Bible Commentaries
Matthew 26

Verses 1-6

29 See Mat_13:12 ; Luk_:8:18 ; Joh_15:2 .

31 See Mat_19:28 ; Mar_8:38 .

31 The many judgments in the Scriptures should be carefully distinguished as to time and place and participants and the attending circumstances. There is no “general judgment”, for the saints are judged in the cross of Christ. The individual judgment of the unbeliever for his sins does not take place in this life, but in resurrection. All mankind except those who are Christ's will be raised from the dead to stand before the great white throne, which is not set up until after the coming kingdom eon has run its course ( Rev_20:11 ). The judgment here presented differs in time, in place, in character and in purpose. It occurs at the commencement of the kingdom, at His coming in glory, while the great white throne session does not take place until after the thousand years. This judgment is on the earth. The earth will flee before the great white throne ( Rev_20:11 ). Living nations will appear before the Son of Mankind, but only the dead come before the later tribunal. The nations are judged as such, not their sins, but according to their treatment of Israel during the time of their affliction. When God is judging the earth no greater act of righteousness can be done than to feed and shelter His oppressed people. Each faithful Israelite stands in the place of Christ toward the nations. Those who help them do so at the greatest risk, for they may be called to account by the powers that oppose them. This tribunal is not concerned with their ultimate destiny, but with their place in the kingdom. The kingdom will be comprised largely of gentiles, subordinate to Israel politically and religiously, but nevertheless the recipients of much blessing. All that they receive comes to them through Israel, while the present grace which we enjoy comes to us because Israel as a channel is choked, yet the super-abundance of the grace overflows all barriers. We have every reason to treat the Jews with the utmost grace, but our conduct toward them is not a factor in our destiny. We do not enter the kingdom, because we have a higher and more honorable allotment among the celestials.

40 See Mat_10:42 .

40 The “brethren” of Christ, in the kingdom, are His fellow Israelites, in contrast with those of other nations. These do not appear before this tribunal. Their judgment is dealt with in the preceding parables.

41 The Slanderer and his messengers will be the chief instigators of the fearful anti-Semitic outbreak of the end time. It will be the greatest of all pogroms, and men will be urged on by malignant spirit powers to do all that is possible to exterminate the people who refuse to worship Satan's christ, or to bow down to his image. Being superhuman, the wild beast and the false prophet will have their portion in that lake of fire into which the Slanderer is cast more than a millennium later ( Rev_20:10 ).

46 Eonian chastening is here limited to the nations who will not succor the faithful of Israel in their time of sore distress. It has no bearing on the sins of individuals. The justice of fire eonian is disciplinary and corrective (cf Jud_1:7 ).

1-5 Compare Mar_14:1-2 ; Luk_22:1-2 . See Psa_2:2 ; Act_4:25-28 .

1 What a transition from the coming glories to the cross of shame! He has been filling their vision with pictures of Himself as an honorable Lord, a happy Bridegroom, a resplendent Sovereign attended by hosts of angelic servitors. No doubt they had little difficulty in accepting such scenes, for such were the characters of Christ which they could understand. All these portrayals are fulfillments of the festival of Trumpets and of Tabernacles, still six months away, suggestive of the long interval which has already intervened between His sayings and their still future realization. But the Passover was not so far away! It must be fulfilled first! The suffering must precede the glories. Only two days and the first great festival of the Jewish year would find its fulfillment in Him, Already the chief priests were choosing the passover Lamb. They do not want to do it in the festival, but that is the time ordained for the slaying of the type and that is the time when the Antitype must suffer. What a marvelous manifestation of God's wisdom, power and love is concentrated about the cross of Christ!

6-13 Compare Mar_14:3-9 ; Joh_12:1-8 .

