Matthew 26:6 The Alabaster Box. Here is a woman probably a poor woman doing an action which excites the indignation of the whole Church. Not a voice is heard in her favour except sublime exception! the voice of Jesus. In such circumstances there must be something worth looking at. A minority which... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:13 There can be no question but that in this action of Mary there was something deeply symbolical. I am not going to say that Mary meant it to be so. There may often be far more in our own actions than we imagine. Perhaps, though, her ardent love led her to do just the right thing at the... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:22 I. Look at the question, "Lord is it I?" in connection with the scene and the time when each disciple was shocked and startled into asking it. You have, perhaps, in the mirror of memory, the picture of a certain tranquil sunset. If in that moment, and without any premonitory sign, the... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:24 Judas rebuked by Christ. I. It will give increased interest to the sayings of our Lord in the text if we suppose that they were uttered with a special reference to Judas, with the merciful design of warning him of the enormity of his projected crime, and thus, if it were yet possible,... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:22 , MATTHEW 26:25 _(with John 13:25)_ I. In the first form of the question: "Is it I?" we have an example of that wholesome self-distrust, which a glimpse into the possibilities of evil that lie slumbering in all our hearts ought to teach every one of us. Every man is a mystery to himse... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:26 Notice: I. When the Lord's Supper was first kept, and who kept it. As He was eating, Jesus took bread. He was eating unleavened bread and drinking wine at the Feast of the Passover in the city of Jerusalem. The Last Supper was first eaten at the Passover Supper of the Jews. It was fi... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:27 I. The Cup to us speaks of a Divine treaty or covenant. Ancient Israel had lived for nearly two thousand years under the charter of their national existence, which, as we read in the old Testament, was given on Sinai amidst thunderings and lightnings; and that covenant, or agreement, o... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:30 There are many truths which present themselves to the mind, when it duly ponders the simple statement of the text. I. The first of these truths is that our blessed Lord, by conforming to certain customs of the Jews in the eating of the Passover, gave His sanction to ceremonies which m... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:33 Enthusiasm and its Dangers. I. One reason of St. Peter's confidence was that he did not realise the situation which was awaiting him. As yet he had had no experience of any trial of the kind, and he seems not to have had that kind of imagination which can anticipate the untried with a... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:34 Christian Recompense. The case of Peter shows that there is a denial of Christ which may be forgiven, although there is a denial of Him which will not. There is a denial of Him which may be forgiven, if we turn to Him, as Peter did, in sincere and hearty repentance. Peter went out an... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:36 The Conflict in Gethsemane. I. The place of the conflict calls for a brief notice. Gethsemane is now only a name for one of the booths in Vanity Fair. There are two rival Gethsemanes, and rival guides wrangle about the truth of this and that local identification. One place, called th... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:36 Gethsemane. I. The first thing to which we direct attention, is the intense severity of the suffering which now overwhelmed and oppressed the mind of Christ. The extreme severity of Christ's sufferings in the garden are indicated by several circumstances. (1) It appears that as soon a... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:38 The Valley of the Shadow of Death. I. Whether death be easy or painful, it is appointed unto all men once to die. This everyone knows, so that each person thinks that he can gain nothing by hearing it repeated. But I imagine, that although we know that we shall die, yet we who move a... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:38 Divine Sorrow. It is not on the actual physical sufferings of the Crucifixion that the Bible most invites us to dwell it relates them, but it passes over them as lightly as the circumstances will admit but on the inner suffering, on the inner intentions of the scene, we are invited t... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:39 The Will of God the Cure of Self-will. It was the deep disease of self-will to cure which our good Lord came, in our nature, to fulfil the Father's will, to suffer what the Father willed, to "empty Himself and become obedient unto death." Since pride was the chief source of disease i... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:40 I. How gently, yet how earnestly, does Christ call upon us to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. To watch and to pray; for of all those around Him some were sleeping and none were praying; so that they who watched were not watching with Him, but against Him. In our careles... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:39 , MATTHEW 26:42 Submission a Progress. To enter fully into the mystery of Christ's agony is not given to the living. But even the faint distant glimpse which we catch of it causes to rise upon this life of ours a marvellous light. The mourner has felt it so, and the sinner has felt i... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:45 Too Late. In these words our Lord means: "It is too late. The opportunity is lost and gone. The time for watching and praying is over; you have let it escape you. You may as well sleep now. Alas! there is now nothing to be done; you must now enter, as you may, into temptation." If th... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:45 The Parabolical Language of Christ. I. Our Lord's habitual language was parabolical. I use the word in a wide sense, to include all language which is not meant to be taken according to the letter. This seems to have been, if I may venture to say so, the favourite language in which He... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:50 The Last Pleading of Love. Note: I. The patience of Christ's love. If we take no higher view of this most pathetic incident than that the words come from a man's lips, even then all its beauty will not be lost. There are some sins against friendship, in which the manner is harder to... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:56 The Fickleness of Friends. I. "Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled." The cruelty of all this it would be hard to exaggerate. For three years and upwards their Divine Master had been building up their faith and binding them to Himself by a thousand heavenly arts. They had witne... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:57 , MATTHEW 26:69 Peter's Denial of Jesus. Although Peter's denial of his Lord shocked all witnesses as a sudden, unaccountable, disconnected thing, it was in reality but the last act in a succession of acts, one growing out of another. I. Think of this deed in connection with a certai... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:58 I. Like the rest of the disciples, Peter no sooner saw the capture of the Lord than he forsook Him and fled. He has scarcely fled when he turns to follow but he follows afar off, as one who would disguise even while he yields to the impulse. In the very midst of the high priest's serva... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:63 When our Lord was upon earth, the measure of the fulness of His revelation to men was conditioned by their disposition towards Himself, and by their general moral character. This explains His silence to Caiaphas, to Herod, and to Pilate. In like manner the Scriptures are silent to som... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 26:57 , MATTHEW 26:69 Peter's Denial of Jesus. Although Peter's denial of his Lord shocked all witnesses as a sudden, unaccountable, disconnected thing, it was in reality but the last act in a succession of acts, one growing out of another. I. Think of this deed in connection with a certai... [ Continue Reading ]