#matthew 26

[tomicscomics]

03/27/2026

Almost at the end.

No cartoon on Good Friday, as usual for Tomics. Instead we'll have an Easter Sunday cartoon. See you there!

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NOT-SO-JOKE-OGRAPHY:

In Matthew 26, Jesus sits to eat a holiday meal with His closest disciples. As they begin eating, He reveals that one of them will betray Him. They argue, each one insisting they would never do such a thing, but Jesus assures them His betrayal is foretold in Scripture. However, He adds, "But woe to the one through whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born." To me, this is the most chilling sentence ever spoken, particularly because it's said by Jesus, Himself. For Him to declare that someone's fate is so bad that NEVER EXISTING would be preferable is straight up horror so vast I struggle to grasp it.

Psalm 41 contains a poem or song by King David about a betrayal he suffered. Jesus reflects on this song while He faces His own betrayal at the hands of His disciple, Judas.

The last few weeks of this Lent have been filled with pretty serious or contemplative cartoons, so here's a little levity to get us over the hump to Easter: Someone referred to my Jesus as a "Soyjak" because I depicted Him smiling with His mouth open, so remember to keep your Jesus's mouth shut at all times, sinners.

[ana-log]

"Did Jesus weep for Judas? Did he feel the pain when his friend fell in a field alone? Did he hurt to know he was betrayed, sold for silver, and yet cry the more when he looked down from the father’s right hand to see Iscariot tie the rope? Did he suffer knowing how Judas harmed himself and not just the Christ? Did Jesus weep for Judas?"

A prose reflection on Matthew 26-27, Acts 1:18, John 11:35

[many-sparrows]

Jesus was really right when he said the poor will always be with us. A lot of christians have struggled with Matthew 26:11, and it has caused a lot of people to subconsciously justify a de-prioritizing of the poor; we can bedeck our churches in opulence while people starve. We can make priorities of everything that makes our lives easier, and leave the hard work of caring for the poor for later, for our "thoughts and prayers." The poor will always be with us, so they can wait while we attend to our internal hungers.

I think what Jesus meant is that human greed will corrupt every system, which will always result in poor or disenfranchised people. We've tried a bunch of different socio-economic structures since then, and not one of them has worked to uplift all people. The eternal struggle against evil isn't about fighting off intangible demons, it's about fighting off the evil in our own hearts. We are never going to construct a "perfect system" that eliminates poverty automatically because someone will always try to take advantage of it. Instead, we must work every day, even when things are good and people are taken care of, to make sure that we see each other as deserving of dignity. We are never going to be able to legislate, dictate, or delegate our way into perspective. We have to work towards it, consciously, to make sure those around us are cared for. Vanity of vanities, a generation goes and a generation comes, but the poor remain forever.

The poor will always be with us because someone is always going to try and profit by depriving others. It is our mission and responsibility to improve as much of it as we can.

[quotesfromscripture]

The old and new cloaks

“They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” - Matthew 21:7-8 NIV

“Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, ‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’  ‘He is worthy of death,’ they answered.  Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?’ ” - Matthew 26:65-68 NIV

“He told them this parable: ‘No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.’ ” - Luke 5:36 NIV

[human-perspective]

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:27-28 NIV 

[justsuchatime]

Listen for Your Rooster

In my Bible study this week, one of the things we covered was Peter’s denial of knowing Jesus. For context, let’s look at the verses* that made me start thinking:

John 18:26-27 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.

Mark 14:70-72 But again [Peter] denied it. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.” But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know this man of whom you speak.” And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

Matthew 26:73-75 After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

Luke 22:59-62 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

(Emphasis through bold text is mine)

How much shame do you think Peter felt in that moment to start crying like that? How much guilt? Two of the gospels use “wept bitterly” to describe Peter’s immediate reaction to his realization that he had denied knowing Christ. Other translations from the Matthew and Luke passages use “cried bitterly” and “cried painfully” (the verb form is changed on occasion, but the verb-adverb combination stays the same). The Message translation describes it this way: “[Peter] went out and cried and cried and cried.” The Voice translation of Luke’s account reads as follows: “so [Peter] left the courtyard and wept bitter tears.”

