The women who had broken all her talents upon Jesus, in love, is multiplied and incorporated as essential to the gospel narrative wherever it is proclaimed.
She had recognized that Jesus is the precious alabaster box that would be broken to enable other people to receive his life, his resurrecting life.
After this momentous endorsement of her trading her all upon Him, the virgin who had her light filled with oil, due to having been sat at his feet prioritizing hearing his word above all else, we have the departure of Judas to betray Jesus into the hands of the chief priests.
Judas asked what he would be given if he delivered Jesus unto them.
It is hard to know what was in Judas’s heart when he followed Jesus. But clearly at this juncture, worshipping Jesus and giving him everything, was not his motive for following him. As the women had been the demonstration of that which Jesus esteemed of highest value in the preceding parables, Judas’s exit at this same revelation demonstrated that all his acts of healing and baptizing in Jesus’s name had not been heart discipleship leading unto the worship of God, but rather self interest.
By going to the high priests to trade, Judas was revealing himself to be a goat rather than a sheep. Judas placed personal financial gain above having his heart enlightened by love.
Jesus being loved was an opportunity to have your heart enlightened to live again. Jesus being loved is a light that transforms the cold dark and spiritually dead heart. And that is why the fragrance from her alabaster box, is an ointment that touches hearts wherever the gospel is proclaimed.
In the context of the Church and Church life, value those who love Jesus and let their love for him, speak life. Loving Jesus, is feeding the hungry and thirsty and the prisoner, and that may be am overweight billionaire who has his own private jet.
Judas, traded with the priesthood that wanted lifeless religion and the temple to remain the status quo. Instead of allowing his heart to be enlightened he departed to trade with a corrupted religious institution, for his own financial gain.
Judas was trading Jesus’s for thirty pieces of silver, he is the diametric opposite to the women who poured out her love, and wherever the gospel is preached his betrayed affirms that it would have been better for him that he had never been born.
A prosperity gospel is not the five virgins who had their flasks of oil, they had traded already, investing their resources into being ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Their prosperity was one thing, light that revealed they where waiting for their beloved – their faces revealed as Stephens did that their service was out of love for the King. A prosperity gospel is those who keep their resources, until it is to late to have feed the hungry, thirsty and prisoner with the light of a heart waiting in love.
Judas traded one Jesus for thirty talents of Silver, but it was to late for him to buy back the prophetic ministry: Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. He had been called and chosen to proclaim unto others the name by which all men must be saved, a heart set free through him who overcame the evil one in the wilderness. Judas had followed until true worship had been revealed as the cornerstone of the new covenant, all of Jesus none of me, the secret of are salvation.
When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.
This is a great mystery, but I am glad scripture documents it.
Judas knew how Jesus had been a light in respect of loving and serving God. He had witnessed day after day his manner of life and the impact he had upon the hungry, thirsty and bound. And when he saw that he was condemned, he changed his mind.
This changing of his mind was not a minor skin deep change, it was a radical rejection of their being any value outside of sacrificial love. Judas threw the money into the temple and went out and hanged himself, his change of mind was a radical judgement upon his own actions.
‘What waste’, had been the muttering he spread among the apostles, just like the High priests who caused the crowd to cry ‘Barabbas’.
A broken vessel, had been called out as wastage.
The potters field was a place broken vessels where multiplied. All traded for the forming of a new vessel, one able to hold new wine, reserved by the bridegroom who is able to transform the bitter depths of sin and death (mixed with gall), into the best wine that has ever been tasted.
‘What waste’, this is the one treasure that is able to take broken lives and make them new, to cleanse sin so that no spot or stain can be attributed to you, a pure white covering of the lamb of God.
Poor, Poor Judas. Having turned to the priesthood that cared not for his soul, having gone to the head goats, he discovers that they are not interested in nor care about the atonement for sin.
Judas could not return to the apostles, he had kissed their King. And as yet they did not understand the power of the Cross.
Judas took his own life, as their is no other sacrifice other than Jesus. What waste! What waste to miss the value of his sacrifice for the entire human race.
Could Judas have been forgiven? The focus of scripture is on the Lamb. A thief on a cross, received eternal life, as he traded his sins for eternal paradise, seeing an innocent man condemned in his place.
This thief saw beyond his condemnation! His heart was opened and awakened by the fragrance of the alabaster box, he saw in his face that he was dying for his bride. In the pitch darkness, he heard a supply of oil that had not run out, he heard the voice of a man who had traded his all into his Fathers hands. This thief, reflected upon an innocent man and knew his suffering was a delay so that guilty sinners who had traded what they had not been given, neither where thankful for what they had, might trade darkness for his light of life.
