HOLY WEEK 2025 – MONDAY
MOTIVATION
Good morning (or afternoon or evening)
This year we will look at the account of the Passion through the eyes of St Matthew and our Monday reading is Matthew 26: 1-16.
When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. 5 “But not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
Jesus Anointed at Bethany
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
What motivates people?
In our reading today we see three different situations….
Firstly we read that the chief priests and the elders scheming to secretly arrest Jesus and to kill him. Secondly we see the woman at Bethany (who is identified in John’s gospel as Mary) pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’ head in preparation for his burial. And thirdly, Matthew records Judas’s plotting to betray Jesus.
I wonder what motivated these people to do what they did?
For the chief priests and the elders, Jesus clearly angered them. For instance in Matthew 23: 13 and onwards, Jesus repeatedly called the Pharisees hypocrites. Perhaps the Pharisees would say they were justifiably angry.
Often we think anger is an uncontrollable emotion that erupts from within; yet these men were in control enough to recognise that if they carried out their scheme during the festival, they would have a riot on their hands. Maybe of course it was fear that motivated them – that people would follow and listen to Jesus, rather than them.
For Mary, we can deduce from the words of Jesus that she had understood what Jesus had said in verse 2 more clearly than most; that Jesus would shortly be crucified. I wonder what was on her mind as she decided to pour out the perfume on Jesus’ head? Maybe she thought she would not know when she would get another opportunity to do this.
So, imagine how it would have been if you were her?
In my mind as she went to the perfume which was worth a year’s wages, I see her doing this with a pounding heart, trembling hands – with tears in her eyes, barely able to speak; breathing quickly as the sheer profundity of what she was about to do enveloped her.
So what motivated Judas to betray Jesus? Whether it was because he thought Jesus was doing it all wrong – or whether he needed to force Jesus’s hand or maybe it was the money? In John’s gospel, Judas is referred to as a thief who would help himself to the money the disciples held. In John’s account it was Judas who hypocritically suggested that the perfume be sold and the money given to the poor.
So what about you? What is it that motivates you? Is it anger or fear? Power or money? Or something else? Should our response be that in all we do, we wish our motivation to be to simply serve Jesus?
Today, shall we reflect on what motivated Mary, the perfume pouring woman.
Maybe re-enact the scene, imagining yourself entering into the presence of Jesus giving the most precious to Jesus, your Lord and Saviour.
