CHAPTER XIV. CHAP. XIV. I, 2. S. Matt. xxvi. 1, 2. S. Luke xxii. 1, 2. the Passover Evangelists. 1. After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by craft, and put Him to death. 2. But they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar of the people. This is the first Passover of which we have any Notice of notice in this Gospel. From S. John we find that our by the Lord did keep the Passover during His ministry, though, for some reason which has never yet been satisfactorily explained, the first three Evangelists have confined their account of the Lord's ministry almost entirely to Galilee. The only Passover mentioned by any one of them is that to which the Lord went, when twelve years old, with His parents. Whatever may be the reason for the plan adopted by the first three Evangelists, certainly it has this advantage, namely, that it brings out into very clear light the one Passover which they do record; it suggests that the connection of our Lord's sufferings and death with that feast was not in any way (if we may venture so to speak) accidental; that there was a special significance in the connection; that in fact the Passover, with its lamb slain and eaten with bitter herbs, and blood sprinkled on the door-posts, was not fully intelligible until this Passover gave to all others their interpretation, not destroying the ordinance of God, but in the most unspeakable manner fulfilling it. I, 2. Passover. CHAP. To ourselves, perhaps, the light which shines upon XIV. the sacrifice of the death of Christ from the old Paschal feast of the Jews is comparatively faint. We may Christ our indeed gain help in understanding something of its mystery, and we cannot fail to be struck by the manner in which the type set forth the great antitype; but to us the whole history of the Lord's incarnation and life and death and resurrection and ascension is so full of glory, that it rather throws light upon all previous signs and shadows than itself gains illumination from them. To the Jews, however, to whom Christ was first preached, the case would be very different; the triumphant phrase of S. Paul, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast, would express the manner in which a devout Jew would be led to find in Christ the substance after which he had long been feeling. In the midst of the disruption and confusion of his country and religion, when God seemed to have forgotten His people, and given them over to their enemies, th believer in Christ would perceive that God had in reality remembered them, that He had visited them so as He had never visited them before, and sent them a new redemption from their house of bondage, of which the first Paschal deliverance was only the faintest sign. S. Matt. xxvi. 6-13. 3. And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster-box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His head.1 1 The following is part of Lightfoot's note on the anointing: "It was accounted unfitting for Rabbins to smell of aromatical ointments. It is indecent, say the Jerusalem Talmudists, for a scholar of the wise men to smell of spices. From this opinion XIV. 3-9. 4. And there were some that had indignation within CHAP. themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? 5. For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6. And Jesus said, Let her alone: why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on Me. 7. For ye have the poor with . you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but Me ye have not always. 8. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint My body to the burying. 9. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. not making Christ. How very much alike are the excuses made in Excuses for different ages by those who grudge offering to Christ offerings to the best things that the world has! Some object to foreign missions because there is plenty to be done at home; and some will not waste money upon handsome churches when the poor require all that can be done for them; and so forth. The excuses are made, not because men care for the accurate performance of the duties in question, but because they wish to avoid the performance of duties altogether. The woman who had anointed Christ with the spikenard had done a good everywhere received among them, you may more aptly understand why the other disciples as well as Judas did bear the lavish of the ointment with some indignation: he out of wicked covetousness, but they partly as not willing that so precious a thing should be lost, and partly as not liking that so nice a custom should be used towards their Master, from which the masters of the Jews were themselves so averse. And our Saviour, taking off the envy of what was done, applies this anointing to His burial, both in His intention and in the intention of the woman, that it might not seem to be done out of some delicate niceness." P 3-9. CHAP. Work; let no one carp at it; let those who think it a XIV. mistake hold their peace and do a better; let those who are very anxious about the poor go and do them good; Christ will bless them in doing so; but let not the pretence of helping the poor be made a ground for condemning an act of manifest affection to Himself. The faith of the woman ed the Lord, The woman seems to have shewn a faith concerning who anoint- His approaching death beyond that of the disciples. When the Lord says, she is come aforehand to anoint My body to the burying, I think He intends to intimate that she perceived that He was about to die, as He said He should probably she perceived no more than this; there is no reason for asserting that her faith had carried her beyond the grave, and enabled her to anticipate the resurrection of which the Lord had spoken: but if her knowledge on this point was not clear, her love was all the greater. Grant that He was going to die and to be seen no more; grant that no glorious hope of a resurrection lighted up the grave; then the woman had seen enough of Christ already to make her perceive that He was worthy of any effort she could make to do Him honour, and to shew forth her own gratitude and love. She hath done what she could. She hath done what she could. For these beautiful words we are indebted to S. Mark. They express the judgment of Christ, not only in the case of the woman who had anointed Him, but in that of every one who endeavours in his own sphere to do his duty and to glorify God. Men may adopt another standard: their eyes may be dazzled with what is grand and sparkling and showy, but God looks into the heart; and as Christ commended the poor widow who threw her two mites into the treasury of God, so in this case He commended the woman's piety, not because what she had done was the greatest work conceivable, but because she had done what she could. CHAP. XIV. IO, II. xxvi. 14-16. s. Luke xxii. 3-6. 10. And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto s. Matt. the chief priests, to betray Him unto them. .11. And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray Him. to the chief This important passage in our blessed Lord's history Judas going is given in almost exactly the same manner by the priests. first two Evangelists, the only important difference being, that S. Mark does not mention the sum for which the bargain was made. It should be observed that in all the accounts which we have of the transaction, it is very plainly stated that Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests, not they to him; there was no tampering with his principles; in fact, there was probably nothing that the chief priests expected less than that the means of accomplishing their designs should be supplied by Christ's own disciples. Hitherto their fidelity under trying circumstances had been so true, that it was hardly to be expected that offers could be made to them with any probability of success. The chief priests and scribes several times took counsel how they might destroy Him, but we have no hint that they expected to do so through the aid of Judas. No, it was his own act: he went himself to the tempters, threw himself in their way, himself made an offer of service; and so he illustrated a very general truth: when men are tempted to sin, they are led away of their own lusts and enticed; so lust conceives and brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished brings forth death. |