Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Tuesday, September 25th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Ezra 7-10
Today's scripture focus is Matthew 27:1-14


Judas Hangs Himself

27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death. They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins 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 silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”

Jesus Before Pilate

11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.
12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.


Once again we see the incredibly injustice of this kangaroo court.  The law was that the Sanhedrin had to stay in session between the time of judgment and the time of execution, so that if any new evidence was brought forward they could immediately reconvene the trial, in order to prevent executing an innocent man.

The betrayer, the false witness, coming back and saying he was wrong, the man is innocent, would be enough for them to reconvene. But no, they didn't care that Judas recanted, they didn't care whether or not Jesus was innocent - they knew He was innocent and they didn't care.

Judas recanted, but not because he was remorseful to the point of repentance.  He was sorry, he felt guilt, he knew it was wrong, possibly he even would've done it differently if he could do it over again, but he was not truly repentant.  If he was truly repentant he would've gone to Jesus and repented.  Instead, out of guilt and likely penitence (punishing himself) he killed himself.  But death was not the answer to his pain - in fact death was the continuation of even greater pain, forever.  How different than Peter's true repentance!

And this is one of the greatest assurances that Jesus was perfect as the Scriptures claimed.  In Judas' guilt, he would've tried everything he could to rationalize or justify his decision to betray Jesus, and if he could've thought of any sin that Jesus had committed he would've grasped on to that for all he was worth.  But he couldn't come up with a single thing.  Jesus was perfect.  He was innocent.

Before killing himself, Judas threw the money into the temple - and according to MacArthur, the word for temple wasn't the word for just the regular part of the temple that anyone could go in, but the part of the temple accessible only by the priests.  They may have refused Judas, but he forced them to have to deal with the blood money.  And they knew it was blood money - they even admitted it!  Their twisted thinking is just incredible - they don't carry about the law, they pay off false witnesses, they refuse to listen to the false witness when he recanted, they took the blood money out of the temple treasury, but now that Judas returns it, they know they can only use it to purchase a nearly worthless piece of land and use it to bury Gentiles.

Not only did Judas know Jesus was innocent, not only did the religious leaders know Jesus was innocent, but all the people knew it too.  And that's why they called that field the Field of Blood - because it was bought with blood money that was used to execute the only innocent man who ever lived.

Zechariah 11:23-13

12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 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.


This is the prophecy v9 speaks of.
There's some confusion because v9 says it was in Jeremiah, but we find it in Zechariah.  The explanation is simple.  The OT was divided into 3 sections - the Law (books by Moses), the Psalms (including all the poetic writings) and the Prophets.  They were also known by their headings.  The poetic writings were known as the Psalms because the Psalms were the first on the scroll.  The Prophets were known as Jeremiah because it was the first on the scroll.  So, when they say it was a prophecy by Jeremiah, it's just another way of saying it was from the prophets as a whole - and in this case, it was specifically Zechariah.  Anyway, just found that interesting.

And here, the Holy Spirit rewords the prophecy, explaining it in order to make it clear, and obviously the Holy Spirit has every right to do that.  So, once again, prophecy was fulfilled.

Even in these darkest days, Matthew presents Christ as King.  MacArthur...
Isn't it marvelous again? Here Jesus appears to be humiliated but the truth is He is exalted, He is exalted by the inability of the counsel to find any accusation against Him. He is exalted by the testimony of the chief witness and bribed traitor as to His innocence. He is exalted by the testimony of the Sanhedrin themselves that they have blood money in their hands. He is exalted by the testimony of the populace of Jerusalem who call everything related to this incident blood, a field of blood. And He is exalted by the very fact that all of this fulfills the prophecy of the Old Testament. And so, out of the ugliness of the scene comes the beauty of Jesus Christ. And He stands majestic and that is the writer's intention. 


Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 27:15-44
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Nehemiah 1-5

1 comment:

Miriam said...

Very interesting! I love seeing how the prophecies of the OT were fulfilled. God knows what He is doing!