It is really hard to watch the news (pick any channel) for any length of time, and not begin to see a conspiracy behind a given event. We used to call those folks conspiracy theorists (or nuts), now we just call them uncle 😊. But where once we believed in the “good” of our institutions, or at least in the attempt to do good by our institutions; now we lose faith them in from the barrage of what we see on any news channel at any given point in the day. Happy stories on the news are hardly even imagined. If it bleeds, it leads, is still the mantra (perhaps a horrible reflection of who we are). And this has never been truer since the advent of cable news (thanks Ted). So to join the ranks of the conspiracy “team” (trying to be polite uncle), all you really need to do, is connect some of the relatively obvious dots. Getting anyone to admit there actually was a conspiracy; or trying to prove one in the face of constant denials, keeps most of this stuff where it started out – in the backrooms, and dimly lit nocturnal abodes of the less-than-savory.
And frankly, there has been a lot of practice to get a conspiracy right since the first one launched in heaven itself more than 6,000 years ago. Imagine a pristine environment where a lie had never been told. Imagine having the complete trust of anyone you came in contact with, because they did not know even what a lie was. This was the condition, when Lucifer invented lies and began to dabble to perfect his new craft. Before you know it, nearly a third of the heavenly angels (his peers), were convinced that God was an ego-maniac who would kill you for disagreeing with Him. The first conspiracy was to overthrow God and take His place running the universe. It failed. But it has taken nearly 4000+ years for the Truth to come out to the rest of the universe, and the clock is still running here on planet earth for humanity. The universe has made up its mind about the character of God. We can’t seem to get our act together on that topic. We are not quite sure Satan is wrong. Just look at the imagine of God most Christian churches present when they talk about hell fire and eternal torture.
Assaulting God’s character and trying to overthrow Him may have been the first conspiracy against God, but it would not be the last. Oh sure most of us have heard about the one at the Tower of Babel, when man decided the first time, to take his salvation in his own hands and build a tower so great not even God could flood it again. Yeah, that one did not do well either. But then comes one of the most dastardly conspiracies of all time against God. The one where the religious leadership of His church, decided (under Satanic inspiration, but not much needed there), to kill Jesus Christ – just not on feast day – in case the people might get a little upset. Yeah, it sounds a little crazy on a lot of levels. But it was a conspiracy. And of all things, Jesus knew every detail. He did not nothing to stop it. But He did unmask it, and try to warn the ones who would be impacted by it, perhaps to offer a last hope of salvation for them (even if it would be rejected again).
Matthew records this conspiracy for us, in his gospel, picking up in chapter 26 and verse 1 saying … “And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, [verse 2] Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” Catch the key word there that reveals the conspiracy, the word betrayed. Someone Jesus trusted was going to turn Jesus over to someone else who hated Him and had in mind to kill Him. Where there is more than one person working towards a nefarious goal, you by definition, have a conspiracy. But here is the kicker, Jesus knows it is coming. He even knows when. Not because He has a spy keeping Him up to date, but because you simply cannot do anything that God is not aware of, even if it is still just an intent in your heart. That’s scary. At least, that is scary for those of us who think we actually have “secret” sins. The only thing secret about them, is that for a while they may still be in dark from our peers here, but eventually the Truth will out. And for God, even before we take action, our thoughts, and our motives were known.
Matthew is not subtle about it as he continues in verse 3 saying … “Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, [verse 4] And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. [verse 5] But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.” This just blows my mind. It was NOT the Romans who started this conspiracy. Everyone likes to conveniently blame them because eventually they played a role in it. But that is just convenient memory. The truth is that the head of the religion handed down by Jesus Himself to Israel, to Moses, to David, to Solomon, to all the Prophets and Kings that preceded Him – that One true religion – was determined to kill its Author. Can you imagine the Pope, and the archbishops of the Catholic church, just determined to kill anyone that ever disagreed with them? Too soon? Or can you imagine on a more personal basis, what the leaders of your church might do to hang on to power and money even today? People have always killed to hang on to power or money. We just seem to forget when they do it to the least of these, they do it to Christ. However in this case, these Pharisees were just “actually” doing it to Christ.
Matthew wastes no time connecting the dots of the warning of Jesus, with the reality of what followed it. Even though Jesus had unmasked the conspiracy, that conspiracy formed, and continued to plan and carry out its goals. Notice too, they were not out to just assassinate Him, instead they wanted to take Him with subtlety (and not on feast day). Hypocrites to the end. We must kill our God, but not on one of His special days. Not much different than folks today I know of, who have no love of the poor, and would be happy to see them go anywhere “else”, even if that means they go away to die in hunger. As long as they are not here in our church on our “holy” day while we are trying to get our worship on. We are busy “worshipping”, we have no time for the inconvenient distractions of people who are hungry. We have on our “good” clothes, and don’t want to get messy. Get a job. Go away. Anywhere else. Just don’t disturb us while we worship. And we have the audacity to call what we are doing “worship”. But it is so easy for us to see the “least of these” and just not see Christ.
The disciples just seem oblivious to what Jesus said. It’s like they went deaf for a few sentences or something. There is no record of any reaction to it. They don’t start buying swords to defend their Lord, (but perhaps Peter did, or at least he got his sword out of storage). They don’t start looking to find the culprits and reason with them, perhaps diverting them to another course of action. They don’t start praying for them. Just nothing. Life goes on, like if no warning had been given. How eerily familiar. But someone heard what Jesus said. Someone who was listening, like perhaps what all women do, even when men think they don’t. Matthew continues in verse 6 saying … “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, [verse 7] There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.”
