Matthew 26:1-16 Kingdom Economics

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsack. I am the lead pastor here, though for the last couple of weeks you wouldn't have known that.

Many of you know that Lynn and I were on vacation for a couple of weeks. We had a really great time away, but a couple of weeks of vacation is just about right for us to be desperate to get back home and be here with you guys.

We really do, and I mean it sincerely, I'm not sure that every pastor can get up and say they honestly miss their church when they're away, but I really do.

We've come back refreshed and revived and ready for whatever this Michigan winter brings to us.

I hate to rub it in, but we actually did find really nice warm weather while we were away.

We got far enough south to enjoy 80s and 90s. I'm really grateful for a group of good, godly men and godly staff and godly volunteers who just kind of keep things running, and that's one of the greatest encouragements to my pastor's heart is that things keep running.

I'm really thankful for Rob Knoll filling in in my absence and bringing the word. I'm thankful for Mark Klein, who preached his very first sermon just last week.

Really grateful for these guys who could step up in their commitment to God's word. Church, we are very blessed with godly men, and that's not,

I don't think that every church can say that, but I'd like to boast on what God has done here a little bit, and it's to his glory and his honor, but he has provided this church with really, really solid men who love

God and love his word, and so very grateful for that. This morning we're gonna jump back into a series that I have been preaching, yes, literally for years.

I think the first time I preached in the book of Matthew was back in 2010.

What you need to understand is that there are 28 chapters to the gospel of Matthew. There are about seven to eight sermons in each chapter, so you do the math and you go, if we just go through the book of Matthew nonstop, we're gonna be there a few years, right?

So instead of just plowing through Matthew and all you get is Matthew for five years straight,

I've been kind of chunking it off, and so the last time that I was here was back in 2020.

I don't know if any of you remember when we were meeting outside during COVID and all of that stuff. I was actually in Matthew then, and we went through Matthew chapter 20 through 25.

So we're gonna be jumping back into that series this morning in chapter 26. Now you go, well, wait a minute, what if I missed all of those and I don't understand the context and all that?

Those sermons are indeed available on the teaching tab on our website, so you go to readcastchurch .com, you can click on teaching.

There's an archive. You have to go back into the archive for some of those older Matthew ones, but if you wanted to just catch up from 20 on, those are available right on the teaching tab.

You can scroll down and find them there. But chapters 26 through 28 are gonna prove to be a focused running start leading us up to Easter.

We're gonna finish the book with Easter, which is awesome because obviously the content that we're talking about at the end of Matthew is oriented around the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us.

We're gonna be in the last week of the life of Christ for a while here, but the text is gonna take us a lot of places.

There's gonna be a lot to talk about over the next couple of months. It's gonna put us face to face with our own sinful hearts, even the message this morning.

We're gonna see the depths of depravity that are revealed in the betrayal and crucifixion of our

Lord should be breathtaking and deeply convicting to us as we consider where we stand in relationship to those who actually put him to death.

But we're also gonna see in these texts week after week shocking reminders of God's great and deep and awesome love for sinners like you and me, sinners like us.

When we come to study and realize the suffering and sacrifice that he knowingly, willingly entered into for us, our hearts should be moved to hope, joy, faith, and love for him.

And that's my prayer and hope as we jump back into Matthew here. I did mention, because some of you might be a little confused,

I did mention at one point that we're gonna go to 1 Corinthians. We are gonna go to 1 Corinthians after Easter. So you can breathe a sigh of relief.

I did actually say that, sorry for the tease. We're gonna get to 1 Corinthians, but all of it's

God's word and I really actually pray over these things, try to work through it, and I don't wanna just throw it off on some impression, but I have no problem finishing out

Matthew because it's God's word and it's gonna take us good places. I wanna point out that there's no such thing as merely narrative in the

Gospels. There's no wasted words, there's no filler there. I wanna point out that at one level, the passage we're gonna look at this morning looks like it just moves the story forward, right?

Like you read the Gospels and you get these accounts of things that happened, it's history. Jesus in our text is gonna predict his crucifixion.

The plot to put him to death is gonna be exposed. There's gonna be a woman who unwittingly prepares his body for burial in our text, and there's gonna be arrangements made by Judas to betray him, and it just looks like story.

