Matthew 26:1-5

Matthew 26:1-5
“When Jesus had finished all of these sayings…” This is the fifth time Matthew has used that phrase. On each occasion, Jesus used the phrase at the conclusion of a major discourse. His final discourse was the culmination of all the previous as He both prepared the Jewish Christians for His coming to destroy Jerusalem and prepared all of us for His coming to judge the world.
Matthew’s purpose in this paragraph is to show that the trial Jesus was about to endure was under the control of Jesus not His enemies. Premillennialists have often affirmed that the Lord’s crucifixion was not within the plan of God. God’s plan, they say, had been to establish an earthly kingdom with the nation of Israel leading the charge. But instead, Israel rejected the Lord and therefore God will supposedly make another attempt at another time in history in order to fulfill prophecies that could not be fulfilled because of Israel’s rejection.
Matthew makes it clear that this was not the case. Jesus states that “in two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” On the other hand, possibly at the very same time Jesus was making this statement, the Sanhedrin Council was plotting to kill Jesus, but with the determination that they would not take Him during the Feast. Jesus said they would take Him during the feast. Who was right? Jesus was. As Peter said in Acts 2:23, Jesus was delivered up by the “predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God.” The crucifixion of Christ was no accident and the events recorded in the next two chapters were not out of Jesus’ control.
Berry Kercheville