We’re going back to Matthew.

We spent some time on giving thanks, and that was good, but we’re going back to Matthew. We talked about parts of Holy Week back in April, but we’re going back to Matthew. It’s the first of December and the beginning of Advent, but we’re going back to Matthew.

Matthew 26. The chapter that starts out with Jesus telling his followers that he’s going to be killed in a couple of days and then a brief description of the conspiracy to kill him.

In all the conversation we can have about how good Jesus’s words are and how thought-provoking his stories are and how noble and caring his actions are, we dare not forget that he was living a dying story. He knew that his actions were provoking the religious leaders. He knew that the provocation would result in death for him.

For years, Jesus has been saying “follow me.” Now he’s making clear that following him is risky. It is challenging. It is dangerous. It is deadly. And the juxtaposition of these two stories (Jesus statement and the description of the plot) makes it clear to us that the risk isn’t metaphorical.

His followers, of course, didn’t know about the plot. They only knew what Jesus was saying, that he had two days left to live.

We don’t read anything of their response here. In the past they have argued with him, they have been sad. There is no time here for response as the story moves immediately to the planning.

For us, this is more historical than behavioral. After all, the dying part is done. We don’t live with the expectation that Jesus is going to die in a couple of days. We live with the knowledge that he did.

And it didn’t stick.