Like you could walk out of here and go, okay, well those four things happened, and that could be the end of it, right? Like you could just read the

Gospels and go, okay, this is like, I studied history before, then he did this and then he did that, and that's all of it.

All historical events, data points. But the history of these Gospel accounts are always trying to teach us.

This word that we're gonna look at this morning is there to convict us. God through his word is seeking to relate to us as we see ourselves in the

Gospel accounts. We see our own hearts, and further, we see God drawing us into the knowledge of who he is and the way that he rolls in the world today.

You see, the title of this series from the very beginning is Jesus is, the title is

Not Your Average Savior. That's how I titled this entire Matthew series, and Jesus is not your average savior.

Your average savior is what the world turns to as a crutch to cope with life. That's your average savior.

Like alcohol, that's your average savior, promising fun and leaving a killer hangover and hopelessness and leading ultimately to death, at least spiritual death.

Whatever else it is that we might turn to and cling to as saviors, Jesus is not like that. Jesus makes good on his promises.

He comes through. I had an interesting conversation with my tattoo artist while he was doing my tattoo.

He was doing a cross on my arm, and so it was easy to talk with him about my faith because he's doing a cross, right?

So, he was mildly antagonistic, to be honest, and even told me that he viewed

Christianity as merely a crutch, you know, all of this in line with this not your average savior, you know, everybody's leaning on something.

He was disarmed when I told him as a pastor, and he knew I told him I'm a pastor. I told him where and all that. He was disarmed when

I told him I agree with him. Christianity is a crutch. Christ is a form of a crutch.

I told him I think that we're all broken and we're all seeking something to solve the problem because we know that we need to be held up.

We know that we're broken and we're crushed inside. We know that we don't have it all together. I told him

I happen to believe that Jesus is the one true help that is keeping me standing. He's the one who is real.

He's the one who is true. He is the one who is a faithful remedy. And then I asked him what he was leaning on to get by.

At this point, the conversation turned. He was quiet for a moment, and then he proceeded to tell me the history of tattooing down through the ages, conveniently changing the subject.

I think it might have been too personal a question for him to reveal to me what his crutch is.

I don't know what it is. Jesus has come to rescue broken people, has he not? Broken people like you and me.

People who need a crutch, and raise your hand if you know you need a crutch. You know you need something.

Even if it's the true remedy, the true one who saves and solves our problems.

Often we might in our lives testify that we've tried other saviors, but the gospel of Matthew here in the last three chapters is going to show us what our savior has done to rescue us.

So let's open our Bibles, or open your devices, or your apps, or however you navigate to the Bible, to Matthew chapter 26, verses 1 through 16.

We're going to read these first 16 verses. Again, Matthew 26, 1 through 16, God's holy and precious word, church.

This is what God desires for us to take in, because it's what we're going to read. And he wants to transform us.

He wants us to be different when we leave here, because we've encountered him through the pages of his holy revealed word.

So again, Matthew 26, 1 through 16, follow along. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, you know that after two days the

Passover is coming, and the son of man will be delivered up to be crucified. Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was

Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 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.

And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.

But Jesus, aware of this, said to him, why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.

For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. And pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

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.

Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, what will you give me if I deliver him over to you?

And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you and rejoice to be back together again with my family.

I thank you for this church. I thank you for the word that has forged this church, the word that has faithfully brought us together and formed us into a people who are bearing with one another, growing in faith together, growing in community together, and serving one another and continuing to grow in that service.

Father, I thank you for your word that has the power to transform lives. We've seen it here.

We've seen it with our own eyes, that your word has the power to change us, to open us up to a new way of thinking, a new way of living.

Father, we rejoice in this word that brings us the gospel, the hope that we have that we're okay with you and made okay with you only on the basis of what

Jesus Christ has done for us, only on the basis of his sacrifice for us, that he willingly entered into that.

And here, even in this text, a prediction, I'm going to be crucified in a couple of days.

I can't imagine what that was like, and yet I rejoice in the great love given to us in that act of self -sacrifice on behalf of our

Savior. So, Father, I pray that you would help us to rejoice as your people, allow us to lift our voices and allow that sense of awe to come out of our mouths in delight and gladness as we sing these songs together.

I thank you that I look around this room and I can see people who love you and honor you despite hardships, despite difficulties, despite challenges, but we are your redeemed people.

