Matthew 26 Being in Tune with the Will of God

Jesus was in tune with the Scriptures and with His Father's heart, and He knew where He was going and how to get there. The Jewish religious leaders knew their Bibles, but they were completely out of touch with God's will. The disciples heard Jesus' words, knew the Scriptures, and yet they were caught completely flat-footed when the predictions were coming true around them. Nonetheless, the Sovereign One carried out His plans, in spite of the fact that Jesus passively followed it purposely and the leaders and disciples planned differently and actively followed it ignorantly.

Going into this chapter, by my count, Jesus has already told His disciples 8 times that He was going to Jerusalem to die. In this chapter, He tells them ten more times some particulars. "The Son of Man will be betrayed and crucified" (26:2) "she has [done this] to prepare my body for burial" (26:12) "one of you will betray me" (26:21) "The Son of Man must die, as the Scriptures declared long ago" (26:24) "I will not drink wine again until I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom" (26:29) "Tonight, all of you will desert me" (26:31) "you will deny me three times" (26:34) "my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death" (26:38) "the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners" (26:45) "how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?" (26:54).

That all seems pretty morbid, Jesus! How do You get all of those bad things out of Scripture? Doesn't God want You happy, healthy, wealthy and healed? You haven't been listening to the preachers. They must know the will of God for You!

As a matter of fact, everyone else had his own plan for God's will. The religious leaders thought they knew God's will. They wanted to capture Jesus secretly and put him to death, but NOT during the Passover. (26:5) They wanted to put Him to death, not because He was the fulfillment of Scripture, but because they thought He was just the opposite! Judas offered to betray Him, and started looking for the right time and place. (26:16) Peter fully planned to never desert Jesus or to deny Him. He would go to the death for Him, and all the others made the same vow. (26:33-35)

The religious leaders, who prided themselves on doing things "right" according to the Book, found themselves breaking all of their own code. This unusual opportunity to arrest Jesus during the Passover came up, and in this exceptional emergency they "bent the rules" regarding meeting place (home of Caiaphas), meeting time (night), members (only the religious leaders), witnesses (trying to drum up two, had to bribe them to lie), having a jury (extracting a "confession" from Jesus negated the need), due process (beat and mock Him), etc. (26:57-68) Nonetheless, it was all that the Father had planned, down to the smallest details of time and words and place.

Peter, who claimed that he would die with Jesus, falls asleep and is completely out of touch with God's will, yet he finds himself being a player in this dramatic scene, as he denies his Master three times, in spite of his good intentions. (26:69-75)

We WILL DO God's will, because He is sovereign, even if our role is accidental in it. Peter, Judas, the Pharisees, and eventually Pilate, Herod and the soldiers, all fell right into line with the prophecies about Jesus. Jesus alone seemed to know what would happen, and yet He alone is passive in these scenes, as almost everything is done TO Him, and very little BY Him.

"LORD, I want to do Your will. I want to know Your will. I want to know Your Word, and to cooperate with You, so that You don't have to work in spite of me. And You don't need my invitation, but I invite You to work in spite of me when You need to. Do Your will in my family, among my neighbors, and in my church. I will to help You accomplish what You will do, through Your Sovereign acts, Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen."
-ker