Matthew 26

  Lev.23 gives a quick overview of the Jewish holy days.  The great spring pilgrimage feast included both Passover and Unleavened Bread.  Passover was on 14th Nisan.  The lamb (or kid) was slain, and the meal eaten that evening, which by Jewish reckoning would begin a new day after sundown, the first day of Unleavened Bread.  Unleavened Bread continued, the 15th through the 21st.  Combined, this made eight days in all.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke sometimes use Passover, and Unleavened Bread, interchangeably to refer to the whole eight day festival, and sometimes as specific terms (e.g. Mt.26:17; Luke 22:1).  John never uses the term Unleavened Bread.  He always uses Passover, even after the Passover Supper proper has been eaten (John 18:28).

     Apparently 14th Nisan was Thursday that year.  Jesus was crucified on good Friday, rested in the grave on the seventh day Sabbath, and was raised early on the 1st day of the week.

     Many think John has Jesus eating the Supper a day earlier, but I think not.  See notes at John 13:1; 18:28; 19:14, 31. 

     26:1-5  cf. v.2 and v.5.  This was to be done on God’s timetable, not theirs.

      26:6-16.  Note that Matthew is not specific as to chronology here (v.6).  He seldom is, choosing rather to gather his material together according to themes.  Here, he does not say, “Then when Jesus…,” etc., but merely, “Now when [ever] Jesus….”  John is specific as to the timing of this incident in John 12:1.  Matthew (and the other gospels) flash back to it here to show some of the motivation of the traitor, Judas (v.14).

     26:17-29.  See vv.22-25.  There is nothing wrong with calling Jesus “Rabbi” (teacher), but all the others have called him “Lord”.  Judas goes on to eat and drink the signs and seals of the covenant in an unworthy manner, and so eats and drinks judgment to himself (1 Cor.11:27-29).  He does not eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins (v.28), and so misses the promise of v.29.

     26:30.  Psalms 113-118, called “The Hallel” (praise), was sung at the three great pilgrimage feasts.

     26:35.  Way too much is made by some of Peter’s weakness.  Note that they all said the same thing.  The real point is that Peter was the boldest and bravest of men, and yet it was not enough.  They all fell away, even Peter.

     26:50.  David knew betrayal, and prophetically spoke of the work of this “friend”, (Ps.41:9; Ps.55:12-13, 20-21).

     26:57-75.  There is a pre-trial hearing, and a trial before a larger group of the council during these early morning hours.  Luke 22 makes this plain, and John 18 also speaks of it.  John brings Annas (the high priest who had been deposed by the Romans, and who was Caiaphas’ father-in-law), into the pre-trial mix.  See notes at John 18.  I believe Matthew may vaguely hint at all this in v.60, when he says, “But later on….”  I think he means later on at the wrap-up phase of the trial.  

     At 4:00 a.m., or thereabout, it was evidently hard to come up with the required two reliable liars as witnesses who could keep their stories straight.

     26:64.  As we saw in Mt.24:30, Jesus uses these verses from Ps.110:1 and Dan.7:13 to speak of the desolation of Jerusalem (which is a type of the second coming at the Last Great Day).  Note that Caiaphas was to see this sign of the Son of Man coming in power to judge.  It would come in his lifetime.  Caiaphas and the others knew exactly what Jesus’ words meant.  It’s a bad sign when your judge tears his robe (v.65).  

     Peter was standing in the courtyard during the pre-trial, and Jesus was apparently taken across the courtyard from the high priest’s house to another courtroom in the same building complex for final judgment.