And listen now to our praise in Jesus' name, amen. You can go to be seated.

Just so thankful for the band and Dave and just their faithfulness to come and lead us to the throne of God.

And I hope more than what can be said about what just happened is that you enjoyed that, but that you actually worshiped

God in it, and so I hope that that expresses what is genuinely going on. I encourage you to get comfortable and keep your

Bibles open to Matthew 26, verses 1 -16. You probably have lost your spot there, so jump back in on your device or on your paper copy of the

Bible. And then if at any time during the message, I know some of you, this is your first time with us, if at any time during the message you want to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes while supplies last back there, you're not going to distract me in the middle of the message, so you can get up if you need to.

Restrooms are down the hallway on the left -hand side if you need those. I'm going to outline the text this morning by simply following the narrative movements, what's actually going on in the text.

So there's five kind of movements to this section, verses 1 -16 of chapter 26.

The first is the prophecy, verses 1 -2. The second is the plot, verses 3 -5.

The third is preparation, that is preparation for burial, verses 6 -12. And then proclamation, verse 13.

And the perilous prophet, that's F -I -T, prophet, P -R -O -F -I -T, not P -H -E -T, verses 14 -16.

And yes, I was on vacation, so I came back and I alliterated for you just because I could. So I spent a little bit of time doing that, but I got that there.

Not all the time, but I can when I need to. This outline covers the narrative events that occur here, but I think there's a lesson,

I believe in this passage, that's seeking to address something that goes deeper than merely letting us know what happened.

I mentioned that kind of in my introduction. There is an economy of the kingdom being presented here, something of worth, something of great value that's being presented here that is distinct from maybe the values that we're going to see exposed in the end of what

Judas valued. And so there's something that's kind of a flow to the text that holds it together despite it looking like a bunch of different, like a hodgepodge of different activities that are going on.

So let's start with the prophecy and see if we can get the flow of this. The prophecy is in the verse 2 verses, and that kind of sets the stage for Judas' setup in the end.

Jesus is done teaching in the Gospel of Matthew according to verse 1. He wrapped up what's called the

Olivet Discourse. I covered that, like I said, back in 2020, and you can go back and listen to those. But that covers a lot about end times, and so some of you are kind of like, whoa, it covers end times.

You might want to go back and listen to it if you're interested in that kind of thing, but it's kind of like Jesus' book of revelation in terms of the things that he personally said about how the end is going to come to pass.

But verse 1 tells us that Jesus was finished with his sayings, and in the Gospel of Matthew, that's kind of a definitive thing.

He is done teaching in this Gospel. And then he speaks here, his fourth, in the

Gospel of Matthew, four different times he predicts he's going to die, and in verse 2 here of our text, we see the fourth and final prediction prophecy of his impending death, and that's the prophecy.

What we learn in verse 2 is that Jesus knew the timing of his death, of course, in a couple of days, he says, but he also knew the method.

He knew he would be hanging on a cross in just a short couple of days from the time that he uttered this here in verse 2 to his disciples.

He knew he would be delivered by one group of people up to another group of people, and since the

Jews had no legal rights in the Roman Empire to crucify someone, but the Romans did have that right and chose to exercise it frequently, the

Jews were well aware that the Romans could crucify them for petty crimes, and so it's very clear what he's saying to those in that time and era.

He's going to be turned over to the Romans for crucifixion. No mystery like, nobody there in that time and era was going,

I wonder who's going to crucify him. There would be no doubt when he said, I'm going to be turned over to them to be crucified.

Who they were, the Romans are going to be the ones who crucify him, the Jewish leaders are going to be the ones who do the turning over.

But here's the main point, Jesus knew he was going to be crucified. Now there's something in this prediction that ought to enhance our understanding here where we live in 2023, ought to enhance our understanding of the love of Jesus for you and for me.

It ought to heighten his sacrifice for us as we consider that he knew what he was signed up for.

He knew what was going to happen. He knew he was going to be tortured to death, and he knew it before he was tortured to death.

Church, how much does he love you? How much does he love us? How much did he go through to redeem us?

He went through not just torture, but he went through, quote, after two days

I will be delivered to the Romans and expertly crucified. They know how to do this thing and they're going to turn me over and they're going to do it.

