Matthew 26
Jesus in custody and on trial
How to Kill Jesus
1When Jesus finished teaching the people, he told his disciples, 2“You know that in two days it will be Passover. [1] That’s when the Son of Humans will be arrested and crucified.”3Leading priests and Jewish elders called a meeting. They met at the palace of the high priest, a man called Caiaphas. 4They hatched a plot to secretly arrest Jesus and kill him. 5They said, “We can’t arrest him during this festival. The people would riot.”
6When Jesus was in Bethany, [2] visiting in the house of Simon the leper, [3] 7a woman came over to him. She carried a jar crafted from alabaster stone and filled with an expensive perfume. [4] She poured the perfume over the head of Jesus while he reclined [5] beside the table.
8When his disciples saw what she was doing, they got mad. They said, “What a waste! 9This perfume could have been sold for a lot of money, which could have been given to the poor.”
10Jesus knew what was going on and said, “Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has done something kind for me. 11Look, you’ll always have the poor people you can help. But you’re not always going to have me. 12When this woman poured the perfume on my body, she anointed me for my burial. 13I’ll tell you something else, and it’s the absolute truth. Whenever the good news is preached anywhere in the world, people will hear the story of what she has done for me. She’s going to be remembered.”
Judas Turns on Jesus
14At that point, Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 disciples, slipped out and went to see the leading priests. 15He asked them, “What are you willing to give me if I betray him and give him to you?” They negotiated the deal and agreed to pay 30 silver coins. [6] 16From then on, Judas started watching for a good time to have Jesus arrested.Prep for One Last Supper for Jesus
17On the first day of the Festival of Yeast-free Bread, the day for slaughtering the Passover lamb, the disciples of Jesus asked him, “Where do you want us to set up the Passover meal?” 18He told them, “Go into town. When you find a certain man [7] tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time has come. I will celebrate the Passover in your house with my disciples.”’”19So the disciples did what Jesus told them to do. They set up the Passover meal.
Jesus Predicts His Betrayal
20That evening, Jesus and his disciples reclined [8] by the table to eat. 21While they were eating, Jesus said, “What I’m about to tell you is the truth. One of you is going to betray me.”22That shocked the disciples. They started asking him, one after another, “It’s not me is it, Master? It can’t be me!”
23Jesus said, “The one who has shared my dipping bowl will betray me. 24The Son of Humans will die, as the Scriptures predicted. As for the betrayer, it would be better if he had never been born.”
25That’s when Judas, who would betray him, asked, “It’s not me, is it, Teacher?”
Jesus answered, “You said it.” [9]
Jesus Says, “This Is My Body and Blood”
26While they were still eating, Jesus picked up some bread. He said a prayer of thanks, then he broke the bread and passed it out to his disciples. He told them, “Take this and eat it. It’s my body.”27Then he picked up a cup of wine and said a prayer of thanks. He passed the cup off to his disciples and said, “I want each of you to take a drink. 28This is my blood. It will establish God’s new agreement with people. [10] My blood will be poured out so that many people will find forgiveness for their sins.
29“I’ll tell you this, I won’t drink wine again until I drink a new kind of wine with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
30They sang a hymn. Then they all went outside and walked over to the Mount of Olives. [11]
Jesus Says Peter Will Chicken Out before the Rooster Crows
31As they walked, Jesus told the disciples, “All of you will desert me tonight. It’s written in the Bible: ‘Kill the shepherd, and all the sheep in the flock will scatter.’ [12] 32But I’ll be raised from the dead. After that, I’ll go ahead of you back to Galilee.”33Peter told Jesus, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I won’t!”
34Jesus told Peter, “Here’s the truth. Before this night is over and before the rooster crows twice, you’ll deny that you ever knew me. And you’ll do it three times.”
35Peter said, “Absolutely not! Even if it killed me, I would never deny knowing you!” Every one of the disciples said the same.
Jesus Prays before He’s Arrested
36Jesus and the disciples arrived at a place called Gethsemane. [13] Jesus told his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”37Jesus took three of his disciples with him: Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. [14] He quickly became troubled and depressed. 38Jesus told them, “My soul is aching. The pain is crushing me, and I feel like I could die. Stay here. But stay alert.”
39Jesus walked on a little farther to be alone. He fell down to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it’s okay with you, please don’t make me drink this cup of death. But I don’t want my way if it’s not your way.”
40Jesus went back to the three disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Really? You men are sleeping? Weren’t you able to stay on guard for one hour? 41Stay alert. Pray that you won’t be tempted. The spirit wants to do what’s right. But sometimes the body is too weak to do it.”
