26:1-2 These verses record the fourth major prediction of Jesus' death that He gave His disciples (cf. 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). Matthew just finished recording Jesus' claim to judge humankind (25:31-46). Now he wrote that the Judge would suffer condemnation from the condemned. Jesus had warned His enemies about the consequences of hypocrisy (23:12-31). Now we learn that they were paying no heed to His warning but were proceeding to crucify Him hypocritically. This irony points out Jesus' sovereign control over the affairs that led to His death, and it is an example of masterful narrative composition.
Jesus evidently said these words sometime on Wednesday, the same day as His controversy with the religious leaders (21:23-23:39) and the Olivet Discourse (chs. 24-25). Jesus predicted that His enemies would deliver Him up to die by crucifixion in two days. The connection between Jesus' death and the Passover would emerge more clearly when Jesus celebrated that feast with His disciples the next day.
26:3-5 Opposition to Jesus had been rising for some time (cf. 12:14; 21:45-46). Matthew's mention of this plot's advance toward its climax following Jesus' prediction (v. 2) has the effect of showing that His enemies' conspiracy was ultimately a result of Jesus' sovereign authority. He was not a powerless pawn under their control. He was really orchestrating His own passion.
The chief priests and elders represent the clerical and lay members of the Sanhedrin respectively (cf. 21:23). At this time Rome appointed Israel's high priest. Annas had been the high priest until 15 A.D. when the Romans deposed him and set up his son Eleazar in his place. Eleazar served for about two years (16-17 A.D.) until the Romans replaced him with Caiaphas in 18 A.D. Caiaphas held the office until his death in 36 A.D.969
The Old Testament regarded the high priest as high priest until his death. Consequently the Jews still viewed Annas as the high priest. This probably explains why Matthew and John spoke of Caiaphas as the high priest (John 11:49), but Luke said Annas was the high priest (Luke 3:2; Acts 4:6). Annas was Caiaphas' father-in-law and continued to exercise much power even after the Romans forced him out of office.
The Jewish leaders plotted to execute an innocent man in the very place where justice should have been strongest. The spiritual leader of Israel, the high priest, took a leading role in this travesty. Matthew's original Jewish readers could not help marveling at this injustice. However the chief priests and elders were representatives of the people, so the people shared part of the blame. The leaders resorted to deceit because they could not trap Jesus with questions and turn the crowds against Him or take Him by force.
"In portraying the leaders throughout the passion, Matthew orchestrates numerous variations both on this theme of deception' and on the related theme of self-deception.'"970
Jerusalem's population swelled with pilgrims during Passover season. Since Jesus had a large following, the leaders realized that they had to plan to do away with Him secretly and carefully lest popular sentiment turn against them. They did not know how to solve their problem until Judas volunteered to hand Jesus over to them privately.
26:6-7 This event evidently happened on the previous Saturday evening (John 12:1).971The reference to two days before the Passover in verse 2 dates the plot to seize Jesus, not the anointing in Simon's house.972Apparently He spent the evening of that Saturday in the home of Simon, a healed leper, with His disciples and other guests. John recorded that Lazarus was there, his sister Martha helped with the serving, and their sister Mary was the woman who broke the vial and anointed Jesus' head (and feet, John 12:2-3). Perhaps Matthew did not mention them by name to keep Jesus central in his story. John also recorded that the pound of perfume cost 300 denarii, about one year's wages for a working man (John 12:3, 5). The perfume was nard that probably came from India.973Matthew and Mark just said it was very expensive.
26:8-9 Evidently Judas Iscariot led the disciples' criticism of Mary's act (John 12:4). The disciples failed to appreciate what Mary was doing and that such an anointing was appropriate in view of Jesus' impending death (cf. 16:21-28; 17:22-23; 20:18-19). Regardless of Judas' true motive the other disciples felt righteous indignation in view of the needs of the poor. They did not realize that the sacrifice that Jesus was about to make would solve the basic need of every poor person throughout all of history. Their objection was not evil but wrong due to lack of understanding. Mary does not seem to have understood that Jesus was going to die any more than the disciples.
26:10-11 Jesus probably overheard His disciples talking, though His awareness of their thoughts could have been supernatural (cf. 16:8). Jesus regarded the disciples' criticism of Mary as a bother to her. He called a beautiful thing what they called a waste. The disciples would always have poor people they could help, but they would not have the incarnate Son of Man with them much longer.
"The disciples' concern for the poor is by no means incorrect. In this one instance, however, the timing was wrong."974
"Implicitly, the distinction Jesus makes is a high christological claim, for it not only shows that he foresees his impending departure but also that he himself, who is truly gentle and humble in heart' (11:29), deservesthis lavish outpouring of love and expense.
