Matthew 26:1-25 – The Passover, the Poor, and the Pawn

Imagination is not required to see that the remainder of Matthew’s Gospel narrates a major battle in the war waged by the forces of evil as they attempt to bring God’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom to its knees. The Father, from eternity past, planned that his Son, Jesus, by means of his death and resurrection, would bring salvation to everyone in the world who longs to become a citizen of the Father’s kingdom. Satan, however, does not appear to understand the Father’s plan as he seems to think that by killing Jesus, the kingdom would collapse before it had a chance to begin. Jesus, however, was not so deluded. The opening scene of this cosmic battle begins with the following verses,

1 When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, 2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”

Matthew 26:1-2

In this brief sentence, Matthew not only reveals Jesus’s opening salvo of this cosmic battle, but he also unpacks some important symbolism found in the Old Testament. On the first Passover, the Israelites were told to take a spotless lamb, kill it, and spread its blood on the doorposts of their houses. In this way, they would be protected from the angel of death, God’s judgment. Each successive Passover was then seen by the Jew as a look back to that first Passover in Egypt. Unbeknownst to the Jews, however, the Father also meant for the Passover supper to be a symbol pointing forward to the time when his own Son would be killed on a Passover. When Jesus’s spotless and pure blood poured out onto the cross it fulfilled the symbol of every Passover lamb that preceded his death. Those who trust in the purifying power of Jesus’s blood will be saved from God’s final judgment and secure entrance into the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom. Our prayers for deliverance from the hand of the evil one are first and foremost answered through the shedding of the spotless blood of the lamb Jesus, the Christ.

I’m guessing Satan didn’t know any of this because his first move played directly into the Father’s hand. Matthew writes,

3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”

Matthew 26:3-5

For a passage describing a battle waged by Satan, it is interesting that he doesn’t appear anywhere in the text. He doesn’t, in fact, appear anywhere else in the Gospel of Matthew other than the time when he tempted Jesus back in Matthew 4. His absence from the text, however, doesn’t mean he is absent from the battle; Satan’s hand moves along the pages of these final chapters. The text tells us that the religious leaders had beef with Jesus and they thought by doing away with Jesus they would be relieved of all of their troubles. The text also reveals the cowardice of the leaders because even as they were plotting, they feared how people would react if Jesus was taken publicly. But make no mistake about it, these leaders are merely pawns — or bishops — in the war Satan is waging. Satan loves to hide in the background and move his pieces across the board. Satan is content for us to focus on the pieces and forget about him. He would be quite pleased if, after reading these verses, we would conclude only that the religious leaders put Jesus to death because they were angry and jealous of him. We must not ever forget that we do not wage war against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of darkness (Eph. 6:12). The chief priests and elders played their role, but they were only pawns in Satan’s battle against the Father and his kingdom.

We might think we are praying for deliverance from the mere pains and stresses that come as a result of flesh and blood found on life’s stage, but the fact of the matter is that each piece moving on life’s stage is part of a larger battle raging behind life’s curtain, and it is really about that battle that we pray. Additionally, we must realize that the warriors in Satan’s employ are not always easily identifiable. Evil comes in many flavors, some of which are strong, causing anyone with a basic sense of goodness to spew it out of their mouth, but other flavors of evil are subtle and seem to mix in with good actions quite nicely. About this, Matthew writes,

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 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.”
14 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Matthew 26:6-16

There is nothing wrong with helping the poor, in fact, Jesus commands that we do it (Matt. 6:1-4). This is why the disciples responded as they did when they saw the woman pouring expensive perfume all over Jesus’s body, it seemed to them to be a wanton waste of wealth. But their interest in serving the poor did not take into account the love they were also to give to God, and this is even before we get to Judas’s ulterior motives. All of the disciples were indignant, not only Judas, and they wanted to intervene when they saw the wealth of this woman going to waste, but as usual, Jesus had different plans. He knew about the battle being played out and he knew about his role, this is why he accepted her offering as a gift given in preparation for his death. The poor would always be there, but the most significant event in the history of the world occurs only once.

There seem to be at least three potential points of focus for us when reading this story. We can focus on Judas and surmise that he wanted to steal the money, we can focus on the disciples and think about their desire to help the poor, or we can focus on the nameless woman and her act of love. While the first two are important, I think it is the third that overpowers this scene. The disciples — minus Judas, of course — were interested in helping the poor, while this woman chose to shower her love upon Jesus, the Son of God; we must understand, however, that both are commanded of us and we should not judge the way others fulfill the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:34-40). In the last hours before his crucifixion, Jesus accepted this woman’s act of love and showed his disciples that they had not taken into account their love for God. Even though they still may have not understood that Jesus was about to die, they did accept the fact that her extravagant gift was an acceptable act of love.

