The Savior's Worth - Matthew 26:1-16

Well, good morning, beloved, and welcome to come again to the gospel according to Matthew.

We were picking up where we left off last week. Last week, we concluded a major section of the book of Matthew.

We concluded Matthew chapter 25 that ended the Olivet Discourse, the fifth and final of our

Lord's Discourses recorded for us in the book of Matthew. Simply, that means we're at a major transition point here.

If you were with us and can remember, over two years ago, the first three and a half chapters of the gospel of Matthew are substantially narrative, and they're establishing that this

Jesus was and is the heir, the descendant of David, and it described his birth narrative and the events surrounding his childhood and his early life, and then his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness.

Then around the middle of chapter four, Matthew's format changed significantly from a narrative description to rather him recounting for us the ministry of our

Lord. We could think of that as the body of the book of Matthew. It goes there from the middle of chapter four all the way to the end of chapter 25.

That section is kind of dominated and structured around these series of five discourses of our

Lord. It's interspersed with his miracles and the signs and wonders that he performed.

Those discourses, just so you have in mind what I'm speaking of, the first was what we commonly call the

Sermon on the Mount. The last, again, was that Olivet Discourse. Those are kind of the two most memorable ones that we have in Matthew's gospel account.

But those five discourses provided the structure of the body of Matthew's gospel account.

Here in this section, we've seen the Lord deliver the law of God to his people on the mountain.

We've seen him declare God's will for his people and for all of creation.

We've seen him teach, as Matthew told us multiple times, teach as one with authority.

We can summarize this aspect, this perspective of our

Lord's ministry as his prophetic office, whereby in revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation.

Furthermore, we've seen our Lord cast out demons. We've seen him give sight to the blind to make the lame walk and the dead live again.

He's walked on water. He's calmed the storm. He's commanded the forces of hell to stop and they submit to him.

This is his kingly office, his kingly office, and we could summarize that.

He's subduing us to himself. He's ruling and restraining.

He's ruling and defending us and he's restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies.

This is his kingly office. What we have not seen much of yet in Matthew's gospel account is

Christ's prophetic office. And that is substantially what lies ahead of us because what lies ahead in the remaining chapters of Matthew's gospel account is the road to the cross.

The cross where he becomes the sacrifice, where he shows himself to be as prophesied by John, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Our text here this morning in Matthew chapter 26, it's going to jump around between a couple different scenes where Matthew is making for us some contrasts.

And there's a reason why Matthew is doing this here and why he's structured it this way.

And we're going to talk about that as we work through it. But let us read our text now.

I'm going to start in Matthew chapter 26, verse 1, and we're going to work down through verse 16 this morning.

So let us hear the word of the Lord. Now it came to pass when

Jesus had finished all these sayings that he said to his disciples, you know that after two days is the

Passover and the son of man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest who was called

Caiaphas and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him.

But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him having an alabaster flask of very costly, fragrant oil.

And she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant saying, why this waste?

For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor. But when

Jesus was aware of it, he said to them, why do you trouble the woman?

For she has done a good work for me. For you have the poor with you always, but me, you do not always have.

For in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my burial.

Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.

Then one of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, what are you willing to give me if I deliver him to you?

And they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. So from that time, he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Father, help us now. As we fix our eyes on your word, your written word delivered to us by faith, would your spirit enable us here to see

Christ? Help me, Father, to proclaim your word faithfully in such a way that Christ be exalted for the worthiness he has of all of our worship, all of our love and adoration that we might be made to be a people eager to give all of our love to you.

In Christ we pray, amen. So as I already alluded, this passage is made up of a few distinct sections that we're going to have to work through as Matthew kind of jumps from one scene to another in making these contrasts.

First in verses one and two, we're going to see that Jesus prophesies again of his death.

And then in verses three through five, we'll see the

Jewish leaders plot his death. And then in verses six through 13,

Mary anoints Jesus. And then in verses 14 through 16,

Judas betrays Jesus. I'm going to suggest that Matthew's choice to arrange this passage in this manner and to place it here in his account, in his gospel account, is deliberate.

