The Night that Changed the Judeo-Christian Movement Forever

 

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A Monday church Bible study on Matthew 26, led by our church deacon Tom Craig, inspired this post.

Two issues in particular caught my attention. We discussed a meal in which a woman anointed Jesus’ feet with a costly perfume called nard, used for burials. Some claim that it was Mary of Bethany, others that it was Mary Magdalene. I wondered why the woman’s identity is still in doubt, so I launched my own investigation.

Another central theme was the Passover meal and the institution of an important sacrament. The average church attender doesn’t know the significance of “new covenant.” It has an important Old Testament connection.

Although four versions of the former meal leave us with questions about the woman, combining the accounts of all four gospel writers gives us a clearer picture of the Passover meal, the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples. That night, Jesus showed his followers and all of us how much that communal fellowship meant to him by commanding the ritual of holy communion.

According to John, six days before Passover, Jesus arrived in Bethany, where siblings Mary, Martha, and the newly resurrected Lazarus lived. The day before Passover, a meal took place in their home. This was before Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. John doesn’t say specifically that it was the home of Lazarus, but it’s safe to assume the location because Martha served the meal, and Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus. (12:1-8) There is no indication that any men other than Jesus and the Twelve were there. A woman named Mary, without doubt the sister of Martha, anointed Jesus’ feet with an expensive perfume called nard, or spikenard, and wiped the excess with her hair. Nard was used as a burial ointment that would cover the smell of death. Judas rebuked her, but Jesus defended her insightful, loving deed.

Bethany was near Jerusalem. Coming from beyond the Jordan River or south from Galilee, travelers passed through Jericho, Bethany, Bethphage, down the Mount of Olives, and across the Kidron Valley before entering the city through an eastern gate. The next day, Jesus entered the city, fulfilling the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. John’s account of the Passover meal begins in 13:2. After the meal and many more sermons and discourses, they all retreated to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. There it is that Judas finds him, followed by a mob with clubs and swords.

I find it compelling that in Genesis, mankind is tempted in a garden and falls prey to an entity who enjoins, “Go ahead. Do it. You won’t die. You’ll be fine. It’ll be fun. You’ll be like us.” As a result, sin and death assailed our material existence. In the garden of Gethsemane, the cure for sin and death was being negotiated.

Another issue that stood out, the religious leaders did not want to kill Jesus on a major feast day because they feared the reaction of the crowds, but the decision was firm before the Passover; Jesus must die. It had to be soon after Passover, because in 50 days after that was the Feast of Pentecost.

Mark narrates that before reaching Bethany and the home of Lazarus, the entourage passed through Jericho. Two things happened there, one of which was the healing of a local blind man, Bartimaeus. (Mark 10:46) The other thing was the meal at the home of Zacchaeus, mentioned by Luke.

Mark describes Jesus entering Bethany without mentioning the favored family. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey with hosannas and palm branches late in the day, looked around, then returned to Bethany. Since there was no Hilton Inn there at the time, we can assume that the group returned to the home of Lazarus, although Mark doesn’t specify that. The next day, Jesus overturned the tables in the temple. He spent a day or two preaching and debating Jewish leaders. (Mark 11)

Map from freebibleimages.org #14
https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bm-maps-gospels/

In chapter 14:1-9, Mark takes a step back in time to portray a meal in the home of Simon the leper in Bethany. Two days before the Passover, an unnamed woman poured spikenard (nard) on Jesus’ head, a gift that would cost a year’s wage, annoying the men who objected with harsh rebukes. Again, this was not the Passover, and there was no sacramental breaking of bread. The timing of the meal, the location of Bethany, the mention of nard, and the defense from Jesus beg the reader to see these as parallel accounts. But you decide.

As Jesus and his followers were traveling from Galilee, Luke tells us that he stopped for a meal in Jericho at the home of Zacchaeus. He does recount the meal at the home of a Pharisee named Simon the leper and the anonymous “sinner” woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, anointed his feet with expensive perfume, kissed his feet, and wiped his feet with her hair, but Luke seems to place that scene in Galilee. The description of a sinful woman who would have the audacity to break into a male-only meal, have the intimacy with Jesus to touch his bare feet, and have favor with the Holy Spirit to understand the mystery of his death all point to Mary Magdalene, out of whom 7 devils were cast. (Luke 7:36-50)

Much later, Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and spent several days there debating with the Pharisees and teaching the people. At night, he would retire to the Mount of Olives, returning in the morning to teach.