42Jesus went off by himself again and prayed, “My Father, if this is something you want me to do, let’s do it.”
43He returned and found the three disciples sleeping again because they were exhausted. 44So he let them sleep, and he went away a third time to pray what he had prayed before.
45Jesus went back to the three disciples again and said, “Still sleeping? Getting your rest? You think we’ve got lots of time? Time’s up. The Son of Humans has been betrayed and is about to get arrested by sinful people. 46Get up. Let’s go. Take a look, the man who has betrayed me is here.”
Jesus Is under Arrest
47Jesus was still talking when Judas, one of the 12 disciples, showed up. He came with a crowd carrying swords and clubs. They were sent by Jewish leaders, top priests, and the elders. 48Judas had arranged to give the arresting officers a signal that would pick Jesus out of the group. He told them, “I’ll greet Jesus with a kiss. That’s when you arrest him.”49Judas walked right up to Jesus and greeted him with a kiss, saying, “Hello there, Teacher.”
50Jesus told him, “Friend, go ahead and do what you came to do.” The arresting officers came forward, grabbed hold of Jesus, and took him into custody.
51One of the people [15] with Jesus pulled his sword and sliced off one of the ears of a man—a servant of the high priest.
52Jesus told the man, “Put your sword away. Everyone who lives to fight will die fighting. [16] 53Do you really think I don’t have any pull with my Father? Don’t you realize that if I asked him, he would immediately give me command of an army of 6,000 angels—12 legions? 54But if I called them, how would the prophecies of Scripture be fulfilled?”
55Jesus turned to the crowd that came to arrest him. He said, “Have you really come with swords and clubs to arrest me like I’m some kind of a dangerous robber? I was out in the Temple courtyards every day this week. You didn’t arrest me. 56But the predictions of the prophets needed to be fulfilled.” [17]
At that point, the disciples scattered. They all ran away, deserting him.
Overnight Trial
57The men who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas, the high priest. That’s where Jewish elders were meeting with religion scholars known as scribes. 58Peter followed Jesus from a safe distance. He eventually blended into the group of people waiting in the courtyard of the high priest. Peter sat beside some Temple guards. He wanted to see how this would end.59The ruling priests and the entire Jewish Council [18] convened to hear the case against Jesus. They scrambled to find people willing to testify against Jesus because they wanted to execute him. 60But they couldn’t find any credible witnesses. They produced a lot of liars, though. Eventually two men stepped forward. 61They testified, “We heard this man say, ‘I have the power to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”
62The high priest stood up. He said to Jesus, “Are you just going to stand there? Or are you going to defend yourself against these charges?” 63Jesus didn’t say a thing. Then the high priest said, “I’m putting you under oath. As God is your witness, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
64Jesus said, “You said it. [19] And I’ll tell you something else. You’ll see the Son of Humans sitting at the right hand of God Almighty. Look to the clouds in the sky because that’s where I’ll be coming from.”
65The high priest ripped his robe in anger [20] and said, “Blasphemy! Why waste our time with more witnesses? You’ve all heard him slander God. 66What’s your verdict?”
The council said, “He deserves to die!” 67They spit in his face. They pounded him with their fists. Some slapped him. 68They said, “How about a prophecy, Messiah? Prophesy this: Who just hit you?”
Peter Chickens Out
69While all this was going on, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came over to him and said, “You were with Jesus of Galilee.”70Peter denied it right there in front of everyone. He said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 71Peter went out by the gate.
Another servant girl saw him and said to the people around her, “This guy was with Jesus the Nazarene.”
72Peter denied it again, this time with a vow: “I swear I don’t know that man!”
73A little while later, some of the people standing around came over to Peter and said, “Come on. You know you’re one of them because you have the same accent they do.”
74Peter swore a curse on himself, inviting something bad to happen to him if he wasn’t telling the truth. Then he said, “I swear that I don’t know this man!” On cue at that very moment, the rooster crowed.
75Suddenly Peter remembered what Jesus had said. “Before the rooster crows, you’ll deny knowing me three times.” Peter left, sobbing.
Footnotes
Jews called this holiday by its Hebrew name, Pesach (PAY-sah). It was also called the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This was flatbread made with no yeast. Yeast is what makes bread dough rise. Many Jews today celebrate the holiday by eating cracker-like matzos. Tortillas would also qualify. The festival is a seven-day celebration beginning on the 14th day of the first month in the Jewish new year, Nisan, usually sometime in March or April. It varies because the Jewish calendar is based on the cycles of the moon. Jewish pilgrims came from all over the world to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem, much like Christian pilgrims today go to Bethlehem at Christmas and Jerusalem at Easter. At Passover, Jerusalem swelled to many times its normal size.
