Big Idea: Matthew contrasts the Jewish leaders and Judas, who conspire against Jesus, and even the disciples, who continue to lack understanding about Jesus’ impending death, with an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus for his burial, pointing toward his missional death to bring covenant renewal through the forgiveness of sins.
Understanding the Text
Chapters 26–28 narrate the passion and resurrection of Jesus. After Jesus predicts his coming death again (26:2; also 16:21; 17:22–23; 20:17–19), Matthew narrates the plot against Jesus by the Jewish leaders (26:3–5; also 12:14; 21:45–46). The woman who anoints Jesus (26:6–13) is the first of a number of women highlighted in the Passion Narrative who display discipleship qualities or remain with Jesus when the Twelve desert him (27:19, 55–56, 61; 28:1–10). The scene in which Jesus shares the Passover with his disciples (26:17–30) highlights Judas’s betrayal (26:23–25; see 26:14–16, 47–50) and Jesus’ sacrifice and death “for the forgiveness of sins” (see 1:21).
Interpretive Insights
26:1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things. This formula has concluded each of the major Matthean discourses containing Jesus’ teaching (7:28; 11:1; 13:53; 19:1). In this final repetition of the formula Matthew includes “all” to provide a summative reference to the teachings of Jesus. At this point in the story Jesus has concluded his teachings as he turns to his final days in Jerusalem.
26:2 the Passover is two days away. Matthew sets the context for Jesus’ coming death during the Passover festival (as do all the Gospels) and will portray Jesus making specific connections between the Passover meal and his death (26:20–29).
the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified. Jesus has predicted his crucifixion during his travels to Jerusalem (16:21; 17:22–23; 20:17–19). Here he reaffirms that his journey will end on a cross.
26:3 Caiaphas. Caiaphas was high priest in the years AD 18–36, a religious and political role. According to Josephus, (Joseph) Caiaphas was appointed by Pilate’s predecessor, Valerius Gratus (Ant. 18.35).
26:5 there may be a riot among the people. During Passover, one of the three major Jewish festivals, Jerusalem and its environs swelled with pilgrims coming to celebrate. Given its ties to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt (Exod. 12–14), Passover held the potential for revolutionary activity. Josephus, for instance, speaks of the Roman procurator Cumanus (mid-first century), who feared that the large number of people attending the Passover “might afford occasion for an uprising [and] ordered one company of soldiers to take up arms and stand guard on the porticoes of the temple so as to quell any uprising that might occur” (Ant. 20.106 [see also Matt. 27:24]).
26:6 alabaster jar of very expensive perfume. Perfumes were used in preparing a body for burial. If the woman intended her actions to prepare for Jesus’ burial (26:12), then it is ironic that she, although not privy to Jesus’ passion predictions, understands his mission, while his disciples, who have heard of his coming death four times now, do not (16:21; 17:22–23; 20:17–19; 26:1–2).
26:11 The poor you will always have with you. Jesus justifies the unnamed woman’s act of anointing him for burial by alluding to Deuteronomy 15:11. In Deuteronomy the context focuses on care for the poor, with its refrain about being “openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy” (15:11 [cf. 15:8, 10]). And this context is certainly something that Jesus and Matthew would have been aware of. So it is inappropriate to take this statement from Matthew (or Deuteronomy) and universalize what was quite specific to the unique event of Jesus’ coming death; that is, this statement should not be interpreted proverbially as an excuse to avoid merciful care for the poor. In fact, by allusion to Deuteronomy, the context of care for the poor is likely relevant to the Matthean context. In other words, care for the poor should be a Christian duty because ongoing poverty will require such action (cf. 25:31–46).
26:13 what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. The woman who has anointed Jesus as preparation for his burial, although unnamed, is promised that her action will be recounted wherever the gospel itself is proclaimed. This statement highlights the centrality of Jesus’ death within the good news.
26:14 Judas Iscariot. Matthew has referred to Jesus’ disciple Judas Iscariot previously with the descriptor “who betrayed him [Jesus]” (10:4). So the reader is prepared for the act of betrayal here, although there is no specific reason provided for his betrayal other than his request for payment.