Luke clearly has the Passover meal with the breaking of the bread on the day the lamb must be sacrificed. As he broke the bread, he said, “This is my body, given for you.” After the meal, he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19, 20)

And now to Matthew’s account. He begins the triumphal entry at chapter 21, after the Olivet discourse. The long monologues in Matthew make it difficult to remember where Jesus is when he preaches and debates. Still, in this telling, Jesus entered Jerusalem from the east as in all gospels, but he went immediately to the Temple and overturned the tables. He taught in the temple for a number of days, reminding his team that he will be crucified. (Matt. 26:1-5)

Matthew tells us that two days before the Passover meal, he and his disciples are in the home of Simon the Leper in Bethany. There, an unnamed woman anoints his head with “a very expensive perfume.”

We have no idea who this woman was. There is really no way to resolve the inconsistencies. Was the event in the home of Simon the Leper, who was a Pharisee who may have lived in Nain of Galilee or in Bethany, or was it in the home of Lazarus in Bethany? Was the woman Mary of Bethany, who had no biblical allegations of being a sinner against her, or someone like Mary Magdalene, who was delivered of seven devils? When did the meal take place? When he arrived in Bethany or in Galilee before he got there?

The point is, a woman understood the message either from Jesus himself or from the Holy Spirit or from prophetic scriptures in the Hebrew Bible that Jesus would die. Rather than protest against it as Peter did, she knew it was the plan of God. She intruded on a meal full of men discussing worldly affairs. Christ’s attitude in defending her and swatting away the objections of the men was a wholly unexpected rebuke to the men.

My own personal resolution is that it was not Mary of Bethany and did not take place in the home of Lazarus. It may have been Mary Magdalene, but maybe not. I’ll ask John what he was thinking when I meet him face to face.

And no, the inconsistencies do not rock my faith, and it shouldn’t negatively affect yours. Jesus’ defense of the woman’s attitude is the point that heaven wants us to take from this tale.

As for the Passover meal, I was surprised to discover that Jesus was not crucified on the 14^th day of Nissan, the day of the Passover. I had always thought that since he was as John the Baptist pointed out, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that he would have died on that day. However, Judas’ betrayal happened in the evening after the Passover meal, while he and his disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane. The trial before the High Priest and Pilate went on through the night. Jesus was crucified on the 15^th of Nissan, the first official day of the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, leading to Pentecost 50 days later. Christ’s death and the coming of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost clearly resonate with the Jewish feasts.

Jesus predicted that he would be 3 days and nights in the “heart of the earth,” comparing it to Jonah's 3 days in the whale (Matt. 12:40). One approach to a literal fulfillment of that would be if the Passover were on a Wednesday that year rather than on Thursday. If Jesus died on Thursday, he would be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night in the tomb. All agree that he rose early Sunday morning. You can read more about the Thursday vs Friday crucifixion debate here.

I really want to focus on the quantum leap in understanding that took place the night that Jesus broke the bread with his disciples, and since the words of institution are in all four gospels plus a statement from Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, I’ll just focus on Matthew 26:26–28.

²⁶ And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

²⁷ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Jesus did not pull the idea of a New Covenant out of thin air. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about the change in covenant in 31:31-34:

³¹ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ^[h]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

·       It’s a new covenant associated with the restoration of a people in captivity back to their old land. The operative phrase is rescue from captivity.

·       It would NOT be like the covenant when God took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. That covenant was based on animal sacrifice.

·       It will be a covenant that brings remission from sin.

·       It will be a democratic covenant with no special class with special privileges or esoteric knowledge. People will know God. They will do the right things that please God because the law is written on their hearts.

So, a new covenant. A huge, big, scary change. Jeremiah had other shocks for his listeners.

²¹ “‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! ²² For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you” (Jer. 7:21-23).

Two important things about the passage above. The other commands God gave to Israel were clear. Justice, virtue, mercy, truth, faithfulness, caring for your neighbor, caring for the stranger or alien. The prophets inveighed against political, civil, and spiritual sins by saying that the rituals of the entire Law of Moses count for nothing in the face of serious, continuous sin where there is no repentance.

Furthermore, the word “just” in the middle of the Bible quote is not actually in the Hebrew. Remove it, and it suggests that animal sacrifice was never God’s intention (Amos 5:21-24; Isa. 1:10-17; Psalm 51:10-17; Psalm 40:6-8).

¹⁶ In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. ¹⁷ At that time, they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts (Jer. 3:16, 17).

After the Babylonian captivity, the ark of the covenant disappeared and was never found. God was saying to his people, "You don’t need it. You have me. I’m here, I’m available.”

Think what a shock it was for the first-century followers of Jesus to leave the Mosaic Law behind and cleave to a Messiah who built no temple and claimed no earthly throne. I call it a quantum leap to worship God in spirit and in truth rather than in temples and rituals.

This post can also be read at https://theologylighthouse.substack.com/p/the-night-that-changed-the-judeo and at https://medium.com/@janetkatherineapplebysmith/the-night-that-changed-the-judeo-christian-movement-forever-4668d1694e34