Matthew 26:1-16--The Plot to Kill Jesus and the ANOINTING of Jesus at Bethany

​Matthew 26:1-16 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Plot to Kill Jesus
26:1 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.”
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.”

Jesus Anointed at Bethany
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.”

Judas to Betray Jesus
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.

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The plot thickens!  The Pharisees and Sadducees have been largely absent from the story during the Olivet Discourse.  They were probably there listening but they dared not ask Jesus any more questions because He had bested them many times and exposed them for who they truly were.  Now, they began to plot not simply to discredit Jesus and embarrass Him, but to kill him and destroy Him.  Notice that Jesus is keenly aware of the plot and is totally in control of the timeline.  He knows that He will the Passover Lamb slain so that death may pass over those who are under the protection of His blood.  The chief priests, and elders meet together with Caiaphas the high priest in his palace (this should tell you something if the high priest lived in a palace).  They thought they were being so sneaky plotting behind closed doors and Jesus had already told His disciples what they were up to and that it was God's plan, not their plan.  They planned to wait until after Passover, but that was not God's plan and in a very short period of time, thing will escalate quickly and they will move to carry out their plot more quickly.

It may seem strange to now stop and talk about the anointing of Jesus at Bethany.  While we may see similar stories in other gospels, only Mark tells us of this same event and the details there are almost identical to the details here, but we do learn from John that a very similar event happened at a different house involving different characters and and exact amount of ointment.  The woman in this story may have seen or heard of that event that happened earlier that week or it may have been the Holy Spirit working independently in the lives of these two women to point others to the fact that Jesus was on His way to die for the sins of the whole world.  We learn something interesting about Judas Iscariot in the passage in John (again it happened earlier that week--six days before Passover where we are now two days before Passover).  Judas specifically protested the "waste" of anointing Jesus with the perfume because it was expensive and could be sold for much money.  He said it was because the money could be given to the poor, but we learn that Judas Iscariot was the treasurer of the group and often used his position to steal money from the money bad (embezzling money from the very little the Lord and the disciples had).  He was out for his own personal gain and to make Himself rich.  He thought he was getting close to the King of the Jews that was going to take over and give him prominence, position, power, and wealth, but instead Jesus turned out to be someone other than He expected....the Prince of Peace who gave away everything He had in order to be a servant to all.  By the second time this happened in one week, Judas had reached his tipping point and he runs to the chief priests and asks what they will pay him to deliver Jesus do them.  Judas is in it for himself and in it for the money.  He may have even thought, "Hey, this is Jesus' plan, I might as well help it along and get something for myself in the process."  And Judas agreed to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver--the exact price prophesied in the Old Testament book of Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 and 13.

This moved up the timetable of the Pharisees as it was now up to Judas to pick the opportune moment to betray Jesus (or was it?).  We will see as we go through that Jesus is still in complete control, even as He gets betrayed and arrested.