Matthew 26

Study Guide 91: Matthew 26-27 JESUS’ TRIAL AND DEATH Overview Each of the Gospel writers speaks in detail of the last few days of Jesus’ life. The Cross, with the Resurrection which followed, is clearly the focus of the Gospel story. Each of the Gospel writers adds details not included by the others. By studying the four accounts, we can know what happened almost hour by hour. For instance, we know that Jesus had not just one trial, but six! He was taken from court to court, examined (at times in actual violation of Jewish Law), and shunted off to another jurisdiction. Finally He was condemned by Pilate, the Roman governor, who alone had authority to pronounce the death sentence.

Jesus’ religious trials Before AnnasJoh_18:12-14 Before CaiaphasMat_26:57-68 Before the SanhedrinMat_27:1-2

Jesus’ civil trials Before PilateLuke 22:66-23:7 Before HerodLuk_23:8-12 Before PilateLuk_23:13-25While the Gospels tell the story of Jesus’ death, we need to look to the Old Testament and to the Epistles to explain its meaning. How good to lead our group to sense once again the wonder of what Jesus did on Calvary for you and me. How great the price of our salvation.

Commentary If Jesus’ prophetic picture of the kingdom’ s future has its roots in the Old Testament, what is about to happen has even deeper roots. All of revelation focuses on the events of the next few days: Millennia and centuries of time strain forward to it, while additional millennia and centuries find meaning by looking back to it. Matthew puts it in perspective as he gives us Jesus’ words: “ As you know, the Passover is two days away” (Matthew 26:2).

