Matthew 26:36-46 - Gethsemane

This is one of the most intense passages in the gospels. The name Gethsemane means "oil press". Despite knowing their failings, Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him. 

Jesus then began to pray. This time illustrates the full humanity of Jesus. He was troubled and sorrowful. Jesus knew exactly what He was about to go through. He knew the physical and psychological suffering that was about to befall Him. Most of all, He knew the rejection and judgement from His Father that He was about to take on our behalf. We see here a model of what fulfilling the Father's will can mean on occasions. There will be times when our whole being cries out against doing what the Father has commanded, but if we turn to Him then we can find the strength and resolve to carry on.

Jesus prayed for the cup to be taken away from Him if there was any alternative whatsoever to the way of the cross, but only if there was another way. If the cross was the way it had to be, then so be it. Jesus did not deny the feelings and emotions that He had, but He put obedience to the Father above these feeling and emotions.

Jesus asked Peter, James and John to pray with Him. We too need to watch and pray. Peter in his first letter counsels his readers to prepare their minds for action. Here the disciples failed. Despite their earlier protestations of commitment to Jesus, they could not even stay awake when it mattered.

Having prayed, having taken His inner conflict to the Father, Jesus was now prepared for the task ahead.

Matthew 26:31-35 - In Denial

As well as knowing that Judas would betray Him, He also knew that the rest of the disciples would desert Him. Jesus is under no illusions about our human frailties. Matthew saw this as a fulfilment of Zech 13:7. 

Jesus also knew that although He would die, He would also rise again from the dead, and He speaks to His disciples about what would happen then. Notice that this also implies that although the disciples would fail, He would restore them.

Jesus was a far better judge of human nature than Peter was. Peter boldly, and foolishly, declared that even if everyone fell, he would remain faithful.

Jesus countered that before the rooster crows three times Peter would have disowned Him three times.

Peter still refused to accept this, making his declaration of allegiance even stronger. The rest of the disciples followed Peter's lead.

Matthew 26:14-30 - The Last Supper

Judas infamously goes to the chief priests and asks for money in return for handing Jesus over to them. Now it might seem strange that they needed someone to do this for them, for Jesus was not hiding in a hole, but was regularly appearing in public. What they wanted was for someone to hand Him over, someone they could blame, so that they would not have to take responsibility.

Jesus ate the Last Supper with His disciples, this took place the day before the crucifixion. So again it is amazing how calm Jesus was. Again, He knew exactly what was going to happen, and He was preparing His disciples for all that would happen afterwards.

All this did not come as a surprise, things had been set in order for all this from the beginning of time. It is fitting that it is the Passover that was celebrated. The Passover remembered the exodus from Egypt. A much greater release from captivity was about to occur, the captivity from sin, from death, from this "evil age". 

Jesus knew that one of them would betray Him, and even knew which one it would be. There were no surprises for Jesus in all of this.

Strangely, Judas expresses surprise and says "surely not I", knowing full well that it was indeed him. Deception had entered his heart. There is a lot of nonsense spoken about Judas. Jesus says quite clearly here that it would have been better for Judas if he had not been born.

Then Jesus explains the meaning of the supper, and of what was about to happen. The bread which would give them true spiritual food was His body, and the blood of the true covenant was His own blood.

Then they went to the Mount of Olives, one can only imagine what thoughts were going through the disciples' minds at that point.

Matthew 26:1-13 - Preparing for the cross (1)

The events now start to move on again, heading inexorably to the cross. Notice that Jesus gave some very detailed and profound teaching just a few days before the cross. This demonstrates His composure. He knew full well what was going to happen, yet He continued to serve God and to carry out His mission.

The religious leaders gathered to plot to have Jesus killed. They wanted to avoid the festival, as they knew the people were supportive of Jesus and wanted to avoid a riot. A riot would have brought the Roman authorities down on them.

At Bethany a woman anointed Jesus with oil while He was at the house of Simon the Leper. This made the disciples indignant because the perfume was very expensive.

So the religious leaders did not understand the times, the disciples did not understand the times (despite Jesus making it pretty clear). A despised woman and Jesus did understand the times. It is quite likely that the woman did not fully understand what she was doing, but she felt led to anoint Jesus. We do not need to fully understand something for it to be useful and significant. Jesus knew the significance of her actions and commended her. In the midst of all circumstances we should remain devoted to Jesus.

