all of us, because we have sinned, deserve to die and face the wrath of God for eternity. However, God sent his Son, who came willingly, in order that he might bear God’s wrath in our place. He came to pay our penalty, acting as our substitute. So, Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross to bear the penalty for our sins, and rose from the dead on the third day so that if any of us repent of our sins and place our faith in him, the crucified and risen Lord, then we can have forgiveness of sins, be credited with Christ’s perfect righteousness, and have eternal life.
That’s why Jesus chose to die. He chose to die so that we might be forgiven and be given eternal life. In other words, he chose to die because he loves us and wanted to reconcile us to God. One of my favorite texts of Scripture is Revelation 1:5, which brings together these first two points of Jesus’ sovereign control over all things and his love for us that led him to lay down his life for us. The text reads, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.”
There it is. He is in absolute control, even ruling over every king on earth. And it was because he loves us that he died for us, freeing us from our sins by his blood. Or consider Galatians 2:20 where Paul says that he lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Or again, Ephesians 5:25 where Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives as “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
So, there’s our answer. Jesus, though having full authority over whether he lived or died (since nobody took his life from him but he laid it down), chose to die because he loves us and wanted to free us from our sins by his blood. What a glorious truth!
And there is no clear, more powerful reminder of Jesus’ love for you than the fact that he chose to shed his blood and die for you. May we always remember this, even as we sing, “Jesus, keep me near the cross.”
So, Jesus is in absolute control and chose to lay down his life for us. So, how should we then respond to him? This is the third (and final) point I want to make.
Right in the middle of Jesus’ prediction of the time and nature of his death, the scheming of the chief priests and elders, and the eventual conclusion to this planning as Judas schemes to betray the Lord is a story about a woman anointing Jesus with expensive ointment.
Matthew tells us that as Jesus was at Bethany, a woman came up to him and began pouring on his head a very expensive ointment. In John’s parallel account of this, we know the ointment was worth 300 denarii. Now, if you understand that one denarii was about a day’s wage, then this ointment was worth about a year’s wage.
If you then translate that into today’s terms, I looked online and it looks like the average salary for someone in the US is about $50,000 a year. So, that will give you an idea then of the extravagance of what is going on here. A woman is simply pouring out over Jesus’ head something so valuable that it could have been sold for a full year’s wage.
Consequently, when the disciples saw it, we’re told “they were indignant, saying, ‘Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor” (vv. 8-9). All of the sudden, their ethical side kicked it, albeit John tells us that they were driven more by selfish gain than actually helping the poor.
Nonetheless, Jesus’ answer is interesting. He says, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her” (vv. 10-13). And true enough, we’re telling it today.
Now, when Jesus says the poor you’ll always have with you, he’s not suggesting that there’s nothing good about caring for the poor. Interestingly, Jesus may even have been intentionally echoing the language of Deuteronomy 15:11 where the text reads, “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land.’” Jesus isn’t suggesting for one second that we should not care for our poor brothers and sisters. Of course we should.
But he is saying that were this woman to have passed up the opportunity to show her extravagant love for Jesus by pouring this expensive oil on his head in order that she might do something more practical and seemingly helpful with it, it wouldn’t be better than what she’s doing now. And the reason is that while the poor would always be with them and always available to be cared for, the incarnate Son of God would not always be with them, so this was a glorious opportunity for her to show her love for him.
And here’s what we can’t miss. Jesus is saying that when this lady took this jar of ointment that was worth a year’s wage and emptied it just to pour over Jesus, he was worth that act. That is to say, “If someone did that to you or me we might rightly object saying, ‘I’m certainly not worth you doing that for me.’” But Jesus doesn’t object. In fact, he says strictly speaking that he is more worthy of this act that anything else she could have done.
The point is, this woman is showing us how we are to respond to the one who chose to lay down his life for us out of love for us, and the answer is that we are to love him with our all. Brothers and sisters, your greatest aim in life must be to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. There’s nothing greater. Therefore, the greatest aim in your life is to cultivate that love for him. Through reading the Scripture, prayer, remembering his redeeming work, hearing the preaching of the Word, fellowshipping with other believers, just sitting in his presence, etc. The question you must ask yourself that shapes each and every day and all of your life is, “What can I do in order to love Jesus more deeply?” For he is worthy of our love. He is worthy of our all.
Moreover, there’s nothing too extravagant if done in love for him. What I mean is that, “If you’re moved to give an amount so extraordinary that others might rebuke you for being foolish, and it’s done in effort to show your love for the Lord,” then Jesus would say, “I am worth it.” He is worth your time, service, and devotion. He is worth building your life around him.
In fact, one of the reasons we spend so much time each Sunday morning singing is so that we might demonstrate that he is worthy of our praise and affection. In reality, there’s no real practical value in the world’s eyes to us gathering in this room and singing is there? But our response is, “He is worth our praise. He is worth our lives. He is worth our obedience.”
Our corporate worship each Sunday is being reminded of what the Lord has done and revealed to us and then responding appropriately. This morning we have been reminded that our sovereign Lord chose to lay down his life in love for us. Therefore, let’s respond by committing ourselves today to pursue loving him above all else. May he grant us the grace to do so. Amen.