Passover The Passover marked the Jewish new year: it was the time of beginnings for Israel. The annual festival recalled a historic event which marked a true spiritual beginning for God’ s Old Testament people. Exodus 11:1-10 and Exodus 12:1-51 record the story. Great plagues had ruined the land of Egypt in Moses’ day, but they had failed to move Egypt’ s ruler to let Israel, then a slave race, go. God then determined a final judgment. But He instructed each Hebrew family to select a lamb, to be kept in the home for four days. On the fourth day the lamb was to be killed, and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of each Jewish home. The lamb itself was to be roasted and eaten. The night this happened, God’ s death angel swept through the land of Egypt. Each home unprotected by the blood of the lamb suffered the loss of its firstborn son. But the homes marked out by the blood of the Passover lamb were safe. Impelled by the horror of the multiple deaths, Pharaoh released the Jews. Israel had been redeemed by death from slavery, to fulfill its destiny as the people of God. And God commanded the Jews, each year after this event, to commemorate it by reenactment. Fresh lambs were slain, fresh blood sprinkled, and each generation was taught again the lesson that freedom could come only through the shedding of the blood of the lamb. This Passover. This Passover, Jesus was about to fulfill the deepest meaning of the Old Testament celebration rite. Passover not only looked back to the Exodus; it looked forward to the Cross. “ The Passover is two days away,” Jesus said, “ and the Son of man will be handed over to be crucified” (Matthew 26:2). John the Baptist had foreseen it that day back at the River Jordan. “ Look,” he said, “ the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) For three to four years after this Jesus had been among the Jewish people, teaching, healing, caring. But then, when Passover came, like the lambs that represented Him, Jesus had to die. He had to die that through His death those who sprinkle His blood by faith on the doorposts of their hearts might know the ultimate freedom. Through the blood of Christ we are freed from sin and from sin’ s power — freed even from the fear of death. The culminating act of service and self-giving had been clearly taught in the Old Testament, even apart from the Passover symbolism. We see it, for instance, in Isaiah 53:1-12. The death of Christ and its meaning are so clearly portrayed in this passage that we can hardly believe we are reading words penned over 600 years before Jesus’ birth! He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of My people He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the Lord’ s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:2-12 The Last Days: Matthew 26-27 The culminating events occurred with tragic swiftness. Matthew describes them. Jesus was anointed with expensive ointment, an act symbolic of preparation for burial (Matthew 26:6). Judas slipped away to make an arrangement with the chief priests to betray Jesus to them when the crowds were not present. He settled on a price: 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16). When morning came, Jesus sent His disciples to arrange a hall where they would eat the Passover meal together (Matthew 26:17-19). That night, after the meal and before the discourse recorded in John 13-16, Judas left again to finalize plans for Jesus’ betrayal (Matthew 26:20-29). On the way out of Jerusalem, Jesus told the disciples that they would all flee and leave Him to face His fate alone. Peter led a chorus of objectors: no, all would die with Him before they would desert Him! (Matthew 26:30-35) Arriving at a garden called Gethsemane, Jesus asked His disciples to wait as He went aside to pray. This deeply moving prayer, in which Jesus expressed the agony He felt approaching the Cross, is recorded for us by Matthew (Matthew 26:36-39). But the disciples were too tired to be moved. They drifted off to sleep. Christ, feeling the utter loneliness of the condemned, urged them to stay awake to watch with Him. But again they dozed off as Christ returned to prayer (Matthew 26:40-46). Then the light of flickering torches was seen, and sounds of an armed mob was heard. Led by Judas, the mob hung back until he advanced to identify Jesus with a kiss (Matthew 26:45-50). Immediately the crowd surged forward, and servants of the priests roughly pinned Jesus’ arms behind Him! Bravely, Peter drew a sword and struck out! “ Put it away,” Jesus told him. If Christ had intended to resist, angel armies could have been summoned. “ But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:54) When Jesus turned to face the mob, the disciples scattered (Matthew 26:51-56). Then began the long night of trials. Jesus was taken first to the high priest’ s home, where the council was gathered to try Him at night (an illegal act under Jewish Law). Witnesses were brought forward to accuse Him, but even their lies could not raise an issue meriting death. Finally the high priest asked Jesus directly: “ Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63). Christ answered: “ Yes, it is as you say. But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64). The high priest rightly recognized this as an affirmation by Jesus of Deity, at which he cried out, “ Blasphemy!” And blasphemy is a crime for which the Old Testament prescribes death (Matthew 26:57-65). The court then passed its judgment. “ He is worthy of death” (Matthew 26:66). Immediately they began to treat Jesus as a convicted felon, slapping Him and spitting on Him and mocking Him (Matthew 26:66-68). Meanwhile, Peter was sitting outside the high priest’ s house. Peter had run. But he still had enough courage to trail the crowd that guarded Jesus. Yet, when Peter was accused by a serving maid and then other bystanders of being a follower of Jesus, Peter denied it with a curse! Then a cock crowed, and Peter remembered that when Jesus told the disciples they would scatter, Christ had also told Peter that he would deny the Lord three times before morning. Sobbing uncontrollably, Peter