After Jesus’s final public discourse delivered from the Mount of Olives, Matthew tells us that it is just two days before the Passover feast when Jesus would be handed over to be crucified. Though Jesus’s public teaching ministry is complete, the Gospel is far from over as He moves from his ministry as prophet, to the office of His priestly ministry in His Passion. In prophesying His death two days before His crucifixion, Jesus is demonstrating that He is in full control of the events that would soon appear to engulf Him and His disciples. The Passover feast which was just two days away was to be the Passover to end all Passovers; it would be the Passover to which all previous Passovers pointed, and to which every future Passover would look back. The Son of Man, that kingly heavenly figure, who we just learned was going to come back in great power and glory, must first be handed over into the hands of sinful men to suffer and die on a cruel Roman cross. This is difficult for religious folks to grasp. Religion tends to embrace a theology of glory instead of a theology of the cross, involving suffering. The idea that the Savior must be a victim before He is victor is difficult to accept. In the gospel, however, we discover that our Savior becomes a victor through being a victim, as God raises Him from the dead after He willingly lays down His life as an atoning sacrifice.
