Judas Hangs Himself

Topic: Sorrow

Passage: Matthew 27:1–14

July 29, 2019

Commentary

Since Jewish law required trials to be conducted during the day, the chief priests and elders reconvened in the morning to deliver their official verdict against Jesus (v. 1). Because the court lacked the authority to exercise capital punishment, they bound Jesus and brought Him to Governor Pilate (v. 2).

Judas repented after Jesus was condemned (v. 3). Judas’s motives are complicated. He must have believed in Jesus on some level as he was one of the 12 disciples, empowered to perform miracles in Jesus’s name. He seems to have been attempting to force Jesus to reveal himself as Messiah. Perhaps he had been expecting Jesus to overwhelm the Jewish leaders with proof of his divinity. It’s clear that he never actually wanted Jesus to die, and he certainly didn’t think Jesus was guilty of any wrongdoing, saying “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” We know he was tempted by the love of money (26:14-16), and yet he threw the 30 pieces of silver away once Jesus’s fate was decided (v. 5). Judas hung himself in grief. His faith was rooted in his own version of Jesus, and when Jesus did not perform accordingly, he lost all hope. The Jewish leaders later used the “blood money” to buy a potter’s field as a burial place for strangers (vv. 6-10).

Before Pilate, the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of: (1) Misleading the nation, (2) Forbidding the payment of taxes, and (3) Claiming Kingship. Pilate focused on the third charge, asking “Are you the King of the Jews” (v. 11)? Jesus gave him a clear reply: “It is as you say,” but then qualified His answer by explaining that His kingdom was not of this world. However, when the other leaders made accusations, He was silent (vv. 12-14) (Isa. 53:7).

Application

There is a big difference in being sorry that I get caught in doing something wrong and being in sorrow to the point of genuine repentance. May I be a person who is quick to repent.

Matthew 27:1–14 (NET)

¹ When it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him. ² They tied him up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

³ Now when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders, ⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!” ⁵ So Judas threw the silver coins into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. ⁶ The chief priests took the silver and said, “It is not lawful to put this into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” ⁷ After consulting together they bought the Potter’s Field with it, as a burial place for foreigners. ⁸ For this reason that field has been called the “Field of Blood” to this day. ⁹ Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one whose price had been set by the people of Israel, ¹⁰ and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”

¹¹ Then Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” ¹² But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he did not respond. ¹³ Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?” ¹⁴ But he did not answer even one accusation, so that the governor was quite amazed.

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