15 LAST PIECE IN PLACE

15

Last Piece in Place

While Jesus was in Bethany, he [was] reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard, which she broke and she poured the jar, the perfume, on his head as he was reclining at the table. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

When the disciples saw this, some of those present were indignant, saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste?" Why this waste of perfume?" they asked. "This perfume, it could have been sold at a high price for more than a year's wages. And they rebuked her harshly. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor. It was worth a year's wages." He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Aware of this Jesus said to them, "Leave her alone," said Jesus. " It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. Why are you bothering her, this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want, but you will not always have me. She did what she could when she poured this perfume on my body beforehand. She did it to prepare me for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."

Then Judas Iscariot one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"

They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. So from then on he, Judas, watched for an opportunity to hand him over. Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him. (Matthew 26:6-16, Mark 14:3-11, John 12:2-10)

Jesus had come down to Bethany to this dinner party with twelve associates. These were the men he had chosen early in His ministry to learn and carry on His message. Some shared similar background, knew each other, were even related; yet there was still diversity in the group. Some had been fishermen, indeed, in the fishing business. They or their family owned boats and had others working for them. Matthew was in a more despised occupation among the Jews; he was a tax collector. Nathaniel Bartholomew seems to have been a man of higher standing then perhaps the rest. Simon (not Peter) was a member of the Zealot Sect, someone who might even be considered a terrorist. Some like Peter were ready to jump into things before they thought about it. Others like Thomas perhaps thought too much and became doubtful. Several were followers of John the Baptist and several were looking for the Messiah.

But they did have one thing in common. They were Galileans; that is, all except one. Galilee was to the north in Israel. Jerusalem, on the other hand, lay in the south in Judah. Jerusalem was the Big Apple of the day. The people in Judah thought themselves sophisticated and urban. People from Galilee were hicks and they were recognizable when they came south because they had country-boy accents.

Oh, except that one. That one guy not from Galilee would have fit in down south because his roots were in the city of Kerioth. He was a city boy from the south himself and his very name was the Greek form of Judah. He was known as Judas Iscariot - Judah, a man of Kerioth.

We don't know a lot about the Man of Kerioth's background. Perhaps he was more formally educated than the other eleven. Perhaps he just had a head for figures, but he was given the important duty of group treasurer. We would have expected that job to go to Matthew, after all, he had worked with money and accounting in his profession, he had the experience. Of course, Tax Collectors were known for their corruption and dishonesty then, so maybe they really didn't trust Matthew to hold the finances.

 (Frankly, if you think of it, we'd have probably expected Simon the Zealot to be the prime suspect in betraying Jesus. I mean, come on, he was a Zealot. A Zealot is someone with an excess of devotion to a cause. The Zealots wanted to overthrow Rome. And remember, we are looking backward from ahead at Jesus. These guys were behind looking ahead. Their view of Messiah was a king who would restore Israel to freedom and glory and the splendor of David and Solomon, not a sacrificial lamb. You'd think that if anyone might be getting impatient and upset with Jesus it'd be Simon the Zealot. Shows what we know and you can't tell a book by its cover.)

Not so long ago, Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. This caused an upset with some Jews and with those in power. That was the final straw that resulted in the decision by the Sanhedrin that Jesus must die and they were offering a reward to anyone who could lead them to Jesus in private, away from the crowds who adored Him. They just needed that one little last piece to complete their plot.

So here we are at this dinner party and this young woman destroys this very valuable jar of perfume. She pours it on Jesus and He says it is a wonderful thing she did.

And Judas is sitting there calculating all that money that jar of fragrance would have fetched. He used the cover of concern for the poor, but he was thinking how much he could have skimmed off first. How do we know? Because it is right there in Scripture, John tells us Judas was thinking about the money because he was a thief who had been dipping into the common purse for his personal gain. So many times things are spelled out for us in the Word, why don't we accept it? Why centuries of argument over the character and the motives of Judas? What have we been told elsewhere? A person cannot serve God and mammon, a man cannot serve two masters, for he will love the one and hate the other.

We say how could Judas do what he did after spending three years by the side of Jesus? How many people have you heard of in your lifetime that are close to the Gospel and betray it? How often have we heard of a minister of some renown who yields to temptations he has preached against his whole career, whether from pride, greed or lust?

Think about this: other of the twelve would refer to Jesus at various times as "Lord" or "Master" or even, "the Son of God", but never did Judas. To Judas He was never more than a "teacher" or "rabbi", never referred to as anything beyond a wise man, just like many today refuse to accept the Divinity of Jesus, but call him a "good and wise man".

When Judas left and went to the Chief Priests did he express outrage about what happened? Did he say, “Jesus is a phony; he doesn't care about the poor?” Did he say, “I was duped, this man isn't the Messiah?” No-o-o-o! He says, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?"

They gave him 30 pieces of silver. It is difficult to value what he received. He was given silver coins. It has been stated this was the equivalent of 120 Roman dernari and this was about three months wages at that time. Not really a great amount. It has also been said he sold Jesus for the price of a slave.

"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. However, if payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying whatever is demanded. This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned. Exodus 21:28-32

Well, we do know what was prophesied would happen to those thirty pieces of silver:

I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter"-the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter. Zechariah 11:12-12

The Chief priests were delighted. Certainly, it was the last piece to cinch their plot. Judas would take them where they could arrest Jesus without interference. And they must have feared the possibility of interference because what ends this? They plotted to kill Lazarus also because the raising of Lazarus was causing many to put their faith in Jesus and not in the Chief Priests.

And so, the hospitality of two women and the death of one man were key ingredients in the plan of God for our salvation. And who is our salvation? Yeshua ben Yosef is.

This is the name Jesus carried as a man, Joshua son of Joseph. Joshua son of Nun was a great hero to the Jews and a good name to have. They wouldn't have given the name Jesus. Yeshua was his Aramaic name. In the Greek language it would have been Iesous and this was transliterated in Latin as Iesus. This in turn got transliterated in English as Jesus and we pronounce it the way we do because that is how those English letters are usually pronounced.

There is an interesting bit of history with the name Yeshua. It is the shortened version of the name Moses gave to his close aid, Hoshea, whom we know better as Joshua, who fought the Battle of Jericho.

These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Yehoshua [Joshua].) Numbers 13:16

Yeshua is the short form of Yehoshua, like Will is for William, and we find Joshua called this shorter form in Nehemiah:

The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Yeshua [Joshua] son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great. Nehemiah 8:17

Yehoshua means "God or Jehovah is Salvation". It comes from two root words meaning; "The Existing One" and "saves". Yeshua means "Salvation" or "to Save" or "He saves". It comes from the second root word in Yehoshua. But we lose these subtleties because in our English Bible translation both words come out as Joshua in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New.

"Christ", as previously stated, is not a name, but a title. It comes from Christos, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah. Both words mean, "Anointed". 

So Christ Jesus is the Anointed Existing One Who Saves or The Anointed Salvation. Sometimes we lose meaning in translation.

Illustration: "The Betrayal of Judas" by Giotto di Bondone, 1304-06