B21a-devotions

Matthew 27:1-10

Alternative devotions for Saturday 27th December

Today’s passage briefly reports Jesus being handed over to Pilate, the Roman governor, and then describes the end of Judas’ life. This unpleasant story of Judas’ death may well have been placed here by Matthew to contrast with what happened to Peter after his failure (26:69-75). Peter began a process of rehabilitation through tears of remorse, and Judas took his life after feeling ‘regret’ at what he had done (26:3) and attempting to absolve himself by returning the money he had taken for his treachery. Only Matthew includes this story about Judas in his Gospel, and Luke tells a quite different story about how Judas died in Acts (Acts 1:15-20). Luke says that Judas died by falling over in a field he has bought himself with his ‘blood money’. The differences between the two are considerable, but there are two links between them; firstly the important fact of the death of Judas, and secondly, the description of a ‘Field of Blood’, which is linked to some Old Testament prophecies.

The handing over of Jesus to Pilate (27:1,2) In the opening verses (27:1,2), the chief priests and elders discussed tactics for how to deal with Jesus now He had been taken. Caiaphas judged that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy the night before (26:65), and no-one dissented from that decision, and now they had to do decide how to get the Romans to proceed with the death penalty. Pilate, the Roman Governor, was known to be impatient with Jewish religious demands and prejudices and if Jesus was presented to him as one who merely broke their own religious codes, he would not be interested. So they decided to present Jesus as a trouble maker because of His claim to be the Messiah; He was therefore ‘bound’ and led to Pilate as a criminal (27:2).

Pilate is the last significant character to be introduced in Matthew’s Gospel. He was the fifth governor (strictly, the ‘praefectus’ in Latin) of Judea and Jerusalem, and lived most of the year in Caesarea Maritima, but came to Jerusalem at major festivals in order to make sure, personally, that law and order was kept. He was a cruel man, and well known for his vicious character (see Luke 13:1ff).

Judas changed his mind – and committed suicide (vv3,4,5) The theme in Matthew’s Gospel now switches to Judas, and his suicide. It is interesting that he acted as if he knew that Jesus was about to die as a result of his actions in his talk of betraying ‘innocent blood’ (27:4), and later on, the whole story revolves around the ‘blood money’ Judas received for the betrayal, meaning money that was responsible for someone’s death. Jesus, however, had yet to appear before Pilate and was certainly not yet dead! Judas clearly knew what the consequences of his actions would be before the Sanhedrin sanctioned it!.

Deuteronomy 27:25 says ‘cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood’, so Judas, perhaps aware of this, approached the chief priests to give the money back (27:4). The proper thing for a priest to do in these circumstances was to re-consecrate the money, after all, it had come from the Temple in the first place! However, the chief priests were as guilty in the matter of Jesus’ betrayal as Judas, so they would not accept the money, returning it to Judas (27:4). Judas furiously threw the money back into the Temple (27:5); and the words used here suggest that he had to throw it into the inner temple where the priests were performing their rituals (the prophet Zechariah refers to a rejected shepherd throwing money back into the temple - Zech 11:13). Judas was now in a desperate state, and he went out and hanged himself; an act of gross dishonour in the eyes of Jews.

Buying the potters field (vv6,7,8) Unwilling to re-consecrate the ‘blood money’ from Judas, the chief priests decided on buying ‘the potters field’ as a cemetery for Gentiles (27:7). In Hebrew ‘Akeldama’ means ‘field of blood’, and refers to a field located across the Hinnom valley opposite Jerusalem which was a historic source of pottery clay. In order to make sense of the story at this point, we should consult two Old Testament prophets.

The first is one of Jeremiah’s famous prophesy concerning a potter. Jeremiah (18) describes God as being a potter shaping Israel like a pot. This sounds like a picture of God taking care of His people, but in the next chapter, Jeremiah pronounces judgement on Israel by going to the Hinnom valley and smashing the pots made the previous day; the ‘potter’s field’ was therefore a symbol of God’s judgement! The second prophecy is from Zechariah 11, a well known Messianic prophecy. In it, Zechariah acted out the deeds of a shepherd bringing judgement on Israel; ‘And the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter" - the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter’ (27:13). It seems as if Matthew was aware of both these prophecies as he sought to explain what Judas had done.

Jeremiah’s prophecy (vv9,10) Strangely, this quote from Zechariah 11:13, which sums up the whole story of what happened to Judas very well, is quoted by Matthew in verse 9 and 10, but attributed to Jeremiah not to Zechariah! And although the theme of judgement and a ‘potter’s field’ is found in Jeremiah, there is no reference to 30 pieces of silver in Jeremiah! What is going on here? The New Testament writers frequently quoted the Old loosely, certainly not literally, but they quoted the Old Testament in order to highlight Gospel themes that were more important to them than the original texts, and the two prophecies of Jeremiah and Zechariah may well have become fused in people’s minds, including Matthew’s. There are a number of examples of this process in other parts of scripture, e.g. Mark 1:2 and Malachi 3:1 and Is 40:3; and Romans 9:27 which comes from Hosea 2:1 and Isaiah 10:22.

As we look at the text today, these prophecies both speak of God’s judgement on the man who betrayed Jesus, who was the true ‘shepherd’ (see Zechariah). They also speak (using Jeremiah’s prophetic images of the potter’s field) of the judgement of God on the false shepherds who were the priests and leaders of God’s people. They were as culpable as those who had paid Judas and they failed to see Him as their Messiah.

We cannot find any sympathy for Judas or justification of his actions within this passage of scripture. To do so would be to fly in the face of the story Matthew told, and we have no other means to know about what he did and why he did it. In the end, there was a degree of inevitability about what happened. The Jewish leaders and Judas acted according to their own convictions and choices, but by following a path of evil, they were directly involved in the death of God’s Messiah and therefore brought judgement on themselves.

1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people discussed with each other how to have Jesus killed. 2 They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

3 When he saw that Jesus was condemned, Judas, who betrayed him, was filled with regret. He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 He said, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they replied, ‘What is that to us? That’s your problem.’ 5 Judas threw down the money in the temple, left and went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests picked up the money and said, ‘It is against the law to put this into the treasury, because it is blood money.’ 7 So they agreed together to use it to buy the potter's field as a foreigners cemetery. 8 That is why the field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 The prophet Jeremiah’s words were then fulfilled ‘They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one with a price on his head, agreed by some of the people of Israel, 10 and they paid it for the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me.’

Praise You, Lord God Almighty for rest and peace, for joy and freedom, for quiet and tranquillity and for the vigour of life. In Your wisdom You have created all things to work perfectly together, and You have given each of us a life that will please us and please You if we will follow Your will. Give us the grace to yield to Your good pleasure and design for our lives, and so be satisfied and complete. AMEN

Bless us with joy, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of genuine happiness which leads to true contentment.

Bless us with faithfulness, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of kindness to others we meet that never lets them down;

Bless us with mercy, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of generosity in love which reaches out to all in need;

Bless us with patience, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of strong resilience that sustains our faith and hope;

Bless us with peace, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of calm tranquillity which stills the troubled breast;

Bless us with grace, Lord Jesus Christ,

Your gift of God’s own blessed favour in which our souls may rest.

Weekly Theme: Christmas

Christmas is a time when we tend to retreat into our homes for a few days with friends and family; so pray especially for your own family, loved ones and friends this Christmas time.

On-going prayers

Pray for people who work hard in shops over Christmas time
Pray for all those whose work is to maintain essential services
Give thanks for this special day and all that it means

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