stumbled away into the dawn (Matthew 26:69-75). Back inside, the rulers of the Jews had a problem. The Romans ruled Palestine. While the Jews had a large measure of self-government, they did not have the authority to execute. So the leaders packed Jesus off to Pilate, the Roman governor. Meanwhile, Judas had discovered that Christ was actually condemned to death! Hurrying back to the temple priests, Judas returned the 30 pieces of silver, and wailed, “ I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). Unmoved, these men whose office made them mediators between sinners and God, coldly replied, “ What is that to us? That’ s your responsibility” (Matthew 27:4). Throwing down the money, Judas rushed out — and hanged himself. And the priests, ever careful to keep the letter of the Law whose spirit and intent they daily distorted, argued over the blood money which it was not “ lawful” to put back into the temple treasury! At last they decided to use the money to buy a burial ground for indigents (Matthew 27:3-10). Jesus then stood before the Roman governor. There He admitted that He was indeed King of the Jews. Beyond this, Jesus refused to defend Himself (Matthew 27:11-14). Pilate was clearly unhappy with the situation. Even while sitting on his judgment seat, a messenger from Pilate’ s wife arrived, told Pilate of a dream she had had, and warned Pilate to have nothing to do with “ that innocent man” (Matthew 27:19). Squirming, Pilate offered the crowd, which had by then gathered, a choice. He would release Jesus or Barabbas, a murderer who was also sentenced to death. And the crowd, urged on by the leaders, shouted out that Barabbas should be freed. As for Jesus, “ Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:22) Pilate tried to reason with the mob. But their only response was to chant, repeating over and over again with bestial rhythm, “ Crucify Him!” Overwhelmed by the passion of the mob, Pilate feared a riot. Historic research suggests that Pilate held his post due to the influence of a man who had recently been executed in Rome. Terrified that the Jews would now accuse him of supporting some other “ king” than Caesar, Pilate permitted Jesus’ execution. And the Jews accepted the implications of Pilate’ s symbolic hand-washing: “ His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Then Pilate released Barabbas, and turned Jesus over to the soldiers to be beaten and mocked in preparation for His execution (Matthew 27:26-31). On the way out of the city to the killing grounds, Jesus stumbled and fell under the weight of His cross. A visitor to the city, Simon, was pulled from the crowd by the soldiers and made to carry it for Him. At the place of execution, called Golgotha, a sign was nailed to the cross, reading THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS (Matthew 27:37). When all was ready, Jesus refused a drugged drink designed to lessen the pain. Prostrate on the wooden post, spikes were driven through His living flesh. Then, with a tearing jolt, the pole was lifted — hung poised — and dropped into the hole prepared to receive it. Jesus, King of the Jews, hung outlined against the sky, flanked by two dying criminals. Jesus, who walked the lanes of Palestine to heal the sick and feed the hungry, to free men and women tormented in the grip of demons, was hanging in suspended agony as passersby paused to watch — and ridicule (Matthew 27:32-44). Suddenly, about noon, grim darkness blotted out the sun. A hush fell. Near three in the afternoon the figure on the cross convulsed, and cried out: “ My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) “ What’ s happening?” the watchers whispered to each other. One ran to Him, to again offer Him the drug. Others held back. “ Leave Him alone. Let’ s see if Elijah comes to save Him.” Ghoulishly curious, strangely uninvolved, they watched as the drama unfolded. Then came another cry from the cross — a cry like a triumphant shout. The figure jerked — then slumped in relaxation against the brutal metal restraints. Finished with His work, Jesus had dismissed His spirit (Matthew 27:45-50). LINK TO LIFE: YOUTH / ADULT Help your group experience the events at Calvary in a totally new way. Give each an 8 x 11 sheet of paper, containing a sketch of Calvary hill with the three crosses. Have pairs read Matthew 27:32-56. Each pair is (1) to identify the individuals and groups who witnessed the Crucifixion, and (2) to locate them on the hill, according to their relative distance from Jesus. When this is done, ask each person to meditate for a moment on which of the witnesses he or she feels was most like him or her. Then, ask each to speak as that person, telling what he or she saw and how he or she felt. Move around the room, letting each person tell of the Crucifixion from the viewpoint of the person he or she chose. The very moment Jesus died, the temple curtain, which cut off access to the holy of holies, was torn in two from top to bottom. An earthquake struck, rocks were ripped apart, old tombs opened, and dead men and women stood. Stunned and awestruck, the Roman officer in charge of the execution detail, blurted out, “ Surely He was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54) At evening Pilate received a rich man who asked for the privilege of burying Jesus’ body. Gently, the servant King’ s form was laid to rest in a tomb hewn from rock. A great stone was rolled to block the door — and Jesus’ sorrowing followers departed (Matthew 27:57-61). Unmoved by these events just as they had been unmoved by Christ’ s miracles, the leaders of the Jews hurried to Pilate. They told him of Jesus’ talk of rising from the dead, and urged the Roman governor to place a military guard over the tomb to keep the disciples from stealing the body. Soldiers were assigned from troops detailed to the high priest’ s guard. The boulder was sealed, the guard set. And the chief priests and Pharisees retired. Triumphant? Afraid? We do not know. But surely Jesus Himself was dead. There was nothing to do but wait. And so, these men desperately believed, His story had at last come to a fitting end.