Personally, I like Luke’s account of this moment the best because it has the kind of details that I like to read. I like knowing how long Peter sat around that fire, how Peter was practically interrupted by the rooster, how the Lord turns and looks at Peter in a gesture that would have felt like an “I told you so” but was full of nothing but love. And, most of all, I like hearing how Peter is so distraught by his failures that he can do nothing but weep bitterly.

I like to imagine that Jesus turned and looked at Peter when He heard the rooster, causing Peter to look away in shame. I’d like to imagine that that awful heaviness sank into Peter’s chest as he stumbled away from the courtyard and that he started running to get away from it as so many people do with guilt. Maybe he tripped on something in the low light, a physical fall to correspond with the failure. Perhaps then is when he begins to weep, too overcome with shame to even consider getting up. Peter, a grown man who pays taxes to the Temple and to Caeser and who fishes for a living to support his family, cannot find it in himself to get up from the path and stop crying. And maybe that’s just speculation, but it’s how I would respond.

We are human just like Peter, and this helps us grasp how real he was. People don’t just cry over nothing; there is motivation behind each and every tear that falls. And, in this moment, let’s not forget that Jesus came to us as a human, too: Jesus Himself wept over Lazarus, and Peter weeps over guilt in this passage.

I’ve wept like that before. I’ve cried bitterly, disgusted with my own self. One verse that is particularly convicting to me is Ezekiel 6:8-9 “Yet I will leave some of you [the House of Israel] alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations” (emphasis is mine).

I think for as much grief as we give Peter, we should also take a hard look at ourselves and confess our guilt. Just as the rooster reminded Peter, may we be reminded by the Holy Spirit. Amen.

*All verses quoted in this post are from the ESV unless otherwise specified.

[tomicscomics]

05/01/2026

Education?!

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JOKE-OGRAPHY: This cartoon references a lot of verses, so here's an explanation for them all:

Matthew 1:18-24 is about the Annunciation (Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will bear the Son of God). This takes place "when Mary and Joseph were betrothed but before they came together." In this context, the word "betrothed" is being used for the stage of ancient Jewish marriage where the bride and groom had entered into the marriage contract but did not yet live together. So Mary and Joseph are legally a couple, but Joseph doesn't take her into his home until the end of this section after the angel reassures him in a dream. The taking of the bride into the groom's newly built home was the final stage of the marriage.

Matthew 22:1-2 is the beginning of one of Jesus's parables where He likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a king preparing a wedding feast for his son. The Bible is just lousy with wedding imagery when it comes to God's relationship with mankind; or rather, marriage is lousy with imagery pointing to the ultimate destiny of humanity to unite entirely with God in life-giving, self-giving love.

Matthew 26:26-28 is where Jesus lifts the bread and wine at the last supper and declares them His Body and Blood of the covenant. Jesus's cup is the cup that all other cups and covenants reflect all throughout the Bible. THIS is the big one, where God pledges Himself once again to mankind, IN THE FLESH!

John 13:33 and 14:1-3 are where Jesus talks about leaving the disciples for a time, then assures them that He's going to prepare a dwelling for them in His Father's house. He adds that, once He's done, He'll come back for them, to take them to Himself. In light of the other verses compressed into this fun little amateur Bible study, we can see Jesus is once again using very wedding-coded imagery to speak about heaven and the anticipated union with the Divine.

Thanks for reading! As a reward -- and because I can't post something without a joke (per MY covenant with my patron, St. Lawrence) -- here's a classic: "What do you get when you eat all the potatoes?"

[quotesfromscripture]

Anointed by a woman

“Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. 

But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, ‘Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.’

But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

‘By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.’ ”

- Matthew 26:8-13 NRSV