Bethany was a village on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, about two miles (3 km) from Jerusalem—a short walk.
Luke’s version of the story (Luke 7:36-50) reports that Jesus was invited to eat in the home of a Pharisee.
The Gospel of Mark identifies the perfume as nard. Nard, which has the earthy fragrance of cyprus, was one of the most expensive perfumes and anointing oils available. Nard was extracted from spikenard plants native to India’s Himalayan Mountains, some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) east of what is now Israel. It took about a year’s salary for the average working man to buy a flask of 16 ounces (half a liter).
Tables were often low, much like coffee tables today. Instead of sitting on chairs, people sat on the floor beside the table.
Judas will later take the money back and throw it into the Temple. The priests won’t want anything to do with the blood money, so they’ll buy some land from a potter and use it as a burial place for strangers. Matthew 27:3-10 says this fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 11:13.
The Gospels of Mark and Luke both say the disciples will recognize the man because he will be carrying a jug of water (Mark 14:13; Luke 22:10). Both Gospels also say Jesus sent only two disciples on this mission. Luke identifies the two as Peter and John (Luke 22:8).
See the footnote for Matthew 26:7.
Jesus, more literally, said, “You have said.” Some Bible experts say this was an oblique way of saying, simply, “Yes.” Or, as readers at this point in the story might have preferred, “Yes, you greedy, hypocritical wad of camel spit. It’s you.”
More literally, “This is my blood of the covenant.” It’s phrased in a way that would remind Matthew’s readers of what Moses said after he splashed blood on an altar: “This blood confirms the covenant the LORD has made with you” (Exodus 24:8, New Living Translation). The agreement God made with the Jewish people was essentially that if they obey his laws, he will protect them and bless them with peace and prosperity. But the Bible says the Jewish nation repeatedly failed to live up to its part of the agreement. They broke the agreement. In 586 BC, Babylonian invaders from what is now Iraq erased the Jewish nation from the world map, destroying the cities, along with Jerusalem and the Temple, and exiling many of the survivors. It took decades before remnants of the Jewish nation were able to return and start rebuilding their country.
The Mount of Olives was only a few minutes away. It’s a ridge of hills parallel to the ridge on which Jerusalem was built. The narrow Kidron Valley separates the two ridges.
Zechariah 13:7
Gethsemane means “oil press.” In the fall of the year, farmers harvested olives from olive trees, then crushed most of the olives to produce olive oil. A few olive trees and ruins of an ancient olive-oil press are located on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.
Zebedee’s sons were James and John, nicknamed the Sons of Thunder. Peter, James, and John seemed to be the three best friends of Jesus, his closest disciples. He took them with him on several occasions, including the famous mountaintop Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13).
Peter was the swordsman, according to John 18:10.
Jesus may have been thinking of the similar saying, “Kill a human, then by a human you’ll be killed” (Genesis 9:6). But he may also have been referring to an ancient proverb that dates back to a Greek playwright named Aeschlyus born 500 years earlier, “Live by the sword, die by the sword.”
It’s unclear what prophecies Jesus meant. Perhaps he had in mind the scattering of the disciples that he mentioned in Matthew 26:31. This is the moment most of them scattered. Among many other prophecies Jesus may have had in mind, there’s Daniel 9:26, “The Anointed One will be killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing” (New Living Translation).
This council was known as the Sanhedrin. They were a group of 70 Jewish leaders led by the high priest. They functioned as the top legislative and judicial body among Jews. They were a bit like a combination Congress/Supreme Court. They made the laws and punished the people who broke them. They did not, however, have the authority to execute anyone. The Roman occupiers kept that authority for themselves.
This is the same answer Jesus gave Judas (Matthew 26:25). It’s one variation on the more direct response that Mark reported: “I am” (Mark 14:62).
Today, someone that upset might punch a hole through the drywall. One difference might be that punching a hole in the wall is not considered acceptable or intelligent. But in ancient times, ripping clothes was a conventional way of expressing anger or grief.
Discussion Questions
- 1
While Jesus was eating a meal at Bethany, Matthew says, a woman poured onto the head of Jesus “expensive perfume” (Matthew 26:7). Mark does so too (Mark 14:3). Neither writer says why she did this. What might be some possible reasons she would have emptied onto Jesus a jar full of perfume worth a year’s salary?
- 2
In defending the woman who anointed him with extravagantly expensive perfume, Jesus said, “Why are you giving this woman a hard time? . . . Look, you’ll always have the poor people you can help” (Matthew 26:10-11). How is that not selfish and insensitive of Jesus?