Why? All Christians from the earliest days of the church have looked to Jesus’ cross and resurrection as the central facts of the Christian faith, through which the incarnate God reconciled us to Himself. Peter, in his first sermon, said that this Jesus was “ handed over to you by God’ s set purpose and foreknowledge” — and loosed from death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him” (Acts 2:23-24). Only much later would this question be asked: “ Why was Jesus’ death essential in God’ s ‘ definite plan’ ?” Atonement theories. One of the first theories advanced saw Jesus’ death as a ransom price paid to the devil, in whose kingdom mankind lived enchained. But Christ died not to pay, but to “ destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Christ’ s death was no price paid to Satan but a battleground on which Satan met decisive defeat. Anselm of Canterbury (a.d. eleventh/ twelfth century) probed more deeply to explore why God’ s love is expressed through atonement. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Tenney) summarizes Anselm’ s answer expressed in Cur Deus Homo (Why did God become man?): His answer was that though prompted by His love to redeem us, God must do so in a manner consistent with His justice. The necessity of the Atonement, then, is an inference from the character of God. Sin is a revolt against God and He must inevitably react against it with wrath. Sin creates an awful liability and the inexorable demands of the divine justice must be met. The truth that God is love does not stand alone in the Bible. The God of the Bible keeps wrath for His enemies (Nahum 1:2); He is “ of purer eyes than to behold evil” (Habakkuk 1:13, KJV). The God of Jesus is to be feared as One “ who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). “ The wrath of God,” Paul wrote, “ is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18). Therefore the death of Christ is the way in which God shows that He is righteous in forgiving sins and justifying him who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26). God justly demands satisfaction for one’ s sins, and since by Christ’ s death satisfaction is given, the sinner is forgiven and punishment remitted. Anselm’ s theory, of vicarious or substitutionary Atonement, has dominated orthodox tradition. Christ’ s death is seen as for us, and in our place. A third theory, which has characterized liberal Protestantism, is the “ moral influence” theory. This also has its roots in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. According to this theory, Jesus’ death demonstrates God’ s forgiving love, and stirs up a responding love in men, which leads them to repent of their sins. Scripture’ s testimony. Scripture itself speaks with a clear and unmistakable voice about the death of Christ and its meaning. It is so clear that “ Atonement theories” hardly seem needed: the Word is explicit. In fact, the Law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22This Priest [Christ] . . . offered for all time one sacrifice for sins. . . . Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 10:14[Jesus said,] “ This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:28God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’ s wrath through Him! Romans 5:8-9God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed before unpunished — He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25-26For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. . . . But now He has reconciled you by Christ’ s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:19-22But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace. Ephesians 2:13-14He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood. Revelation 1:5He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. God . . . reconciled us to Himself through Christ . . . not counting men’ s sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:15, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21Bearing the full weight of our sin, and in our place, Jesus shed His blood. To set us free. LINK TO LIFE: CHILDREN Boys and girls can understand that Jesus has paid for our sins. Modern signs visualize what used to be spelled out. For instance, “ no turns” is indicated by an arrow, set in a circle with a bar across it (see sketch). After telling about Jesus’ death to take the punishment for our sins and save us from eternal death, have your boys and girls makeup their own signs telling what Jesus has done for us. First, on half a potato carve a cross so that it sticks out from the surface (see illustration). Have your boys and girls draw pictures in circles about the size of the potato to suggest punishment or death. Then let each press the potato on a stamp pad, and stamp over the picture he has drawn. It is the cross that cancels our punishment and cancels the power of death. Because of Jesus, we are on the road to heaven and the good news is, “ No punishment!” “ No death!”

Teaching Guide Prepare Read Matthew 26:1-75 and Matthew 27:1-66 as though hearing the story for the first time. How does the story make you feel?

Explore Have pairs read the report of the events at Calvary. Use the identification activity explained in the “ link-to-life” above to help your group members enter into the Calvary events in a new way.

Expand

1. Sketch the three theories of the Atonement mentioned in this chapter. Then have your group members read through Isaiah 53:1-12 carefully. From this passage, what would you say in answer to Anselm’ s question, Cur Deus Homo?2. Or have your group members use a concordance to look up verses like the ones quoted at the end of this study guide that tell of the meaning of Jesus’ death. Use “ blood” as they key word. From these verses, how would your group sum up the meaning of Jesus’ death on the cross?

Apply Pray together, expressing your praise and thanks to Jesus for His sacrifice, and for the forgiveness that death assures you and all who believe.