26:16 Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Matthew has already indicated that the Jewish leaders desire to arrest Jesus in secret and, if at all possible, not during the Passover festival, so as to avoid rioting (26:3–5). This sets the context for Judas watching for an opportune time to betray Jesus to the authorities, presumably at night and outside the city in order to avoid a public arrest in front of a sympathetic crowd (see 26:47). In fact, hints of secrecy occur across the rest of this chapter (e.g., 26:18, 20 [see commentary], 48; and in Jesus’ rather cryptic responses at 26:25 and 64).
26:17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Although the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread originally seem to have been two distinct feasts (Exod. 12:1–30), at some point they began to be celebrated as a single festival (Deut. 16:1–8; Philo, Spec. Laws2.150). The combined festival lasted from Nisan (the Jewish month corresponding to March/April) 14 to 21, with the first day (Nisan 14) being the day on which the lambs were sacrificed; presumably this is the day Matthew refers to here.1
26:18 Go into the city to a certain man. The Greek word for “a certain man” (deina) occurs only here in the New Testament and is used when a speaker wants the person’s identity to remain unknown (or simply does not know it [BDAG 215]). With deina, Matthew indicates that Jesus has prearranged a location for the Passover meal that he will share with his disciples. The reference may also indicate the secretive nature of their plans, especially if Jesus is planning to celebrate the meal on Nisan 14 rather than Nisan 15 (see comments on 26:20).
26:20 When evening came. This clause (opsias genomenes) is usually taken to indicate that Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Passover meal on Nisan 15 (as all Jews would), since in Jewish reckoning each new day begins at nightfall. In this scenario, the disciples have prepared for the Passover meal sometime during the daytime hours on Nisan 14 and eat the meal with Jesus after sundown (per Jewish custom) on Nisan 15.
R. T. France persuasively suggests that this temporal clause refers to later the same evening (“later on”), as in 14:23 (opsias genomenes), where it does not make sense to have an inauguration of evening when evening has already arrived at 14:15 (opsias genomenes). If this is correct, then Jesus has prearranged a clandestine Passover meal with his disciples (see 26:18). He then has his disciples prepare the meal at the beginning of Nisan 14 just after sundown, when they would attract less attention than in daylight. Even later into the evening (Nisan 14), they celebrate the Passover in secrecy, the day before the large crowds in Jerusalem would be celebrating it. By that time, Jesus will already be dead. This scenario fits the hints of secrecy that run through chapter 26 (see 26:16), explains the omission of a lamb at the meal, and coheres with John’s chronology of Jesus’ death.2
26:24 just as it is written about him. Throughout Matthew’s Gospel the theme of Scripture’s fulfillment in Jesus has been emphasized. Jesus’ passion is also deliberately set in the context of Scripture’s fulfillment. Here and at 26:54 and 26:56 Scripture and the prophets provide the context and reason for Jesus’ arrest and missional death.
26:26 Take and eat; this is my body. Jesus draws on the Passover meal to infuse meaning into his coming death. Matthew has already highlighted the theme of Jesus as enacting return from exile and new exodus (as these themes converge in Isaiah [e.g., Matt. 1–4; 14:19]). The same connection is made here by identifying Jesus with the Passover sacrifice that brings forgiveness and freedom.
26:28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. The phrase “blood of the covenant” is an allusion to Exodus 24:8, where Moses sprinkles sacrificial blood on the people to ratify Yahweh’s covenant with them (with identical wording in the Septuagint). This allusion points to Jesus as the climax of the covenant. Some commentators also see an allusion to Isaiah 53:11–12 in the language of “poured out for many,” a text already evoked at 20:28 (“a ransom for many”).[3] Finally, this climactic narrative moment brings full circle the promise of the angel that Jesus will “save his people from their sins” (1:21).
Some manuscripts include the adjective “new” before “covenant,” but it is more likely that copyists added the word to conform to Luke 22:20 than that scribes omitted it. Also, Matthew seems to be cautious in using this adjective (see the sidebar “What’s ‘New’ in Matthew?” in the unit on 9:9–34).
