OUR FATHER WHO KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING

Matthew chaa

pter 27 verses 3 - 10 breaks away from the main narrative to record the actions of Judas after he had betrayed Jesus and had seen what was happening as a result.

Judas had interacted with the religious leaders beforehand and they had offered him thirty pieces of silver ( about $500 USD ) if he helped them track down Jesus in a secluded area so that they could discreetly arrest him.

He, maybe naively, thought that the religious leaders wanted to question Him or expel Him from the city but at the trial the next morning, Jesus was condemed to death for blasphemy and was taken to the Roman governor in order to get the sentence of death sanctioned.

Not having understood the intentions of the religious leaders, Judas was horrified that the sentence of death was being sought and in remorse, he went back to the chief priests and elders of Israel to repent for accepting their offer. When they rebuffed his attempt to rescind his transaction, he threw the silver back at them and went and hanged himself seeing that there was no pathway out of the mess of transacting in the blood of an innocent man that he was now permanently linked to.

3 Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”

5 Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.

6 But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.” 7 And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.

9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

The religious leaders, seeing that the silver as back in their possesion, had to decide what to do with it because it could no longer go back into general funds because of the purpose for which it had been withdrawn.

One of the pressing issues at the time was that when people died while in Jerusalem and remained unclaimed, there was nowhere allocated to bury them and so the religious leaders decided to use the silver to buy an available plot of land that was owned by a potter. If the potter used it to get clay for making pots,  it was probably not good for other uses like agriculture so it was on the market for a low price and the thirty pieces of silver was enough to purchase it.

Matthew, in verses 9 - 10, referenced the foretelling of this unusually specific occurance by the prophet Jeremiah by name and the prophet Zechariah by text.

Jeremiah chapter 19 verses 1 - 4;

1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 

4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

Zechariah chapter 11 verse 12 - 13;

12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. 14Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Have mercy on us O God.

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