The beginning of the end

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 them, “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. In 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.”

Here we begin to move fully into the passion narrative of Christ. It has been noted many times that the gospels are passion narratives with extended introductions and it is certainly true. This is the culminating narrative of Matthew and he marks it as such. “When Jesus had finished all these sayings” shows that we have come to the end of Jesus’ ministry. We might say the specifically the end of his teaching ministry as this phrase closes the last of the five discourses of Matthew. But this is also the end of his public ministry as a whole. While we do see some further instruction and debate, in a manner of speaking, he instructs only the Twelve and the interaction with his opponents only occurs behind the closed doors of his illicit trials.

A final passion prediciton?

Then Jesus makes his final passion prediction:

• 16:21, the turn towards Jerusalem, he will “suffer many things… be killed, and on the third day be raised”
• 17:22-23, after the Transfiguration, men will “kill him, and he will be raised the third day”
• 20:18-19, after entering Judea, the Son of Man will “be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised the third day”
• 26:2, “the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified”

At this point, the disciples may see this as a real possibility. Over the previous 5 chapters covering his actions during his first few days in Jerusalem, Jesus has pronounced judgment and woe on the leadership in Jerusalem and the people themselves. Tensions are high. In the very next sentence Matthew narrative shows that, yes, Jesus can predict the future. Notice that over these four predictions we have an increase in their specificity.

It’s interesting in this light that the present prediction is so much less specific than the others. It may be that as the disciples see this as much more of a possibility Jesus becomes more vague.

Massive irony

There’s a couple different layers of irony here too.

Jesus says “you know” and this invites one of those fun things about reading:

1. Does Jesus mean the disciples know both that the Passover is two days away and that Jesus is going to be crucified
2. Or does he mean the diciples know the Passover is two days away and at that time (prediction) he will be crucified

This reminds me quite a bit of the Olivet Discourse where as readers we are trying to piece together how Jesus is answering the double question from the disciples (“when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”). I think this might be intended by Matthew to highlight (again) the slowness of understanding on the part of the disciples. They should know both the obvious coming of Passover and the predicted death and resurrection of Jesus but their actions will reveal that this was not the case.

Another layer of irony on top of this concerns the leadership in Jerusalem. They “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.” There are a number of things to note here.

The mention of the high priest shows that it’s not only the rank-and-file of the priesthood that conspires to murder Jesus. And consider the role of the high priest. In terms of the rituals prescribed in the Old Testament the most obvious and charactersitic function of the high priest is to atone for the people on the Day of Atonement. And here we have Caiaphas planning the murder of God’s son!

Furthermore, think of what Jesus has been doing for five chapters:

• performs a symbolic cursing of a fig tree
• gets into an argument with the chief priests and elders
• tells a series of parables designed to cause his opponents to judge themselves
• repeatedly defeats the Jewish leaders attempts to trap him
• delivers a series of harsh woes against the scribes and Pharisees
• proclaims and enacts the judgment of God’s presence leaving the temple
• and delivers his final discourse which culminates with teaching on the final judgement

Now Jesus is heading towards his own judgment at the hands of a high priest plotting murder. This is wild.

Continued misunderstanding

We get a scene here of Jesus being anointed