Verses 7-32

6 The Lord was twice anointed during the last week of His life, first, six days before the Passover, and on this occasion. One woman anointed His feet, this woman poured the attar on His head. This occurred in connection with presentation to Jerusalem as the King. When a king was crowned in Israel he was anointed with attar. He came, but no one thought of anointing Him. His very disciples resented it. They grudged the price of the attar for the anointing of Messiah! So He applies it to His burial. Yet this unnamed and unknown woman gives Him the honor He deserves!

14-16 Compare Mar_14:10-11 ; Luk_22:3-6 ; Zec_11:12-13 .

14 What a contrast! The woman “wastes” in value much more than what Judas receives for his Lord. This shows their relative estimates of His preciousness. Nothing is wasted which is for His honor. Philanthropy finds its highest expression in the worship of the Man Christ Jesus.

17-19 Compare Mar_14:12-16 ; Luk_22:7-13 . See Exo_12:6-18 .

17 “The first [day] of the unleavened [bread]” is explained in Mark as the day on which the passover must be sacrificed ( Mar_14:12 ). Hence it is not the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread spoken of in the law ( Lev_23:6 ; Num_28:17 ), for that did not come until the day after the Passover proper. It seems that the question was asked at the beginning of the fourteenth of Nisan, just after sundown. As they had little to do in its preparation, but partook of it as guests of an unknown host, there was little time needed to prepare. So that same evening they celebrated it the last time before He Himself became the Passover on the same calendar day. The Jewish days began in the evening and ended the next evening (See Gen_1:5 ). The passover lamb must be slain on the fourteenth of Nisan “between the evenings” ( Lev_23:5 , see verse 32). Hence the Lord fulfilled the law in a double sense. He observed the Passover and was slain as the Passover, all within the limits allowed by the law of Moses. The very wording of the precept was modified to suit the great Antitype.

20-25 Compare Mar_14:17-21 ; Luk_22:14 ; Luk_22:21-23 ; Joh_13:18-30 .

23 See Psa_41:9 .

24 See Psa.22; Isa.53; Dan_9:26 .

24 The case of Judas has an important bearing on the ultimate destiny of the human race and all creation. If it were well for Judas if he had not been born, then there can be no justification of all mankind ( Rom_5:18 ) or reconciliation of all creation ( Col_1:20 ). If he is ultimately justified and reconciled it is well that he has been born. The solution of this difficulty will help us to see the bias which pervades our translations. They deliberately recast the sentence and give it a meaning quite foreign to the text. The Lord speaks of Himself as “Him”, and of Judas as “that man”. It were ideal for the Lord if Judas were not born. The Lord's impending suffering is in view, not the punishment of Judas, whose ultimate destiny is not under consideration.

26-29 Compare Mar_14:22-25 ; Luk_22:19-20 ; 1Co_11:23-26 .

26 The account given here is for the Circumcision. It is seen as a part of the Passover festival and concerns the new covenant for Israel and the pardon of sins. Were it not that it was given to Paul by a special revelation ( 1Co_11:25 ), after he had been separated to his special ministry ( Act_13:2 ) among the nations, and with the particular provision that it should continue until the Lord's coming, we would be tempted to class it with the observances intended only for the Circumcision.

27 In Greek, the present tense of the substantive often indicates a figure of speech. If the Lord were speaking literally of His actual body and blood, He would have omitted the word is. It is a metaphor, in which one thing is not merely stated to be like another, but to be another. It is freely used in interpreting parables, as, “the field is the world” ( Mat_13:38 ). Usually it is not used in stating matters of fact. It may be correctly rendered, means , or represents , in practically every place where it occurs. This distinction cannot be carried over into English, for we always express the verb.

28 See Exo_24:8 ; Lev_17:11 ; Jer_31:31-34 .

29 Compare Luk_22:15-18 .

30-32 Compare Mar_14:26-28 ; Luk_22:39 ; Joh_16:32 .

31 See Zec_13:7 ; Isa_53:4-11 .

32 See Mat_28:7-16 .

Verses 33-54

33-35 Compare Mar_14:29-31 ; Luk_22:31-34 ; Joh_13:36-38 .