Now, with this exorbitant gift from the nameless woman firmly placed at the center of our focus, Judas’s actions may seem to make a lot more sense. Judas was repulsed by her gift, not so much because he liked stealing money from the disciples’ coffers, as some of the other Gospel writers hint, but because he was a pawn of Satan. I realize that such a big claim might seem to nullify any flesh-and-blood motivation, but it is the truth. Certainly, Judas liked money and he probably saw the whole gig coming to an end and he wanted to cash out, he may even have been repulsed by the woman’s excessive act of love or even by the fact that Jesus accepted her worship. Perhaps all of those were going through the heart of Judas, but the bigger reason why he felt the way he did was that Judas allowed Satan to manipulate him. For whatever reason, even after being sent out with the other disciples to perform miracles, Judas never bought into what Jesus was preaching. As with all the other evil forces God uses throughout scripture for his purposes, Judas hardened his heart to God’s word. As a result, Judas became the son of perdition (John 17:12) and the one who would lift his hand against the Father’s Son as foretold in Psalm 41:9.

Like the disciples, Judas included, we have the option of fighting for either side of the battle which rages behind the scenes of this earthly realm. If we wish to fight on the Father’s side, we must pray for deliverance from evil and for our hearts to remain open to the word of the Father, or we can go our own way and allow our hearts to harden, like Judas, and become a pawn of Satan. About this, I don’t believe I am being unnecessarily dramatic. The truth of reality lies in the hands of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The next act in this cosmic battle occurs during the Passover. Matthew writes,

17 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?” 18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’” 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

Matthew 26:17-19

Jesus knew his death was coming, he knew the end was near, so…he continued with his regular schedule. In the face of certain death, most of us would probably change our regular schedule and start knocking things off our bucket list, but Jesus did no such thing. Not only did Jesus keep his routine, but when he chose to celebrate Passover in the city he chose to move closer to his eventual murderers. But this choice was not made in ignorance; Jesus knew he was moving closer to his enemies. I would imagine that his choice caused great rejoicing among Satan’s minions: the goal of their battle plans — the murder of the Son of God — was not hiding from them, in fact, he had moved closer to their evil horde.

The most important prayer we have for deliverance from evil was answered, in part, when Jesus chose to move closer to his enemies. The Father’s plans to deliver his children from evil required Jesus to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, not around it. By going through that dark valley, Jesus is able to bring all of the Father’s children who trust in him into his Father’s eternal kingdom awaiting them on the other side of darkness. But his passage through that valley of shadows included a table prepared for his Son where he would dine in the presence of his enemy. Matthew writes,

20 When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. 21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. 24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

Matthew 26:20-25

Jesus reclined and waited until his disciples were eating before he declared that his betrayer was sitting in their midst. Talk about a conversation stopper. The twelve disciples immediately began asking if they were the ones who would betray him, but I suspect that one of them already knew the answer to that question. After Jesus said that it would have been better to have been stillborn, Judas responded to Jesus by saying, “Is it I?” When their eyes met, I think Judas knew that Jesus knew about his conversation with the high priest. The dark spiritual battle raging behind the curtain of this present world momentarily pushed its way into Judas’s body, his voice, and his eyes. When Judas responded to Jesus he may have been asking if he was the one, but in a certain way, I think he was also declaring that he was about to betray Jesus. Satan’s minions stood behind Judas during that confrontation, cheering, thinking they were about to win the war because Jesus sat there while the dark army moved their forces into their final position.

We pray for deliverance from evil but the Father’s answer often passes through what we might think is a losing position. While in that dark place, it is easy for us to be overwhelmed with pessimism and think that Satan’s forces are greater than the Father’s. But in the face of obsidian evil, our prayers must also be accompanied by the resolve to withstand any evil Satan may throw in our paths. However, if we don’t have such resolve, as most of us do not, then our prayer for deliverance from evil must also be a prayer that God grants us the strength to stand fast when everything around us seems to be going the way of the enemy. Standing fast during our time in the valley of shadows prepares us for that day when the shadows fade away and we find ourselves standing in the glory of the Father’s eternally powerful kingdom. But there are times when we turn from the Fatehr’s path and run away as the disciples did. For those who do such — we all run from the dark night at some point in our lives — hope still remains. The Father always accepts back those who repent and return to him. For the dark battle raging behind the scenes, for the strength to stand firm in the presence of our enemies, for the humility to repent, for the willingness to return, for all of this and much more, we pray, “deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.”

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