Matthew 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.” 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.”

We Baptists do not do a lot of anointing with oil. Let me be very clear: I not only do not oppose anointing somebody with oil while praying for them, I actually find it quite beautiful and powerful and biblical and good (“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” James 5:14). I have been asked to do so on occasion over the years, and I am happy to do so. Like all good things, it can be abused, but the abuse of a thing does not render the thing itself inherently wrong (unless, of course, it is!).

I recall one of the first times I was asked to anoint somebody with oil and pray for their healing. I gladly and quickly agreed. I and some others went to the home of this brother. I had brought a little vial of oil. When it came time to pray, I went to pour a drop or two on his head when…you guessed it…a great deal of oil came pouring out in an instant!

I recall trying to hide my surprise as I placed my hand on his oily hair and prayed. We all prayed and, when we finished, we all had a good laugh at how much oil I poured out on him! There was no getting around it: I doused the brother when what I intended was a couple of drops.

But now that I think of it, why not douse with oil when calling for the blessing and favor of God upon another?

Excessive oil is a sign of excessive favor and blessing. Consider, for instance, Psalm 133.

¹ Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! ² It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! ³ It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Or consider our own text, Matthew 26:1–13. The context is very different, but here too we find an excessive, lavish anointing. Here too the greatness of God is extolled, though, here, it is extolled before the approaching storm of the sufferings of the cross.

In our text, a woman lavishly anoints Jesus. Though, for her, it was not an accident. And, in doing so, she is placed in stark contrast not only to those plotting the death of Jesus, but even to the disciples themselves who protest her actions.

Some plot the death of Jesus in order to be rid of Him.

The worship and praise of the woman stands against and as a rebuke to the devilish plotting of those who want to kill Jesus. Our chapter begins with these people of murderous intent.

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

Michael Card points out that here we hear Caiaphas’ name “for the first time,” that Caiaphas “was the longest-reigning high priest in the first century (eighteen years),” and that this period “is a time when high priests were appointed and deposed, exchanged at the whim of the Roman governor.”[1]

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.”

Here we find political, religious intrigue and scheming. Who are these “elders of the people” who plotted with the priests against Jesus? Frank Stagg says that they “were the Sadducean and Pharisaic representatives of the Sanhedrin.”[2] The IVP Bible Background Commentary explains further:

Rome ruled through local aristocracies; the leading priests and elders of Jerusalem largely belonged to the social elite there. Jerusalem’s Sanhedrin, or municipal ruling council, drew from the local elite; despite their influence, their sentiments should not be confused with those of the rest of their people, and certainly not with Jesus’ Jewish followers from Galilee. Most other Jewish groups, including Pharisees and Essenes, had conflicts with this group. A private meeting to plot the execution of a person not yet convicted violated conventional Jewish ethics (and Roman ethics as well).[3]

So we have the religious elites as well as the cultural elites joining together in a demonic scheme. They are focused on the death of Jesus because they want to be rid of Him. And why do they wish to be rid of Jesus? Because what Jesus is saying and what Jesus is doing is subverting the entire religious edifice they have painstakingly built. Jesus’ notion of grace ran afoul of the religious legalisms of the day. Jesus was doing what G.K. Chesterton once advised we all do: “Break the conventions. Keep the commandments.” But what about the people who had confused the conventions with the commandments and who expected others to do the same?

Jesus dared to question the religious leaders and to show all who would listen that these men were blind guides and hypocrites. He questioned their understanding of the scriptures. He questioned their motives and their pretensions. He questioned their treatment of people. He questioned their exaltation of themselves. In short, as Stanley Hauerwas has bluntly stated, “those in power in Israel have had enough of Jesus.”[4] This is so. And they decide to move against Him.

One anoints Jesus for His death in order to worship Him.

Over and against those who thought of the death of Jesus in order to be rid of Him stands one who was moved by the thought of it to worship Him.

Our text has been the occasion of no small degree of questioning over the years. Specifically, the question is whether or not this event is the same as that recorded in Mark, Luke, and John. An ocean of ink has been spilled on these questions, and it focuses on many details: Is the woman in Matthew’s account an unknown woman? Or is it Mary, the sister of Lazarus, as John says? Or are these two separate accounts? Is Simon the leper Lazarus? Or Martha’s husband? Or Mary and Martha’s father? Or are these separate occasions? Or were Mary and Martha and Lazarus guests in the home of this Simon the leper which was also in Bethany? Is this anointing of Jesus’ head the same as the anointing of Jesus’ feet, which were then wiped with Mary’s hair? Did all the disciples protest what they perceived as “waste” or was it only Judas? Etc. etc. etc.

May I suggest that these questions, while interesting, can cause us to miss the point of the text if we are not careful, so we will not pursue them further here. Instead, let us consider this amazing episode as it is presented in our text.