"Jesus is the poor, righteous Sufferer par excellence; and the opportunity to help him in any way will soon be gone forever [cf. Ps. 41]."975
26:12 Normally friends of the deceased would prepare the body for burial after death, but that was impossible in the case of criminals.976Mary may not have understood the full significance of what she was doing, but Jesus used the situation to remind His disciples of His coming crucifixion.
26:13 The "gospel"or good news to which Jesus referred was probably the good news about His death, namely that it is the basis for salvation (v. 12). This is probably not a reference to the gospel of the kingdom. In either case Mary's act has become a part of the gospel story in the larger sense because the Holy Spirit preserved the record of it in Scripture. Jesus introduced this prediction with His characteristic phrase that highlighted something specially important: "Truly I say to you"or "I tell you the truth."
Here the word "then"probably identifies a logical connection with what preceded.977Evidently Judas made these plans the same day that Jesus predicted His crucifixion in two days, namely on Wednesday (vv. 1-5). None of the evangelists recorded Judas' motives for betraying Jesus, but Judas may have taken offense at Jesus' rebuke on the previous Saturday evening (vv. 10-13). Perhaps the fact that Jesus permitted Mary's extravagant act without rebuke convinced him that Jesus was not the Messiah.978This may have been part of his motivation. The chief priests were the clerical leaders of Israel. They were able to do Jesus in.
The 30 pieces of silver they agreed to pay Judas were a paltry sum and fulfilled Zechariah 11:12. Matthew did not refer to this as a fulfillment of prophecy here, but he did later in 27:9-10. Nevertheless he was careful to make the verbal correspondence with the Zechariah passage close here.979This was the price an Israelite had to pay his neighbor if his ox accidentally gored his neighbor's slave to death (Exod. 21:32). This small amount of money shows the light esteem with which the chief priests and Judas regarded Jesus (cf. Isa. 53:3).
". . . tragically, Judas, in selling his services to the chief priests to betray Jesus, unwittingly acts in a manner that is the exact opposite of servanthood': Jesus is the servant par excellence, for he delivers himself to death in order that others might gain life; by contrast, Judas delivers Jesus to death in order that he might gain advantage for himself . . ."980
Jesus evidently gave this prediction before He and His disciples left the upper room (cf. Luke 21:31-38; John 13:36-38). Matthew and Mark probably placed it where they did in their Gospels to stress the gravity of the disciples' defection and Peter's denial.1007Matthew presented Jesus as knowing exactly what lay ahead of Him. He was not a victim of fate, but He deliberately approached His death as a willing sacrifice and prepared His disciples carefully for the trauma of that event.
26:31 "Then"(Gr. tote) here expresses a logical rather than a temporal connection with what precedes. Jesus emphasized that the disciples would desert Him very soon, that very night. They would find Him to be a source of stumbling (Gr. skandalon, cf. 11:6). Jesus' arrest would trip them up, and they would temporarily stop following Him faithfully. They still did not understand that the Messiah must die. By quoting Zechariah 13:7 freely Jesus was telling them again that He would die and that their scattering from Him was something within God's sovereign plan. This did not excuse their failure, but it prepared them for it and particularly helped them recover after it.
In Zechariah 13:1-6 the prophet spoke of a day when, because of prevailing apostasy, the Shepherd would be cut down and His followers would scatter. The sheep in the prophecy are the Jews many of whom would depart from the Shepherd but a third of whom would remain. The disciples constituted the core of this remnant that Zechariah predicted God would bless in the future (Zech. 13:7-9).
26:32 Jesus here assured the disciples that He would meet them in Galilee after His resurrection. Following as it does the announcement of their abandoning Him, this promise assured them that He would not abandon them. He would precede them to Galilee where He would be waiting for them when they arrived (cf. John 21).
26:33-35 Peter was ready to suffer martyrdom with Jesus, but he was unprepared for Jesus' voluntary self-sacrifice. Despite Peter's claim Jesus explained that his defection was just hours away. The crowing of cocks signals the morning. Peter refused to accept the possibility of his denying Jesus. The language he used, the rare subjunctive of the Greek verb dei("I must"), may imply that he really did not think Jesus was going to die.1008
This pericope illustrates the importance of facing temptation with vigilance and prayer. What is more important, it reveals Jesus' attitude toward what He was about to do. Until now, Jesus seems to have been anticipating His death with calm control and great courage. Here He appears under deep emotional stress. These attitudes harmonize with His being both the Son of God and the Servant who came to give His life a ransom for many (1:21: 20:28). Martyrs can face death bravely, but self-sacrifice demands greater strength. Moreover Jesus knew that God would forsake Him when He died because He would bear the punishment for the sins of humanity. As Jesus' death was unique, so was His anguish as He anticipated it.
