Daily Reading: Matthew 26:1-5
What strikes me as I read this morning’s passage is the contrast between how settled and resolved Jesus is to willingly and lovingly lay down His life for the sake of the world, and how settled and resolved the religious leaders are to selfishly and wilfully sacrifice Jesus (innocent as he was of any wrongdoing) for the sake of their own comfort, power and position. They are willing to completely and utterly compromise the moral and ethical framework of the Law they have spent their lives studying and teaching, in order to protect their own self-interest. It’s astounding! It is also profoundly disturbing and sobering.
After all, what certainty do any of us have that we would have behaved any differently if placed in their position? Have we never compromised our principles, or our ethical code? Have we never taken the road of comfort and expediency, rather than the difficult “road less travelled”? Personally I suspect one is in a profoundly dangerous position if one believes one is above giving in to the same kinds of temptations they faced.
Surely the Gospel writers (and more importantly, the Holy Spirit Who inspired them) do not intend us to read these Gospel accounts in order to stand in judgment of the religious leaders? Surely, these accounts are written as a warning? Surely they are a mirror into which we should look regularly to examine our own hearts for signs of selfishness and self-serving compromise?
Today, let us humbly search our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit, readily make our confessions, and humbly plead for the Lord’s merciful help in overcoming the temptations that lie lurking in the dark corners of our lives.
Lord Jesus, I admire and honour and worship You for Your willingness to lay down Your life out of love for me, and I ask You to reveal to me my own tendencies to selfishness and compromise when I am blind to them. After all, as Your Word declares in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Lord, help me to recognise my temptations before they capture me and lure me astray into paths from which I may not be able to return. In Your mercy, hear my prayer. Amen.
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