He went through knowing it. How many of you would just raise your hand and say,

I think I might die of the anticipation? Like any of you just struggle with anticipation like me, or are the rest of you kind of like, chill, nah, just take it when it comes?

Raise your hand if you struggle with anticipation, it's just like, that would rack me. Rack me and wreck me, knowing two days from now

I'm going to be tortured and I'm going to be hanging on a cross. Here's what I'm getting at, church. I confess to you in all honesty, if your salvation rested on me being crucified two days from now,

I don't know if you have it in you for me, I don't think I got it.

How many of you just kind of confess like, I think I'm with you, Don. I don't think I'd die for everybody in this room.

I don't think that I'd die that way. I mean, it's just kind of like that whole thing. Now, maybe in a moment

I could jump on a grenade or something like that, in a moment of wind and just kind of like, okay, well, here we go, or something like that.

Because how many of you know that's a little different than crucifixion, right? Like, you're just kind of like, that sounds like it's going to go quicker.

So here at the prophecy, the first point, consider the love of our Lord. Again, not merely accounting to us here in the text that he knew, as if that's some academic thing that we might take in, oh, he knew, okay, check mark,

I know, now we know he prophesied that it was going to happen. Letting that get into our hearts that he knew what was coming for him and willingly, knowingly went through it for us, not merely historical data here in these accounts, but unimaginable love to we who he came to save.

The second movement in the text is here we see the plot explained in verses three through five to put him down.

In the second movement, we behold the flippancy of the evil human heart, and that's kind of a main point here. His great love expressed in willingly laying his life down while we see in us, and in humanity, the flippancy of evil.

What we have here in this account in verses three through five is an off the books meeting of the religious and political leadership of the

Jews. The religious and political leaders of the Jews get together off to the side in an off the books meeting.

They meet at the high priest's house, and it's sad when we consider how often the common ground between political power and religious power, how often is the overlap in that Venn diagram evil?

How often is that the overlapping place where the two can meet? Political power, religious power, evil is the common ground.

Let me say that there's nothing new under the sun, and it takes barely any observation or any kind of imagination at all to see how the wedding of religious power and political power together in our day and age could indeed come together, and likely will.

That's for another sermon, though. Why is this gathering going on here in our text?

Why are the elders of Israel getting together with the chief priest of Israel? What are they doing?

Look at verse four. They have gathered together to plot and debate the best methods for arresting

Jesus and killing him. Now, can you imagine getting the email with the attachment with that agenda?

You open the agenda. Okay, why are we getting together, guys? What's this about? Agenda item number one, brainstorm session.

How do we arrest Jesus quietly? Brainstorm session number two, how do we kill him?

With a brief lunch in between, right? It's just kind of like, it'll be a light refresher in between, and kind of like a mix and mingle.

Maybe we'll do a little bit of icebreaker at the beginning, or something like that. Are you serious? This is their agenda.

This is what they get together to do. The conclusion of this meeting shows that they could barely agree on anything except that they should not arrest him publicly during the festival of Passover.

Jerusalem was busting at the seams with pilgrims because of this religious festival going on this weekend. They want him out

ASAP. They don't want him to influence all those masses that are there, and they're afraid of what he's going to do. Is he going to win everybody to his side?

Everybody in Israel is together. They definitely want him removed as soon as possible, but they didn't want a riot on their hands.

You see, these guys betray by this agenda that they are murderers in their hearts, and they're about to become murderers in action.

But they were principled murderers, right? Let's kill him, but do it quietly. And we wouldn't want to stir things up too much.

Just a little quiet murder on the side, something simple would be nice. And our hearts want to scan through the text of Scripture.

I'm guessing that you're like me, and so I'm just going to assume that we're made out of the same stuff.

So I like to look through Scripture for myself. I like to find myself in there, and I like to relate to the good guys more than the bad guys.

Anybody with me? I like to think of myself as David with the sling in my hand, not

David the adulterer. I like to think of myself as Peter calling

Jesus the Son of God or walking on water, but I don't really think of myself as a Judas. But consider what we're learning in this plot to put down Jesus here.

There are really bad people, and if you've lived long enough, you already knew that. But God came to live here, and His way of compassion was so threatening to the religious establishment that they want

Him removed. And His authority was so challenging to the political power that they also wanted

Him dead. And let's be all honest for just a moment and think about the way that we relate to Jesus on this level.

