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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”
“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”
So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”
Matthew 27:3-10
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In life, we only have one of two forces leading and guiding us: the Lord or Satan. We may bounce back and forth between them (and I think every person does) but they won’t be in control of us at the same time. In fact, Satan can’t even be present when the Lord is and so a concurrent presence is impossible.
As we look at our scripture passage today, we see how Judas Iscariot is a classic example of this truth. It’s obvious that at one time of his life, he was a very respectable person, a man of God who Jesus thought would make a good member of His special inner circle. He wouldn’t have made the cut into the membership of the Twelve otherwise.
We can assume that Judas was also seen as trustworthy as he was placed in charge of the money bag containing funds for the group. You wouldn’t just put anyone in charge of a bag containing such value.
But something went wrong along the way as Judas followed along with Jesus and carried out his responsibilities. He allowed Satan to enter in and gain a foothold, leading him off the path of righteousness the Lord walked and onto the wide path of sin that Jesus taught about, the path heading toward destruction. We know this happened because the scriptures share nuggets of revelation.
For example, consider these words from the Gospel of John:
“…one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. John 12:4-6
Here we find out that Judas was in the midst of sin as Satan was having his way with him. Jesus was being honored at a dinner in Bethany put on by Simon the Leper. As He was reclining at the table, the scriptures tell us a penitent woman sits at Jesus’ feet, wetting his feet with her tears and then drying them with her hair before anointing them with expensive perfume.
Judas, not seeing the beauty in how the woman was repenting and honoring Jesus, expressed objection to the woman’s actions. He made it appear that he was concerned about the perfume being wasted, proposing it could have been sold to provide for the poor.
But it was all a ruse for we learn the real motive for Judas’ rebuttal of the woman’s actions. You see, he saw an opportunity to steal being poured out onto His Master’s feet. If only he could have sold that perfume instead, he could have done what he had done many times before, help himself to the contents of the money bag.
God had commanded that no one was to steal. Judas knew that but he wasn’t under the control of God. Satan had him convinced that what he was doing was completely appropriate.
And so Judas was a sinful thief, his weakness for money used by Satan to maximize his control and advantage. This is what led Judas to sell out Jesus. In the moment while under the lead of Satan, he loved money more than his Master and Satan led him to people who were willing to pay, the Jewish religious leaders who were looking for someone in Jesus’ inner circle to help them. They would pay Judas thirty silver coins, about five weeks of wages in Jesus’ day, and all he had to do was to identify Jesus through a kiss which would indicate the man to be arrested.
We know Judas went ahead with his side of the deal. Satan led him to Gethsemane’s garden with a crowd of men armed and ready to arrest Jesus. Judas kissed his Master and placed Jesus’ feet on the road to the cross as a result. At the time, he must have felt it was totally worth it because Satan would have led him to believe so.
But here’s the thing we need to remember about the devil. He leads us into sin and makes us feel like we’re justified in what we do but then leaves us in the wake of the destruction we have caused.
As we see in our passage for today from Matthew’s Gospel, Judas came to his senses after Jesus was condemned. It feels like one of those, “What have I done?!”, realizations. We know that because Judas was “seized with remorse”, so much so because he decided to return the money to the chief priests and elders, confessing his sinful actions.
Ask yourself, would Satan lead him to this?
No, it’s obvious that Satan had abandoned Judas in the wake of the destruction he had caused. The damage was done and Jesus was on the way to His death. And if Judas thought he was going to find any sympathy from the Jewish religious authorities, he was sadly mistaken. For as he tries to return the money, somehow hoping to pay back restitution for his transgressions, the chief priests and elders put the guilt firmly on Judas simply saying:
“That’s your responsibility.”
In other words, they were essentially saying to Judas, “We didn’t force you to betray innocent blood. You made that choice and so you can live with it. But unfortunately, Judas saw where he couldn’t do that. And so he threw the money into the temple and went off to take his own life by hanging.
Did I mention that sin always ends up causing some form of destruction?
Well, I’m sure Satan was more than satisfied with the end result of his influence on Judas. As for the chief priests who allowed Satan to lead them into sin of their own, it should come of no surprise that all of a sudden they are concerned about doing the right thing. This is what hypocritical practice of religion looks like. On one hand, you can lie and scheme to murder an innocent man but then on the other, you put on a pious front, concerned about obedience to a law you already broke by sanctioning murder.
So what happened to the 30 silver coins?
Well, the chief priests knew it was blood money, money paid out to kill Jesus, and so they couldn’t place the funds in the temple treasury. Instead, then used the money to buy the potter’s field where they would bury Gentiles, a fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
Friends, we need to make sure we are always keeping our Lord close. I mean, really close. We can’t afford to allow Satan any opportunity to enter into our hearts and minds, leading us into sin and down the road of destruction like he did Judas Isacariot.
For in the case of Judas’, the fallout of his sin led to irreversible tragedy, tragedy he felt he could never live down and indeed as we continue to look at his story more than 2,000 years later, he hasn’t lived it down. The word of God continues to remind us of the perils of falling into sin and we had better believe that Satan will have his way with us, just as easily as he did with Judas, if we let our guard down.
Do yourself a favor.
Draw near to the Lord and never leave His side.
You’ll be never be sorry that you did.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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