TUESDAY: As Jesus leaves the Temple on Tuesday before his crucifixion, the disciples want to show him the Temple buildings. “Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down,” Jesus says (Matt. 24:2 ESV). (In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Temple.)
After Jesus takes a seat on the Mount of Olives (with the Temple in view), the disciples ask about the end times and when Jesus will return. In Matthew 24, he tells of the Temple’s destruction and the end times. He says he will leave earth and many of the disciples will be persecuted and killed, but the gospel will be preached everywhere. Be prepared, because none know exactly when Jesus will return.
Jesus tells the parable of the ten virgins and of the talents. A parable is “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual truth.” He then tells of the Judgment of the Nations when he will “place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.” Jesus finishes the lessons and says to the disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
The chief priests and Jewish elders meet in the palace of the high priest, Caiaphas, and plot to arrest Jesus and kill him. They want to be sneaky about the arrest and do not desire to do this during the Passover Feast because it may cause a riot. Jesus returns to Bethany to spend the night with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
WEDNESDAY: Jesus rests. That evening, he and his friends eat supper in the house of Simon, a man the Lord had healed from leprosy. At the supper, a woman approaches Jesus with an alabaster flask of expensive perfume. She pours it on his head as he reclines at the table.
The disciples observe and are indignant. They say, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”
Jesus says, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me.” He says poor people will always exist but the disciples will not always have him there in a physical body.
“ In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial,” Jesus says. “Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”
THREE WOMEN: All four gospels tell about women anointing Jesus with a costly jars of perfume, gotquestions.org says. “Matthew and Mark relate the same event but do not give the woman’s name; Luke tells of a different woman, also not named, on an earlier occasion. In yet another event, the woman in John is identified as Mary of Bethany (John 11:2), sister to Martha and Lazarus.”
IN MATTHEW, an unnamed woman with an alabaster flask of expensive ointment pours it on Jesus’ head as he reclines at the table. This happened two days before Passover at Simon the leper’s home (Matt. 26:6-7).
IN MARK, we hear about an anonymous woman with an alabaster box. She interrupts a meal in Simon the leper’s home to anoint Jesus’ head with costly perfume (Mark 14:3-9) — sort of the way they anointed Old Testament kings.
IN LUKE, we are told of a different anointing by a woman “who is a sinner” — this lady is NOT Mary the sister of Lazarus. This happens in Simon the Pharisee’s home about a year before Jesus dies. This lady anoints Jesus’ feet. Then Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness (Luke 7:39-50).
IN JOHN, Lazarus’ sister Mary is the woman who anoints Jesus with a high-priced perfume at a dinner in Bethany, gotquestions.org says. The story is similar to those in the other gospels, although this anointing takes place six days before Passover. On this occasion, “Mary took a 12-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair.” Judas is named as the one who objects to the “waste” (John 12:1-8).
So, three women are recorded as anointing Jesus. Two anointings happen during Passover Week and are linked with Jesus’ death and burial. Messiah means “anointed one” in Hebrew. Christ comes from the Greek word Christos, also meaning “anointed one.”
JUDAS: After that dinner on Wednesday, Judas goes to the chief priests and says, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” They pay him 30 pieces of silver “and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray Jesus.”
Other disciples called Jesus “Lord,” but Judas never used this title for Jesus and instead called him “Rabbi,” which acknowledged Jesus as nothing more than a teacher, sources say.
“Though Jesus knew ahead of time that Judas would betray him, it does not mean God caused Judas to do it,” Pastor Don Stewart says. “Judas acted on his own accord. He was not just a pawn or puppet in God’s hands. … When Jesus talked about dying, Judas realized the kingdom was not going to come immediately. Therefore, he gained what he could by betraying Jesus.”
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