Matthew 26:47-56 - Jesus Arrested

26:47-49

Judas now arrived, this was no surprise to Jesus as v46 shows. He came with an armed crowd from the religious leaders.  Judas gave Jesus the infamous “Judas kiss”. All this was done for political purposes. The religious leaders wanted it to seem that it was Jesus’ own people who had given up on Him. As we know, all this was achieving the purposes of God. Periodically we hear of “well known” Christians giving up on their faith for some reason or other. In these situations we should feel sorrow for that person, but we should never despair, for God is always in control, men never are.

26:50-52

The word “friend” here is used as a mild rebuke, or an ironic sense. Jesus was then arrested by the religious leaders “soldiers” and Jesus is now in the hands of men. From John 18:10 we know that it was Peter who cut off the ear off the high priest’s servant. Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away. “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”. This would be drastically true for the religious leaders, if they lived another thirty five years or so, for the Roman armies would crush the city. Armed strength does not achieve the purposes of the kingdom of God.

26:53-56

Moreover, Jesus could have called upon His Father, and myriads of angels would have been at His disposal. He could have crushed any army if He chose to do so. But this was not God’s plan. God’s plan was now fully in operation and death, sin and the devil would be defeated. This would all happen according to the Scriptures.

Matthew is recording Jesus’ words here to make it clear that this is no earthly rebellion. The battle is not against flesh and blood, and the only life that would be lost in this battle would be that of Jesus. The hypocrisy and weakness of the religious leaders is exposed, and we see that Jesus is the only one who is really in control.

Matthew 26:32-46 - Gethsemane

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so. 

26:34,35

Jesus knew Peter better than Peter himself did, like wise Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves, he knows the depths of our sinfulness, and our weaknesses. Yet he still loves us , as He still loved Peter. However, Peter still insisted that He would stick by Jesus, no matter what.

26:36-46

We now come to Gethsemane, where the weakness of Peter’s commitment becomes even clearer, for He cannot even stay awake to pray with Jesus. We see here the depths of what Jesus was feeling. He knew what He was about to go through, yet remained committed to doing the Father’s will. Jesus was resolute.

Matthew 26:27-33 - Denial predicted

26:27-30 

The sacrifices were a central part of the old covenant. Leviticus is particularly important in showing how they represented the taking away of our sins. The wine represents the blood of Jesus shed for them all, and all who believe. The blood represents death. The old testament sacrifices were ineffective in themselves, but pointed ahead to the blood of Jesus. The new covenant is founded on the blood of Jesus. His sacrifice is for the forgiveness of sins (and as Hebrews makes clear, renders all other sacrifices irrelevant and superseded). “I will not drink ...” This looks forward to the heavenly banquet. At Passover the meal was concluded by the singing of Ps 115-118. This is the hymn that the disciples sang.

26:31

The “bad news” continued, with Jesus telling them that they would all fall away. We have just had Jesus talking about Judas betraying Him. Later He will tell Peter that he will deny Him. Here we have Jesus saying they will all fall away. Peter may have been the most obvious “denier”, but the rest were little better. We are faced here with the complete failure of humanity. Of course, Pilate and the religious leaders are the most overt failures, but even His disciples, His followers, were failures. We are saved purely by the grace of God. And they would fall away “on account of me”, they would fail to remain loyal to Jesus. This was a fulfilment of Zech 13:7.

26:32,33

As well as the “bad news” Jesus has the good news of the resurrection, “after I have risen”. But this went completely over the heads of the disciples. See that Peter immediately talks about the denial, saying that he would never deny Jesus, even if everyone else denied Jesus he would not do so. 

Matthew 26:20-26 - Last supper

26:20-25

Judas had set out to betray Jesus, but Jesus already knew that this would happen, and that events were now in train. The disciples, although understanding little, knew that something was up, that events were reaching a pivotal point. They all said “surely not I”, but the announcement increased the solemnity of the occasion. Dipping your bread into a bowl of sauce was a custom then, and till is in some middle eastern countries. For two people to dip into the same bowl was a sign of friendship and trust. So this emphasised the gravity of the betrayal. “The Son of Man will go as it is written”. All the events were happening exactly as ordained by God. “But woe to the man who betrays the Son of Man”. But the one who betrayed Jesus was utterly responsible for his actions. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility go together and are entirely compatible. We may not be able to understand how, but God has no problem with this!

From time to time there are various attempts to “rehabilitate” Judas. Such attempts are utterly futile and foolish. Much the same could be said about the people who make these attempts.

Like the rest of the disciples, Judas said “surely not I”, while knowing full that it was he. Sin distorts our thinking. 