I think we can all at times be guilty of using Jesus. I kind of like to say that we can be guilty of loving quote -unquote bumper sticker

Jesus. I've seen bumper stickers that say Jesus was a Democrat. I've seen bumper stickers that say

Jesus was a Republican. I've seen bumper stickers that say I bet Jesus would have used His turn signals.

Everybody wants to bring Jesus into their side, am I right? But what if not a single one of us in this room, likely, what if not a single one of us is in line with Jesus?

What if He wants to deeply challenge each and every one of us on many points of the way that we view life and love and compassion and even the way that we view

His Father? Jesus ruffled feathers and if He never ruffles your feathers, is it possible that maybe you're not really listening to the

Jesus that's revealed in the Gospels? If He never challenges you, if nothing that He says ever really pushes against your lifestyle or the things that you believe or the things that you hold dear, then maybe you're not listening.

Further, I would ask you how many times have you sought to get Jesus out of your way?

Every single time that we choose sin, we choose to set Jesus aside.

Why don't you sit this one out and hang there on the cross while you're at it?

He stands in the way of my fun. He stands in the way of my autonomy.

He stands in the way of me living for myself. You better believe that Jesus ruffles my feathers.

He ruffles my feathers every time He calls me to choose Him over my selfish sins. Do you see it?

Do you see His call? You see, there is real evil and the evil isn't out there among those really bad people who plotted to get

Jesus out of their way. The evil is in every single human heart. They did not plot to put

Him out. We did and every time we sin, we do.

The third movement in the text is preparation. Preparation for His burial in verses 6 through 12.

In verse 6, we turn our attention to Jesus in His final week. It's a few miles east of Jerusalem at Bethany at a dinner party.

This event happened likely before He made this prediction and Matthew's not super concerned about timing as much as just kind of getting things thematically together as he tells what

I would call a theological biography of Jesus. This event happened at a meal in the house of Simon the leper.

Leper as in the disease, leprosy. It's likely that Simon has been healed of his leprosy, probably by Jesus, otherwise he wouldn't be hosting a dinner party.

That's not the way that works. By this title, it's likely that this was such a significant event in his life that it was a major thing and the title sticks to him because he once had leprosy and he no longer does.

This event is recorded for us in Mark and John. Luke records for us a different accounting of the anointing of Jesus' feet earlier in His ministry.

Actually, very early in His ministry up north in Galilee. The definitive thing is that there are two different times that Jesus is anointed by a woman at a party.

One time is His feet in a way of almost kind of commissioning Him to go launch out into ministry.

In this one, it's more a preparation for burial. I say that because there may be some confusion you might have in your mind.

Some of Luke's events and then you kind of go like, wait, how does this jive two different events? It's helpful to understand two different women, two different venues.

One of them is a sinful woman. This woman has obviously apparent faith and she's given a name. I think it's in Mark's gospel but either

Mark or John labels her Mary. And here he is eating when Mary walks up to him and he is reclining at the table eating.

She pours out a vial of expensive ointment on the head of Jesus and Luke tells us that it was pure nard worth about a year's wages.

Matthew doesn't get into that detail but Luke likes detail. I'm sorry, not

Luke, Mark. Mark likes that kind of detail. But she anoints His head which is a significant religious symbol for religious and political leadership.

Kings and priests were anointed by the pouring of oil over their heads and she is showing two things that she believes to be true about Jesus in this activity here.

First, that Jesus is to be anointed. He is the anointed one. Whether king or priest or a combination of those two,

Mary is symbolically showing what she believes in her heart. She's showing it physically, what she believes and what her heart tells her.

Jesus is, at least in her mind, a very significant chosen one of God worthy of anointing.

The word Messiah, by the way, the word Messiah means anointed one of God. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Mary is actually declaring her belief publicly that Jesus is the

Messiah in this event. He is the one worthy of the anointing or the one who bears the anointing of God.

The second thing that we know for sure that Mary is expressing in this activity is that she believes that Jesus is worthy of this very expensive sacrifice.

This is such an exorbitant, extravagant, lavish sacrifice that even the disciples balk at the waste of money.

They are so completely flabbergasted by what they behold that they exclaim, what a waste.

