Matthew 26

Matthew 26:6-12:
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment nd she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor." But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.

Jesus is prepared for burial. What does this woman see that no one else sees? The disciples, who have been with Jesus, look down on the woman and what she has done. "What a waste of money? Isn't there a better use for that kind of cash? People are starving in China, after all." Jesus answers in a curious way. "You will always have the poor. I'm going to leave you. She's getting me ready for my death." This unidentified woman knows Jesus is going to die. She gives him a gift because Jesus will give her a gift through his death. Her gift is a gift of worship. She sees who Jesus is and why he has come. In action, she shows her faith in Jesus as God's way of bringing her forgiveness. Jesus gift of forgiveness is ours, too. We show our faith, too when we acknowledge Jesus as our forgiveness. It is the highest form of worship to go to Jesus for the forgiveness he offers in his life, death and resurrection.
--Gods Word for Today

Matthew 26:33–34: “Peter answered and said to Him, ‘Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.'”
Peter meant every word of his bold declaration of faithfulness. But he didn’t realize he was being completely self-sufficient in that moment and was leaning on his own abilities to resist fear and temptation.

Ed Rea

Peter meant every word of his bold declaration of faithfulness. But he didn’t realize he was being completely self-sufficient in that moment and was leaning on his own abilities to resist fear and temptation. And within a very short time, under the pressures surrounding the crucifixion, he folded and denied even knowing Jesus, 3 times. Of course Jesus was well aware of Peter’s flaws, even on the first day He called him to be His disciple. He also knew that this blustering disciple had a tender heart, so He extended grace to him. The first thing God instructed the angel to say after the resurrection was, “go and tell His disciples—and Peter—that He [Jesus] is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him” (Mark 16:7). How good those words must have sounded to this radically discouraged disciple: “and Peter.”
We serve the God of the second chance, the God of another opportunity, and the God of great grace. In John 21, after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter a penetrating question, giving him the opportunity to reaffirm his love for Jesus. Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” (John 21:17) The question must have pierced Peter’s heart and caused him pain. The word of God does sometimes wound us so that we can admit, repent, and receive forgiveness. It is like a surgeon’s scalpel that must cut into the flesh so that it can remove some foreign cancer. When the surgery is done, when we obey, we immediately find grace available for healing and restoration. When we feel conviction, we need to not run from it but toward it. Great grace awaits the disciple who runs into the arms of his Savior. -Ed Rea; Packinghouse Redlands; 6.24.22

Matthew 26:39:
“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Adam Dooley

....we are to pray with commitment. The purpose of prayer is NOT to get our will done in heaven, but God’s will done on earth. Restricting the substance of our petitions to the will of God is key to receiving the answer we seek. Again, John reassures us, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14).” By surrendering our desires to God’s design, we emulate the spirit of Jesus in Gethsemane as He prayed, “Not my will, but thy will be done (Matt. 26:39).”
But how can we discern God’s will in order to pray it? We know that God is willing to fill us with the knowledge of His will (Col. 1:9), but how does He do it? Holy Scripture and the Holy Spirit are the only trustworthy guides. God will not answer any prayer that contradicts His word or justifies sinful behavior (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Bible lays down guidelines (some explicit and some implicit) for us to live by, and the Spirit of God reveals specific direction within those parameters. Those who have a submissive heart fully committed to God’s preference for their lives can pray knowing that God will always answer. E. Stanley Jones explained, “Prayer is surrender — surrender to the will of God and cooperation with that will. If I throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.”
--Adam Dooley; Kentucky Today; DOOLEY NOTED: The gift that we refuse 9.19.23

Mathew 26:40-42:
“Could you not keep watch with Me one hour?” He then told them “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”

Oswald Chambers

"A man's disposition on the inside, i.e., what he possesses in his personality, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the nature of the one tempted, and reveals the possibilities of that nature. Every man has the setting of this own temptation, and the temptation will come along the line of the ruling disposition. Temptation yielded to... is a proof that it was timidity that prevented the sin before."
--Oswald Chambers

“Much prayer — much power. Little prayer — little power. No prayer — no power.” -Yonggi Cho

Matthew 26: 36-46:
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
  38 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?
  41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”
43 And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
44 So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
45 Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
46 Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.”