Teaching the Text
Jesus as the Messiah will bring covenant renewal and forgiveness of sins by his missional death. By connecting Jesus’ coming death with the Passover celebration in very specific ways, Matthew indicates that Jesus ushers in a new exodus or deliverance. The hope for such a new exodus comes from Isaiah’s vision of God returning to Israel in restoration; this Isaianic vision is drawn with allusions to the exodus from Egypt, with its parting of the waters and God’s victory over Pharaoh (e.g., Isa. 43:16–19; 48:20–21; 51:9–11). Isaiah’s message is implicit but clear: just as God redeemed Israel from their Egyptian oppressors, so God would bring restoration from Babylon. Matthew picks up this theme as fitting to the redemption God brings through Jesus at the fullness of time. With his statement that the Passover bread is his body (26:26),
Jesus was drawing into one event a millennium and more of Jewish celebrations. The Jews had believed for some while that the original Exodus pointed on to a new one, in which God would do at last what...
he had long promised: he would forgive the sins of Israel and the world, once and for all. Sin, a far greater slave-master than Egypt had ever been, would be defeated in the way God defeated not only Egypt but also the Red Sea. And now Jesus, sitting there at a secret meal in Jerusalem, was saying, by what he was doing as much as by the words he was speaking: this is the moment. This is the time. And it’s all because of what’s going to happen to me.4
So how can this theme of Jesus inaugurating the new exodus impact our preaching? This theme seems particularly fruitful as we prepare people to celebrate the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist. As we commemorate Jesus’ death in the Lord’s Supper, we can provide rich resources to people by highlighting the connections between Jesus’ offering of himself for our salvation and the Jewish celebration of and hope for God’s continued saving work. We can preach with confidence that it is God’s pattern to save and redeem; salvation does not begin with Jesus, though it most certainly culminates in him. And by emphasizing the connection between the Lord’s Supper and the Jewish hopes for God’s new exodus, we tap a deep vein within the Scriptures about God’s commitment to restoration and the newness of salvation available then and now for God’s people; as we read in Isaiah 43:16–19,
This is what the Lord says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.”
Illustrating the Text
Jesus as the Messiah will bring covenant renewal and forgiveness of sins by his missional death.
Christian Liturgy: Alexander Schmemann describes the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) as a kind of entry into a fourth dimension. By doing so, he intimates the way this celebration of the church points ahead to the newness of salvation and the final consummation of the kingdom.
The liturgy of the Eucharist is best understood as a journey or procession. It is the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom. . . . Our entrance into the presence of Christ is an entrance into a fourth dimension which allows us to see the ultimate reality of life. It is not an escape from the world, rather it is the arrival at a vantage point from which we can see more deeply into the reality of the world.5
Quote: N. T. Wright explores the connection between sin and death, helping us to understand more deeply Jesus’ reflection on his coming death “for the forgiveness of sins” (26:28).
To be released from sin is to be released from death, and since Jesus died in a representative capacity for Israel, and hence for the whole human race, and hence for the whole cosmos (that is how the chain of representation works), his death under the weight of sin results immediately in release for all those held captive by its guilt and power. . . . Forgiveness of sins in turn (just as in Isaiah 54–55) means new creation, since the anti-creation force of sin has been dealt with. And new creation begins with the word of forgiveness heard by the individual sinner.6
Christian Music: African American spirituals often draw on exodus imagery, with its vision of God’s action to free Israel from Egyptian slavery. Because African Americans experienced brutal slavery themselves, many songs of the slave community spoke to their longing for freedom from slavery and for freedom in Christ. One such song, “Oh, Mary,” celebrates God’s victory in the exodus as an expression of the singer’s hopes for freedom.
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep, don’t you mourn.
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep, don’t you mourn.
Pharaoh’s army got drowned.
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep.
Some of these mornings bright and fair,
Take my wings and cleave the air.
Pharaoh’s army got drowned.
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep.