Leviticus spent a lot of time talking about how to deal with infectious skin disease. That would be sad to get a skin disease since you have to live outside of camp and if anyone passes by you yell "unclean, unclean". I realize you don't want everyone to get this disease, but that is a sad way to live.
Matthew 26 is leading up to the death of Jesus. He is anointed with oil and the disciples thought it was wasteful, but Jesus defends it. This bothers Judas and right after that he goes to the chief priests to betray him.
The story that strikes me the most is the story of Peter who tells Jesus in verse 35 "Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you!" but then later in vs 74 he denies him for a third time, as Jesus predicted. This reminds me of a passage in the book I just read "Don't Waste your Life" by John Piper. He has a whole chapter entitled "Risk is right - better to lose your life than to waste it" where he spends time talking about risk and safety and what that really means to risk. I don't run into situations where I fear for my life for Jesus' sake, but I do run into situations where I would risk credibility professionally. While I might not deny him, per se, I don't always follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit to say something.
Peter ends up dying for his faith. In time his faith is strengthened so that he is willing to risk it all for Christ. I am praying that merely losing some professional credibility means nothing to me in comparison to the riches that I would gain in Christ.
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