26:36-37 Having left the upper room, traditionally located on the southern part of Mt. Zion, Jesus took His disciples east out of Jerusalem and across the Kidron Valley to the western slope of Mt. Olivet.1009The word "Gethsemane"means "oil press."This was in an olive grove where Jesus and the disciples had been before (John 18:1-2). Peter and the disciples had just boasted of their strength while Jesus told them they were weak (vv. 31-35). In contrast, Jesus sensed His weakness and so made plans to gain strength from His Father.1010This section of the text is full of contrasts involving strength and weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9-10).
Jesus left most of the disciples in one part of the olive orchard and took Peter, James, and John with Him to another area. There He began to release some of the emotions that He had held in check thus far. He became grieved or sorrowful (Gr. lypeisthai) and distressed or troubled (Gr. ademonein). The second Greek word implies, "a restless, distracted, shrinking from some trouble, or thought of trouble, which nevertheless cannot be escaped."1011
"No man, in sinful and mortal flesh, can understand the conflict in the holy soul of Jesus who had never experienced the slightest shadow of sin and had never known any barrier between Himself and the Father."1012
26:38 The soul here (Gr. psyche) represents the whole person. Jesus meant that He felt sorrow so deeply that it seemed it would almost kill Him.1013He did not mean that He was so sad He wished He was dead. Jesus' words recall the refrain of Psalms 42:5, 11 and 43:5 that He probably had in mind. He shared these feeling with the chosen three disciples to encourage them to watch and pray with Him.
26:39 Jesus' prostrate posture reflected the intense anguish He felt. He addressed God as "My Father"(cf. 6:9). This title stresses the intimacy that Jesus felt with God (cf. Mark 14:36). In view of the limits that His incarnation involved, Jesus may not have known if another way to provide redemption existed (cf. 24:36), though this seems unlikely. In one sense God can do anything, but in another sense He binds Himself to certain courses of action because of His own purposes. Jesus was asking for a release from having to undergo the outpouring of God's wrath for humankind's sins on the cross (cf. 4:1-11; 16:21-23).1014Notwithstanding, He wanted something more than that. Above all else He wanted His Father's will to happen. He submitted to suffering and death if this was the only way to provide salvation, but He requested another solution if possible. The "cup"is an Old Testament figure for suffering and death under the wrath of God (cf. v. 27; Ps. 11:6; 75:7-8; Isa. 51:19, 22; Jer. 25:15-16, 27-29; et al.).1015
This is an excellent model prayer when we do not know the will of God specifically. We can request our preference, as Jesus did, but we should also submit our preference to the will of God, whatever that may be. This does not make prayer meaningless because sometimes our preferences will be within God's will. He may not give us what we want without our requesting it (cf. James 4:2). If our preference is outside God's will, His denying our request will be a positive answer to our prayer if what we want supremely is His will.
26:40-41 Jesus returned to the inner circle of disciples only to find them sleeping. He awoke them and addressed His question to Peter as the disciples' representative. His question contained a plural "you"in the Greek text. One hour may be a round number, but it is undoubtedly approximate. Jesus urged them to remain spiritually alert (cf. 24:32-44) and to continue praying for strength to withstand the temptation that He had told them was coming (vv. 31-35). Even though Jesus had told them they would deny Him, their failure could have been even greater. Therefore prayer for God's sustaining grace in temptation was necessary.
One of the marks of Jesus' greatness and His compassion is that even in the face of the Cross He still thought of His disciples in their lesser trials and encouraged them.
The contrast between the flesh and the spirit is not between the sinful human nature and the Holy Spirit (as in Gal. 5:17) but between man's volitional strength and his physical weakness (cf. v. 35). We often want to do the right thing but find that we need supernatural assistance to accomplish it (cf. Rom. 7:15-25).
26:42-44 Jesus' repetition of His request illustrates persistence in prayer, not vain repetition. Persistence expresses the intensity with which we feel the need for our petition and our faith in God's ability to meet our need. Vain repetition relies on the simple repetition of words to wear God down.
Jesus' again illustrated the importance of submission to the Father's will for His disciples. He had taught them the importance of this attitude earlier (6:10). By submitting to God's will Jesus learned obedience (Heb. 5:7-9).1016
"In the first garden Not your will but mine' changed Paradise to desert and brought man from Eden to Gethsemane. Now Not my will but yours' brings anguish to the man who prays it but transforms the desert into the kingdom and brings man from Gethsemane to the gates of glory."1017
26:45-46 Jesus' statement, translated as a question in the NASB and NIV versions, though more properly as a statement in the AV, reflected the irony of the moment (cf. 23:2-3).1018Time that the disciples should have spent praying was past. Jesus' arrest and their temptation were at hand. They might as well sleep on.
The irony continues. The Son of Man's betrayer is about to hand Him who is the Messiah over to sinners. Jesus probably saw and heard the group that Judas led making its was across the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane.
"His hour is come, and He is anxious to fulfill all that is required of Him."1019
Jesus had prayed and now met His temptation with strength and dignity, and He overcame it. The disciples had slept and now met theirs with weakness and fear, and they fell before it.
