Hi everyone. Welcome back to the logical.
Bible study podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in.
This is the podcast where we look at the Gospel reading from
today's Catholic Mass. And the lectionary today, if you
go to mass, you'll be looking at Matthew chapter 26, verses 14 to
25. And so we want to start by
reading the passage and then we really want to dig into the
text. What is the text saying?
What's the author trying to convey to his audience?
And that is the way we always want to start when we're
studying the Bible. So here's the passage from
Matthew chapter 26. One of the twelve the man called
Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, what are
you prepared to give me? If I hand him over to you, they
paid him 30 pieces of silver. And from that moment, he looked
for an opportunity to betray him.
Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples
came to Jesus to say, what do you want us?
Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the
Passover? Go to so-and-so in the city, he
replied and say to him. The master says, my time is near
it is at your house that I am keeping the Passover with my
disciples, the disciples did. What Jesus told them and
prepared the Passover When evening came here was at table
with the Twelve Disciples and while they were eating, he said
I tell you. Solemnly one of you is about to
betray me. They were greatly distressed and
started asking him in turn. Not I Lord, surely he answered
someone who has dipped his hand into the dish.
With mine will betray me. The son of man is going to his
fate as the scriptures say he will.
But alas for that man by whom the son of man is betrayed
better for that man. If he had never been born,
Judas, who was to betray him asked in his term.
Not I Rabbi Shirley They are your own words, answer Jesus.
So the context of this passage and we always want to start by
asking, what's the context we in the last week of Jesus life.
So by this point, in the gospel of Matthew, we've already had
Palm Sunday. He's already cleared the temple.
And now verse 14, one of the twelve, the man called Judas
Iscariot. So Judas is known for being the
traitor. But there's not much else that
we know about him. Except we know that he was in
charge of the money fund for the ministry and that he was
stealing some of the money. So he loves money, he goes to
the chief priests. So the chief Priests of those
who were in charge of the religious activities in
Jerusalem, those who were in charge of the Temple.
Judas Knows by now that the chief priests Want Jesus dead
because they think is causing too much trouble, but he knows
as well that the chief priests are finding it hard to capture
him because he's constantly surrounded by the crowds.
So Judas figures out while maybe, I can help get Jesus to
them as long as there's something in it for me.
So Judas Slips Away from the group for this meeting and it
appears that what we're about to see here happens on the Day of
Holy Week, if you sort of look at the chronology here it
appears to be Wednesday and indeed that is how it is, read
in the lectionary. Now we don't know what Jesus is
doing on the Wednesday. We don't have any recorded
things that Jesus does apparently on this day and so
many have taken it to mean that perhaps Jesus had a rest on the
Wednesday. It's probably the last rest he
gets because from then on obviously it's there's a lot
that happens in Holy Week so according to tradition and the
way the Lectionary presents it. What we're about to see here
with Judas, is the key event that happens on the Wednesday of
Holy Week and really it's the only thing that happens of
significance on that day in Holy Week, verse 15.
What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you.
So here we see the selfishness of Judas, his willing to hand
the Son of God over for money. Now we can't be sure but that
probably indicates to us, that Judas is not really a True
Believer and he's resisting the work of God in his life.
Otherwise he would recognize how precious Jesus is, and would not
want to give him up. So throughout the three years
that Judas has been with Jesus, it still hasn't clicked and he's
not really a genuine disciple in a way at least that's, we're
just guessing but it seems something like that has
happened. He hasn't quite Aged with what
God wants to do. Now notice this is the opposite
of the way, Mary treats Jesus, Remember Mary of Bethany who
pours the expensive, perfume on Jesus and gives him.
All she has. On the other hand here, we have
Judas trading away, Jesus for money.
And they paid him, Thirty pieces of silver so they give him this
money in advance, in exchange for him.
Setting up a capture for Jesus. Now that seems like a lot
because it mentions silver but actually it's not a heap it's
not a whole lot of money. I might last a few weeks or a
couple of months maybe but it's not an extraordinary amount of
money that they give to him, but we know that Judas loves money
so he's quite happy with her. Now Matthew goes out of his way
to mention the amount of silver coins.
He could have just said, they gave him money.