26:26

We now get to the heart of the last supper.  At Passover the father of the house would take the bread and give thanks for it, remembering the escape from Egypt and recalling the bread of affliction that the people ate as they left Egypt (Deut 16:3). So they recalled the momentous events of the escape from Egypt, but they did not imagine the unleavened bread they ate to be the same as that eaten by their ancestors. So any notions of the bread being the actual body if Jesus are just so much nonsense. The Israelites had been held in Egypt as slaves, the far greater slavery is the slavery to sin. The escape from this slavery is not easy, it involves dangerous journies. In that journey we are to feed off the death of Jesus. He has paid the price for our sins, that is our constant source of sustenance.

Matthew 26:14-19 - Betrayal

26:14-16

Judas now begins his infamous betrayal of Jesus. One does wonder why the chief priests needed someone to “deliver him” into their hands. As Jesus would say later, He was in the temple every day, they could have arrested Him then if they wanted. The reason is fear and politics. The chief priest knew that Jesus was popular with the crowds, and it would be very useful for them if they could say one of the disciples had betrayed Him. Judas was in some ways a “useful idiot”. Thirty pieces of silver was about 120 days wages for a labourer. The betrayal has now been set in motion.

26:17-19

The Passover was not actually a single day, rather the festival went on for a week. This helps explain some of the supposed discrepancies in the accounts, along with the fact that the Jews counted evening as the start of the day. Anyway, the disciples were going to have the Passover meal with Jesus.  Jesus tells the what to do, and all the preparations had been made. The “appointed time was near” for the true and great Passover.

Matthew 26 - The climax is near

26:1-5

Jesus knew what was going to happen and He is increasingly open with His disciple about what was about to happen. The religious leaders wanted to avoid this happening during the Passover festival, because they feared a riot happening. They wanted to be in control of events, but had no control at all.

26:6-9

Note that we are only two days away from the climax of Easter, but Jesus is still teaching. Simon was a well-known victim of leprosy who had been healed by Jesus. A woman came in with an alabaster jar of perfume. She poured this on the head of Jesus as He was reclining at the table. The disciples were indignant about this. It was just the Pharisees or priests who lacked understanding, His disciples did too, and we need to be aware that our understanding is often flawed. The disciples thought this was a waste of the use of the perfume.

26:10,11

The disciples were indignant, but Jesus was indignant with the disciples. “She has done a beautiful thing to me”. The woman had more spiritual understanding than the disciples, she may not have fully understood what she was doing, but she was motivated by the Holy Spirit. The disciples were motivated by the flesh. The word beautiful here has both an aesthetic and ethical meaning. 

“The poor you will always have with you will not always have me”. The first part comes from Deut 15:11. Jesus would soon be gone from this earth, they could help the poor at anytime. 

26:12,13

Jesus now turns to the positive and immediate meaning of the woman's actions. She was preparing Jesus’ body for burial. The disciples were indignant, but what the woman did is now spoken of in glowing terms throughout the world and time.  It is good to study the Bible in a theological sense, seeking to get a deep understanding. But a deep understanding does not come just by the intellect, it comes by the heart and spirit as well.

Matthew 25:31-46 - Sheep and goats

25:31-43

It is a fundamental theological fact that Jesus will return in glory and as judge. There will be a day of judgement, and all the nations will be before Him. There is no one who will escape the judgement. We are answerable to Christ. And there will be a separation, we will be split into sheep and goats as a shepherd would separate out a flock. Sheep were considered to be more valuable than goats.

At the judgement the king commends those on His right, the sheep, saying their inheritance is ready for them. We should also note that it was prepared “since the creation of the world”. God’s plan was made long, long ago, and has not changed. What are they commended for? Feeding the hungry, helping the stranger, clothing the naked, tending the sick and visiting those in prison. It might seem that they are earning salvation, but this is not the case. This is what those who are blessed by God do. It is also what we are to do in preparation for the return of the King.

The “righteous”. Jesus is emphasising the characteristics God wants to find in His faithful people. The righteous did not realise what they were doing. They certainly did not see it as a way of earning salvation! They just got on with being what they were meant to be. They were living kingdom life. They did not feed the hungry thinking “this will put me right with God”. Rather they just fed them because they were hungry. The King then tells them that whatever they did for these people, they did for the King.

Those on the left are now given the opposite verdict, and for the opposite reasons. They are to depart from Christ. We should note that it is Christ, the Son of Man, who is sitting in judgement here. It is the Son of Man who condemns them to the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”. Severe judgement comes from Jesus.  Why? For they did not not feed or help him.

25:44-46

Like the righteous, they ask when did we not feed you? Whenever they did not help “the least of these”. We were all created by God, we belong to Him. In Christ there is an amazing identification with humanity by God. So when either individually or as a society we do things that harm humanity, we harm God. 

So the goats will go to eternal punishment, the righteous to eternal life. It is perhaps worth noting that there is a correspondence between eternal life and eternal punishment here which perhaps is relevant to the eternal punishment-conditional immortality debate. Now one does have to be careful with taking too much out of a parable. However, one thing that we can definitely say is that if a proponent of conditional immortality/annihilation seeks to lessen the prospect of “hell” then they are being unbiblical and are going against the clear teaching of Jesus.