Living Theology | Matthew 26:1–5

Living Theology is a blog series that draws out the theological principles of each week's sermon text and thinks through how we can apply them to our personal lives. In other words, this series asks how we can live out the theology of Scripture each day.

Sermon Text: Matthew 26:1–5

When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.” (ESV)

You can watch Pastor Brian's sermon on this passage here:

Though Jesus's physical suffering doesn't really begin until 26:67, when the scribes and elders condemn him to death, the prediction in 26:2 sets the tone for the rest of Matthew's Gospel. Everything we read in Matthew 26 should be read through the lens of Jesus's arrest and crucifixion:

• the anointing at Bethany (Matthew 26:6–16),

• the Passover meal with the disciples and the Last Supper (Matthew 26:17–29),

• the prediction of Peter's denial (Matthew 26:30–25),

• Jesus's prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:26–46),

• and his betrayal and arrest (Matthew 26:47–56),

Matthew wants us to read all of these events in the light of Jesus's looming suffering and death. Matthew 26:1 transitions us from Jesus's teaching about the last days and the final judgment to the last days and final judgment that Jesus himself will face as he prepares his disciples for his suffering and death. Verse 2, then, connects Jesus's suffering and death to the Passover feast—though the precise nature of that connection is not yet clear. In verses 3–4, we see the religious leaders confirming their plot to kill Jesus, a plot that Jesus himself has been warning his disciples about since Matthew 16:21:

"From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem

and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,

and be killed, and on the third day be raised." (ESV)

In verse 5, we see that they intend to wait until after the Passover feast. But these leaders do not get to decide when and how Jesus will give his life. God himself has already decided.

Pastor Brian brought out two theological principles that underly this text:

1. Suffering does not limit the freedom of God's sovereign will.

2. Suffering always works out according to God's sovereign will.

Principle 1: Suffering does not limit the freedom of God's sovereign will.

We are often careful to preserve the free will of humans (maybe "free choice" is a better term). We are careful because we want to avoid any sort of fatalism, the idea that we are not responsible for our decisions or that our choices don't actually matter. But Pastor Brian pointed out in his sermon that we often forget about God's free will. The truth is, if God is really sovereign, then his will is the freest of all. And no "free choice" of ours will thwart his will. We saw this in our Bible reading plan this week in Job 1–2. Even Satan himself cannot act outside of the will of God.

Traditionally, we have described God's will in two ways: God's prescriptive will and God's decretal will. We see God's prescriptive will in the Law. God tells us what he wants from us. Obviously, humans violate God's prescriptive will regularly. Whenever we sin, we are violating what God has told us he wants from us. But this is not a violation of God's decretal will. We see God's decretal will in Job 1–2, where the LORD permits Satan to destroy Job's possessions and even to afflict Job himself. And yet, God limits Satan's freedom by telling him: "Guard his life" (Job 2:6). The suffering that God allows Job to experience does not limit God's own sovereign will. God is still in charge of what happens, even when Job is suffering.

The interesting application here is that God limits our suffering as well. It may not feel like it, but it's true. Even when we suffer, God is actively setting the boundary of that suffering, saying, "Here, and no further." In this sense, God is truly present with us when we suffer. We don't feel his hand sheltering us from what could be because we often focus only on what he allows to reach us. We focus on the waves that crash against us, but we're oblivious to the flood that God is restraining. We must remember that he is there with us. Protecting us. Sparing us. Even when we feel like we're drowning.

Principle 2: Suffering always works out according to God's sovereign will.

This principle is similar to the first, but the focus is on the result of our suffering. Ultimately, this principle gives us hope that there is a purpose behind the evil we suffer. God will use it for our good. We see this promise in Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (ESV).

So how do we apply this truth in our own lives when we suffer?

One way is to remind ourselves that God knows what we're going through. He knows about our suffering. More than that, God has given his permission for this to happen. That may not sound comforting at all. In fact, it's not comforting to most people when they are suffering. But it can be comforting if we remember two things: God is truly good, and God truly loves us. If these two statements are true, then we can take comfort in knowing that God has given permission for what we are going through. It means that we can trust that God will redeem our suffering. He won't just bring some good out of it in addition to what we go through. Rather, the suffering itself will benefit us in such a way that, in the end, when we finally see everything from God's perspective, we also would agree that it should happen. We, too, would give our permission for this suffering to happen to us. We talk more about this idea in the video below, but the idea is this: Because God is sovereign and because God is good, and because God loves us, we can trust that even our suffering will be a good thing. This doesn't mean that death is a good thing. This doesn't mean that illness is a good thing. This doesn't mean that sin is a good thing. But it does mean that God will redeem all the evil we go through.