Charles Spurgeon

If we would be supported by a type, our Lord takes the name of "the Second Adam," and the first Adam was a gardener. Moses tells us that the Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Man in his best estate was not to live in this world in a paradise of indolent luxury, but in a garden of recompensed toil. Behold, the church is Christ's Eden, watered by the river of life, and so fertilized that all manner of fruits are brought forth unto God; and he, our second Adam, walks in this spiritual Eden to dress it and to keep it; and so by a type we see that we are right in "supposing him to be the gardener." Thus also Solomon thought of him when he described the royal Bridegroom as going down with his spouse to the garden when the flowers appeared on the earth and the fig tree had put forth her green figs; he went out with his beloved for the reservation of the gardens, saying, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Neither nature, nor Scripture, nor type, nor song forbids us to think of our adorable Lord Jesus as one that careth for the flowers and fruits of his church. --Charles Spurgeon

Isaac Ambrose

"Jesus went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden (John 18:1)" many mysteries are included in this word, and I believe it is not without reason that our Savior goes into a garden...Because a garden was the place wherein we fell, and therefore Christ made choice of a garden to begin there the greatest work of our redemption: in the first garden was the beginning of all evils; and in this garden was the beginning of our restitution from all evils; in the first garden, the first Adam was overthrown by Satan, and in this garden the second Adam overcame, and Satan himself was by him overcome; in the first garden sin was contracted; and we were indebted by our sins to God, and in this garden sin was paid for by that great and precious price of the blood of God: in the first garden man surfeited by eating the forbidden fruit, and in this garden Christ sweat it out wonderfully, even by a bloody sweat; in the first garden, death first made its entrance into the world; and in this garden life enters to restore us from death to life again; in the first garden Adam's liberty toxin brought himself and all of us into bondage; and, in this garden, Christ being bound and fettered, we are thereby freed and restored to liberty. I might thus descant in respect of every circumstance, but this is the sum, in a garden first began our sin, and in this garden first began the passion, that great work and merit of our redemption"
As Adam in the state of grace and innocence, was placed in a garden, and the first office allotted to him, was to be a gardener; so Jesus Christ appeared first in a garden, and presents himself in a gardener's likeness: and as that first gardener was the parent of sin, the ruin of' mankind, and the author of death; so is this gardener the ransom for our sin; the raiser of our ruins, and the restorer of our life. In some sense, then, and in a mystery, Christ was a gardener; but Mary's mistake was in supposing him the gardener of that only place; and not the gardener of our souls --Isaac Ambrose (Looking Unto Jesus)

“Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.”
― John Owen

Adam was to "garden" the whole earth for the glory of His Father. But he failed. Created to make the dust fruitful, he himself became part of the dust. The Garden of Eden became the wilderness of this world. But do you also remember how John's Gospel records what happened on the morning of Jesus' resurrection? He was "the beginning [of the new creation], the firstborn from the dead." But Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him; instead, she spoke to him, "supposing him to be the gardener." Well, who else would he be, at that time in the morning? The Gardner? Yes, indeed. He is the Gardener. He is the second Man, the last Adam, who is now beginning to restore the Garden. Later that day Jesus showed his disciples where the nails and the spear had drawn blood from his hands and side. The Serpent had indeed crushed his heal. But he had crushed the Serpent's head! Now he was planning to turn the wilderness back into a garden. Soon he would send his disciples into the world with the good news of his victory. All authority on earth--lost by Adam--was now regained. The world must now be reclaimed by Jesus the conquerer. In the closing scenes of the book of Revelation, John saw the new earth coming down from heaven. What did it look like? A garden in which the tree of life stands! --Sinclair Ferguson