If you recall our text last week, Jesus has just finished teaching on the day of judgment, on that great day when all of creation will be gathered before him, before Christ on the throne seated in his glory, excuse me, and a judgment will be made, a judgment between the righteous and the wicked, the sheep and the goats.

The sheep will be gathered to his right hand where they will be eternally blessed and the goats to his left where they will be eternally damned.

Matthew now shows us two great contrasts. He's going to contrast here the words of our

Lord in his lovingly, sacrificially giving of himself deliberately for his people with the scheming, deceitful plans of the religious leaders plotting his death.

And then the second pair that we'll see here is Mary's sacrificial devotion and love to our

Lord poured out on him through this visible sign contrasted with Judas' self -serving betrayal of our

Lord. And the question here before us, in light of his great love and the sacrifice that Mary pours out for him and the betrayal of Judas, the question before us is, what is this savior worth?

That's a question we must ask ourselves this morning. Are you of the sheep that are gathered on his right hand to be blessed because of his love for you that overflows in this response of devotion to him?

Or are you of the goats prepared for judgment because your love is misplaced and you do not understand the worth of our savior?

That's where we will end up. Let's work through the text now and glean all that we can.

There's much here that we can gather, much wisdom that we can glean from this text. First we see this initial transition, which as I alluded to already, highlights the fact that this is a major transition in the book.

All of the five discourses that Jesus has given in the body of Matthew were followed by a statement saying, when

Jesus had finished these sayings. It's like a formulaic statement that Matthew uses each time.

Here and only here, Matthew adds the word, all these words, all these sayings, and it came to pass when

Jesus had finished all these sayings. This tells us two things. First, that the public teaching and discourse section of this book is over, but more significantly, there's intentionality here on the part of our

Lord. He's not just kind of going along with what's happening around him and he's been teaching while he had opportunity, but now because things have escalated with the

Pharisees and the scribes and the elders, his teaching is cut short and so now he's going to have to shift gears.

That is not what is happening here, beloved. All that Christ came to say and do, he did.

All of it. This should remind us of passages like John 13, 1. Now before the feast of the

Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the

Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

This day was appointed and Christ knew that this day was appointed and he has completed the teaching, the public ministry that he intended to complete.

He has completed all that the Father gave him to do. Again, we see this in John 17. Jesus said,

I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do.

There's a deliberate plan here and a purpose. There's submission on the part of the

Son in doing all that was given him to complete. And what does

Jesus say to his disciples here? In verse 2, you know that after two days is the

Passover and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Again, this reminds us that our Lord is going willingly and knowingly, purposefully.

His life is not being stolen from him, but rather he lays it down willingly.

Luke tells us this in Acts chapter 2, him, Christ, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you, speaking to the

Jews, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.

We see here the sovereign, eternal purpose of our loving God in securing our redemption deliberately, according to plan, is played out through these malicious, wicked, sinful acts of these men who seek the life of our

Lord. Matthew then immediately transitions from that bold and decisive prophetic declaration of our

Lord to the conspiring plans of the leaders of the Jews in verses 3 through 5.

Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest who was called

Caiaphas and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him. All of these leaders are assembled together here.

And at this point in biblical history, the high priest has significant power and authority.

But you also have to recognize that functionally this was a political office at this point.

This position of high priest at this point in biblical history was appointed by the Romans to this office.

Ironically, he was appointed by the Roman government because they thought they could control him in a certain sense.

Caiaphas in particular, we know from multiple sources, he served as high priest for 18 years.

That was an unusually long tenure in that office during this time. He served from AD 18 to 36.

It's noted even from extra biblical sources that his political power while he was in this position was wielded in a way that was particularly forceful and ruthless.

His father, Annas, was high priest before him. And he is mentioned by John in his gospel account because Annas, typically in biblical history, the high priest was succeeded by his son when he died.

But here, because of the nature of the Roman government's involvement in this, Annas was still alive and he was still very influential and powerful in this time.

Some still saw him as the high priest. But we see here this nexus of power.

The father and the son, they're both very powerful, very influential men.

But here, right after Jesus has clearly stated that during Passover, after two days, he will be delivered up and crucified, immediately after that,

Matthew transitions to this statement by these leaders saying that they are seeking to take him and kill him, but not during the

Passover. Because they fear the people. They fear the uproar that it will bring.