33 The Lord had said distinctly that all of them should be snared. Peter's fall began by refusing to believe that the Lord's all meant all. Of course, it could not include him! By exalting himself above the rest he invited the fate of all who walk in pride, who must be abased. The same spirit is rampant today. We hear the loudest protestations of loyalty and devotion to Christ, which, if carried out, would transform the whole world in one generation. There is no doubt that it is honest. Peter fully intended to stand by his Lord to the very death. But he did not know himself or the impotence of the human will. It is the creature and the sport of circumstance. No man can use the emphatic I, as Peter did, and not fall.

36-38 Compare Mar_14:32-34 ; Luk_22:39-40 Joh_18:1-2 .

36 How different it was with our Lord! He was about to brave the most awful battle with the hosts of darkness and their human minions, yet not a boast proceeds from His lips. He shrank from it. He implored to be spared. It was not His will. Hitherto His will and the Father's had been in perfect accord. He acquiesced in it even though it meant failure and defeat. He delighted in it though it brought Him opposition and hate. Yet with all His unparalleled loyalty and devotion, the terrors of the curse, the abandonment by God, were beyond the concurrence of His will. But there is a deeper and more powerful force than this. The heart can subdue the will. Christ had not come to do His own will. So He prayed the prayer that befits us far more than Him, “Not as I will, but as Thou!” No man can use the emphatic “I”, without the negative , and carry out his vaunting. It is the symbol of defeat, “ not I” the banner of victory, though it should lead through the deepest depths to God. Gethsemane should prepare our hearts for the deep unfoldings of the cross. It transforms it from a mere manifestation of human and satanic hate into a deliberate and foreordained act of God. Our Lord did not beg the chief priests for mercy, or Pilate for clemency. He recognized the fact that God alone could deliver Him from their power, and, since this was not His will, He makes not the slightest effort to appease them. Without in the least minimizing the guilt of man or the sin of Satan, we may look beneath all their hateful deeds and see God using them as His puppets in the preparation of the great Sacrifice which had been promised from the beginning. Though apparently and consciously doing their utmost to oppose the will of God, they were carrying it into effect with the same precision as their Victim Who had renounced His own will in favor of His Father's. The cross of Christ is the touchstone of humanity. Not only is the cowardice of Pilate and the perfidy of the priests exposed to the gaze of all, but His own little band all find their true value in its vicinity. What should we not expect from His own apostles who have been with Him and have seen His mighty power and have felt the attraction of His love? Judas, who was entrusted with the funds, turns traitor. Boastful Peter forswears his Lord. And all the rest, who but a short time since were loud in their protestations of loyalty, desert Him at the first approach of danger.

30-41 Compare Mar_14:35-38 ; Luk_22:41-46 . See Heb_5:7 ; Joh_6:38 ; Php_2:8 .

42-46 Compare Mar_14:39-42 .

45-46 Compare Luk_22:45-46 .

47-50 Compare Mar_14:43-46 ; Luk_22:47-48 ; Joh_18:2-9 .

47 Judas, one of the twelve. It is necessary that snares should be coming ( Mat_18:7 ). The Lord deliberately chose one of His apostles for the essential duty of betraying Him. He knew from the beginning that Judas was a traitor.

50 See Psa_41:9 ; Psa_55:12-14 .

51-52 Compare Mar_14:47 ; Luk_22:49-51 ; Joh_18:10-11 .

51 It is most difficult to receive evil from the hand of God. The disciples evidently could not understand how this could be of God. Their highest thought was to escape evil through divine protection. But our Lord assures them that, however easy it might be to enlist the legions of heaven, it is not His present plan to escape the clutches of His enemies. Evil must needs be, and God controls it so as to accomplish His beneficent purpose.

53 See 2Ki_6:17

Verses 55-75

55-56 Compare Mar_14:48-52 ; Luk_22:52-53 .