But Matthew specifically says, it's Thirty pieces of silver.
Because remember, Matthew is riding for Jews and Jews are
really interested in the Old Testament and how Jesus fulfills
the Old Testament. He wants his Jewish readers to
think of the prophecy in Zechariah 11, verse 12 in that
prophecy, the Lord's. Faithful Shepherd is depicted as
being portrayed for the for 30 pieces of silver.
So, there's a reference back here to this faithful servant
that Zechariah pictured in the Old Testament, and Matthew wants
his readers, to understand that Jesus is fulfilling that
prophecy of Zechariah verse 16. And from that moment he looked
For an opportunity to betray him.
So, Judas from, for the next few days is looking for a way to get
Jesus to be captured but eventually, as we'll see in the
Last Supper, it's actually Jesus that takes initiative.
And basically he says, now is the time to capture me verse 17
on the first day of unleavened bread.
So we need to spend a bit of time talking about the
unleavened bread particularly in terms of timing because it can
get a bit confusing. So the Feast of unleavened
bread, it's this week-long feast and I've celebrated around the
time of Passover ever A year. So Passover, the Jews would
celebrate once a year and the Feast of unleavened bread was
done at a similar time to that this particular Feast.
The unleavened bread Feast is done in conjunction with
Passover because it commemorates, the fact that when
the Israelites had to leave Egypt in the Passover, they had
to leave without leavening there.
Do God. You said, get out of the house.
Don't bother living in your do just leave.
And by the time of Jesus, the Jews continued to celebrate the
Feast of unleavened bread. And they did that by removing
the leaven completely from the house.
And for them, Levin had come to represent its in.
So, the Feast of unleavened bread was a really important
part of the Feast of Passover. In terms of the timing, the
Passover was usually eaten on the first day of this week-long,
Feast of unleavened bread and that's nice on the 15th.
That's kind of the date in Jewish Reckoning.
When you would have the Passover Nissan 15.
But by the time of Jesus, in popular speech, they'd come to
sort of change the way the words we use slightly.
So they used the day before Passover, they called that day
unleavened bread, okay? So the day before Passover is
the day that they call unleavened bread in the time of
Jesus, whereas technically the Passover feast signals the
actual start of unleavened bread, but it seems like that
day before had become known as the unleavened bread day.
Cuz that's the day in which Levin was actually removed from
the house. So leaven is removed from the
house just before the start of the week of unleavened bread.
So we know that in this particular week in the year,
Jesus dies in 33 ad. We think it is in Holy Week, the
Passover was on Friday. So the Feast of unleavened
bread, technically began on the Friday but because of the way
the words were used in the time of Jesus.
This first day of unleavened bread as Matthew calls, it is
essentially the preparation day before Passover.
So we're talking here now about Thursday.
So the timing we've skipped forward to Thursday, Thursday of
Holy Week. April 2nd 33 ad that's the date
we're talking about now. Interestingly, this preparation
day is also the day on which the Passover Lambs are prepared for
Passover and their sacrificed and killed.
You could say Jesus, brings that aspect of Passover to
fulfillment here on, Holy Thursday on the preparation day
as he institute's. The Eucharist that is in a sense
of fulfillment of this preparation for Passover day.
Now at this point on the Holy Thursday, Jesus is probably
staying with Mary Martha and Lazarus in Bethany that appears
to be where he stayed during Holy Week.
So the next little speech that he gives his saying, from his
accommodation in Bethany, their disciples come to him, and they
say, where do you want us to make the preparations for you to
eat the Passover? So the disciples know that
Passover is the following day on the Friday evening and all Jews,
celebrate the Passover. It's required and they know that
Jesus is going to want to celebrate.
You ate the Passover and as the leader of their Ministry, he's
going to want it celebrated in a particular way.
So they come to him and they check, where do you want to do
it? And his instructions Jesus has
thought about this and he's already set up a plan.
So Verse 18 Matthews version says go to so-and-so in the
city. So the city is Jerusalem.
He wants the disciples to go to Jerusalem.