- 3
We can only guess why Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 silver coins and then regretted it when Jewish leaders sentenced Jesus to death—regretted it enough to hang himself. Pick a guess or add one of your own.
- Jesus gave him enough rope to hang himself, so he did.
- If the game was poker, Judas was calling Jesus. He wanted Jesus to show his hand—the hand of a Messiah who would free Israel from the Roman occupying force.
- “Satan got inside the head of Judas Iscariot” (Luke 22:3).
- Judas was the treasurer for the disciples (John 13:29). He liked money and stole from the money bag (John 12:6).
- 4
Matthew doesn’t say what motivated Judas to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16). Luke says that “Satan got inside the head of Judas” (Luke 22:3). Other Bible versions translate it as “Satan entered into Judas” (New Living Translation). What do you think happened? Did Judas become demon-possessed? Or did Satan simply plant an idea in the mind of Judas, and Judas embraced it?
- 5
Let’s say Judas was not demon-possessed, and that Satan merely tempted him to do something he had been considering. Do you think Judas hoped to force Jesus into a public confrontation with Jewish leaders who supported the Roman occupying army, so the Messiah could lead Jewish rebels to freedom? Or do you think he had some other motive?
- 6
When Jesus passed out pieces of bread to the disciples he said, “Eat it. It’s my body” (Matthew 26:26). Luke adds this: “I’m giving it for you—for your sake. Do this to remember me” (Luke 22:19). Was he talking about what became the ritual of Communion or Mass? Or was he talking about any time we eat a meal?
- 7
When Jesus gave his disciples the bread at the Last Supper, he said, “It’s my body” (Matthew 26:26). Really? His actual body? Many Christians argue that the wine and the bread served during Communion or Mass are miraculously transformed into the actual blood and body of Jesus. Other Christians say the wine and bread are only symbols. What do you think about that?
- 8
Jesus said, “I won’t drink wine again until I drink a new kind of wine with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). What do you think he was talking about? Could he have been talking about after his resurrection, since the Bible says he ate fish afterward and perhaps drank wine as well (Luke 24:41-43)? Or do you think he was talking about end times, after his second coming?
- 9
Why do you think Judas chose a kiss as the signal to arresting officers that Jesus was the target (Matthew 26:48-49)?
- 10
As Matthew tells the story, Jesus was his own worst enemy at his trial before the Jewish Council. He was quickly convicted of blasphemy against God when he answered the high priest’s request, “Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God” (Matthew 26:63). It’s not clear if the priest was asking if Jesus was the divine Son of God, or merely a child of God. But Jesus made it clear that he was on awfully good terms with God: “You’ll see the Son of Humans sitting at the right hand of God Almighty. Look to the clouds in the sky because that’s where I’ll be coming from” (Matthew 26:64). If you had been a member of the Jewish Council, and you proposed releasing Jesus because he is obviously a bit crazy, what counterpoints would you expect to hear?
- 11
When Caiaphas and Pilate each asked if Jesus was king of the Jews, Jesus answered, “You said it” (Matthew 26:64; 27:11). That’s a strange answer, it seems. Bible translators aren’t sure what to do with it. One translation: “It is as you have said” (Mounce). Another: “Those are your words” (New Century Version). What do you think Jesus meant?
- 12
When the top Jewish leaders sentenced Jesus to execution (Matthew 26:66), they had to clear it with the Roman governor, Pilate. How do you think they would have felt about having to clear their executions with the occupying forces?
- 13
What do you think most people feel when they read the story of Peter telling people he didn’t know who Jesus was (Matthew 26:69-75)? Do they think less of him? Do they pity him? Do they relate to him?
- 14
LIFE APPLICATION. Some people at the dinner Simon hosted in Bethany complained about the woman who poured perfume onto Jesus. It was worth a year’s salary and they thought the money would have been better used by donating to the poor (Matthew 26:9; Luke 14:5). What do you think would be some examples today of spending money on something that others might say is a waste because it could have been donated to the poor and better used there?
- 15
LIFE APPLICATION. When Judas betrayed Jesus (Matthew 26:14-16), some Bible writers say he did it because Satan somehow got inside of him (Luke 22:3). Humans do evil things all the time. Do you think it’s because Satan is inside of us? Or is something else going on to make us do those terrible things?
- 16
LIFE APPLICATION. All of the disciples ran away when Jesus got arrested, just as he predicted they would (Matthew 26:56). At the end of the story, Jesus forgives them, as well as his executioners. Without giving any names, how have you seen people react when they felt abandoned by the people they counted on most?
Maps/Guides