Again, some necessary historical context here. During this Passover feast, this lasted a whole week.

It wasn't just one day. It lasted a whole week. During this time, most scholars say that there were five times the number of people here in Jerusalem because they were coming from the surrounding regions, gathering together in Jerusalem for this feast.

These were, many of them, people from the northern region, from Galilee. And again, if you remember from Matthew's gospel account,

Galilee is where the substantial portion of Jesus' ministry was done. Many of the people that were following him were from Galilee.

Presumably, these were those that were there during this triumphal entry as he was riding into Jerusalem.

They were the ones that were celebrating his riding into Jerusalem. And so the leaders fear the crowds.

And they want to delay their plan until after this has happened, then they want to take him.

But Christ's plan is different. And Christ's plan will come to fruition.

He has decreed it. No matter what they plan, his plan will stand.

This reminds us of Psalm chapter 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

Lord and against his anointed. But what does the psalmist tell us? He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

Their plans are nothing. Their plans are inconsequential to what God has foreordained and determined to do.

And he does this because of his great love. And he's determined to do it during this time for his purposes.

One, so that all of these witnesses may see the death of our Lord. They will see it and he will be glorified in this way.

There's also significance in this being the timing of the death of our Lord because Christ has come here to the

Passover feast, not bringing an animal to offer as a sacrifice, but bringing his own life to give as the sacrifice.

The Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb, will be slain this year at this

Passover. The Lamb of God will be slain and he will be the sacrifice to which all the

Passovers that have gone on before are pointing forward to. Every year, year after year, when the

Jews observed this feast, unknowingly they were remembering and observing and preparing for what

Christ is about to do. He is the one final sacrifice for all who are his, to redeem a people to himself, to make them his own.

This is the sovereign purpose of our God. It is his decree. And so we've seen that contrast here between his authoritative decree and the deceitful plotting schemes of the leaders of the

Jews. That's a deliberate contrast, but there's another contrast here in our text, in the next section that is just as deliberate and instructive for us.

The next scene that Matthew jumps to is the anointing of Jesus in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper.

Now this is a passage that liberal skeptics really, they embarrass themselves on this.

And I want to take just a moment to address some of these accusations that are made, because believer, you will at times in this world come against opposition to the faithfulness of God's word.

And I want you to know and be firmly fixed and able to give an answer to the critiques and the doubts of our age.

This passage here, the anointing at Bethany is described for us here in Matthew 26, but also in Mark 14 and in John 12.

The skeptics will point to John's account of it, where John very clearly places this event on Saturday evening, just before the triumphal entry, six days before Passover.

They claim that Matthew puts it here at two days before Passover, but John puts it at six days before Passover.

So there must be a mistake, they say. But a careful reading of the text easily resolves this.

Matthew is not saying here that this event happened chronologically after the

Olivet discourse. In fact, as we just read here in verse six, it says when

Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper. Now, if we've been paying attention, even in Matthew's account here, we know when he was in Bethany, staying at a house of people that he knew, of friends that he knew.

If you remember Matthew chapter 21, it tells us that Jesus there explicitly, he was lodging at Bethany.

This is almost certainly where this scene would have happened. This is where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived.

That is where John places this event, and he ties it to that time in Jesus's ministry.

Matthew on the other hand, isn't putting this event in its chronological order. He's telling it here to make some deliberate contrasts.

And he tells us when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon. Now Simon, Simon the leper,

Simon was a very common name. Often in the Bible, when you see it add a prepositional phrase or an additional descriptor to somebody's first name, it's because that was a very common name.

Very common name. Simon was a common name in the Bible, in the New Testament, in the first century.

Judas was another very common name. There are several names like that, that often when they're stated in the biblical accounts, it gives us a little bit more clarity as to who specifically is in view.

Now we don't know anything else about Simon the leper, except that here he is the host.

He is the house to which Jesus is being hosted at while he is staying here in Bethany.

The traditional view, it's a little speculative, but I think it makes sense. Some argue that that Lazarus must have been a, sorry,

Simon must have been a close relative, perhaps even the father of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.

