The Obedience of Jesus and the Gift of Redemption
Matthew 26:28 ESV
“For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26 brings us to the center of the gospel. The chapter includes an act of costly devotion, betrayal, the Passover meal, the new covenant, Gethsemane, abandonment, false testimony, and Peter’s denial. Jesus is not only showing us what obedience looks like. He is giving Himself for our redemption.
The chapter opens with Jesus telling His disciples that He will be delivered up to be crucified. At the same time, the religious leaders plot His arrest, and Jesus receives an act of devotion in Bethany. A woman pours expensive ointment on His head while He reclines at the table.
The disciples call the act wasteful. They imagine the perfume could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Concern for the poor is consistent with the teaching of Jesus, but their criticism fails to recognize the meaning of the moment. Jesus receives her action as preparation for His burial.
Her devotion recognizes the worth of Jesus in a way the disciples do not yet understand. Surrender is not always measured by efficiency. Love may look wasteful to people who do not see what the person of Jesus is worth. At the same time, this passage should not become an excuse for religious extravagance that neglects people in need. Jesus has repeatedly commanded practical mercy. This moment is unique because His death is near and the woman’s action points toward it.
Judas then goes to the chief priests and agrees to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Matthew places devotion and betrayal close together. One person pours out something costly because Jesus is worthy. Another calculates what Jesus can be exchanged for.
Physical nearness to Jesus does not guarantee surrender to Him. Judas has heard the teaching, witnessed the miracles, traveled with the disciples, and shared the table. His proximity makes the betrayal more painful, not less possible. The chapter invites us to examine whether familiarity with Jesus has become a substitute for allegiance to Him.
At the Passover meal, Jesus takes familiar elements and gives them covenant meaning. Passover remembered God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The blood of the lamb marked rescue, and the meal formed a people around the memory of God’s saving action.
Jesus takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to the disciples as His body. He takes the cup and identifies it as His blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. The meal looks backward to God’s rescue from Egypt and forward to the cross, where Jesus accomplishes a greater deliverance.
The phrase “blood of the covenant” echoes Exodus 24, where covenant is ratified with blood. It also reaches toward Jeremiah 31, where God promises a new covenant marked by forgiveness and a heart transformed to know Him. The words “for many” echo Isaiah 53 and the servant who bears the sins of many.
The cross must not be reduced to Jesus setting a brave example under pressure. His example is real, but Matthew presents His death as saving action. In Matthew 20:28, Jesus says He gives His life as a ransom for many. Here, His blood is poured out for forgiveness. At the cross, He bears judgment, defeats the powers of sin and death, establishes the new covenant, and reconciles people to God.
Scripture gives several images to help us understand the cross. Sacrifice emphasizes atonement and forgiveness. Ransom emphasizes liberation. Victory emphasizes the defeat of evil and death. Covenant emphasizes restored relationship and a people formed by grace. Example shows the shape of self-giving love. These images do not need to compete. Together they reveal a gift too deep to describe from only one angle.
After the meal, Jesus tells the disciples that they will all fall away. Peter responds with confidence that even if everyone else fails, he never will. Jesus tells him that before the rooster crows, Peter will deny Him three times. Peter’s promise is sincere, but he overestimates the strength of his resolve.
Christian obedience cannot rest on confidence in our willpower. Strong feelings in a safe room may not survive pressure in a courtyard. We need grace, prayer, community, truth, and the sustaining work of the Spirit.
Jesus enters Gethsemane and tells Peter, James, and John that His soul is very sorrowful, even to death. He falls before the Father and asks whether the cup can pass from Him, while praying, “Not as I will, but as you will.”
The cup carries the biblical weight of suffering and judgment. Jesus does not approach it with emotional numbness. He names His anguish, asks for another way, and returns repeatedly to prayer. His surrender is honest enough to speak the pain and deep enough to obey the Father.
This is not a conflict between a reluctant Son and an uncaring Father. The Father and Son are united in the saving purpose. The Son willingly gives Himself, yet He experiences the full human horror of betrayal, violence, abandonment, and bearing sin.
The honesty of Jesus matters for how we understand obedience. Surrender is not pretending pain feels peaceful. Emotional anguish is not proof of spiritual failure. A person can trust God while grieving, shaking, receiving counseling, taking appropriate medication, asking for help, or admitting that obedience feels costly.
The disciples fall asleep while Jesus prays. Judas arrives with an armed crowd and identifies Jesus with a kiss. One disciple draws a sword, but Jesus refuses to build His kingdom through retaliatory violence. He reminds them that He could call upon the Father, yet the Scriptures must be fulfilled.
Jesus’ restraint is not weakness. He possesses authority and chooses the road of redemptive obedience. He is not powerless before the crowd. He gives Himself to accomplish what human force could never accomplish.
The disciples scatter. Jesus is taken before the high priest. False witnesses come forward, and the council seeks testimony that will justify His death. Jesus is mocked, struck, and condemned. Human institutions meant to protect truth become instruments of injustice.
Meanwhile, Peter waits in the courtyard. Three times he is identified as one of Jesus’ followers, and three times he denies it. When the rooster crows, he remembers the words of Jesus and goes out weeping bitterly.
Peter’s denial is not minimized. His failure is real, public, and painful. Yet Matthew will not end in the courtyard. The risen Jesus will still commission disciples who abandoned Him. Grace does not call failure good, but it refuses to let failure have the final word.
That hope matters because our confidence is not built on the reliability of the disciples. It is built on the faithfulness of Jesus. When His friends sleep, flee, deny, and betray, He continues toward the cross.
Hebrews 9 and 10 reflect on Jesus as the One whose sacrifice deals with sin decisively and opens access to God. Second Corinthians 5:21 speaks of Christ bearing sin so that we might receive righteousness in Him. Philippians 2 describes His obedient descent, death on a cross, and the Father’s vindication of the Son.
We should not move too quickly from Matthew 26 to instructions about what we must do. Before asking what we need to surrender, we remember what Jesus has done. He gives Himself before we give ourselves. He remains faithful where we have failed. He offers forgiveness before we clean up our record.
Only then do we ask what His grace is forming in us. Costly worship becomes possible because He is worthy. Honest prayer becomes possible because He understands sorrow. Obedience becomes possible because His Spirit is at work within us. Forgiveness becomes possible because His blood is poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
Christian obedience is not self-salvation through sacrifice. It is the response of a life reshaped by the obedient, crucified, and risen Savior.
Cross References for Further Study
Exodus 12
Exodus 24:3-8
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Isaiah 53
Hebrews 9-10
2 Corinthians 5:21
Questions to Carry
What does Jesus accomplish at the cross that I could never accomplish for myself?
How does the obedience of Jesus create and shape my obedience?