Jesus' statement on us always having the poor with us is a warning against an overly austere attitude. 

Matthew 25:31-46 - Helping the needy

This is the last parable in this series, and again it emphasises the importance of how we live now, and draws a link between this and the final day of judgement.

Before the parable itself, verse 31 contains an awful lot about the person of Jesus Christ and His return. There are still many who regard Jesus as "just a good man", but this verse so clearly contradicts this. As has been said by many, if He is not actually the Son of God, He is a deluded fool. He speaks clearly of returning on glory with many angels, and sitting on a glorious throne. Jesus knew exactly who He was, and that is the Son of God. 

At the last judgement all peoples will be gathered before Him and He will pronounce judgement upon them. He is much more than a good man.

Those who are accepted will take their inheritance in the kingdom of God. This inheritance has been ready since before the creation of the world. So what did they do? They fed  Jesus, gave Him water, welcomed Him as a stranger, cared for Him, visited Him in prison. The "righteous" (ie those declared right in the court of God) will wonder when they did all this, for they had never physically met Jesus. Jesus tells them that they did this whenever they did this for "one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me". There are various interpretations of who exactly "these brothers of mine" are, ranging from the Jews, Christians, to everyone. I do not think it is necessary to get bogged down in this. Jesus calls us to help many people, and if we are following Him helping all sorts of people will be part of that following.

The second group are sent to the eternal fire. This is the place prepared for the devil and his angels. No man is meant to go there, but sadly many will. Note that it seems that these people here are not overtly anti-God, but they did not obey God. They did not help the needy in any way. 

Matthew 25:14-30 - Bags of Gold

I have made the point before, and will make it again. The way to be ready for Christ's return is to serve Him today. Jesus teaching on the destruction of the temple and the end times are followed by three parables that all make it very clear that what will make a difference on the last day is how we live now. The "end times" is not just a single event. I believe there will be cataclysmic events at the end, but it is also about ongoing life. This age is coming to an end, there will be a final judgement, and Jesus is the judge. So if we are wise we will listen to Jesus, and we will order our lives in line with His priorities, His desires, His commands.

So here we come to the parable of the talents, or the "parable of the bags of gold" as modern translations put it. A man was going away on a journey and left his servants with five, two and one bags of gold. The ones with five and two bags put the money to good use and made a profit. The one with only one bag hid it in the ground.

Given the closeness of all this to Jesus death on the cross, it is clear that the parable is a lesson in how we are to live in the time before His return. When He does return He rewards and praises the first two servants, but castigates the last one.

This last servant seems in some ways to be humble, but it is not a Biblical humility. So this man is thrown into "outer darkness".

There are many lessons to be drawn from this well-known parable. 

• We are to put to good use the talents (abilities, money, etc) that we have. 
• We do not own the things we have, we are stewards of them. They all belong to God
• It is very dangerous to adopt a false humility
• There is a reward at the end

In some ways it seems "unfair" that the ones who had the most were given even more, and it was the poorest one who suffered the most. This should be a warning against certain attitudes about gifts and money. We so easily fall into one of two errors. On the one hand we can end up worshipping money and being greedy, as some forms of prosperity teaching tend towards. On the other we can despise success and money (and despise those who are successful). Both are equally wrong. What counts is what we do with what we have. We are to use the things we have for the glory of God.

Matthew 25:1-13 - Take responsibility for yourself

This parable continues Jesus' teaching on how to be ready for His return. It is a warning that we need to be prepared to wait, and that we need to take provision. The foolish virgins had lamps, but did not take any oil with them. They were not prepared for the long haul.  The wise virgins did take oil.

All of them fell asleep waiting for the bridegroom, that was not a problem. What was a problem was whether or not they had oil.

The foolish virgins asked the others for oil, but they refused because there was not enough. We do need to help each other, but there is a limit to how much we can do. There are some things that you cannot do for others, there are some things that others cannot do for you. We need to have our own faith, we need to develop our own perseverance. 

The groom came while the foolish virgins were going to get oil. By the time they returned the groom had arrived. They asked to be let in, but the groom denied knowing them.

This is in many ways quite a harsh parable. The wise virgins refuse to lend them oil, then the groom refuses to let them in. It is a warning against thinking that we can get away with anything. We need to be prepared and to take responsibility. We should heed this warning.