How incredible. We would like to think this woman was Mary Magdalene. It is convenient for men, that all the heroic things that take place in the New Testament scriptures are done by Mary Magdalene, that way there is only “one” exception to rules. But Matthew (who knew Mary Magdalene) does not name her so. Ok so if not Mary Magdalene, then perhaps it was Mary or Martha one of the sisters of Lazarus who were also devout followers of Jesus. But Matthew knew them as well, and did nothing to call either by name here. Which by process of elimination, means this woman was a devout follower of Jesus, and unnamed to history – that would mean there is more than one exception to the rule, or perhaps better still there was never any rule in the first place where it comes to the roles of men and women as they follow Jesus Christ. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is in charge of that, or should be. Nonetheless, this woman was listening to the sad proclamation of Jesus, and she did something about it. She did all she could. She likely spent as much as a year’s wages (maybe more). In short, she gave everything she had.
But no good deed goes unpunished, even within the church it seems, even the new church. Matthew continues in verse 8 saying … “But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? [verse 9] For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.” Given what will follow with Judas in only a few verses further, it is easy to assume this was at his instigation. Judas was likely the one who carried the money for the poor, so putting a few gold coins in his purse might have appealed to him. Again convenient memory. Matthew is careful to use the word “disciples”. When there is more than one person engaged in a nefarious action there is by definition a conspiracy. If it were only Judas, everyone would have been all too happy to cast the blame solely on Judas. Keep in mind this gospel was written well after the facts. But it was not just Judas. Peter, Matthew, perhaps John and yes, perhaps Judas too – were ALL too happy to complain about this woman’s good deed. They were collectively guilty, not singularly so. And they had the nerve to be angry about it. Here is the “new” leadership of the church angry with a woman, for giving all she has to Christ. How eerily familiar.
Matthew continues in verse 10 saying … “When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. [verse 11] For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. [verse 12] For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. [verse 13] Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” Jesus defends the woman, and her act of love. He testifies that this act should be remembered as the gospel itself is remembered (and so Matthew records the entire incident, even to his own shame). Jesus also calls out the hypocrisy of false motives if “anyone” intended to pocket some of the gold coins in a purse they might be carrying for the poor. The leadership of the new church is rebuked for criticizing the act of love a woman has done for our Lord. So strange that our modern churches remain so steadfast on a course of criticizing any woman for how she may be gifted to serve her Lord through love. We still do it, and read these passages as if they are nothing more than history – no lesson for us here.
Matthew again is not too subtle about connecting the dots as he continues in verse 14 saying … “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, [verse 15] And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. [verse 16] And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.” People have always killed to hang on to money or power. If Judas must bear the rebuke of Jesus over a few coins this woman wasted, there are other ways of making money, money he will not have to share with the poor either. And here is where our hearts should break. Judas cast out demons. Judas healed the sick. Judas was a missionary in partnership with one of the other twelve, commissioned by Christ to spread the gospel in earlier days. That means Judas was a witness, who spoke, who healed, who had the Holy Ghost within him while engaged in these actions. And yet it is Judas who throws his whole relationship away, and for what? A few coins? A perception of an insult or rebuke?
Judas would rather give up his role in church leadership and join a conspiracy to kill his Lord and ask yourself for what? What would you give up a close relationship with Jesus over? What conspiracy would you want to join? Is it a conspiracy for wealth that drives you. Would you focus more on career to bring you what you think you need (like Judas may have done) – than to sacrifice your job, or your promotion, or your career trajectory - in favor of time with Jesus Christ, even if only revealed through the least of these? Judas is a cautionary story for us. Not of betrayal, that’s too easy. It is of forsaking victory in favor of self-service. Even when he was directly warned by Jesus that “someone” close to Him would “betray” Him. The conspiracy was already unmasked. There was already a light shining in the corners. Yet Judas ignores the warning and joins it anyway. As usual this conspiracy against God did not work out well, nor would any other. They may have appearance of success in some limited fashion. But in reality, they continue to fail. Because to fight God, is by definition, to fail.
It is also worth noting that “group think” does not make you right. There was an entire array of church leaders engaged in the same conspiratorial plot, the same ideas. They may have had varying motives, but they nearly all wanted Jesus dead. And the ones who might have disagreed with this stance were certainly quiet about it before time. Having your entire church leadership of one mind on any given topic is great for unity, until they are united in doing the wrong thing. To try to determine the right or wrong of a thing in our by-design very-gray-world, ask yourself – what love will this thing show to the least of these, or what love might it take away. Don’t try to hide insults and hate speech behind the wall of doctrines, claiming you are merely doing God’s work. That same excuse came right out of Caiaphas’ home that night word-for-word in the matter of trying to kill Jesus to protect the church and “save” the people from His incessant focus on love. If you find yourself already in the conspiracy, drop out. Look up. Go back to Jesus and ask Him what He would do. Then try to listen and do what He leads you to do. That might be the distinction to tell if you are in a conspiracy or not – are you following Jesus’ lead; or are you deciding what must be done next.
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