Two days to the showdown
Matthew 26:1-16
26 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’
3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4 and they conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. 5 But they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.’
6 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,[a] 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. 8 But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’ 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news[b] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’
14 Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests 15 and said, ‘What will you give me if I betray him to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
The sandwich nature of this text (that is, vs. 3-5 connect with vs. 14-16, and vs. 6-13 are a different story) is held together by Jesus’ words in vs. 1,2 – Passover is coming. The conflict is sharpening – the lines have been drawn, it is time to choose who one will be loyal to.
The leadership is looking for a way to get to Jesus when the crowd is not around. They find Judas who is willing to betray Jesus. There has been much speculation about why Judas did it. Matthew is uninterested in exploring why Judas did it, just that Judas is willing to do this. Matthew sees Judas’ actions as a sign of how some people responded in this moment when the chips were down, and it was time to choose a side.
And there is the woman who found Jesus at dinner in Simon’s house and anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume, expensive perfume. When she is criticized for this extravagance Jesus defended her by saying: “She is getting me ready for my burial.” She had made a choice as well, she was committed to Jesus, was willing to put her most valuable possession at Jesus’ disposal. She too had made a choice about whose side she was on. And while we tell her story in wonder and awe, we do not even know her name.
In Holy Week two days before Good Friday, we are reminded we need to decide who we will be loyal to. Whose side will we be on? It is not a time for half-measures, for sitting on the fence. Both Judas and the woman made choices that would fundamentally shape their lives and the ways they are remembered. In putting these two together Matthew asks us, “which side are you choosing?”
PRAYER:
O Lord, we choose for you and for your Son Jesus Christ. Give us the courage and the perseverance to stay true to that choice. May we be like the unnamed woman, putting our stuff and our very selves at your disposal in worship and discipleship. In Jesus’ name. Amen.