Oh this thief was a miracle of the first words spoken by Jesus upon the Cross. They penetrated his darkness and birthed a believing faith. The thief upon the cross through faith obtained the same wages as all who will follow, he received the talent of being covered by the blood of the lamb – the only talent the Father has ever promised he would not withhold unto all who believe.
Perhaps the tragedy of Judas, is that he never believed as the thief on the cross did, that his death and condemnation was so that the guilty could go free.
Faith mighty faith, the promise sees. Perhaps he only saw him as an innocent man, rather than the worth of an atoning sacrifice. Perhaps Judas never saw beyond his own humanity.
But oh the faith of the thief at the Cross, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’, heralded wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world.
The last parable in Ch 25 is called the final judgement and it has a clear identification of the individual, the ‘I’.
Judas who had already received the 30 pieces of silver, at the passover meal, answered: ‘Is it I’?
‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’.
Peter then states: ‘I will never fall away’ & ‘I will not deny you’.
One was a goat and one was a scattered sheep.
Calvary, is where are ‘I’ is redeemed! I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The apostle Paul, then defines the new covenant, one built again after three days, truth for which he sold all his other talents to obtain, once his eyes had been opened to the name above all names, not merely a man, but the Lord. Paul reveals that the old covenant, that the old religious system with no remedy for innate sin, that going to these high priests for letters only ever condemns the innocent.
Faith, mighty faith the promise sees. Paul believed it was for him, just like the thief upon the Cross. And the doctrine of Gods grace is shared where ever the gospel is preached around the whole world.
The Father of Jesus Christ, My Lord, did not waste the broken sacrifice of his beloved Son, it atoned for all the human race. But you must believe the promise true to inherit everlasting life. You must trade what you haven’t got with him who has given his all.
Repentance is simply a confession to God of being, hungry, naked, thirsty and bound.
Repentance is admitting to God your need for Him.
Repentance is the confession that the Cross is the only entrance into the Fathers fold.
Jesus, what a teacher of a different covenant! Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
Jesus had more than a get out of jail free card.
Jesus here is showing his disciple a different kind of power than they had ever witnessed. A love that was willing to suffer and die at the hands of those who hated and rejected him.
Broken clay pots, no wonder Jesus esteemed her love so, it represented all he was going to the cross to restore, redeem and fill.
Peter, knew who had brought together his scattered pieces of clay. Peter knew that Jesus had asked the chief priests and Pharisees whose son the messiah was. Peter was not preaching his own I on the day of Pentecost, rather he was declaring Gods will, the I will promised to Abraham, upon sons and daughters. Peter was a witness to his resurrection, and Peter had been filled with Gods Spirit, a sheep merely pointing men to the shepherd who saves all who believe the promises true.
Jesus is led to Caiaphas’s the high priests house.
The high priest could take it no more, he knew all that had preceded Jesus being before him, and he knew that he was a central part of a plot to arrest him and have him killed.
Caiaphas, in his own home, could not take the silence of the lamb any longer.
He adjured Jesus by the living God, to tell them if he was the Christ, the Son of God.
He spoke blaspheme to the living God, by ordering him to confess that he was indeed the Son of God.
He accused Jesus of the very sin he himself was committing.
And in the midst of this high priests blaspheme, using and invoking Gods name in vain, how does Jesus break his silence? How does Jesus respond to this high priest who is breaking so clearly the second commandment.
Jesus, replies that he is indeed the living God, that yes he the High Priest has stated it, and that from now on they would see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power.
Jesus cuts right through all their impressions and connotations they had of the nature of God. They had not understood the narrative and heart beat of scripture from the beginning, that Satans head would be crushed by the seed of a women, that God clothed them with animal skins and that God would provided himself a sacrifice.
Jesus, shows himself to be the representative man, the man who had walked with his Father throughout the cool of the day. He reveals to them that because their understanding of God was so wrong that they could not understand who they had been ordained to be as men themselves.
Jesus chose to reveal this to them so that all may understand that harmony is the heart beat of scripture, that runs through the veins of Immanuel.
Their hardened hearts created a great chasm between themselves and God in heaven. Just like Islam, God was very distant and to exalted for man to truly know.
The high priest tore his robes and accused God himself of blasphemy, if ever the root of sin is manifested it is for a religious man in the office of high priest to speak to the living God that he is blaspheming. This is anti Christ, this is akin with 2 Thessalonians Ch 2 v3-12.