That would, that would fit. Scripture doesn't explicitly tell us that, but that would, that would make sense. If he was a leper, and this was his home, of course we know lepers cannot be a part of society.

They have to be secluded to themselves because this disease is so severe and devastating and contagious.

Presumably, Simon then was someone who was healed by Jesus. Regardless, this event would have happened back when

Jesus was in Bethany lodging there, but Matthew recounts it here, I believe, to make a specific contrast with the actions of Judas that we'll look at in a moment.

Quickly, the other accusation from the skeptics is when they point to the differences here between Matthew's account of the anointing of Jesus here and what we see in Luke chapter seven.

But if you compare the two, it's obvious these are two different events, two distinct events.

What Luke describes for us in Luke chapter seven happened up north in Galilee, early in Jesus's ministry.

And the woman there that anoints him, she's the woman, if you recall, that she, she, she washes

Jesus's feet with her tears and, and with her hair and anoints his feet with this precious ointment.

And there she's rebuked for a different reason. She's rebuked because she's a sinner and she's, she's coming to Jesus and she's, she's touching

Jesus. And the Pharisee that was hosting them, not Simon the leper, the Pharisee that was hosting them said, this is inappropriate.

This woman is a sinner. Almost certainly she was a prostitute. She, she was a sinner. How dare you,

Jesus, let this woman touch you in this way. This was a different event though.

This happened earlier in Jesus's ministry up in Galilee.

The three accounts of this event here in Bethany tell us very clearly that this happened in the town of Bethany.

It's on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, just less than, than two miles from Jerusalem.

And here, Mary, the sister of Martha, is the one that anoints

Jesus's head and body in preparation for his burial. The parallel accounts here in Matthew, in Mark, and in John make this very clear.

Now with that, that apologetic point behind us, we really have to consider the significance of what

Mary is doing here. Matthew doesn't name her specifically, but John tells us that this is

Mary, the wife, the, sorry, the sister of Martha. And she has an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil.

Again, Mark gives us more detail. The oil here is pure nard, spikenard. As a side note, you'll, some of you ladies might find this very interesting or maybe not interesting at all.

It's essential oil. That's what this is. It is, it's an essential oil. You can still purchase spikenard essential oil today.

It's not cheap. But in this day, it would have been extravagantly expensive.

Spikenard does not grow in the Middle East. It only grows in high elevations in the Himalayas. It was a product of India.

And so it had to be imported, which was, again, very costly in this day.

And it was, it was sealed in this alabaster flask. Alabaster was this, this stone that was soft enough that it could be carved and hollowed out and it was used to contain precious ointments like this.

It, the alabaster itself was, was beautiful. It was, it was translucent. It was a, it was a decorative ornamental flask that was sealed with this ointment in it.

And it, it could, it could keep the ointment for a very long period of time.

It was not a common object. And we know that Mary and Martha and Lazarus were not wealthy people, especially if they were children of a, of a leper.

It seems likely that this was either a family heirloom that had been in the family maybe for a very long period of time, or, or perhaps this represented their life savings.

They'd invested it in this ointment of, of, in hopes one day selling it. But you have to consider the, the beauty here,

Mary, this woman, this woman who we know already about her, she loved to sit at Jesus's feet and listen to his teaching.

This one who had seen Jesus raise her brother Lazarus from the dead.

Here, we see her taking that which is her most valuable earthly possession and breaking it and pouring it out on him as this visible display of her love and affection for her beloved

Savior. Mary is under no compulsion to do this. She's not acting out of a sense of obligation.

She's not acting in a self -serving way as if that this will earn her something or merit her something as if she can curry favor with God by doing so.

What motivates this sacrificial act? It's love, her love for her

Savior, because she knows what he is worth. Mary loves

Jesus and for the one her heart loves, no earthly prize is too great.

Now, there's debate over how to understand Jesus's words here, that in pouring this fragrant oil on my body, she did it for my burial.

Some think that Mary did this knowingly, that perhaps she was the only one in the room who understood what

Jesus was saying, that he was going to give his life, that he was going to be crucified brutally and publicly put to shame for their salvation.