55 In the daylight they were afraid. They wanted the mantle of darkness to hide their evil deeds. Nothing could have been simpler than to have the temple guards arrest Him in the sanctuary. Why all this show of force to take an unarmed Man Who never did anything but good? It is often difficult to account for the foolishness of human wisdom and action. Yet here we have the key. The Scriptures of the prophets must be fulfilled. And they are given for the revelation of God. Every human action will one day be accounted for and justified by putting it in its right relation to God.

62 Can there be any greater contrast than comes before us in this scene before the chief priest? Christ, the Chief Priest after the new order of Melchisedec, sworn in by God Himself, holy, harmless, undefiled, and higher than the heavens, is about to offer Himself for the sins of the world. Yet He stood alone, forsaken even by His own, charged with blasphemy and liable to death. Caiaphas was appointed for political reasons by the Roman power. He was crafty, deceitful, blasphemous, unfit to officiate at God's altar. Yet such a man dares to condemn the Son of God! Quite shamelessly he seeks for testimony against Him, and accepts what everyone knew was false. No one had heard Him say that He would destroy the temple of God. He said that they would do it. And now their very accusation is itself the crime with which they charge Him! They tried to fasten on Him the destruction of the empty house on mount Moriah. They actually accomplish the destruction of the true Temple, His body.

57-60 Compare Mar_14:53-64 ; Luk_22:54-71 ; Joh_18:12-24 .

61 See Joh_2:18-22 .

62 As the Sacrifice, the Lord was a sign to the priests, for He acted as the animal they were accustomed to lead to the altar ( Isa_53:7 ): He is hard pressed, and He is humiliated, Yet He is not opening His mouth: He is fetched as a flockling to the slaughter, And as a ewe before its shearers is mute, So He is not opening His mouth.

63 See Lev_5:164 See Mat_24:30 ; Psa_1:1 - Psa_10:1 ; Dan_7:13 ; Act_7:55-56 ; Rev_1:7

64 When the chief priest invoked the presence of God, Christ was not slow in testifying to the truth. So that all the actual testimony against Him was the great truth to which the priests themselves and all their service in the sanctuary and the temple testified. But we must not forget the divine side. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. God's purpose must be served. The business of the priesthood is to slay the sacrifice. All the victims hitherto had been vain repetitions that could only cover sin. They could not take it away. Shall not the priests, therefore, slay the great Antitype, the Lamb Whose blood will yet change all sin into righteousness, all enmity into reconciliation? In the wisdom of God their hatred and malice are simply a knife to slay the true Sacrifice. Can we not see that, in a very real sense, they were carrying out the will of God? And if this is true of the sin of sins, is it not quite possible that God will justify all sins in the same way?

65 See Lev_21:10 .

66 See Lev_24:16 ; Joh_19:7 .

67-68 Compare Mar_14:65 ; Luk_22:63-65 . See Isa_50:6 ; Isa_53:3 .

69 Poor Peter! Where is his bravado now? He was quite ready to defend his Lord against the world-but not against a serving maid. His very vehemence betrays him. Now was his opportunity of witnessing for his Lord, and of standing by Him in His trial. He should have shouted “Yes!” and moved forward to take his place beside his Master. But no. He refuses to acknowledge Him. He slinks back to the portal to escape further questioning. But another maid awaits him there, so he adds an oath to his denial, and by his Galllean brogue betrays himself again. And then his exasperation is so great that he actually damns and swears that He is not at all acquainted with the Lord. The cock crows. Its simple sound is the voice of God to Peter. He becomes acquainted with himself, and is sadly disillusioned. Instead of the brave,

trusty, faithful disciple and apostle he thought he was, he finds himself to be a cringing, craven coward. He laments bitterly.

69-74 Compare Mar_14:66-71 ; Luk_22:54-60 Joh_18:15-27 .

75 Compare Mar_14:72 ; Luk_22:61-62 . See 34.

1-2 Compare Mar_15:1 ; Luk_23:1 ; Joh_18:28-32 . See Psa_2:2 .