⁶ Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, ⁷ a woman came up to him…

Before we proceed, let us note how these descriptions lift up the surprising character of the kingdom of God. We have here “Simon the leper” and “a woman.” Simon the leper carried his unfortunate “last name” either as a result of an earlier battle with the dreaded disease or possibly because Jesus had healed him of his leprosy. Regardless, he was not now a leper. The name simply followed him, I hope as a celebratory statement of the healing power of Jesus. Regardless, Simon is privileged to provide the house in which this beautiful episode occurs.

And then we find “a woman” who will demonstrate that she, seemingly alone of everybody else in the house, understands what Jesus has been telling them: that He will be delivered over and killed. She is the heroine of this episode and an exemplary model of faith.

A (former) leper. A woman. Two groups not greatly valued in the kingdoms of the world at the time, but, here, the ones through whom God demonstrates generosity and faith. There are no “lesser” people in the kingdom of God!

The spotlight falls now on the woman…who immediately points it back to Jesus!

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.

This ointment was “very expensive,” perhaps as much as one year’s wages. It was a treasure. And she proceeds to “pour it on his head as he reclined at table.”

This was most unexpected, most surprising, most shocking, and, to the disciples, most offensive. Why? Hear the disciples’ ethical protest:

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.”

This sounds so very righteous, does it not? This sounds so very ethical, so very concerned, so very altruistic. “Surely,” the disciples thought, “the Master will not only agree with us, He will be pleased with our rebuke.”

But it is a tricky thing to presume to know what Jesus will say! And the disciples now learn this fact.

¹⁰ But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.”

When Matthew tells us that Jesus was “aware of this,” does this suggest that they were muttering their indignant protest amongst themselves, thinking He would not hear them? Possibly so. But Jesus knows what they are saying, what they are thinking. He calls them out: “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.” That is to say, “You have misunderstood what is happening here. You have completely misunderstood!” He continues:

¹¹ For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

This verse has sometimes troubled believers. Is Jesus communicating indifference toward the poor in saying this? Is He contradicting the biblical injunction that we care for the poor? Is He not saying something that can be easily misconstrued to mean we do not need to provide for those in need?

No, no, and no.

Jesus is saying something here that reflects the uniqueness of the coming self-sacrifice of the Son of God. This is a most exceptional situation!

Jesus is about to offer the greatest gift that the poor of the world—which is to say, all of us—has ever seen: the gift of Himself. The woman’s gift is in recognition of the surpassing value of that gift that Jesus is about to give us all. Further, the words of Iain Duguid are helpful when he writes:

Poverty is neither an insignificant nor a hopeless cause, but it is an ongoing cause. Deuteronomy 15:11 declares, “There will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore . . . ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor.’” The righteous can give to the poor every day. But this day is unique, the day to honor Jesus before his death, before his physical presence on earth ends.[5]

This is true. And this is why the woman makes her shockingly lavish offering.

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.”

So what the woman has done here is not only appropriate but powerful and meaningful and worthy of remembrance! She has anointed the body of Jesus for His burial.

One anonymous commentator called this “profitable waste,” and defined that idea in these terms:

Profitable waste:—That is profitable waste which—I. Makes solid, although often unseen, preparation for the future. II. Sacrifices worldly advantages at the call of God and duty. III. Spends labour, and parts with possessions, in exchange for spiritual attainment. IV. Surrenders life for a blessed immortality.[6]

I like that! Profitable waste. I also like what Hilary of Poitiers wrote in the 4^th century when he observed that this woman’s actions were foretelling the actions of the women at the cross: “special thanks are due to the female gender for the care of the body.” This is so, and we see this fulfilled in Mark 16

¹ When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.

There is a tenderness here, a concern for Jesus, a concern that He be honored, even in death. Did this woman understand all that was about to happen? Did she know about the resurrection? We cannot say. Perhaps not. But this much she did know: Jesus was trying to prepare His followers for something that would be very difficult not only for Him but for them: His death on a cross. And her actions show an awareness that this coming sacrifice was somehow bound up with God’s great plan both for Jesus and for us.

Whatever else she knew or did not know, she certainly did know this: That this coming death did not render Jesus a false prophet or a failure. Rather, in some surprising way, it too was worthy of a hallelujah, was worthy of praise, yes, was worthy of her expensive ointment.

She gave what she had. The disciples were offended. Jesus was touched.

Have you given the same? Have I? Is Jesus worthy of lavish praise?

He is. Yes, He is.

 

[1] Card, Michael. Matthew. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013), p.224.

[2] Frank Stagg, “Matthew.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Gen. ed., Clifton J. Allen. Vol.8 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), p.229.

[3] Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (IVP Bible Background Commentary Set) (p. 113). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[4] Hauerwas, Stanley. Matthew. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006), p.214.

[5] Iain M. Duguid. “ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke.” Apple Books.

[6] Exell, Joseph S. Biblical Illustrator: Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952.