Why this waste? Look at verse 8. The text tells us that they are indignant. They are beside themselves.

How in the world? What she's doing is a complete travesty. How dare she? To their shame and Mary's embarrassment, the disciples actually declare it out loud.

Why this waste? The disciples exclaim. These are the ones who have left father and mother and fishing nets and businesses and all kinds of things to go follow

Jesus. They just are beside themselves with this waste. But don't worry.

They recover by spinning their concern for this waste, spiritually spinning it into concern for the poor.

Oh, yeah. We weren't just talking about the money here. We're really deeply concerned for the poor.

The nard could have been sold and fed poor villages all throughout Israel for months, say the disciples.

But Jesus here in verse 10 defends her actions severely. Don't trouble her, he says.

That's how he starts, which implies that they were. She was disturbed by the accusations of waste from the disciples, maybe even brought to shame because of it.

They've embarrassed her here in this moment of worship and symbolic anointing. And Jesus here declares that what she has done, he uses a not very frequently used

Greek word. What she has done is beautiful. It is glorious.

It is wonderful. It is aesthetically pleasing. It is good.

Now, I want to pause here and consider a secondary lesson from the way that Jesus is responding here that I think this text calls us to dive into just for a second.

Either Jesus is the son of God in flesh who came to rescue sinners like us, or he is absolutely psycho.

You really don't have many alternatives. In this text, you don't have an alternative either. He is a complete psycho, egomaniac, full of himself, completely and utterly misleading people into thinking he is worthy of a year's wages poured over his head, or he is the

Lord. Those are your options. He says, this is a beautiful thing that she has just poured a year's worth of wages on my hair.

It's running up his shoulders, down his beard, onto his tunic. The room suddenly smells aromatic and probably floral, and he commends this action on her behalf.

Someone shows up to a potluck and anoints me with a whole can of Axe body spray, and I'm like, why waste your five bucks, bro?

Maybe I need it. I don't know. After sweating up here, probably do. Jesus makes all of these subtle declarations of his great worth all throughout the

Gospels, and here's one of them. A little nugget, a little just side note. If you were to just kind of like go, is

Jesus God, does he actually claim grandiose things for himself? Well, here's a nugget.

It says, I'm worth a year's wages poured on top of my head. I'm worth that. He makes all of these subtle declarations as well as some pretty bold ones.

I and the Father are one, for example, and things like that. But here he openly declares that he's worthy of this sacrifice of Mary.

He clarifies it in verse 11. He says, you're going to always have poor people to bless, and while you should, he's not diminishing the service of the poor, even in iota.

He's just saying, you're always going to be able to do that. They're always going to be around. There's always going to be people in your midst who are needy, but he says,

I'm only present to bless for a little while longer, and then you should, when

I'm gone, you should quickly get back to blessing the poor. So Jesus draws out a symbolism that Mary likely did not intend, and he draws it out in verse 12.

You can see it in the text. What she has done is like a preparation of his body for burial. Now, talk about things escalating quickly or taking a dark turn.

He turns it to his death, and I believe reasonably, because death is on his mind.

Two days from now, he's going to be hanging, or just a few days from now, he's going to be hanging on a cross. He's about to do battle with death, our greatest enemy, and it is very much in the forefront of his mind.

But let's consider what's going on here, what's really happening deeply in this preparation for burial. The disciples immediately assume that it's been a waste, and I suggest that this misunderstanding is only made possible by an over -familiarity with Jesus.

They have forgotten who they're eating with. They have forgotten who they are following.

They have forgotten who is in their midst. How familiar, church, can we become with our

Lord? Beware, whenever in your heart you consider something, anything, to be a waste for Jesus.

That ought to be a red flag on the dashboard of your life, a red light blinking.

Something's off, something's off, because I just thought that was a waste. I just thought that was a waste for Jesus.

Several years ago, a young man boarded a canoe with Bibles and supplies and headed to Sentinel Island in the

Indian Ocean to bring the gospel to a Stone Age tribe that is still to this day cut off from modern society.

They don't know there's an internet. I don't know what in the world they think when they see planes go over.

That kind of tribe. They shot him through with arrows before his canoe reached the shore, and he died.

And I bet his body had barely washed up on the beach before hundreds of headlines declared this a waste.

