As we near the end of Matthew’s gospel. We find ourselves seeing the one who healed, loved, served, accepted the mariginalized, forgave the sinner and rebuked the self righteous, being betrayed by the infamous kiss. We see the master eat His last meal before His death, we see Him still thinking of others more than himself when the one coming to falsely arrest him is attacked by one of Jesus’ own disciples and even more heart wrenching is the prayer, the plea with the Father 3 times to let the cup pass; however, His will was totally submitted to the Father and what must be pursued; the wretched cross!

There are so many things to say about our readings today, but the only thing I want to focus on is the love of Christ. Hebrews 12:2 talks about the Joy of Jesus. Ultimately He knew what had to be done. As we are reading through Leviticus we see animal after animal killed, cut up and consumed by fire. We are now going to see a human sacrificed. The three years are up, Jesus has lived the sinless life, He has been prepared as Brian pointed out, by the oil being poured on His head. The betrayer has put things in motion and things are looking bleak.

But again we see a future statement in Matthew 26:32. He says “but when I am raised”. They have not yet understood this, but for us who look back we know fully. He who will be crucified raised from the dead and that is our hope. We know the end of the story. Christ is raised as the firstfruit of the ressurection and He promises us the same salvation.

I don’t want to get to far ahead, but last not look at the disciples with too much piety, we know that we will be raised from the dead and we still doubt, they had not yet experienced such a truth.

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