Now, the other gospels tell us a bit more details about how
exactly the disciples are defined, the person and find the
house. There's some details there about
someone carrying a water jar and it's quite interesting when you
dig into what's going on there. But then they go to the The
person and it says, this is what they should say to the person,
the master says, my time is near it is at your house that I am
keeping Passover with my disciples.
So this person that they find is clearly a follower of Jesus, and
Jesus has probably set it up with them with this guy that
he's going to have a pass over there at his house.
So when the disciples speak to this person, whoever it is the
prior arrangements have already been made and it's kind of like
that. Sophomores.
Did you see using this password that unlocks access to the
house? It's kind of an interesting
setup that Jesus has done here. So who is this person?
Who's the person who owns the house?
The gospels, don't tell us. But some Scholars, reckon we can
work it out. This person owns a house in
Jerusalem which is not a whole lot of people and based on where
the traditional Upper Room side is in Jerusalem today so you can
go there and they think they've found this upper room where the
where Holy Thursday, the Last Supper happened, it's in the
southwest of the city in the area called Mount Zion and it's
quite a large room and quite a large house.
So it would appear if this is the correct size.
Is that this person is quite wealthy?
And a lot of Scholars think that the person who owns the house
isn't, in fact, Mark the author of The Gospel of Mark, he's not
one of the Apostles but he does become a disciple a bit later
on. So maybe the person they meet
there is Mark, that's possible verse 19.
The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the
Passover. So they would have bought all
the necessary ingredients like bread, figs wine, and they get
ready. Verse 20, when evening came, he
was at table with the Twelve Disciples.
So he's apparently, having the official Passover meal comes.
Sometimes called a seder meal, and it's after Sundown, there
there is the group and their reclining around the table.
There might have been other disciples in the room as well
though. Apparently, there's only 12 at
the table. We're not sure how many people
exactly Jesus invited to the upper room verse 21.
Jesus says, I tell you most solemnly or truly, truly, I say
unto you. One of you is about to betray
me, so Jesus has Supernatural knowledge of what's about to
happen. Why does he even say this?
If he knows it's going to happen.
Why does he even bring it up? Probably because he wants to
make the Betrayal happen. He wants to get the events
happening in motion. His he wants things to start
because he has a timeline that he wants to follow.
He knows the time that he needs to die and the events need to
start happening pretty soon. So maybe by asking this question
or in fact by just saying one of you is going to Betray me, then
it's going to be a trigger for Judas to actually start the
Betrayal that's possible. Verse 22, the disciples were
greatly distressed. So they're actually quite
surprised by this except Judas obviously but Jesus had been
saying for some time that he would be killed and handed over
but now he has a new bit of information which is that one of
them would be the one that betrays him and that shocks
them. So they start asking him intern
not I Lord surely. Now, that's probably not
indignant and angry but they're probably.
Each disciple is probably worried.
They're probably uncertain. Is it me?
I hope it's not me. So, they're kind of looking for
reassurance from Jesus. Surely, it's not me.
Lord. Jesus response, is this someone
who is dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me now
in this context, it's probably just an that phrase is just an
affirmation that one of the people at the table is going to
do it. So Jesus is just repeating
himself. So when Jesus says someone who
is dipped his hand into the dish with me.
Well, they were all using that same Dish as part of the meal.
So it's kind of just a Jewish way of saying someone at this
table. Will betray me.
Now, in John's gospel, there's something else Jesus says, which
is the person I share this bread with and then he breaks the
bread and gives it to Judas. That's a different line here.
He just says in general, it's someone at the table.
Verse 24. The son of man is going to his
fate as the scriptures say he will.
So Jesus year says, something quite profound.
He says that the Messiah must die, and it's about to happen.
The son of man is going to his fate, and he says that it's
predicted in the scriptures now. He doesn't tell us which
scripture, he's thinking of, and Matthew doesn't tell us either.
But he's probably thinking in particular of the suffering
servant, passage in Isaiah 52. 53.
Possibly also, the Zechariah prophecies about Out, the
Messiah being pierced. So, Jesus reminds them that it
is in the scriptures that the Messiah Must Die.
Why did the disciples? And in fact, his followers in
general, they didn't seem to understand this idea that the
Messiah is going to die. They did believe the Old
Testament, but it just seems that at this particular time
period because of the way the Romans had taken over their
land. They kind of forgotten about
those prophecies that talk about the suffering servant and they
tended to focus more on these other prophecies which talk
about a glorious. All victory over God's enemies.