What a waste of life. And I'm embarrassed to say, you can look it up, even from Christian sources.

Even from Christian sources, what a waste, what a nut job, what a wacko.

Five young men were speared to death in Ecuador trying to bring the gospel to a tribe there. They had kids, they had wives.

What's he worth, church? What's he worth? One day

Jesus sat in the temple as a widow took her only penny. Like he says,

I'm omniscient and I know that this is all that she had, and she gave it to the Lord in the temple.

According to Jesus, her last penny and the gift to him was astonishing.

He's like, I don't believe it. This is worthy of commendation. She only gave a penny.

That's all she had. What is he worth? A year's worth of wages poured over his head?

The worship of God does not follow the economy of our world. But there's an important caveat to this economy in the kingdom that has to be addressed.

You see, glance back at the ending of chapter 25 for some context for just a second. Hopefully, if you've got a paper

Bible, it's right there. Just back to 25, in Matthew 25, Jesus is speaking about the final judgment and how many will have served

Jesus by doing kindness for the poor of this world. He says the following, Matthew 25, verses 37 through 40 say this.

Jesus speaking, then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?

The king will answer them on that day, truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

You see, Jesus tied what we do for the poor to what we do for him in this life.

We only now, the only possibility for you now in the service of your Lord is to serve him by proxy.

Did you hear that? The only way you have to serve the Lord is by serving each other, by serving the poor among you, by serving those in need.

Mary had an option to serve him directly and he commends her for this direct service because it's still available.

You see, we can learn through our sacrifice about the great worth of our Lord, but we cannot anoint his head with oil any longer.

You can't go take oil and anoint the head of Jesus. Guess why?

He's not here. And so we serve him best by serving others in need.

And so I think it's good for us to ask a couple of questions. What does senseless sacrifice look like for you with Jesus?

What is holding us back from entering into effusive, extravagant, lavish, shocking demonstrations of his great worth?

And I think that the fundamental question is a good starting point. Answer for yourself.

What is he worth? What is he worth to you? The fourth movement in the text is found in verse 13.

We see a promise of proclamation. In verse 12, Jesus takes what may appear to be a dark turn into predicting his death and burial at a dinner party.

Talk about a downer, right? Who invited him? You see, you're talking about death and burial and that kind of stuff.

But his statement in verse 13 has within it a kernel of significant hope. There is good news in the funeral prep.

This death will yield to good news that will be proclaimed throughout the whole world and he prophesied that here and he says there's going to be a proclamation and it's going to go around the world.

And this woman, what you've seen her do in our midst, is going to be declared there.

Wherever the gospel goes, she's going to be talked about. Despite the fact that the disciples and those present probably were struggling to understand what he was talking about, good news, death, burial, what?

We get it. We get it here. The lavish gift of this woman in Simon's house in Bethany is being discussed here in Matawan, Michigan in 2023.

As we contemplate the good news that Jesus was indeed crucified, was indeed buried, and he did so for us, that he did also indeed rise victorious over sin and death.

And she stands here as an example of faith in his great worth. She saw him as worthy of sacrifice and stands as a model for us all here today.

Is Jesus worthy of lavish and even hard to understand sacrifice in your life? And is this not part of the gospel message?

Jesus, who came to conquer sin and death for us, is in turn worthy of our everything.

Lastly, we come to the darkness of the world's economy. We see the economy expressed through this woman's lavish gift, but now we see the darkness of the way the world thinks, and we're very well acquainted with this one.

It's shown in these last three verses, showing us the perilous prophet on the part of the betrayer.

Judas, who Matthew wants to be sure we understand, is one of the 12 closest confidants, one of the closest friends of our

Lord. This Judas, Judas Iscariot, initiated a deal with the chief priests.

And did you hear that word, initiated? According to the gospels, he initiated.

They were in the start of our text. What were they doing? They were looking for an opportunity. He shows up.

He initiates a deal with the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them for 30 pieces of silver.

Our text began with them seeking that opportune, quiet, secluded place to arrest him. Judas voluntarily agrees to lead them to that moment for a measly 30 pieces of silver.

By the way, just to clarify, because if you've got a curious mind like mine, that estimate, it's estimated to be about the equivalent of about $3 ,000 in today's money, what he gained from this transaction.

