Matthew 26:7-32

6 The Lord was twice anointed during the last week of His life, first, six days before the Passover, and on this occasion. One woman anointed His feet, this woman poured the attar on His head. This occurred in connection with presentation to Jerusalem as the King. When a king was crowned in Israel he was anointed with attar. He came, but no one thought of anointing Him. His very disciples resented it. They grudged the price of the attar for the anointing of Messiah! So He applies it to His burial. Yet this unnamed and unknown woman gives Him the honor He deserves!

14-16 Compare Mar_14:10-11; Luk_22:3-6; Zec_11:12-13.

14 What a contrast! The woman “wastes” in value much more than what Judas receives for his Lord. This shows their relative estimates of His preciousness. Nothing is wasted which is for His honor. Philanthropy finds its highest expression in the worship of the Man Christ Jesus.

17-19 Compare Mar_14:12-16; Luk_22:7-13. See Exo_12:6-18.

17 “The first [day] of the unleavened [bread]” is explained in Mark as the day on which the passover must be sacrificed (Mar_14:12). Hence it is not the first day of the festival of Unleavened Bread spoken of in the law (Lev_23:6; Num_28:17), for that did not come until the day after the Passover proper. It seems that the question was asked at the beginning of the fourteenth of Nisan, just after sundown. As they had little to do in its preparation, but partook of it as guests of an unknown host, there was little time needed to prepare. So that same evening they celebrated it the last time before He Himself became the Passover on the same calendar day. The Jewish days began in the evening and ended the next evening (See Gen_1:5). The passover lamb must be slain on the fourteenth of Nisan “between the evenings” (Lev_23:5, see verse 32). Hence the Lord fulfilled the law in a double sense. He observed the Passover and was slain as the Passover, all within the limits allowed by the law of Moses. The very wording of the precept was modified to suit the great Antitype.

20-25 Compare Mar_14:17-21; Luk_22:14; Luk_22:21-23; Joh_13:18-30.

23 See Psa_41:9.

24 See Psa.22; Isa.53; Dan_9:26.

24 The case of Judas has an important bearing on the ultimate destiny of the human race and all creation. If it were well for Judas if he had not been born, then there can be no justification of all mankind (Rom_5:18) or reconciliation of all creation (Col_1:20). If he is ultimately justified and reconciled it is well that he has been born. The solution of this difficulty will help us to see the bias which pervades our translations. They deliberately recast the sentence and give it a meaning quite foreign to the text. The Lord speaks of Himself as “Him”, and of Judas as “that man”. It were ideal for the Lord if Judas were not born. The Lord's impending suffering is in view, not the punishment of Judas, whose ultimate destiny is not under consideration.

26-29 Compare Mar_14:22-25; Luk_22:19-20; 1Co_11:23-26.

26 The account given here is for the Circumcision. It is seen as a part of the Passover festival and concerns the new covenant for Israel and the pardon of sins. Were it not that it was given to Paul by a special revelation (1Co_11:25), after he had been separated to his special ministry (Act_13:2) among the nations, and with the particular provision that it should continue until the Lord's coming, we would be tempted to class it with the observances intended only for the Circumcision.

27 In Greek, the present tense of the substantive often indicates a figure of speech. If the Lord were speaking literally of His actual body and blood, He would have omitted the word is. It is a metaphor, in which one thing is not merely stated to be like another, but to be another. It is freely used in interpreting parables, as, “the field is the world” (Mat_13:38). Usually it is not used in stating matters of fact. It may be correctly rendered, means, or represents, in practically every place where it occurs. This distinction cannot be carried over into English, for we always express the verb.

28 See Exo_24:8; Lev_17:11; Jer_31:31-34.

29 Compare Luk_22:15-18.

30-32 Compare Mar_14:26-28; Luk_22:39; Joh_16:32.

31 See Zec_13:7; Isa_53:4-11.

32 See Mat_28:7-16.