This is the full fruit of the deception of the devil, the activity of Satan, to declared your own plotting to bring an innocent man to death as righteous, this is the full fruit of evil and its deception to the image God created man in.
Romans Ch 7 v25: THANKS BE UNTO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD.
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those whose invoked curses upon themselves are seen as being taken upon his crown of thorns, and that he was condemned as a blasphemer, nailed to a tree.
What a resurrection, Paul saw that what Stephen saw was the true glory of God, a man filled with the Spirit of God, a temple of the living God, serving widows tables through marriage not with the law of Moses but through the power of the Son of man.
Romans 7 & 8 & 12 they all flow through Paul due to Stephen.
Brother Saul! Paul was transformed by the grace of God that would not condemn him to death.
A pagan ruler declares the truth: What evil has he done! He had never disobeyed his Father and taken of the tree of good and evil.
The Scribes and Pharisees where not interested in evaluating the fruit of his life.
The soldiers mocked him, spat at him and scourged him.
No wonder the centurion gasped at the words he spake at Calvary, only a Son of God could be so different to all the sons of men he had ever seen or known: he gave glory to God!
This gentile centurion, praised God, through a man he had seen the glory of God.
Jesus who could have summoned more than 12 legions of angels, delights to transform the hearts of men from stone unto clay. Jesus loves to restore the original Mandate of Heaven: Go tell my disciples that I am ascending to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.
Why was he ascending, so that his image could be restored. What a high calling, Church of the living God.
People passed by and derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross.
At the very end the temptations have not changed, still Satan was trying to find ground within the holy one.
Satan had carried him up and shown him all the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of Rome was certainly one of them. But Jesus knew the battalions of Rome were not eternal.
The chief priests and the scribes mocked him.
They declare truth, ‘He saved others’, ‘He is the King of Israel’ and ‘He trusts in God’.
When they made these statements they knew that they were bearing witness to the life he had lived, and yet, they rejected him as they themselves did not want their hearts transformed. They did not want a God, who hungered and thirsted and was naked and imprisoned. They did not want a God, who had come down to dwell within their hearts.
The devil had taken Jesus to the top of the temple, and they mocked him despite not understanding that he spake concerning his body being raised after three days.
The devil took Jesus to the top of the temple, but he had no ground within Jesus himself.
Outside the temple grounds, Golgotha the place of the Skull, they crucified him.
The scribes and Pharisees whole notion of power was more Greek than Jewish, it is was more akin to Zeus. Power equated to yourself and saving it. This is the realm of fallen man and Satans rebellion. It is the root cause of all mens problems.
Only one angel was needed to role the stone away.
How tragic, the counsel assembled and despite the guards testimony all they could do was give a sufficient sum of money to ensure they compiled with their religious deception.
What majesty is are saviour, not come to impose himself, but for the hungry, thirty and imprisoned a promise taught through his suffering death and resurrection: I am with you always, to the end of the age.
The religious deception of blasphemy against the living God, spread one narrative. While Jesus commanded his disciples to go and share with others that which I have taught you.
To be or not to be. A goat is to not have a good shepherd who has gone before you, leading into the heart of his Father.
To be is to embrace the silence of the lamb, and heralded him as thine own dear sacrifice. Died he for me who caused his pain, for me to him who death pursued.
Amazing love how can it be, that thou my God shouldest die for me.
A rich man of Arimathea, traded his own new tomb so that Jesus might be buried in it.
This religious leader understood the pulse of heaven. He gave his own new tomb, providing a burial place in the moment it was required. Oh, this man, will it not be to his credit throughout all eternity.
One senses that the reverence of this man, knew that God would visit his people again.
In eternity, will Joseph tell with wonder, how that Jesus rose again within a tomb I had prepared for myself. Josephs tomb was a narrative now that could only resounded with the testimony of the ‘great I AM’. Joseph received Jesus, and he saw the right hand of the throne of God, raised out of his own tomb. What a consolation, to this we presume elderly man! He was given a talent in return that carried the largest stone of all away.
Jospeh heard the news, he had been given back a new tomb with the added fragrance that would forever inhabit his own tomb: I will rise again, as I trust in God, in the covenant mercies promised to David, Noah and Abraham.
Joseph had had the sting of death forever removed. It’s fear had gone, and fear of the enemy, the activity of Satan had been crushed.
And who meets him first from this tomb, but one who had been brought by the scribes and Pharisees into the temple to be stone. Is not redemption a narrative far greater than all the kingdoms of this world.
eternalrays 