The economy of the world, by the way, puts a price on everything, does it not? Everything has a price.

You can talk to the world and the world will say, yeah, I'll do it. Just how much, you know, you got to give me this first.

Because the economy of the world begins with personal benefit as the standard.

Everybody's got a price, is what the world thinks. Think about the reasoning of Judas in this moment.

This is terrifying reasoning. My life would be better with 30 pieces of silver, even if my life has no

Jesus. Pretty straightforward statement, and it's shocking when you think about it, isn't it?

My life will be better with 30 pieces of silver. I'd rather have $3 ,000 and no Jesus, is what he's saying.

That's his logic. No Jesus, but hey,

I get the silver. What is it for you?

No Jesus, but I get the fill in the blank.

That's our life of sin, church. Is that not sin? Is that not the very nature of what sin looks like?

Jesus, you set this one out. I don't need you right now. I want to do fill in the blank.

So lest we go so hard on Judas here, let's think about ourselves.

Every transaction of sin looks like this, right? But fortunately, we're not left there.

Praise God, we're not left there. Anybody want to raise your hand? That's not where the story ends. That's not where the service ends.

The service never ends here with me telling you, fix it. It never ends with me saying, you suck.

I do say that sometimes, but it doesn't end there, right? Because we suck, don't we? I mean, we really mess our lives up.

And left to ourselves, we go the way of Judas every time. We always choose ourselves over him.

We always choose the silver or whatever shines in our eyes. Is that not what you're made of?

Raise your hand if you just want to have a moment of lucidity and confession and say, that's me. I'm there.

My hand's raised. I'm there. I choose the bright, shiny things. And the story doesn't end there.

It's shocking to me. It's scandalous that it doesn't end there. And him just like blazing eyes of judgment just toasting me in the end.

I have every reason to expect that to be reality. Because you see, in our hearts, the darkness is real.

When you read the headlines out there, out in the world, the darkness is real. You're not making it up.

It's real. We live in a dark place. But the willing sacrifice of Jesus for the dark and vile hearts of sinners like us, that was just as real.

That's real too. So consider, as we come into a landing this morning at the tables of communion, he knew he was going to suffer, and yet he stayed the course for sinners like us.

While our hearts plotted and schemed against him, Jesus set his heart to pay the price for our sins.

As Jesus is anointed, we are given the grace of a passing glimpse of the great worth of the one who gave himself up for us.

Died for us. And in our communion this morning, we come to the tables to proclaim the centrality of this one who is worth all of our worship.

His body was broken in our place, and so we take the cracker to remember. His blood was shed, so we drink the juice to remember.

And lastly, we should confess that we are not worthy of this sacrifice in the least. He loved us while we were yet sinners.

While we were still figuring out and trying to connive how we could get the silver, while we were still doing that,

Christ died for us. So church, if you've been saved by the love of Jesus, I encourage you to come to these tables during this next song.

Take the cracker to remember his body broken for us. Take that cup of juice to remember his blood shed for us, and consider the great love and great worth of the one who has died for us.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much. I'm just in awe once again of the great sacrifice that you orchestrated for me.

I know my own heart. I know I don't deserve this. I know I deserve your condemnation. And I know that even just within the last 24 hours,

I've sinned enough to condemn my own heart, and your grace continues on.

I'm unworthy of that, but I thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

I thank you for this infinite worth, this infinitely lavish and extravagant gift that you've given to purchase my life, and I pray that you would help me to turn more and more over to you as I see increasingly in my eyes and in my heart and in my mind the supremacy of Christ over all things, the glory, his great worth of any sacrifice that you might call me to.

I pray that you would open our eyes to see you high and exalted, to see Christ as great, of just significant and surpassing worth of all things, and then that you would lead us into whatever it is that you desire for us to sacrifice to you.

I pray that that would be an increasing reality as we grow in faith, grow in community, grow in service here as a church. And fathers, we have an opportunity to remind each other and ourselves of why we're together.

I pray that this would be a communal thing that we do here in communion, not allowed to be an isolated thing that I do before you, but a thing that we do in the presence of each other.

I thank you that you are sowing us together, our lives like a tapestry to bring honor and glory to you.

I rejoice in this fellowship. I missed my family the last couple of weeks, and it is such a pleasure to be together again this morning.