Others say that Jesus is perhaps just commenting and expanding this innocent and maybe even naive but active, sincere love was going to be the anointing for his burial.

Even if she doesn't understand that his death is merely days away, she does this because she loves him.

She loves him more than her money, more than this family heirloom, more than a sound investment.

She is eager to lay all at the feet of her Savior for she loves him dearly.

She loves him more than anything. I'm reminded of the beautiful imagery that we see in the

Song of Solomon of the bride enraptured with her bridegroom. I think the older commentators were right to see in this a picture of the love between Christ and his bride, the church.

Mary here demonstrates this type of extravagant display of love for her

Savior. And then of course we have the rebuke she receives from the disciples.

John makes it clear that Judas Iscariot, the one who is going to betray our

Lord, that he is at least the driving force here in this complaint and his motives are self -serving to the end.

He claims that this was a tremendous waste for the oil could have been sold and the money could have been distributed to the poor.

But of course we know that's not his true motive. For John tells us that Judas had been taking money, stealing money from the money purse for his own purposes.

Nevertheless, it would appear that the other disciples are swayed by Judas' deceptive objection here.

And they too express indignation, they're indignant toward Mary. As a side note, there's a lesson for us even here, beloved.

Be mindful of the company that you keep and of the wisdom that you listen to.

Often the wicked will be motivated by their wickedness, but will frame it in a way that seems pious, that seems righteous.

Don't fall for this. Don't be like the disciples here, who when they hear this argument, yeah, this could be sold and given to the poor, yeah, they're going to rebuke her for this act of sacrifice.

They did love Christ, but when they heard Judas' appeal to the poor, they lost sight of the beauty and the goodness and the worthiness of Christ.

They lost sight of the true motivation in sincerity that Mary had in doing this, and they joined in Judas' rebuke.

How often do we as Christians unknowingly, unwittingly take in the foolishness of the world around us, and we pass it off as wisdom.

So often we dress our advice to others up in Christian language, maybe we sprinkle in the

Bible a verse or two, but at its core, it's the foolishness of the world that we're passing off as the wisdom of God.

It's Christless dribble that the world loves. Consider carefully the wisdom that you listen to, believer.

Consider it carefully. Who are you seeking counsel from? When you give your opinions or when you give counsel to others, let it not be worldly wisdom, which always minimizes

Christ. That is the distinctive element here.

Worldly wisdom might sound great, but it does not glorify Christ. It minimizes him.

It robs his glory. Instead, we as believers, as followers of Christ must avail ourselves to true wisdom, biblical wisdom, biblical counsel that exalts

Christ, that sees him as the true source of all that is good, true, and beautiful.

The one who can address our needs, our spiritual needs. This wisdom always has at its aim maximum glory for Christ.

And we as believers are to be people that are immersed in this true wisdom, not the wisdom of the world.

Don't be like the disciples here, who in Jesus says, by their worldly counsel, they trouble the woman.

They trouble her. This act of love and devotion where she's pouring out that which she has in devotion to her beloved

Savior, they trouble her by giving bad counsel, worldly counsel.

When we give advice or counsel or scrutinize the actions of another, if it's not in accordance with Christ exalting biblical, true wisdom, we are troubling our brother.

Shame on us. Mary's offering here was right and good.

It was a beautiful display of her true and sincere affection for her beloved

Savior. And though it cost an enormous amount to her, it honored her

Lord. It honored her. It honored him.

And in recognizing this, he declared that her loving devotion would stand as a testament, a witness to all, where this gospel is preached even to the end of the world, to all the nations.

This story of her love, her devotion to Christ would be told with it.

She would be remembered in this way. Not for her greatness, but for her love to be told wherever the gospel is preached.

How incredible that she's remembered in this way, not her, but her love.

Let her love be an example to us. Don't cling so tightly to the things of this world, beloved, rather cling to Christ.

The things of this world are here today and gone tomorrow. We are to be a people who use everything we have, every talent, our money, our time, every faculty, the gifts you have, every instrument at your disposal is to be used in lavish devotion to Christ because he loved us first.

So we are to love him. Which leads us lastly to the other half of this contrast here.

