Matthew 26:1 ¶ And it came
to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples,
2 Ye know that after two days is the
feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.
3 Then assembled together the chief
priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the
high priest, who was called Caiaphas, 4
And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him.
5 But they said, Not on the feast day,
lest there be an uproar among the people.
Jesus repeats the warning that He will be betrayed and crucified.
Matthew 17:22 ¶ And while
they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed
into the hands of men:
Matthew 20:18 Behold, we go
up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests
and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to
mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise
again.
And in this passage we see one part of the conspiracy to kill Him.
Being political to the utmost and crafty politicians the priests, scribes, and
elders along with the chief priest, Caiaphas conspire together.
Matthew 26:6 ¶ Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7 There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 8 But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? 9 For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10 When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11 For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. 12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. 13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.
As I have said earlier I didn’t want to make this study a
harmonization of the gospels as different eyewitness accounts will contain a
slightly different version of events witnessed. For practical purposes I’m
going in the assumption that this isn’t Mary, Lazarus’ sister from John 12:3,
that this is a different event though similar. This woman in this account in
Matthew, like so many other figures in the Bible, is not named but holds a
special place in God’s heart and performs a special role. We know nothing of
her life from Matthew, how long or short it may have been, or how happy or sad
it may have been. But we know that she has been remembered throughout the ages
as performing this token of compassion and devotion on the Saviour of mankind.
Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem. See John 11:18. Simon
the leper must have been cured or he would not have been allowed to live in a
town, John Gill said. Gill also remarked
about the actions of this woman in his commentary found free online.
The pouring of this ointment on the head of
Christ was emblematical of his being anointed with the oil of gladness above
his fellows; of his having the holy Spirit, and his gifts and graces without
measure; which, like the ointment poured on Aaron's head, that ran down to his
beard, and the skirts of his garments, descends to all the members of his
mystical body: and was a symbol of the Gospel, which is like ointment poured
forth; and of the sweet savour of the knowledge of Christ, which was to be
diffused, throughout all the world, by the preaching of it; and was done by
this woman in the faith of him, as the true Messiah, the Lord's anointed, as
the prophet, priest, and king of his church.[1]
Such a box of ointment, if it was a pound as in
John 12, could have cost a year’s wages, or so I have read. It was very
expensive.
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