The Death of Judas
We are continuing our meditation on the drama that took place hours before the crucifixion of Christ (Scroll down for yesterday’s devotional). The high priest had spoken the decision that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy because He was saying that He was and is God. When Judas heard the conviction, he was struck with the enormity of what he had done. The demons that controlled him now plagued his mind with condemning thoughts. Jesus was innocent, yet Judas sold his Lord due to his greed for money.
3Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” 5And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. 6The chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” 7And they conferred together and with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. 8For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “AND THEY TOOK THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, THE PRICE OF THE ONE WHOSE PRICE HAD BEEN SET by the sons of Israel; 10AND THEY GAVE THEM FOR THE POTTER’S FIELD, AS THE LORD DIRECTED ME” (Matthew 27:3-10).
Judas went back to the meeting place of the Sanhedrin to try and turn the decision, but they would hear none of it. The elders of Israel had paid thirty pieces of silver, i.e., the price of a slave gored by an ox (Exodus 21:32). That’s how much the leaders of Israel valued their Messiah. They saw Jesus as a blasphemer and a trouble-maker. Judas then threw the money through the doors of the temple as a sign of disgust against the priests. This rejection of the money at which the leaders of Israel valued their Messiah brought the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken more than 500 years previously by the prophet Zechariah:
12I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.13Then the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them." So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD (Zechariah 11:12-13).
Matthew tells us that Judas was seized with remorse (Matthew 27:3) at his treacherous act. He likely knew that if a false witness in a capital case like this was found guilty, it was punishable by a sentence of death. Thinking to find relief from his condemning conscience, Judas went and hanged himself. After he died, his body fell from the tree, and his entrails burst out (Acts 1:18). Even though he was filled with remorse, we never read that he fully repented. He did not seek for restoration; instead, he was driven to self-destruction. I pray that each of us would keep a clear conscience before God and find forgiveness for sin by turning in faith to the Lord Jesus. Keith Thomas
Taken from the series on the Gospel of Luke. Click the following link for study 62, Jesus Before Pilate and Herod (Luke 23:1-25).
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