Mat_27:3-28

3-8 The chief priests, by buying the freehold, which had previously been acquired by Judas, but not paid for ( Act_1:16-19 ), join the betrayer of our Lord in an unlawful act which manifests their lack of faith in God. True believers, who were looking for the kingdom and the consequent redistribution of the land, would not waste money on a freehold which would be worthless in that day. Instead, they sold their freeholds ( Act_4:34 ), and gave the money to the apostles. The account in Acts views this transaction from the standpoint of Judas, and tells why he was rejected from being an apostle. He made arrangements not only to betray His Lord (Who, he supposed, would use His power to circumvent His enemies), but he arranged to use the “wages of unrighteousness” for buying a freehold, contrary to the law. The chief priests and elders, instead of repudiating this illegal act, confirm it by hypocritically refusing to put the money in the temple offerings, and by using it to complete the purchase which Judas had begun. The death of Judas is likewise passed over briefly in Matthew, but elaborated in Acts. He hanged himself, but the rope broke and he fell so hard that his bowels spilled out. Thus worked the woe pronounced upon him by the Lord.

5-8 See Act_1:18-19 .

9 See Zec_11:12-13 .

11 Compare Mar_15:2-5 ; Luk_23:2-12 ; Joh_18:33-38 . See 1Ti_6:13 .

11 The priests should have been models of justice and truth, for they had the form of truth in the law. The governor had no divine light to guide his steps. Yet Pilate is far more just than the priests. He knew very well that they would not demand the death of a Jew who conspired against his government. They would aid him. His suspicions of their motive were confirmed by the Lord's silence. No ordinary man would stand and hear such charges against him without a reply. At no time did the chief priests deceive Pilate. He thought the easiest way out would be to put it to the people, who, he supposed, would release the prophet. He was so sure of their verdict that he was caught in his own device.

15-18 Compare Mar_15:6-10 ; Luk_23:13-17 Joh_18:38-39 .

17 Bar-Abbas is another contrast with Christ. A murderer, a leader in sedition, he was just what the chief priests represented the Lord to be. His name is very striking. In Aramaic it means “son of the father”. Christ was the Son of the Father, God. Bar-Abbas was the son of another father, the Slanderer.

19 Of all the actors in this tragedy, only one really pleads the cause of Christ, and this one is the most unlikely that could be. It seems almost incredible, when His own nation is against Him, His own disciples afraid to speak a word in His favor, that an alien woman steps in to plead the cause of a just man she may never have heard of before. True, it was the direct effect of divine intervention. But every other act and attitude in this scene can, in its last analysis, be traced to God's foreordination. It must remain a marvelous intimation off God's ways that she alone should voice a solemn protest against the travesty of justice in which Pilate was weak enough to become involved.

20-23 Compare Mar_15:11-14 ; Luk_23:18-23 ; Joh_18:40 . See Act_3:14 .

20 The chief priests were aware that they had failed to convince the governor by fair argument, so now they propose to foil his plan of freeing the Lord by persuading the people. It is not necessary to have facts or truth to move the mob. It is the most unjust and unreasonable appeal possible. Had the priests not interfered they undoubtedly would have shouted for His release, as Pilate anticipated.

23 Now that the priests have caught him in his own device, he tries to persuade the mob. Evil or no evil, they want His blood.

24 See Deu_21:6-7 .

24 Pilate had the power to release Him, but expedience and selfishness are always more potent in human governments than justice.

25-38 Compare Mar_15:24-28 ; Luk_23:32-43 ; Joh_19:18-24 .

25 See Deu_19:10 ; Act_5:28 .

25 The Jews today have good cause to shudder when they read these lines. There is a reason for their terrible history from that day to this.

26 Compare Mar_15:15 ; Luk_23:24-25 ; Joh_19:1 .

27-31 Compare Mar_15:16-20 ; Joh_19:2-16 .