We've seen the contrast between Jesus' deliberate, self -sacrificial, loving, giving of himself for his people with the deceitful plotting and scheming of the leaders of his day.

Now here against the backdrop of Mary's lavish devotion to Christ, we see Judas' decision to betray

Christ to the Jews. He goes to them and he says, what will you give me if I betray him to you?

He receives a mere 30 pieces of silver. The contrast here between the great cost of the precious oil with this measly 30 pieces of silver is meant to be striking.

According to Exodus 21, 30 pieces of silver was the price determined to be paid back to a master if your bull injured his slave.

Judas is saying here, the Lord Jesus is worth no more to me than a slave.

There's a profound parallel here to the prophecy of Zechariah 11. To be honest, it's a difficult prophecy, but the prophet here is describing the consequences of rejecting the good and true shepherd and pronounces judgment upon the wicked shepherds.

A bribe price of 30 pieces of silver is offered, which is implied to be so measly it's an insult and it's thrown back into the temple.

Judas here by his acceptance of this 30 pieces of silver and then later casting it back into the temple because of his remorse for the foolishness of what he did, not because of his love for Christ, but because of his remorse.

His actions are a fulfillment of Zechariah 11. The point here is that Judas has no true love of our

Lord. He prizes this money more than the Son of God. Christ rebuked his worldliness in how he reacted to Mary's anointing of Jesus.

To an unbelieving heart, often the rebuke of sin leads not to true repentance.

To an unbelieving heart, the rebuke of sin creates more hardness. That's what we see here in Judas.

His heart is hardened against our Lord, whom he has spent time with. He has heard the teaching of our

Lord. He's heard the gospel. He's seen the signs and wonders that our Lord has performed.

And through all of this, his hard heart has grown all the harder. None of the things that he has seen or heard amount to a love for Christ in the heart of Judas.

Beloved, see here the deceitfulness of sin. It hardens our hearts against the one we truly ought to love with all that we have.

We are to be completely satisfied in Christ, and our sin lies to us that Christ is not enough, that we need these other things to be happy.

But beloved, they will never make you happy. They cannot satisfy you, as Christ, the beloved

Savior, the Lamb of God, can make you happy. He can meet your needs. He alone can meet your needs.

Our sin lies to us. It harbors bitterness and malice when exposed, rather than the humility and repentance that a believing heart has when its sin is confronted.

Ultimately, it leaves us with a few meaningless coins in our pocket, and to be eternally separated from Christ.

Fear this, beloved. Fear the deceitfulness of sin. Run from it. It wants to ensnare you.

It wants to blind you from the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ in the face of Jesus.

In closing, remember the lesson from the first time we heard Jesus staying here in Bethany, in this home, with Mary and Martha.

In Luke chapter 10, Martha goes to our Lord. You know the story well.

She says, Lord, do you not care that my sister, Mary, has left me to serve alone?

Tell therefore her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her,

Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken from her.

Dear one, look at your life. What are you clinging to? What do you love? What has priority in your heart?

What are you choosing? What are you spending your life and your time and your money and your talents on?

What do your thoughts dwell on, dear one? What things are you striving for?

What is your great love in life? Our hearts are idle factories.

We're so prone to loving the wrong things. But the gospel is transformative.

If we would submit ourselves to Christ, he can change our hearts.

He can turn our hearts to love and see his glory, to see the glory of the gospel, that we would love him and adore him and prize him above all else.

Don't be like these religious leaders so sure of your plans and aspirations. Don't be like Judas, who received his reward, and after receiving it, he found it worthless to him, leaving it in hopeless despair.

Rather, beloved, return, return to Christ, turn from your sins and cling to Christ and Christ alone, for he alone can save.

He alone can meet your needs. Nothing else is worth living for.

He can be yours for all eternity, to be eternally blessed in him.

Nothing else is worth everything but that which cannot be taken from you. For what can it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?

The hymn writer Isaac Watts says, Where the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small.

Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, forgive us of clinging too tightly to this world and the things of it.

Father, give us an unquenchable love for Christ. May we prize him above all else.

May we see through the deceitfulness of sin and lay all that we have at the foot of the cross, that we might hear those words, well done, beloved, faithful servant.