So they were kind of blinded by their presuppositions of what
the Messiah would do. And as a result, they had
forgotten about these Prophecies of the suffering servant that
can happen to us as well. We can be blinded by our own
presuppositions about what God should be doing or what it's
going to look like. Then Jesus finishes the sentence
by saying, but a less for that man by whom the son of man is
betrayed. So Jesus says that these events
must happen according to prophecy but the person who
actively brings them about is committing a real evil.
Now, this tells us a lot about God's Providence.
Notice what's going on here? Both God's predestination and
Man's Free Will is involved. God ordains certain events to
happen but people are Still accountable for their Free Will
decisions. Do you notice that Judas is
entirely accountable for what he did, Even though God, in some
way had appointed the events. So, that's a verse that's well
worth reflecting on in terms of predestination.
Jesus says, better for that man, if he had never been born.
So Jesus here probably means because Judas is about to
commit, such a grave evil. He's about to hand Jesus.
The son of God over, it would have been better if Judas had
never existed. Possibly also a reference to
giudices own fate Jesus. Here could be saying maybe Judas
is going to hell, and he's going to wish that he was never born
possibly something like that. Verse 25 Judas who was to betray
him, asked in his turn, not I Rabbi Shirley, so Judas knows
full well that it is going to be him, but since everyone else has
asked the question, it gets to his turn and he says, oh well I
guess, I better say it as well. He doesn't want to be the odd
one out. So he says not, I Rabbi surely.
Now, interestingly, the others call him Lord, but he a Judas
calls him Rabbi there probably is a significant difference here
because to call someone Lord. Is to submit to their Authority
and to recognize one's own status as a servant.
Where is just a call? Someone Rabbi is respectful, but
it's kind of non-committal. It's not necessarily saying that
you are a follower of them. So maybe Judas is not willing to
commit personally to call him Lord.
Jesus response is interesting to what Judith says.
He says, they, they are your own words.
Or as other translations put it you have said.
So what does that mean? There's some translational
difficulties here. You have said.
So there's two possible meanings of this phrase and you can sort
of think about which one you think is most likely.
This could be a kind of non answer from Jesus when he says
you have said. So it's kind of like he's not
confirming or denying whether Judas is right?
And it's but in that case it's basically like saying that is
what you claim and he's just repeating a To him.
But he's Jesus is not confirming or denying it or it could be
that the phrase you have said. So means.
Yes, you have got it. Correct.
We're not sure. We're not sure.
Which of those is the best way to understand that Jewish
phrase, you have said. So, because Jesus uses the same
words in his conversation with Pontius Pilate where Pontius
Pilate says In effect. He says, are you the Messiah or
I in fact, he says, are you the king of the Jews?
And Jesus says, you have said so.
So there's a question about what does that mean?
Now later on, Jesus will do the thing where he gives Judas bread
and then Judas leaves the room. But at this particular Point,
Matthew starts to describe the institution of the Lord's supper
and this is where our reading ends for today.
So a lot of really interesting interactions going on here on
Holy Thursday. There's one catechism reference
and I'll read that out for you. So in paragraph 6 10 the
Catholic Church teaches and this is a commentary on the Last
Supper, it says Jesus gave the Supreme expression of his free
offering of himself at the meal shared with the 12 apostles on
the night. He was betrayed on the eve of
his passion while still free Jesus.
Transformed. This last supper with the
apostles into the memorial of his voluntary offering to the
father for this. Elevation of men, this is my
body which is given for you. This is The Blood of My Blood of
the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the Forgiveness
of sins. So that's the only catechism
reference to this particular part, but once we get to the
official institution of the Last Supper, in the Eucharist, then
there's a lot that catechism has to say about the meaning of
that. We'll leave it there for today.
Thank you for listening on YouTube and you've enjoyed it.
Please subscribe and continue to share the podcast around so that
more and more people can hear these rigorous exegesis is of
the Gospel reading for each day. Thanks again.
Hopefully, you'll tune in tomorrow.
No.