How can I do something beautiful that will last?

“A Beautiful Thing”

(Matthew 26:1-16, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, September 21, 2008)

Matthew 26:1-16 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." 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.

Introduction – Fading glory

It is one of the great frustrations that we face in this current age that glory fades. An unusual thing has happened recently that fashion leaders and the buying public have embraced this fading glory and have begun to promote things that are already worn out. Why wait for a hole to form in the knee of your jeans when you can buy a pair that is already worn out? Eventually even those worn out new things become really worn out, and it all gets thrown away some time or other. This is an age where things come and go.

We all long for something that will last, for a glory that will not fade. Moses met with God on Mount Sinai and then in the tabernacle. When he had been with God, his face was shining with the glory of God’s presence. He wore something over His face, presumably because close contact with the physical glory of God is dangerous for us in our sin. Eventually he could take off the cover, because the glory of God on his face had faded.

As we see the beauty of Christ in His Word, the Apostle Paul tells us that we are permitted to have something that lasts. Something within us changes and we are transformed and moved from glory to glory. This is a wonderful thing for our souls, and a taste of the age to come, the age beyond fading glory, the age of an eternal glory. Yet we also long to do some beautiful and lasting thing with our lives in this fading world. In Matthew 26 we have testimony of various actions surrounding the betrayal and death of Jesus Christ that have come down to us through the Word. One of these actions from a few days earlier was very beautiful, and was something that Jesus said should and would be remembered wherever the good news of His death would be preached.

The final lamb (1-2)

It is not unheard of us for us to speak of a death as good news. Many elderly or infirm people face great pain and suffering in the last period of their lives, and there is some measure of relief for us when we hear of the end of that suffering. We speak of the death of Jesus as good news for a different reason. It was an end to His suffering in a world of such little faith, but we talk about His death as a good thing because His death was full of such meaning.

Jesus was the final Passover lamb. When the Son of Man was delivered up to be crucified, something powerful was happening. It was fitting that it happened at the time of the last Passover of the Old Covenant era. Sacrificial lambs were sacrificed by the families of the Israelites on the night that they were delivered out of slavery in Egypt so many centuries before. That blood was such good news of safety and life that it was placed above the doors of all the Hebrew homes by the commandment of God. It was a symbol of something powerful and effective. The firstborn throughout Egypt would be struck down, but the Hebrews would live by the blood of the lamb.

Biblical religion is not a spirituality of magic but a faith of testimony. The blood of the lamb did not work by magic. It was a testimony to the long-expected Messiah, the God-Man who would live without sin, and then atone for our transgressions through the cross. Jesus knew that He was this Lamb. His death on the cross was such good news because it was the reality that the custom of Passover had testified about for centuries. God commanded the Hebrews to sacrifice lambs not just on the first night when the justice of God passed over the Israelites. God told them to do this every year as a testimony to that great deliverance in their past. It was also a testimony to a much bigger deliverance in the future, a deliverance that would bring millions not yet born into the assurance of eternal glory. The death that Jesus was to die was not simply a testimony to a coming atonement. It was the real thing. By this great and full atonement, something very powerful and beautiful had finally come.

They plotted together to kill him (3-5)

Our response to the fact of Jesus and to His own obvious awareness of the importance of His death is the most important thing in our lives. Who is this Lamb of God? How is it that He knows that He is going to be handed over to be crucified? How will we respond to His confidence and determination in the face of His impending death?

The chief priests and the elders are clear in their response to Jesus. They gather together and they seek to agree on a plot to have Him secretly arrested. They determine to decouple the death of Jesus and the celebration of the Passover, not for theological reasons, but on pragmatic grounds. They know that the crowds seem to be attracted Jesus, and they conclude that it would be dangerous to attempt to execute their plans during the Passover. Their plan is to kill Him and His plan is to die, but beyond this point His plans diverge from theirs. He will die at the time of Passover, the Romans will be involved in His death, His death will come by the Roman method of crucifixion and not by the Torah method of stoning, and the crowd will surprisingly approve of His death. All these things would take place according to the Scriptures. It should be very clear that these religious leaders were not in charge of these events, since these things did not happen according to their plans.

Very expensive and very beautiful (6-13)

Some men approach the Christ with hostility. Many other men, including his disciples, seem to be ignorant of what is happening right in front of their eyes, despite the fact that Jesus tells them explicitly several times about what is about to take place. But there is at least one woman who seems to have neither hatred nor ignorance concerning Jesus, and she decides to do something about His approaching death. She gives testimony to it. Just as the celebration of Passover was a testimony of something more than the Israelites understood over the centuries of saying the words commanded by Moses, this one woman (unnamed here, but apparently Mary of Bethany) may not fully appreciate what the death of Christ means. She does know that it is going to happen, and she uses a very costly anointing oil to give testimony to everyone of the coming death of Jesus.

We know that this is her intention not from her own explanation. Jesus speaks of her actions, and He commends her in the face of the ignorant opposition of Judas and the other disciples. They consider what she has done to be a waste. It seems like a perfect example of fading glory. A very costly liquid is poured on His head. It has an overwhelming smell, but how long will that last? The whole action seems inappropriate on so many levels. But Jesus calls it a beautiful thing; a testimony of faith in the reality of His imminent death, a testimony that will be remembered. It is not the only thing that will be remembered. We will also remember the hatred of the Jewish leaders and the ignorance of the men who were the disciples of Jesus. They trouble this woman and accuse her of ridiculous waste, and insensitivity to the needs of the poor. Jesus dismisses their foolishness with two amazing revelations given to those around the table that day: 1. You will not always have me, and 2. My death is good news that will be proclaimed throughout the world. What confidence and accuracy!

What will you give me if I deliver him over to you? (14-16)

Judas Iscariot is not impressed. This close associate of Jesus takes a decisive step in the plan of God that was foretold in the Psalms. He begins the process of betraying his friend. He went to the chief priests. He asked them what they would give him for his betrayal of the Lord, and then he took the full advanced payment that they weighed out to him. From that moment on he was looking for his opportunity to turn over Jesus to his enemies. This too would be remembered in the written accounts of the suffering of the Son of Man.

How do you want to be remembered? You don’t always get to choose. Many people are remembered for something they tried to hide from everybody for years. Alger Hiss allegedly betrayed the United States as a Soviet spy. He denied it to his death, but his name was recorded in Russian records that have since been uncovered. Though some people continue to claim his innocence, history will probably remember him as a traitor. It is not only people who are thought of as traitors who are remembered for unflattering actions or affections. Even a David can barely be spoken of without thinking of Uriah the Hittite. How do you want to be remembered?

Almost everything that you do will be forgotten within a very short period of time. Even if you could have something remembered for the rest of this age, it might end up being a matter of fading glory when Christ returns with the power of overwhelming resurrection and renewal. Even many great achievements dating from this age will not even be worthy of a footnote in the age to come. The cross of Christ will be known forever. Everything done for Christ and His people will be known. Now is the time to buy your costly ointment and to pour it over the head of the King that you love. That will be remembered, because your labors in the Lord are not in vain. Those will be seen as beautiful in a world where the glory of Christ will never fade. Let us earnestly dedicate ourselves to that kind of testimony, rather than to those things that only show off our sin from our days in the world of fading glory.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the connection between the Passover and the cross? Is the timing of the cross significant?

2. Reflect on the various unflattering decisions and actions that are remembered in this passage?

3. What insights can we garner from the actions of the woman with the jar of precious ointment?

4. What are some of the challenges that we face in a world of fading glory? How can we do things that will last?