Key Thought

One of the key things we will notice throughout Jesus' journey through the Cross and on to his glorious return to his Father is his deliberate and purposeful control of these events. Jesus' crucifixion is not some horrible mistake. Jesus' death is not some horrible miscalculation on his part. The Cross is Jesus' commitment to our redemption and God's will. Jesus does not face death blindly. He knows he is about to be rejected and treated with scorn. He knows he will be abandoned by those he loves most. He knows that he will face humanity's inhumanity alone. Yet he does it at his own pace, by his own will, and because of his deep love for us. In contrast are the opponents of Jesus, the religious aristocracy and power base. They must scheme and plan to get rid of him. They must find an appropriate time to do him wrong, a time when no one else is looking because they are afraid. Interesting and pitiful at the same time. The one who will die goes purposefully to his death to redeem us and those who will murder him are afraid and scheming. Somehow the Evil One and those most aligned with him have some kind of premonition of their ultimate defeat and yet press the battle that ultimately ruins them. Just as they tried to prevent the discovery of an empty tomb that provided verification of Jesus' resurrection, their scheme to do Jesus in will make him the world's Savior. Praise God!

Today's Prayer

Today's Verses in Context

After Jesus finished saying all these things, he said to his followers, "You know that the day after tomorrow is Passover. On that day the Son of Man will be given {to his enemies} to be killed on a cross." Then the leading priests and the older Jewish leaders had a meeting at the palace where the high priest lived. The high priest's name was Caiaphas. In the meeting, they tried to find a way to arrest Jesus without the people seeing it. They planned to arrest Jesus and kill him. The men in the meeting said, "We cannot arrest Jesus during Passover. We don't want the people to become angry and cause a riot." Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the house of Simon the leper. While Jesus was there, a woman came to him. She had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume. The woman poured this perfume on Jesus' head while Jesus was eating. The followers saw the woman do this and became upset at the woman. The followers asked, "Why waste that perfume? That perfume could be sold for much money and the money could be given to poor people." But Jesus knew what happened. Jesus said, "Why are you troubling this woman? She did a very good thing for me. You will always have poor people with you. But you will not always have me. This woman poured perfume on my body. She did this to prepare me for burial after I die. I tell you the truth. The Good News will be told to people in all the world. And in every place where the Good News is told, the story of what this woman did will also be told. And people will remember her." Then one of the twelve followers went to talk to the leading priests. This was the follower named Judas Iscariot. Judas said, "I will give you Jesus. What will you pay me for doing this?" The priests gave Judas 30 silver coins. After that time Judas waited for the best time to give Jesus to the priests.

— Matthew 26:1-16 (ERV)

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